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Cake POPS!

Malika Daya
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0

We all have our guilty pleasures and mine is sweets. Especially Cake Pops, over the last couple of years these mouth-watering sweets have become a total franchise! Whether you are a total sweet tooth and want to satisfy your craving or are having a party and are in need of an easy desert, cake pops are the answer! So today I am going to attach a video regarding how to make a perfect and delicious cake pop!

yummyWhat you’ll need:

2-8 Cakes

2 cups of frosting

11b candy melts

Lollypop sticks

Wax Paper

Styrofoam Block 

Hope you enjoy the video and gain tips on how to make a scrumptious cake pop. Anyways I am going to get back to frosting my very own cake pops in the making! Yummy <3

Cell Towers: Making friends with Carcinogens

Sunand Kannappan
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3

Cell Towers

          Last week, I received a notice from my school explaining the criticism the local community was expressing towards the proposal of a 20 meter cellular tower near the premises of our school. Our school, housing more than 800 students from the surrounding communities, is adjacent to the Church ground where a large service provider is proposing to operate the cellular tower. Approximately 90 meters from our school building, the cell tower causes multiple risks, all of which should prevent its clearance. Cell Towers, despite being an important invention, used by millions of people every day, are carcinogenic, a  property which has proven to be cancerous.

          Cell Towers are tall structures, usually between 15 to 35 meters in height. They provide service for cell phones, and other gadgets. They receive and send radio-frequency (RF) signals. Cellular towers only have a certain distance of service from the facility. Each of these are called cells and with multiple cells, they can create overlapping, continuous reception. They are normally found in industrial areas or commercial property and not often near residence property.

Cell Tower          The need for cell towers is growing, as more people start using the infrastructure. With more phones being purchased and used, existing cell towers might not have the capability to handle such bandwidth (amount of service needed). With the construction of more cell towers, it will allow for more capacity. Also, with new types of technology, such as smart phones and tablets, bandwidth increases significantly. Average smart phone usage uses 35 times more bandwidth than that of a regular cellphone. With this change in bandwidth, service providers have the need to construct new cell towers.

          As seen, cell towers are of great use to us and are of great profit to service providers, but they can be detrimental in other ways.

          Tower emissions must comply with Canada’s “Safety 6” guideline. The guideline monitors tower emission under only one criterion: thermal effects. 90 meters from the school, the cell tower has no thermal effect, but it menaces non-thermal, carcinogenic effects on human health. The radiation emitted on the human body, constantly, from such close proximity, can cause the abnormality of cells, and lead to the uncontrolled growth of these cells. This is called cancer.

          The emissions of the tower can also cause 1 to 5 percent of the population within 100 meters, to suffer “electromagnetic hypersensitivity”. This syndrome can lead to headaches, depression, sleep disturbance, and many more. With 800 students, the idealists of the future, under these circumstances, 8 – 40 of them undertake the risk of the consequences.

          Many other countries, like Italy and Switzerland have regulations on a cell tower’s proximity to a school, irrespective of the thermal effects. Canada has a limit of 10W/m2 of radio-frequency while some others(still based on thermal effects) have much more austere regulations, at 0.01W/m2. The highest densities of the signals occur between 50 to 250 m. My school, regarded as one of the best academic, social, and athletic enrichment environments in Calgary, is 90 m from the tower. Community and society should respect, uphold and protect the health of students, the sculptors of tomorrow.

          Ultimately, we should not be making friends with carcinogens, commonly known as cell towers.

Sources
City of Calgary – http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/DBA/Documents/development/cell-tower-faqs.pdf?noredirect=1
Wiki – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_site
Celltower.ca – http://celltower.ca/wordpress/?page_id=12
Cancer.ca – http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/cellular-phone-towers

The RACE to NOMINATE is on!!

admin
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0

Calgary’s largest youth awards celebrate 10 years

For the past nine years, the ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Awards have recognized youth ages 13-18 that bring vitality and leadership to their communities. A program of Youth Central, these awards focus on selfless service and overcoming personal challenges.

