Video of the Day: Dog+Elephant=BFF’s
A Journey to South Korea: Day 2
Last week, I told you about the first day of my trip to South Korea, and now, here’s what I did on Day 2!
On the second day, I went to visit the palaces of the old loyalties of ancient Korea. Even though now South Korea is a democratic country, long time ago it had an emperor who controlled everything and the emperor and his family all lived in big palaces.
There are 4 main areas where the palaces are, and in each area are many small palaces. Each one is for a different purpose and they are all in different places, so if you want to go to all of them, you have to transfer subways a few times.
Because I didn’t have enough time, and from what I know it is unnecessary to go to all of them, I only went to the biggest palaces.
The first one I went is called Gyongbokkung, and the entrance fee was 3,000 won when I went there, which is about $3.10. I took subway #3 or you can take the tour bus of Seoul to get there as well. Just don’t go to Gyongbokkung on Tuesdays, because it will be closed!
This is one of the palaces in Gyongbokkung, and it was used for the emperor to meet with his chancellors every morning.
This is a look of the inside.
Same as in China, ancient Koreans believed the dragon is a symbol of loyalty.
This is the inside of a guest house which is not as fancy as the main palace.
This pile of stones is what they called, “The General Cemetery,” and the blocks of wood with writing on them are what Koreans used to remember famous generals that saved the nation.
After visiting all of the palaces in Gyongbokkung, I went to the National Folk Museum which is in Gyongbokkung as well. The museum was built in 1945 after WWII. It presented to the Korean culture before 1910, which is when the emperor dynasty ended.
This is just clothing of the ancient Koreans.
This is some old literature.
This is my day 2 of South Korea tour. Just to let everyone know, Gyongbokkung is really easy to find on the map because it is in the center of Seoul and is very close to the President’s house. To end, below is a picture of Cheongwadae (Blue House) which is same as the White House in the U.S.A.
Need a break? Watch this video.
Have you heard the song Crank Dat by Soulja Boy? If not, you can listen to it here. A couple of friends have mentioned to me that there was a similar version to this song. I know many students, especially in Calgary, are doing exams right now. In between all that studying, take a break and watch this video. It’s called Crank Dat Curry Sauce, watch it below:
[youtube HXEvwLAykbk]What do you think? Do you like Soulja Boy’s version more?
Girl Books VS. Guy Books
It has become extremely difficult for me to find youth novels for guys. I was asked “why don’t you just read girl books”. Well
the answer is… I don’t think girl books are very good. But when I think about it, are girl books really inferior or are they just of a different style, and why does it seem like I can’t find any guy books?
Guy books tend to focus on action. Emotion is discussed, but to a minimum, no more than what’s needed to move the plot forward. Guy books also tend to deal with guy issues and interests. Guy books are, in general, more violent and faster paced. Guy books are to the point and even when it comes to “girly subjects” like love, guy books tend to make it masculine. Guy books also seem edgier.
Girl books obviously focus on emotion. Love and relationships tend to be a central theme. Girl books may include violence, but they focus on the emotional effects the violence cause. Girl books are generally subtle and are a lot deeper when it comes to emotions. Girl books often reach levels that guy books never touch on.
So really, it is opinion, not anything that can be judged, but that doesn’t answer the other question: why is there such a relatively small amount of guy books?
I believe that the reason there aren’t as many guy books as girl books is because guys don’t read as much, because we have short attention spans and want fast paced action books. We don’t find fast paced action books because all the books we come across are girl books, and there are much more girl books because girls read more… and the cycle continues.
So, I believe that one of my goals on this website is to find the good guy books out there and review them so that guys have a reason to read.
What do you think is better: guy books or girl books (please comment below)? And if you have read a guy book that you think is pretty good, feel free to comment.
Tune in next week for my review on Lord of the Flies.
Cool Stuff for Summer
Summer is coming and we are all probably looking for something that can keep us cool. Many people might be planning to go on a picnic or do some other summer activities. If you are, you can make your own ice-lollies or smoothies for the summer!
Here’s the recipe to make your summer better and cooler.
