With graduation coming up for a lot of us, I know tons of girls and guys who are super anxious in growing out their hair. There are many different methods and tricks here and there that can help stimulate the growth. Whether you are recovering from a bad haircut or just want longer hair, then here is a good video that provides a few tips on how to grow hair longer and faster:
[youtube vbZWk6YMIVI]Volunteering at Chestermere’s Winter Festival
On Jan. 15, the Town of Chestermere hosted their annual Winter Festival. The festival was hosted inside of the Chestermere Rec Centre, with many activities taking place across the street, by the lake and at Anniversary Park.
The festival kicked off early in the morning with a free pancake breakfast. There were many delicious choices including pancakes, sausages, eggs, orange juice and even iced tea.
Outside of the centre at Anniversary Park was the area known as the “Arctic Village,” which was open form 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There were many exciting events and and activities for families to participate. Kids has the chance to go to the Fun Foam Block Building Area to create anything they wanted using giant foam blocks. There was also a snow mountain slide and straw maze that were very fun to engage in. Skating on the lake was open and free for anyone interested. Shuttle services were provided to and from the Rec Centre so that anyone could ride Horse Drawn Sleigh Rides on the lake. In case anyone became too cold, there were fire pits set up around the area to warm people up. If that didn’t help, they were free to move into the Rec Centre to warm up and participate in the many activities happening inside.
Dedication at Its Finest
[youtube 2AzRJTphcOo]
Tell me if this video scared you or you got a good laugh. I sure felt a mixture of both… they are just … fanatical.
It is time to look like you’re in love! Valentine’s Day is coming!
Valentine’s Day is coming soon!
I was looking for a make-up tutorial to improve my make-up skills, since I never have done it before, and I found really good tutorial which is very suitable for this period of time.
Enjoy watching this video and find the best make-up for yourself and be ready for your Valentine!
[youtube rDbEB9T-iUA&feature]This girl’s tutorial is very detailed and well explained.
Find more tutorials on YouTube!
Restaurant Spotlight: Cactus Club Cafe
I have always been a huge fan of the Cactus Club cafe, so I was really excited when YAA gave me a $50 gift certificate to spend at their restaurant. When you first walk into the restaurant it’s a bit of a change. The inside is quite dark but candles and lights make up for it, thus giving the restaurant an intimate appeal. Our hostess was very kind while guiding us to our booth. Once seated, my parents and I took a look at their menu.
After about 10 or 15 minutes our food arrived. My dad and I ordered the cajun chicken burger while my mom ordered the raincoast greens.
The burger was fantastic. The chicken was cooked wonderfully. It was juicy and very well seasoned. The lettuce and tomatoes were fresh, and the aged cheddar was a delicious topping.
The raincoast green salad was just as delicious as the cajun chicken burger, if not more so. When I think of salad, I think of a small and light side dish to my main meal, but the raincoast greens were very filling (according to my mom). I had a taste of the salad and I must it say it was very good. I would never have thought to mix eggs, pecans, berries and chicken together!
Once were were finished with our meals we decided to have dessert.
I ordered the key lime pie. It was a great way to finish off the meal. The graham cracker crust was very well done and the hand-whipped cream was an added bonus.
My parents ordered the cheesecake and seemed to be very pleased with their choice. I had to agree with them after taking a bite for myself. The sweetness of the cheesecake and the tanginess of the fruit really completed the dessert.
Overall, my experience at the Cactus Club Cafe was delightful. The only thing better than the friendly service was the great taste of the food. For just a little over $50 (tips included) my parents and I left the restaurant completely satisfied. I recommend the Cactus Club to everyone. It’s an enviroment that welcomes people of all ages for all occasions. I for one will be going back there very soon.
Check out the Cactus Club Cafe website.