Youth can be nominated in the following nine categories: Advocacy, Arts & Culture, Environmentalism (Group and Individual), Leadership, Peer Support, Perseverance, Volunteerism, and Sportsmanship. “ConocoPhillips is committed to supporting and acknowledging youth through the Youth of Distinction Awards because these young citizens are the leaders of tomorrow. We know this will strengthen communities now and in the future,” says Barbara Simic, Director of Community Investment, ConocoPhillips Canada.

Nominations will be accepted until March 4, 2013. The final nominees in each category will be honoured at a ceremony on May 4, 2013 at the Calgary Zoo. For more information about the ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Awards, or to nominate a deserving youth in your life, visit www.youthcentral.com/yoda

Local schools with the highest number of nominated students will receive up to $1,000 courtesy of the ConocoPhillips Race to Nominate Competition.

 

Race-to-Nominate 2013

YODA Nomination Form 2013

Nominator’s Questionnaire 2013

 

 

Thank you to our sponsors

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Contour drawing

kathy
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2

Today in art class our teacher did a fun exercise with us where we had to capture the pose of a model in 30 seconds. It sounded completely impossible.

But with things like contour and gesture drawing, it’s possible – and it looks really cool, too.

With contour drawing, the point is to find the edges of the subject and draw those. You use a continuous line and just draw – no picking up your pencil or erasing. Look at the edges of the things you are drawing and follow the edge with your eyes, and mimic that with your pencil. And the biggest rule is, you have to draw something that’s tangible at the moment – something you are actually looking at (not a picture).

Hands are a great subject for contour drawing, because they have so many poses. And for me, they are usually really hard to draw. Contour drawing teaches you how to “see”, and it helped me get more familiar with the hand’s structure.

Some of the faces don’t quite follow the “one continuous line” rule, but they capture the edges, and that’s really the essence of contour drawing.

 

Another thing you can do with contour drawing is blind contour, which is contour drawing except you are not allowed to look at your paper. The results oftentimes are kind of crazy, but have a cool artsy quality to them. What’s amazing is that with a bunch of blindly drawn loops and squiggles, in the end the piece comes together and you can tell what it is.

 

It looks crazy, right? But you can clearly tell that it’s a hand.
A blind contour drawing – I love this one. It’s so shaky and light, but it captures the hand so well!

Both contour and blind contour drawings are so fun. Something fun to try is to get a larger sheet of paper and draw a bunch of contour drawings on it, so you have a collection!

This may be personal preference, but I feel like it’s just so much better to do contour drawings with a soft pencil – 4B or 6B are my top choices. I love the fuzzy messy feeling of contour drawing, and having dark, fat lines just makes it all the better.

Contour drawing is a great thing to try for any artist, especially as a technique-booster. It teaches you how to find edges with your eyes, and see subjects as they truly are, not as you imagine them to be (this is a bigger problem than it sounds like). And what’s more, it’s fun and relaxing.

Give it a try! 🙂

 

 

Cold Porcelain Art

lily
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0

My friend had recently introduced to me how to make cold porcelain. She showed me many of the trinkets she has made using this recipe and, being artistically challenged, I could only admire them. Cold porcelain is a cheap alternative to clay or fimo and is super easy to make. I would like to share this recipe with you artistic people out there, I’m sure you’ll be able to do much better than I did.

Fimo_sweet_by_Sofairy536China_Polymer_clay_FIMO_fruit_slice_for_Nail_Art2008941454304

Things you need for this recipe are:

1 cup of cornstarch

1 cup of glue (the type you get from Wal-Mart)

2 tablespoons of baby oil

2 tablespoons of vinegar

 

Mix the ingredients together to form a smooth paste. Heat the mixture for 30 seconds in the microwave, then remove it and stir well. Repeat this step 3-5 times until the paste can be easily rolled into a ball. Lather your hands with cold cream and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, then wrap it in plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge to cool for a few hours. You can dye the cold porcelain with acrylic paint, simply dabbing a few drops onto the dough and kneading it until the color blends. If sealed correctly, the dough should stay soft for around half a month, be careful to keep it in an air sealed bag, the porcelain hardens very fast in contact with air.  Click here to view a walk-through of how to make cold porcelain.