Fruit Ice Lollies
Ingredients: (you’ll need extra equipment: Ice lolly moulds and blender) 200g(7oz) of your favorite fruit, 225ml (8 fl.oz) natural yogurt or good quality fruit yogurt, 3Tb powder sugar
1. Place the fruit, yogurt, and sugar in to a blender and blend until smooth ( if you don’t have blender, place the ingredients into a bowl and blend them with a hand-held electric whisk
2. Pour the mixture into the lolly moulds
3. Put the moulds into a freezer and let them set for at least 4 hours, until solid
Summer Pudding Smoothie
Ingredients: (you’ll need extra equipment: blender) 2 handfuls summer fruits(redcurrants, blackcurrants, rasberries), 150ml ( 5 fl.oz) double cream, 1 scoop Vanila ice cream
1. Place all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth
2. You may can decorate with a scattering of blackcurrants
—Recipes are from the book: Cooking for Girls
Aviary! …Say what?
Chances are, you probably haven’t heard of Aviary, see as they are a relatively new company, but they sure are making waves these days. So, who are they, and why should you be interested?
Well, in 2008, Aviary released the first installment of their web-based editing software to the public. Today, they have 8 different Flash applications for everything from music editing to drawing tools. These include:
… and just recently, they released Roc, which is similar to GarageBand for Macs, if any of you have every used it.
My only advice is to go try it out right away! You don’t need to download anything, and when I signed up it literaly took me 10 seconds to get an account; you can sign in with a Google, Yahoo, Facebook or Twitter account, and then just pick a username, and you’re in!
Go, begone, have fun making music and cool visuals! 🙂
An essay to slog through
Exams are coming up really fast! With the English diploma looming ahead, my English teacher had us write several essays, in-class and assigned. With the topic of the human condition, such a broad topic to interpret, I’m extremely nervous as to what is going to be on the diploma. For your reading pleasure, I have included a sample essay in a format my English teacher has definitely approved of! Recieving the award for Outstanding Student in English Language Arts in 30-1, you can be rest assure sure that this essay may be worth some of your time and is of some quality to read.
Some advice my English teacher gave me for writing essay: simple, straightforward, and relevant!
Any feedback would be great, comments, criticism, its all in the context of learning! I highly recommend this book for anyone planning to write the English diploma, as the book has many themes, and is a very powerful book that is available to be written upon.
Fugitive Pieces Essay
By: Lisa Bui
An individual’s ability to emerge living with the capacity for faith and love despite being constrained by difficult circumstances comes from the freeing powers of human love. In the novel, Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, Jakob Beers bears a traumatic journey of the painful memory and past, to be healed only by the redemptive human powers of compassion and kindness. Through the discovery of human love; Jakob Beers attempts to live life with a renewed human connection, rather than the spectral connection to Bella. Also the kindness and compassion Michaela offer Jakob, releases him from the haunting memories of his past, and allows him to start to look forward to a bright and cheerful future, with Michaela. Finally, despite having been affected with the repercussions of the war, in the forms of trauma and guilt, Jakob Beers feels there is a possibility of a brighter future, of when and he Michaela can conceive their first child into the world. How can a person truly love life, if their hearts are with the dead?
Jakob Beers is able to break away from the constraints of incorporating Bella’s spectre in all facets of his life, having prevented Jakob from truly appreciating life in the world of the living, through the redemptive powers of human sympathy and love. “Michaela’s hand above my head; I stroke the fragile place on the back of her smooth, soft upper arms. She is sobbing. She has heard everything- her heart an ear, her skin an ear. Michaela is crying for Bella. The light and heat of her tears enter my bones. The joy of being recognized and the stabbing loss: recognized for the first time.” Jakob’s prolonged melancholy produced from the traumatic loss of his sister is not healed by repressing or forgetting his past, as his former and intellectual wife Alex pushes him to do, but both Bella’s and his soul are put to rest, by the imaginative, but powerful, emotions of recognition and sympathy. In this, Jakob’s body no longer provides a house for Bella’s soul, as his body and is filled with the peace of mind of having shared his memory and story of Bella, of her own individual existence. Bella’s soul is finally released from being attached to objects that belong to the world of the living, which had painfully reminded Jakob of his loss of Bella, Michaela imaginary tears acknowledges and displays human consideration that pulls Jakob from his terrifying memories of the Holocaust and gives him, and his heart, a renewed hope for living a life of companionship in the land of the living.
