As time passes by
what you see will be different
Volunteering at: Summer YVC Steering Committee
Two weeks ago, my very last meeting for the summer Youth Volunteer Corps steering committee ended! With our very small group of no more than 3-4 volunteers meeting at a time, this year’s summer YVC meetings were dedicated to organizing a major project for next year’s YVC’s steering committee, Empty Bowls 2010/2011.
Empty Bowls is a project that calls for adults, youth and children in the community of Calgary to become aware of youth homelessness in Calgary and allows them to get involved. Volunteers of various ages will create fantastic and beautiful ceramic bowls at the Wildflower Arts Centre, and then auction these bowls off in a fundraising event, where fellow Calgarians will purchase tickets to a mock-soup kitchen, allowing these guests to experience and remind them of the youth that go hungry in Calgary. Every year, the YVC Steering Committee chooses the proceeds from Empty Bowls to go a different youth organization; 2009 being Yahoo Youth Housing.
The Summer YVC Steering Committee researched into potential “celebrity” scoopers for this year’s Empty Bowls, experimented with different methods to create “thank you” mosaics for our sponsors, approved potential YVC projects, and discussed redesigning the traditional “fill-a-bowl” aspect of Empty Bowls, deciding what they should look like.
Be sure to volunteer for this year`s YVC Steering Committee to get involved in this fantastic project!
For more, and how you can get involved, visit the website here.
Video of the Day: Giant Beach Bubbles
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Weekend Preview
The last weekend of August is one of world culture, as you can head to Mexico, Spain, Scotland or India without ever leaving the city.
Friday to Sunday Expo Latino
Celebrate Hispanic culture this weekend at Prince’s Island Park. Expo Latino features Latin dance, music, food and art. Advance weekend passes are $15 at Co-op and $10 daily pass at the door. Seniors and children under 12 are free.
Saturday Foothills Highland Games
Throw on a kilt and grab your bagpipes for the 11th Foothills Highland Games. There will be authentic Scottish piping, drumming and heavy game competitions, music and dancing from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. at Foothills Composite High School. Adults $8, children $6, family pass $25.
Sunday India Fest
Step out of downtown Calgary and into India with Bollywood dance lessons, henna artists, yoga instruction, South Asian food stalls and more. The festival takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Shaw Millenium Park. Admission is free.
Video of the Day: Wedding Photographer Fail
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Quotes: Happiness and Laughter
Those who never risk will never lose. But neither will they grow. Those who never feel will never cry. But neither will they laugh.
Laughter is the best form of medicine. For when we laugh, we neither think, grieve, or feel.
Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections. —
Going LOMO.
LOMO
A.K.A. Ленинградское оптико-механическое объединение
A.K.A. Leningrad Optics & Mechanics Amalgamation
also can be referred to as lomography
Video of the Day: Crazy Basketball Shot
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Quotes: Time and Life
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
It is never too late to start something new.
We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
A person is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.
Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
Don’t keep looking back. If you do, you’ll trip in the present and fall in the future.
Time is free, but it is priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.
Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.
You’ll regret the things you didn’t do, more than the things you did.
Live the life you love, love the life you live.
The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
Live one day at a time or you’ll miss the beauty of each day.
You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
Life is made up of years that mean nothing and moments that mean it all.
It’s not what’s happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it’s your decisions about what you focus on, what things mean to you, and what you’re going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destine.
Everything is okay in the end. If it’s not okay, then it’s not the end.
Don’t let the sadness of your past and the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your past.
Video of the Day: Fan Makes Catch Look Easy
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A fusion of young culture
Celebrate youth culture on Saturday, Sept. 4 at the FUSE Young Culture Festival. This free outdoor celebration at Shaw Millennium Park includes original art, music, dance and skateboarding.
There’s more than $1,000 in prizes to be won in breakdancing and skateboarding competitions (free registration between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.).
The event is put on by C.A.K.E. Young Artists’ Society (Community + Arts + Knowledge Engaged). Their mandate is to promote the future of Calgary’s creative culture and support talented, local young emerging artists.
Activities run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
I didn’t realize books like these were necessary until recently. But then one day in biology class, while learning about natural selection, one of my classmates
told me that he doesn’t believe in evolution because it is impossible for a single cell to randomly turn into a human being. He went on to talk about “intelligent design.” I had no idea what he was talking about nor have I heard of the intelligent design vs. evolution debate prior to that conversation. But after doing some research I became fascinated with the evolution debate and later the atheism vs. religion debate. But enough about me.
Unlike “The God Delusion” by the same author, Richard does not attack religion directly. In this book he shows the reader exactly why he is an world-renowned biologist by introducing the reader to all the evidence supporting evolution while disproving the opposing views (since there’s no recognized theory which opposes Darwinian evolution).
In this book, Richard explores the fields of palaeontology, anatomy, embryology, geology, genetics and artificial breeding to present the vast amount of evidence supporting evolution. As always, he provides interesting stories and examples to strengthen and elaborate on his claims.
Bottom line – just like “The God Delusion,” this is another well-written and interesting book, but also like “The God Delusion,” this book is still just a position paper. Therefore, if you don’t care about the evolution debate, this book will seem extremely boring. But I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the debate. I give it a 4/5.
Humans and Nature
Last week I went hiking and saw a man with a chipmunk on his hand eating sunflower seeds. It has been a long time since I have seen humans and animals living together peacefully.
When we came to this world, all we did was destroy other animals habitats, and they have no power to fight back because humans are much more powerful than them. Sometimes animals will also do incredible actions. Fir example, a group of antelope hunters arrive at a cliff edge, ready to capture all of the antelopes. About a half hour later, the antelopes divide into two teams; the old antelopes in one team and the young antelopes in the other. An old antelope steps out of the team and calls out, then a young antelope immediately arrives beside the old one. The young one backs away a few steps, then suddenly jumps to the other side of the cliff. After that, the old one jumps as well but not as high as the young antelope. As the young antelope starts to fall down, a miracle happens. The old one appears right under the young antelope’s hoof and the young one steps on the old one’s back, then arrives on the other end of the cliff. The old one crashes into the mountain stream. Then all of the antelopes start to escape. Immediately the mountain appears as a dazzling arc. Those arcs are bridges that are based on the old antelopes death. That scene was so astonishing and it made the hunters put down their guns.
Under life-threatening conditions, animals will do anything to survive but the harm humans bring to them is chilling. Many people are willing to hunt animals and make money out of their body parts. I feel that humans cannot take an advantage over other species just based on our knowledge. Ignoring other creatures rights and being cruel to them is wrong because other animals are just like us, living creatures which have feelings.
Earth is full of living organisms and humans are just one of them. We humans are always exaggerating our strength and always think we are the kings of the world who can trample everything, but in the end we will be the ones who are facing the danger of extinction. Those who regard life as worthless will slowly forget to love and lose their humanity. One day, humans will dig our own grave because we desecrated life.
There is only one Earth and everything on this planet is all Mother Earth’s offspring. Treating other animals well is treating ourselves well.
Video of the Day: Amazing Yo-Yo Skills
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