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Then comes the fun part (which I failed miserably at), making cute little things out of the porcelain. My friend used her porcelain to make macaroons, donuts, and cupcakes, which she plans on selling in the future. Pinterest is filled with tutorials for making cellphone charms or key chains with cold porcelain. This would make a nice little hobby for you artists out there!

3 of the funniest films before the turn of the millenium

Sohaib Panwala
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Now that we’re settled in the second semester of school, homework and tests must be coming up pretty thick and fast. I have been incredibly stressed and this weekend was good to just relax and take a break for a while. During this break, I watched a lot of old comedies and it was good to take my mind off school and get caught up in the magical world of films. Afterwards, I found that I was much more committed and focused. If you are in my position, I would recommend doing the same by watching some of the following films:

  1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail – A British comedy produced in 1975 about King Arthur and his knights. They embark on a low-budget search for the Grail, encountering many very silly obstacles. (IMDb) It’s a goofy, slap – stick film; incredibly hilarious and has a laugh out loud (I despise using LOL, it’s not real English!) moment almost every other minute. After watching it, I got into the whole Monty Python saga as it was just that bloody good. I consider it the funniest movie I have ever watched and I hope you like it as much as I did.
  2. Pink Panther (1963) – Set in the 1960’s, it’s about a world famous jewel thief settling for the biggest catch of his life. It takes an inside look at the Jet Set world from the point of the jewel thief. Most of the comedic action comes from the imbecile of a police officer trying to catch the thief. The name of the movie comes from the jewel itself, it’s called the Pink Panther. It’s one of my favourite films of all time as it makes me feel nostalgic about a time that I never lived and the DVD is one of my most prized possessions.
  3. Young Frankenstein – Shot in black and white and made in 1974; it’s a take on a descendant of Frankenstein recreating his famous experiment to much hilarity. He is in a castle in Transylvania with an inept, narcissistic policeman, an old housewife in love with his grandfather, a pretty and silly assistant and a creepy hunchback who is also his assistant. Characters such as blind hermits and small psychotic children meeting the monster add to the funny-ness. All in all, it’s a brilliant film and one that brought me much joy. 

Websites to cheer up your crummy mood

missCarrie
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Have you ever found yourself in a slump? Exams stressing you out? Upset over something from school, friends, family or life? Then try a few of these websites; they are basically pick-me-up’s for those who are down.

emergency compliments

Emergency Compliments gives you random compliments until you feel better. You can even submit your own!

i like your jacket compliment

I Like Your Jacket also gives you random compliments (they give you more and have less repetition than the first website). They even have a blog!

automatic flaterer

The Automatic Flatterer asks for your name and gives you compliments through pop ups.

And lastly…

Who is the cutest?

I hope all of those cheered you up!

Video of the Day: Ingrid Michaelson’s “You and I”… Animated!

sunny
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One of my favourite songs, paired with adorable drawings 😀

Happy late Valentine’s Day?

Fulfilling “A Wish” for a Sweet Café

Wentao
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2

This building fools you:

AWishBuilding

A Wish‘s creativity stands out amongst the shops on 8th Street SW, however. When you walk in, the impression you get makes this place almost a bit too sparkling new for this block and the apartment building it is in.

A Wish Cake & Cafe on Urbanspoon

AWishStorefrontAlternate

AWishCounter

AWishLighting

AWishCakes
Whoever made these cake slices know how to present them.