Jakob Beers successfully comes to terms with the painful and repressed memories that have self-deprecated him, and instead, is experiencing happiness and the joy of being alive though his discovery of human love. “The first morning I woke to Michaela… I knew that this was my first experience of the colour yellow.” At the same party at which Jakob had met Michaela, Jakob also meets a Polish artist, born ten years before World War II, painting in dark ochres and browns, without the ability to bring himself to use vibrant and cheery shade of yellow, the artist utters the line” All my life, I’ve asked myself one question: How can you hate all you have come from and not hate yourself?” Now together with Michaela, through the reaffirmation and the restatement of love, Michaela’s love and its strength has built in Jakob a better self, teaching him the importance of the possible pleasures offered in human life. Jakob does not wake up to the sounds or spectral presence of Bella, but instead wakes in the presence of a unique, compassionate, and tangible human being, whom shares loving affections towards him. Jakob no longer lives with the shadows and dark colours of his past haunting him, and has instead, brought himself to move forward towards a brighter and happier life, with reciprocated kindness and love, with Michaela.
Jakob Beers remains faithful to humanity, despite having survived the devastating destruction caused by the war and bearing witness to the murder of his family members. “My son, my daughter: May you never be deaf to love. Bela, Bella: Once I was lost in a forest. I was so afraid. My blood pounded in my chest and I knew my heart’s strength would soon be exhausted. I save myself without thinking. I grasped the two syllables closest to me, and replaced my heartbeat with your name.” His faith in humanity is recognized by “feeling” a future inhabited by his son or daughter, with Jakob finally acknowledging the fixation he held upon Bella. Jakob’s survival and life was dependant on the strength of his love for Bella. Providing advice to his future children, Jakob’s that it was his love for Bella; her strength that had saved him from the vast and dark terrors that emerged from the Holocaust. Having survived his past, his beloved memories of his love for Bella can survive him and live to be a physical manifestation of either a son or a daughter that they will conceive.
An individual’s emergence from the depths of their constraints, and their ability to be able to receive faith and love comes from the healing nature of human love. In the novel, Fugitive Pieces, Jakob Beers, despite bearing the emotional loss of his sister, is healed by the timeless and redemptive powers of human empathy and kindness. Jakob Beers discovers in a physical human connection, through Michaela’s empathy and understanding, releases him from incorporating the Bella’s spectral spirit from his past, painfully into the present and future. Finally despite having his life influenced from the consequences of the war, he has faith in the future, having survived his past, and having his children survive him into the future. An individual may never have all their imprinted scars smooth themselves and disappear however; human compassion can shed away one’s old and heavy skins.
The Most Awesome Things Ever
#496 Seeing way worse weather on TV somewhere else
#538 Laughing so hard you start crying
#626 Riding home with a box of pizza on your lap
What do the above things have in common? They’re all things that are awesome! 1000 Awesome Things is a site that counts down awesome things and is updated daily. Neil Pasricha is the author of the site, which launched in June of 2008, and The Book of Awesome, where he takes all the awesome things from his site and compiles them all into one amazing book.
All the “awesome” entries on the site and in the book are are accompanied by a short story or commentary from Pasricha, placing emphasis on just how awesome each thing is. All the instances he talks about are just everyday things that happen to everyone…things that you don’t even necessarily think about, but when they happen, it’s pretty fantastic. #508 happened to me two days ago, and it was…well…awesome!
If each and every item on the list doesn’t bring a smile to your face (and make you appreciate the little things in life), I don’t know what will.
If, after checking out the website, you immediately want to run out and get the book (and happen to live in Calgary), check out the Chapters at Chinook Centre tonight – Pasricha is making an appearance and signing copies of the book beginning at 5pm!