Akira Kurosawa – A Legacy
Do you know who the man on the right is? With all the flashy directors nowadays, like James Cameron or Michael Bay, chances are that you probably don’t. And though you may not even bat an eye if you saw him walking through downtown, you are currently looking at the man who is regarded as one of the most influential and pivotal filmmakers in the history of cinema. That is to say, you are looking at Akira Kurosawa: iconic Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Kurosawa has directed 30 films in an astonishingly successful career spanning 57 years.
Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936 after a brief unyielding career as a painter. He made his debut as a director in 1943, when, during World War II, he created the popular Judo Saga. Shortly after the war, in 1948, Kurosawa cemented his reputation with the creation of the movie Drunken Angel. From 1950 to early 1960, Kurosawa directed approximately one film a year, including Ikiru, and the widely renowned Seven Samurai.
His brilliant work has by no means gone unrecognized, with Kurosawa accepting the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990, and being posthumously dubbed as Asian of the Century, cited as “one of the five people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years.”
Born on the 23rd of March to a moderately wealthy family, Akira was the youngest of eight children. His father, Isamu, who was a member of a former samurai family, promoted physical exercise and was open to western traditions, accepting that motion pictures could indeed be educationally viable. In fact, unlike many fathers at the time, Isamu actively encouraged his children to watch films. allowing Akira to watch his first film at age six (can you imagine?).
“Golden Voice”
I must apologize here. Lost in my own little world, I have neglected this blog, but more on that later. During my absence, I chanced upon a rather touching story while driving down Deerfoot. I was deeply inspired by the story and felt an absolute compulsion to share with all you loyal readers. So here I am.
First things first, check out this video.
[youtube 6rPFvLUWkzs]OK. I am sure a major portion of you have already heard it. But I am also sure you don’t mind hearing it again. I mean come on, it’s the golden voice! Who can get sick of that voice? I for one would listen to news, and I mean real news stories, just to hear that.
Anyways, the man behind the Golden Voice goes by Ted Williams. Mr. Williams attended school and slowly trained his voice over many years. However, he soon lost himself in a world of drugs and alcohol. He lost everything he owned and became a homeless man wondering the streets and begging for charity.
Coincidentally, a passing motorist found Ted Williams by the side of the street and recorded a clip of his voice. The clip soon became a viral video hit on youtube and hit 3 million viewers almost overnight. After becoming an internet sensation, Ted was offered numerous lucrative offers from a number of radio and broadcasting companies.
But Ted still battles with the addictions that destroyed his life years ago. After appearing on Dr. Phil, it became clear that Ted still faces major obstacles in his way. He has to overcome his alcohol addiction and stay clean from his drug addiction as well. As I write these words, Ted is rumored to be recovering at a rehab center in South Texas. After he deals with his addictions, he may finally be able to reconcile with his long-estranged family.
Ted’s story brings a warm feeling of inspiration and hope. It is pleasant to think that any man who has hit rock bottom can still use his talents to rediscover himself. Few stories offer such strong testament to the dignity of the human spirit. Ted’s story hints at the American dream or even a dream shared by everyone: the desire to better our lives despite all odds.
Since When Did Zodiac Signs Change?
Apparently the zodiac signs have changed. I was a Leo my whole life and I prided myself on being a fierce lion. However, along with the year change, my zodiac sign changed as well. After the change I am now a cancer, a tiny little crab.
I am not the only one who is upset by the zodiac change. There were surveys around the world about how people felt about the zodiac sign change, and much of the population rejected the switch. The change of the signs was a result of the discovery of a new star, Ophiuchus. The original twelve zodiac signs that have been around for ages has been changed because the earths rotation, which has slightly shifted changing the way Earth aligns with the stars.
The change can be blamed on a Minnesota community college professor, Parke Kunkle. In a newspaper interview Parke discussed the new astrological signs. He tells reporters that the astrological change has been around for thousands of years, and that he merely brought light to information that has already been around.
The new signs go as follows:
Capricorn: Jan. 20 – Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 – March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18 – May 13
Taurus: May 13 – June 21
Gemini: June 21 – July 20
Cancer: July 20 – Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10 – Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16 – Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30 – Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23 – Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29 – Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17 – Jan. 20
Are you willing to embrace the switch?