AWishFood1

AWishBakersWindow

The food and drinks they offer are a mix of both Western and Asian fare, so they have to manage both the fancy schmancy espresso die-hards and the trendy bubble tea crowd, for example. For tea lovers like me, they have both Western specialities such as Earl Grey and traditional Chinese favourites such as Oolong. Maybe the title of this post should have been “‘a wish’ for tea tasters come true”?

So, what’s for lunch anyways?

AWishSoupBowl

AWishLunch
A scrambled egg wrap, large beef and vegetable soup (which fills to the top of the bowl), and an egg tart here totalled $11.49.’
AWishBeefAndVegetableSoup
I’m pleased to say the soup won’t give you salt overdose in your mouth! The true flavour that comes out of the simple ingredients doesn’t need extra salt to be tasty.
AWishEggTart
Egg tarts are marvellous when they are made right. I’m also impressed here by how this one isn’t too sugary compared to egg tarts from other bakeries, which helps with making it less of a guilty pleasure!
This cup of smooth, milky latte kept me going as I sprinted to the C-Train station. (I should've taken a picture before drinking it to see if they had latte art >.<) Thankfully the matcha (green tea) powder didn't leave a bad texture until the very end where you could see clumps.
This cup of smooth, milky latte kept me going as I sprinted to the C-Train station. (I should’ve taken a picture before drinking it to see if they had latte art >.<) Thankfully the matcha (green tea) powder didn’t leave a bad texture until the very end where you could see clumps.

You can see the kitchen in action through the “baker’s window” through the seating area which I really enjoyed.

AWishBakersWindowCloser
The view inside must be satisfying.

The space they have is small, but I like the fun variety. I’m pretty sure this will become my dessert destination, whether it’s Japanese castella cake or Tiramisu. Let’s hope one day they’ll put signs out on 7th ave to direct people to head on in. Wouldn’t that be a good idea?

I won’t give you warnings this time like the last time I did a food review. Well, maybe the fact that you shouldn’t reach in to get an egg tart prematurely without being careful with how hot the foil might be.

Rating: 9/10

Yay! Free food to work for!
Yay! Free food to work for!

How to write a winning scholarship essay

Alice :)
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0

Still fretting over those scholarship essays? Well, don’t be scared, because it’s Joshua Liu to the rescue!

 Frustration

As some of you may know, it’s this time of the year again, whether it’s college application or scholarship application, there are maybe like 12903823 essays to write, and that’s not including the ones for school. (Ahm. Extended Essay, Internal Assessments, and World Literature Papers for you IB kids)

Sometimes, you may be lucky and find that one or more of the applications asks for a similar essay, whereas sometimes, you’re not so lucky and they ALL ask for different ones. In my opinion, the worst ones are the ones where the questions incorporate the school or scholarship, like “What makes you the ideal candidate for _____ award?” or “Where do you see yourself in 10 years, and where does ____ fit in?”

While I was having some troubles, I figured lots of you seniors out there might as well, and desperate times call for desperate measures right? Sorry, I’m not sharing some essay archive, but rather, some fairly useful tips from multi-scholarship winner Joshua Liu himself.

He presents his winning essay writing advice in 4 parts:

Personally, I found it quite helpful and inspirational in some ways. He enlightened me to think in a different mindset and approach these frustrating questions with a different perspective.

A brief bio on Josh from Medhopeful.com:

Joshua Liu is a York University alumni (Bsc 2009) and 4th year medical student at the University of Toronto. Joshua founded SMARTS: Youth Science Canada’s national youth science network and previously sat on Shad Valley’s Board of Directors. Joshua has received numerous scholarships and awards, including the TD Canada Trust Scholarship for Community Leadership and being named as one of Canada’s “Top 20 Under 20″. Most recently, he was the co-lead of a project at UHN’s Centre for Innovation in Complex Care to map out the current state of avoidable hospitalization for complex patients in Ontario.