Celebration of the Bow 2010
The City of Calgary is encouraging its citizens to celebrate their natural resources in a new way. The Celebration of the Bow River 2010 features six artists who are each putting on an event to highlight “connection to the river” and “create opportunities for citizens to further appreciate and protect” the Bow.
On June 12, Peter Von Tisenhausen will be holding his event, launching 100 hand-carved boats into the river. From 10am to 4pm on Saturday in Douglasburn Park, you are invited to join in the experience, and consider connections between “life and water cycles, stewardship, consciousness and spirit”. For more information on artists and events, check out the website.
Stop the Fast Food!
Stop the fast food! Or at least, eat less red meat. Here’s a stickler for many people. What produces more greenhouse gases: rearing cattle or driving a car? The answer may surprise you, because it sure surprised me.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, those farmed-raised cows produce more than 18 per cent more carbon emissions than driving a car down the highway. For many adults, teenagers and children today, it seems we have given up quality for the convenience of cheap and easy fast food. Gone are the usually quiet, relaxed and especially, healthier family meals, now replaced with the common fast food restaurant. With everyone acquiring busier and busier lifestyles, we have just become too busy to prepare a good family meal, but it doesn’t seem like we are too busy to surf the Internet, watch television or play video games. Before considering the benefits of becoming a vegetarian, beyond the personal health benefits of living longer and reducing the risk of diabetes, a few forms of cancer and coronary artery disease (since vegetarians eat closer to the bottom of the food chain, they are also less likely to suffer from the effects of the bioaccumulation of mercury from eating animals at the top of the food chain), you may also want to consider the environmental and social justice benefits of becoming a vegetarian.
Consider the amount of resources needed to raise cattle. Never thought about it? Well, the world’s cattle are almost like pigs, for they alone consume more than the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people. Hey wait, that’s more than the world’s population!
Guess where half of the water consumed in your country goes? To produce that pound of meat on your hamburger, it’ll take 2,500 gallons of water to produce it, while it only takes 60 gallons of water to produce the same amount of wheat. Besides saving an acre of trees each year (rainforests are being cleared to the amount of seven football fields every minute to provide grazing land for rearing cattle), you can vote with every dollar you spend.
Want to save the environment? Stop the fast food, and perhaps enter the quiet life of a vegetarian and spend more quality time with your family at mealtimes. According to the National Center On Addiction and Substance Abuse, people who spend quality time with their families are less likely to think about suicide, to be involved in drugs, drinking or smoking, and perform better academically. I recommend reading The Virtuous Consumer by Leslie Garrett to create a healthier and kinder world.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
This book is very interesting in the sense that though it is quite violent, it doesn’t seem violent at all. That is due to it’s deep, emotional
aspect. It is rare for me to read a book like this because it leans more on the “girlie” side of novels, but then again, I’ve been reading a lot of books that I normally wouldn’t and this book can be enjoyable for guys too.
Basically, this novel takes place in an alternate world where some people have extraordinary abilities know as “graces.” Graces can range anywhere from the ability to hold your breath for a long time, to being able to control peoples minds. People are naturally scared of the “gracelings” and of the 7 kingdoms in this story, only one of them treats gracelings fairly.
Unfortunately our protagonist was not born into that kingdom; her kingdom was part of the majority that fears gracelings. Luckily for her, she was born into nobility so people had to accept her. However, that changed when her grace settled. It turns out she was the first to acquire the grace of killing. She becomes so amazingly good at hand to hand and weapons combat that even dozens of soldiers would have no chance against her. Along with her amazing speed, she became a prized weapon of her king, to be used to intimidate his opponents. But she is obviously not okay with that.
I like the deepness this novel brings to the violence, and I also believe that it is very well written. The strong female character is also greatly appreciated. My only complaint about this novel is that it doesn’t feel too original considering how the plot turns did not surprise me. I recommend this novel to girls (and guys) 14 and above. I give this novel a 4/5.
‘Walk the Walk’
This weekend the weather is suppose to clear up and be quite nice, so why not stretch out those legs and go take a walk for a cause.
The World Partnership Walk is the largest annual event in Canada dedicated to increasing awareness and raising funds to fight global poverty.