VEGAS!!
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while =( Probably because I was in VEGAAASSS!! =)
Here are some pictures I took of the city that never sleeps.
Website of the Day: FreeRice
How would you like to study for your SATs, or just improve your vocabulary while also fighting world hunger? Well that’s exactly what FreeRice.com does. I’m passionate about social justice, and I love this website for its mission and clever idea…
It works like this:
You’re given a vocabulary question, such as:
watchman means:
You click on the right answer, and if you get it right, you get a harder question. But here’s the greatest part: for every question you get right, FreeRice donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger.
Have you ever had a better reason to work on your vocabulary? As you keep getting correct answers, the questions gradually get more challenging, and if you get it wrong, you’re given the answer so you can learn for next time. If it’s too easy, you can change the level right away, or if it gets too hard and you just want to relax, you can go down a few levels. You can even choose to learn other subjects besides English vocabulary, such as Biology and Art History! To keep you motivated, you’re shown a wooden bowl on the left side of your screen, and it gradually fills with rice as you answer questions correctly. When you fill entire bowls, it displays “100 grains of rice” icons: you can visually see the meals you are providing just adding up! You don’t even have to sign up for anything, just click away.
In case you’re still not sold, read these facts posted on FreeRice:
-All money (100%) raised by the site goes to the UN World Food Programme to help feed the hungry. Sponsors make all payments to the WFP directly.
-Examples of where Freerice rice has been distributed:
- In Bangladesh, to feed 27,000 refugees from Myanmar for two weeks.
- In Cambodia, to provide take-home rations of four kilograms of rice for two months to 13,500 pregnant and nursing women.
- In Uganda, to feed 66,000 school children for a week.
- In Nepal, to feed over 108,000 Bhutanese refugees for three days.
- In Bhutan, to feed 41,000 children for 8 days.
- In Myanmar, to feed 750,000 cyclone affected people for 3 days.
Thus, whether you have thirty seconds or half an hour, click here and help end hunger now!
Deconstructing Dad: the Music, Machines and Mystery of Raymond Scott community screening
Epic chases on assembly or in the middle of canyons, either with the infamous Bugs Bunny or some other general character from Looney Tunes, and the music that fuels the feel of animation? They are those of Raymond Scott’s compositions. Raymond was an ingenious composer, musician and a primitive engineer, and was also a creative, innovative, but eccentric inventor of electronic instruments and sound. The free community screening of the documentary featuring Raymond Scott, Deconstructing Dad: the Music, Machines and Mystery of Raymond Scott, was a labour of love and entirely created by Raymond Scott’s own son, Stan Warnow. Kick starting Soundasarus: Festival of Media, Music & Sound, a multi-sensory festival of experimental music, sound, visual art and creative performances, celebrating the pioneers of electronic creation. However, Soundasarus is only a small segment of the 25th annual High Performance Rodeo: Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts that is occurring from January 6-30 .
I was very much delighted to attend the free community screening of frankly a name I have never heard uttered before the screening of the documentary, but was curious as to taking the wonderful opportunity to find out. Screening took place in a new area of the Epcor Centre I had not discovered yet: the Engineered Air Theater, usually reserved for jazz performances. I strolled down the enormous spiral staircase, with a massive marble pillar in the middle and gray carpeted stair steps and floor. I was enthralled by the glimmering mirror paneled onto soft green walls and by the very warm design of the waiting area outside the theater. Entering into the studio, a surprisingly numerous amount of heavy studio lights were hung from the ceiling and shone brightly onto the low leveled main stage. I clambered up the stairs of the theatre, into the balcony, and leaned comfortably against the wooden railing, not knowing what to expect.