(Article retrieved from http://www.medhopeful.com/archive/how-to-write-a-winning-scholarship-essay-part-1-thinking-like-a-scholarship-winner/)

Debt Avenue: Taxes

nad
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1

This is my first article on how to fix Alberta’s financial situation.20 Dollar bills

Alberta has always been seen as a “have” province, with a great amount of natural resources fueling our growth. In the past weeks, however, residents all across Alberta received shocking news – we’re headed straight into debt city. If Alberta can’t solve its economic problem any time soon, Albertans are going to have to foot the bill – an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. The two main avenues to pay off this debt will be cutting spending or raising taxes, the question only being which will have less of a negative effect on Albertans.

Though a very unpopular idea for many Albertans, a new tax or fee may be the best idea to get us out of this crisis. Right now, Alberta pays one of the lowest income taxes in the country, and pays no sales tax – something no other province does, and an act that only five US states do not do (Texas, which is often compared to Alberta due to their prevalence of oil, charges a sales tax rate of 6.25%). Increasing this tax would cost everyone more money, but like other provinces that charge a sales tax, we could offer tax credits to lower income families, ensuring their lives are not disrupted. A benefit of this tax would mean a more stable revenue base. For numerous decades, our economy has been very much boom and bust – in times of high oil prices, we’ve had surpluses, and in times of low oil surpluses, we’ve had deficits. By increasing our tax base, royalties will become a less dominant part of our income, and preventing major crashes such as this in the future.

Drop of Oil

 

Another option of an additional fee that we could put in place would be a healthcare fee, much like the one many other provinces have today, and one that Alberta had in the past. This fee would be something affordable for most citizens, but bring in an additional source of income. Those who could not afford this fee would still receive healthcare, with their taxes reflecting their financial situation. When I was thinking about restoring the healthcare fee, I felt that it had an additional use as well. This fee could also have the potential to lead to reform in the healthcare system due to people seeing that money deducted from their account each year. Though it would effectively be equal to a small increase in taxes, seeing a separate fee would mean that every time an Albertan pays this fee, they’ll begin to wonder where the money is going to. Albertans have been characterized as anti-tax (who isn’t?) in the past, and if Albertans are forced to pay this fee, many will push to insure we get the most out of each dollar. Numerous reports, including this one done by the Fraser Institute, Albertans receive one of the lowest returns on each dollar spent in the healthcare system.  Taxes are not a pleasant idea, and though we’ve always been seen as a province that has enough wealth from oil to not have to pay many taxes, it’s time we take the hit for irresponsible spending over the years and put our government back on track.

If you still can’t swallow the fact that each Albertan will have to pay taxes, cutting spending may still be an option – but how can we do that, and where would we cut?

Video of the Day: Such Great Heights Cover

Bill
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0

A belated Valentine’s.  Enjoy!

Oreo Goodness-be creative!

suzie
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1

Oreo has been one of my favorites since childhood! Not only because it is delicious, but also because it can be eaten in a few different ways. You can eat it as a whole, or eat the filling and the biscuits separately, or dip in milk. The choices make eating Oreo more fun than just eating ordinary cookies.

After we reach a certain age, we get more control over the food in the fridge. This is when the number of ways to eat Oreo cookies expands. Here are some of my favorite ways to eat these all-time-favorite cookies.

1. Dip in milk.

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2. Add on top of a piece of cheesecake.

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3. Cut them up and stir into yogurt.

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4. Add to strawberry cream.

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5. Oreo-made panda cupcakes!

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6. Oreo-made Mickey cupcakes!<3

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7. Stick pieces of oreo mini on top of cupcakes.

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8. Bake into chocolate cakes.

 

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9. Add to ice-cream and drizzle chocolate syrup on top.

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If you are drooling all over these pictures, you probably could go straight to the closest supermarket and grab some Oreos. A friendly reminder to check the nutritional values if you are watching your calories but otherwise, enjoy the yummy Oreo goodness!

 

(Pictures from google)

Fantasy Sports

arjun
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0

At the start of the shortened NHL season I participated for the first time in a fantasy sports league with my friends. Before, the term ‘fantasy sports’ left me with an “unimpressed” and “lame” attitude towards the whole idea. Maybe its because the term ‘fantasy’ left negative connotations with me, especially since playing sports is a million times more fun than simply being a spectator.

