I cannot wait for November. Do you have any clue how long I have been waiting for these three CD’s to be released?

November 10th:

Faber Drive – Can’t Keep A Secret

If you’re a fan you should definately check out their myspace and listen to a few rough clips of new songs they posted. But while we’re waiting for the whole CD, let’s G-Get Up and Dance!

November 17th:

Forever The Sickest Kids – The Weekend Is Here

On the bands myspace, you can watch the countdown go down by seconds, while listening to their new song, She Likes (Bitter Sweet Love).

Hedley – The Show Must Go

Every Tuesday, Hedley is putting up a clip of a different song from their new album on their myspace.

Sleeping can cause a lot of stress for teens these days. Sometimes you go to bed, but you’re so stressed about getting your ever important “8-10 hours of sleep every day” that you can’t even get to sleep. Sometimes you get the right amount of slumber time, but you’re groggy and tired feeling in the morning anyways. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

Although 8-10 is the recommended time, it really differs per person. Some people only need 6 hours to function, while others need much more. The important thing is to make sleep a “daily” routine, and to figure out what works best for you.  It’s better to get 8 hours every night than to get 5 hours some nights and 13 others.

What’s more is that every night, we spend about 2 hours dreaming! That’s a lot of dreaming, and sometimes it can result in restless sleeping, or waking up confused down the hall after a sleepwalking episode. Because everyone has their own interpretation of dreams, I can’t exactly tell you much about them. No matter what they are, a reflection of memories, a way for your mind to prepare for the day to come, or a peek into a parallel universe, they definitely keep us amused (or terrified for that matter).

Wow, this is sure tiring. I better hit the sack. Sweet dreams! Don’t let the bed bugs bite!

It’s an undeniable fact that school requires a lot of reading. And the further in school you go, the more reading there is. While it might not initially seem like a major chunk of your 

 workload, reading all of your assigned pages can take a vast amount of time, and for someone who doesn’t read quickly, it may feel like a Herculean task. Fortunately, someone has developed a way to increase your reading speed and subsequently decrease the time you have to spend reading assignments, all of which leaves more hours in the day for the fun things that you want to do. Head over to Spreeder, paste in some text that you have to read, and start training your eyes and brain to move quickly. Maybe you’ll be able to finish that 1000 page book tonight after all!

Do you know that monkeys know how to cooperate and being fair?

Don’t think so?, check out the video below:

A pair of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) show very compelling signs of cooperation and a sense of fairness, by working together to solve a problem using tools, and then sharing the reward.

They also show signs of understanding fairness: when unequal rewards are given to one monkey and not another, the monkey receiving the lesser treat would rather go hungry than accept anything less than an equal reward.

The token exchange from the latter half of the video is interesting in and of itself; I’m sure it took a lot of training. There is another example of its usage by the same experimenter here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aAFQ5kUHPkY

Isn’t this amazing? I suppose if you understand the concept of evolution, this does not come at all as a surprise.

Horray! No more written portion on Alberta Diploma Math and Sciences (Chemistry, Physics and Biology) exams that account for 50% of a student’s final grade in that course and on top of that, are supposedly designed to test student’s full understanding of the contents of those courses. This recent change occured without any consultation from teachers.  It will save the government approximately $1.5 million of the $12 million that it’s currently costing them.

On top of that, new changes to the province’s math curriculum will be focusing more on the process of how to get to the answer than the actual answer itself.

Furthermore, the government still deems it necessary to weigh a 2 hour examination’s mark equal to the amount of work that a student does in 4 months.  Finally, despite much discontent from students, parents and teachers, the government does not seem to be planning on making any changes to this new format.

If you want to get involved and learn more, check out Real Learning First that discusses student testing in Alberta.

I wish everyone who is taking their Alberta Diploma Exams this year good luck!

Metric is coming to town!

Metric will be coming to Calgary on October 30th at the Big Four Building by Stampede Park. The concert will be held at 8:00pm that night. Tickets are sold for at $36.50 and it’ll be worth every cent of it!

For those who are unfamiliar with Metric, Metric is a Canadian Indie Rock/Pop band formed in Toronto in 1998. They have released four albums to date and have gained popularity fast. Their newest album, Fantasies, peaked at #6 on Canadian Album Chart featuring songs such as “Help, I’m Alive“, “Gimme Sympathy” and “Sick Muse“.

Here’s “Gimme Sympathy” by Metric. You can check out more of their music on Myspace! Enjoy!