This 5 km walk will take place on Sunday, June 13th , at 9AM the Enmax Stage at Prince Island Park. No money is used on administration so that means all money raised goes entirely to Aga Khan Foundation Canada. The money goes toward projects that
revitalize a rural economy, ensure clean water and sanitation, strengthen community-based organizations and educate new generations of girls and women.
To add even more fun to the day, there will be a post walk BBQ. On top of helping to aid with global poverty, this event is also environmentally consience as it uses recyclable cups, dishes and cutlery for the BBQ. (Brownie points to them!)
[youtube KFhk7VYL1Hc]
To celebrate the end of the walk, your ears will be treated to a variety of wonderful music representing different countries.
This event is appropriate for all ages, though keep in mind it is quite a long walk outside. Registration begins at 9AM and it is FREE so don’t be shy; wear your sunblock, hat and comfy shoes and join in the worthy cause.
A Journey to South Korea: Day 1
I went to South Korea last summer and it was a great experience.
Now, I’m sharing experiences and pictures for anyone wants to go to South Korea.
The first day it was a long and tired day since I spend most of my time on the air plane, and when I arrived my hotel in Seoul, which is the capital city of South Korea, it was almost 6 pm.
This is a picture I took inside the airport when I was exiting.
I took a taxi to my hotel because I didn’t know the address and it was very expensive – it cost me 100 dollars! So I suggest if you know your hotel’s address, you should take the airport bus, which is way cheaper.
My friend, Yunah, was in Seoul so when I freshened up in the hotel, she came and be my tour guide for my first night in Seoul.
We went to Myeong-dong which one of the biggest shopping center in Seoul. We took the subway for about 20 minutes (by the way, the subway system was really efficient…you can just about to anywhere if you take the subway and it only costs 2 dollars per trip) and I was fascinated by Seoul’s night life.
We went to have dinner first because we were both starving and here is a picture of the restaurant.
The famous food in this restaurant is their chicken hot pot which consists of mixed noddles, chicken breast, and some vegetables together with Korean BBQ sauce on a hot stone. It was nutritious and delicious!
After the dinner we went to many stores in Myeong-dong and I find a dessert that interested me a lot. GIANT
ICE CREAM.
Just look at the size and it only cost 2 dollars. You can find it on the street in Myeong-Dong.
After a long walk, it was 10 pm already and all the stores were starting to close, and we had decided to go to the Seoul Tower, but unfortunately we didn’t catch the bus, so we decided to go home and finally finish Day 1.
That’s the Seoul Tower behind me. It’s actually really close to Myeong-Dong and is much bigger than it appers to be.
– By Katty
YOUth Should Vote
If you didn’t know already, there is an upcoming municipal election in Calgary and it’s on track to be one of the most watched municipal elections in over a decade. A new mayor will be elected, as our current Mayor, Mayor Dave Bronconnier will not be seeking re-election, and City Council is likely to look a lot different than it does now.
Now, you might be thinking – why does this matter to me? I can’t vote, I don’t have the opportunity to have my say. Well, I’m here to tell you, that’s not true! And, over the summer, the Mayor’s Youth Council will be preparing for their project, Youth Can Vote, to coincide with the municipal election on October 18, 2010. Youth Can Vote has been an important part of Calgary’s municipal elections since 2001, giving youth the opportunity to become informed about the candidates through the Youth Can Vote website (which is currently under construction and will be up and running later this summer), in addition to youth town halls, and giving youth the opportunity to speak to the candidates themselves. And, on election day, you are given a mock ballot and the chance to vote yourself, and we know that once you vote in Youth Can Vote, you won’t stop there, you’ll turn 18, and vote in elections forever and ever! Over the summer, the Mayor’s Youth Council will be posting on YAA about developments in the municipal election, but in the meantime, the Ethno-Cultural Council of Calgary (ECC) and the Immigrant Sector Council of Calgary is working together on a great project. If you know of or are 18 yourself and an immigrant , ECC would like you to participate in a quick 5 minute survey about voting in municipal elections. Click here to take the survey or do them a favor and let someone know about this great project.