The movie was entirely an on and off 11 year project by Stan Warnow, an idea that begun to form after an memorial service for the late Raymond Scott. The movie essentially documents two major periods in Raymond Scott’s life, his early career composing and playing music used by commercial and cartoons, reaching his peak of popularity. Then, after tiring of manually composing music performed by humans, Raymond Scott receded creating music with musicians and started to create and is on the path of creating the first ever synthesizer of music, envisioning that machines to be able to compose music entirely by themselves. I smiled as I observed that the people associated with Raymond Scott spoke of him in a revered sense, acknowledging his ingenious and creative intellect, but could all agree that he was very much eccentric and obscure individual, as his former wife calls him “crazy.” Shy and paranoid of others stealing his inventions and ideas, Raymond Scott disliked Hollywood, as “they think everything is wonderful,” and wouldn’t treat him as a real musician.
Volunteering at: Inn from the Cold!
Inn from the Cold is a great place that provides shelter from the cold, offering a haven for the vulnerable homeless population in Calgary. The shelter features a large kitchen, an expansive family room, a playroom and semi-private rooms for guests and laundry facilities. At Inn from the Cold, they offer safe habitation to seniors and families. Greeted by creatively crafted gingerbread houses at the entrance of the kitchen, my spirits were uplifted to a cheery mood and I was eager to roll up my sleeves and help with food preparations for the evening.
Volunteering at Inn from the Cold is definitely one of my favourite volunteer projects to be involved in. The patrons of the services Inn from the Cold provide are quite pleasant and friendly, and it was quite heartening to watch our volunteer work directly benefit. We were quickly delegated into various tasks around the kitchen, with WeiJia (a fellow blogger) labeling lunch bags and stamping them with the appropriate dates, myself digging in their massive freezer for boxes of juice, oranges and tasty snacks, and with the remaining volunteers preparing and actually making several stacks of sandwiches. The first hour or so passed quickly as I had to operate as a one woman human assembly line until WeiJia joined me in neatly lining up brown paper bags and packing them each with one fruit, one snack, a yogurt container, a sandwich and a drink. The interesting moment during the process were definitely when WeiJia and I realized that spoons were most likely needed to be stuffed along into the bags if the yogurt was to be eaten, so we had to scurry madly around the kitchen to find a box of disposable spoons and re-include them into the already packed paper brown bags.
After properly finishing the preparation of the lunches, the volunteer team and I were ready for phase two of our volunteer shift: the serving of the masses. Snapping on rubber gloves and moving into the main dining room, the pounding of a herd of feet coming down the stairs were quite audible and signaled to us that it was dinner time. Standing in front of huge serving trays, the meal for the night was a hearty hot dog and a bun, Mac n’ Cheese ( which surprisingly was more identifiable as macaroni noodles and cheese, rather than the mashed up, melting into mush kind that I usually eat), and rather spicy chicken wings. I slowly observed the various patrons of Inn From the Cold as I ladled out steaming hot dogs, and was surprised at the varying size and ages of the families and seniors.
Library Events
The Central 2nd Saturday SLAM!
Come down to the Central Library to enjoy a Spoken Word Extravaganza for the youth of Calgary!
Poets storm the stage to share their words and beats to packed-out, cheering crowds. Judges from the audience score their performances in three intense rounds of poetic excellence, until a winner is crowned.
For those who do not wish to SLAM!, there will also be an Open Mic—this is a chance for you to strut your stuff and showcase your work. All styles are welcome. If you don’t want to strut your stuff—come, listen and judge.
Bring three poems, each of them no longer than three minutes. You may not get to perform them all, but bring them just in case.
UPCOMING YOUTH SLAM!s
February 12, 2011 – 1:00pm
March 12, 2011 – 1:00pm
Presented by The Calgary Public Library and The Calgary Spoken Word Festival
p.s. It’s FREE.
Teen Toastmasters
If you are looking to boost your resume with great leadership skills, think about Toastmasters International. They are offering a great course for FREE at the Calgary Public Library just for teens ages 13-17. This course will help you with presentation skills, public speaking and self-confidence. If you are interested, call 403-260-2600 or go to www.calgarypubliclibrary.com/programs.aspx
Times and places it’s offered:
Louise Riley: Wednesdays January 19th—March 9th, 4:30-6pm
Fish Creek: Tuesdays February 1st—March 22nd, 6:30-8pm
Village Square: Saturdays January 8th—Febuary 26th, 10:30am-12pm
Country Hills: Mondays February 7th—April 4th, 4-5:30pm
Register online at: www.calgarypubliclibrary.com/programs.aspx
Ladies…
Are you worrying about what to wear to your grad?