A fantasy league is pretty much when you create an artificial league and players act like owners of actual teams. Prior to when a season begins, you draft (choose) the players you want to be on your team, and make game-day decisions (who to start, and who to bench) throughout the season. You then earn points based on how well the players on your team perform. After joining a fantasy league I see that there is a lot of awesome things about fantasy sports.

First and foremost it’s a good way to keep up with friends and socialize with one another. The incentive is primarily bragging rights. There’s a sense of ownership and pride in the players that are on your team, and it’s always fun to rag on your buds for the failures of their players.

Moreover it gets people interested in the sport. Some of the people who are involved in our league didn’t particularly even know what hockey was prior to joining. They joined simply to be part of the group. After awhile however, as their “team managing” continued, they started to follow the sport and showed a genuine vested interest in the game.

And although initially I believed that fantasy sports were for those who couldn’t actively participate in the sport, I find that part of the reason why I enjoy it so much is because I play sports. It often gives you added insight into all the different aspects of the game (not just the flashy stuff like goals, but the more grittier parts of the game) and also why certain players are exceptional and sought after in every league.

Fantasy sports have something in it for everyone, as Brain Havig puts it; “Fantasy football is unique: It combines something incredibly masculine with something incredibly nerdy. It’s like the high school quarterback and the captain of the Dungeons and Dragons Club got together, became best friends and created the most popular game in school.”

Our Materialistic Society

Ivonne
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0

We are exposed to so much advertising everyday. Our society is continuously being consumed in a vast environment of the constant pursue to spend. Everywhere we go, we see ads for the latest phone, the latest shoe, the latest food. As a society, the push for us to spend our money on things we don’t need, things we already have, leads us into this blind spiral of materialism. Does money really buy happiness? To an extent, yes- we need money to survive and sustain ourselves, but there is a point where our happiness should (and can) no longer be maintained by materialistic goods.

I’ll admit that I was very naive about the world of spending- that is, until I discovered the world of YouTube beauty gurus. Videos of hauls and collections blew my mind in that they were so overwhelmingly excessive. Why, I wondered, did anyone really need the exact same shirt in three different shades of blue? Why would someone go and spend hundreds of dollars on a bag only for the sake of owning a designer bag? Small makeup and clothing collections turned out to be mini stores and hauls were basically 15 minutes of showing piles and piles of unneeded goods. Was this all necessary? Does materialistic goods really make someone happier?

shopping-bags

Sometimes we become so absorbed in buying and owning everything we set our eyes on that we need to take a step back and consider what really makes us happy. Numerous times I have been in the situation where I really want something that is not essential. When I finally do get it, I always end up finding it not as great as expected. Was I any happier after getting what I wanted? Maybe for a minute, but I’ve gotten to understand that immersing myself in materialistic goods does no good for my happiness in the long run. Simply owning a shirt I see in a window or magazine does nothing for how I feel about myself- my happiness wears off extremely quickly and a shirt won’t magically provide any solutions to life  long joy. In actuality, I always end up feeling guilty when I spend money on unneeded things- unless guilt will one day make me flood with happy emotion, this is another reason why consumption does not help me stay positive.

Materialism can be dangerously addictive- the more we tell ourselves we need something, the more we want it. It starts off with simple desire- by the time we get what we want, there will always be something more we wish for. It is a never-ending cycle of desire and consumption that will never leave us satisfied. Perhaps happiness should be looked at beyond the stage of consuming as much as possible. Maybe we should be refocusing ourselves on the things we already have, not on the things we don’t. It’s the little things that account for our happiness- our goals, our knowledge, our personal stories. We can’t rely on artificial goods to support our happiness- for that, we need to realize the more important things in life, the things beyond what money can buy. As Douglas Horton said, “Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.”

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