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The second movie on my list is Zombie Land:

Two men have found a way to survive a zombie apocalypse. Columbus is a big wuss (fear can keep you alive), while Tallahassee is a zombie-slayer whose determined to get the last Twinkie on earth. As they join forces with Wichita and Little Rock, sisters who have also managed survive the zombie mayhem; they will have to determine which is worse: relying on each other or succumbing to the zombies.

This look like a laugh out loud horror film, I heard it’s extremely gory and I can’t wait to see it.

If you ever seen Star Wars or similar type of science fiction movies or TV series, you would be familiar with the idea of holograms. A hologram is what makes 3-D communication real. You’re no longer talking to just voices, or voices with videos, you would be communicating and interacting with a 3 dimensional projected image of your caller on the other side. With no further a-do, check out this video explaining how the latest technology – the hologram “beam” system used by world class news report centre, CNN:

Alright, all these teleport-style-like news report is pretty cool? How is this useful?

These are basically the few possible spin-off products of this hologram technology:
1. 3D television and entertainment systems – How cool is it to watch shows and TV in 3D? and see your favorite character or person from literally every angle?
2. 3D reality gaming – Who says Wii is active gaming? 3D reality gaming will make the Wii gaming system look like the primitive tool used by cave men.
3. 3D holographic communication – Why go meet someone when you can bring them to you?

I know what you are thinking. How does hologram actually work? I will tell you how, and present you with the cool science fiction technology behind the hologram in a nut shell.

The Calgary Flames are off to a red-hot start this season! It might be too early in the season to tell, but one must wonder if this year will be another memorable playoff run, like the unforgettable 2004 season.

The Flames have won 5 out of 8 games, and sit tied for 1st in the Northwest Division with Colorado.

So get out your car flags and jerseys once again Calgary! Because this year the Flames are smoking hot, and if they continue like this the full season, we may be sitting in a very comfortable position come playoff time.

Tune in on Tuesday as the Flames play the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are just 2 places below the Flames. This should be interesting!

Any of you heard of Screamfest?! The scariest haunted house in Calgary is now officially open!!

Screamfest is being held at Canada Olympic Park, and includes 5 scary haunted houses, games, and entertainment! For just 15 dollars (20 on Fridays and Saturdays), you get to go to all 5 houses, free entertainment, and 3-D glasses!

This crazy fun event is happening only select days every week until Halloween, so make sure you visit the website for details! Go through and read everything, they’ve made the website hilarious just for us!

And don’t forget to bring a friend or two, it’s better to get eaten by zombies together than alone!!

Maybe we don’t have enough snow for back country adventures yet, but it’s always great to know where you can find important information about how ‘cool’ and dangerous snow can  be. First, I’m going to scare you a bit: take a look at these statistics from the Canadian Avalanche Centre.

“There are approximately 150 avalanche fatalities reported every year by the 17 countries that are members of the International Commission for Alpine Rescue (ICAR). In the past 30 years, from 1978 to 2007, an average of 11 avalanche fatalities have occurred per year in Canada. This has increased to an average of 14 avalanche fatalities per year in the ten year period, from 1998 to 2007.”

Now you can’t say nobody told you, because I just did. However, none of this means you can’t still enjoy the thrill of the snow.  There are many ways to keep yourself protected, such as being aware, knowing the conditions and snow, make sure before you take off somebody always knows where you are going, when you left and planned on being back and don’t forget to register with park staff because failure to return by the time and date shown on the registration card will initiate a search-and-rescue operation. Now if you’re not a big reader, check out this really short video and find much more videos and information at Behind The Lines.

That’s right, Lights is coming to Calgary! I am psyched.  😀

On November 12th, she will be performing at MacEwan Ballroom at 8:00pm. As far as I know, tickets are still available via Ticketmaster or Live Nation—and they’re only $20 apiece! (But please note that this is without service charges and whatnot.)

So anyways, in case you don’t know who Lights is, here’s a little bit about her:
Lights, or Valerie Poxleitner, is a Canadian singer and song writer known for performance (and composition) of synthpop. She won the 2009 Juno Award for New Artist of the Year and some of her singles include Drive My Soul, February Air, Ice, and Saviour. I’m sure you’ve all heard one or the other on the radio at one point or another. In case you haven’t, check out February Air below! (I also recommend Ice; the video for it was made by Lights herself and released via her MySpace.)

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Now, just in case you don’t get a chance to go see her in concert this time around, Lights will be on tour with Owl City in January and February of 2010! (Wondering who Owl City is? Check back on Tuesday the 20th for a blog about them!)