Worry no more! Come to our Prom Dress Extravaganza! Skilled seamstresses will share ideas about re-making, updating, and tailoring dresses to suit your image. Try on our dress donations or bring your own dress and ask our seamstress to add a bit of ‘shazam!’ to your outfit.
Bonus: Demo dresses will be given away to participants!
Ages 15-18. Saturday, March 12th from 1:30-3:00pm at the Village Square Library OR Saturday March 19th from 1-3pm at the Crowfoot Library. Register online at: www.calgarypubliclibrary.com/programs.aspx
Enjoy Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Mario Kart, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and more at Game On! at the Calgary Public Library.
Game On! is at these locations and times:
Shaganappi: Wednesday April 27th 7-8:30pm
Louise Riley: Tuesday March 29th 7-8:30pm
Crowfoot: Thursday February 17th 2-4pm, Monday March 28th 2-4pm, Wednesday March 30th 2-4pm, and Thursday March 31st 2-4pm
Register online at: www.calgarypubliclibrary.com/programs.aspx
Book clubs for teens at the library:
It’s a chance for you to talk about books, meet other people who like to read and get ideas for new reading material.
- Nose Hill Library—Tuesdays 7:30-8:30pm AND Mondays 7-8pm
- Fish Creek Library—Thursdays 7-8pm
- Forest Lawn Library—Tuesdays 4-5pm
- Shawnessy Library—Tuesdays 7-8:30pm
- Southwood Library—Tuesdays 4:30-5:30pm
Call 403-260-2620 for exact dates.
Register online at: www.calgarypubliclibrary.com/programs.aspx
ESL Teen Talk
If you are a new Canadian and need to practice your English skills, join the Calgary Public Library for ESL Teen Talk. It’s a chance for to get together with other teens, play games, hang out and practice English.
- Nose Hill Library—Mondays Feb 28th – March 28th 4:30-6pm
- Crowfoot Library—Tuesdays Feb 22nd—March 22nd 4:30-6pm
- Shawnessy Library—Tuesdays Feb 22nd – March 22nd 4:30-6pm
Register online at: www.calgarypubliclibrary.com/programs.aspx
The Importance of Euphemisms
Even though language has become an integrated part of our lives, most of us do not pause to consider the importance in which it plays in our perception of the world around us. Language is a product of social norms, tradition, culture, and even history. In fact, many historians have even found evidence of geographical migrations of populations using a method of comparative linguistics, such as comparing Sanskrit to Germanic languages to find that populations have moved from India to Europe in ancient times. It goes without saying that language plays a role in creating and reinforcing social distinctions, if only through our subconscious.
In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell illustrated the importance of language in the way we subconsciously “think” through a simple experiment. In this experiment, Americans were asked to associate race with characteristics. The first category was “white” and “bad,” the other was “black” and “good.” The Americans were then given words such as “intelligent,” “European,” “amazing,” “uneducated,” and “abysmal,” and told to put them into the correct categories as fast as possible. Many people found that they had a lot of trouble with this because they, through some form of subconscious brain activity, found it much more difficult to associate “black” with “good” and “white” with “bad.” This is not because they truly believed that African Americans were inferior. In fact, Gladwell himself was half “black” as well as an extremely successful writer, but still had the same problem. This is simply because people’s minds are influenced by language, such as newspapers, magazines, and television, through subconscious ways. Even after generations of washing down the derogatory languages used to describe minority races, a form of exclusion still exists. If a child is told that all rats are evil, then he or she will subconsciously categorize rats with evil, and will have a difficult time later in life associating rats with “goodness.”