This one's for you

My blog reading, comic reading, street walking, furniture moving, all around fun, guy.

Time is of the essence

I have way too much work to do

-Social Unit Final
-Math Unit Final
-3 CSI Evaluations
-Social Textbook Questions
-Social Booklet Questions
-Math Midterm studying
-Orchestra Rehearsal
-Lots of other things I've forgotten.


I wish I had more time to do things. I hate the end of term :(

Little Hobbes

Music.....Part 1

Wheeee! Funky graphic, eh?

How often do you listen to music in a day?
The answer is probably more than you think. And how much does that music do for us? Well, let me give you an example. (Click icon to watch video example)
So as you can see, music has quite a large role in film. If you ever watch a film without the sound, you will again see just how much it subtracts from the film.

Music can also evoke amazing emotion in us. Open up your music player or turn on your MP3. Find your overall favourite song. What does that say about you?
For me, I have a few, but the one thing they all have similar is that they are instrumental. I like to think that the reason I like it so much is that there are no words, and I'm able to think about something other than what the words would normally want me to think.

Blogging about something as complex as music is no easy feat. It's just so vast and amazing. Instead, I think I'll let my examples do the talking. My next example is a song for you to listen to.I don't really know what else to say right now. It's taken 1 full day to write this simple entry, and I think that just reinforces just how amazing it is. Hopefully you found something a little deeper between these lines, because I certainly didn't write anything too profound. :(

Stay tuned for an entry that will make a lot more sense sometime soon...

Hypnotic Birds

They're so nice to just look at, even if they do the same thing all the time...

Trailer for "Music"

Music

It's such an amazing thing. We all listen to music everyday. It evokes emotion in us better than any means of communication. Coming soon to a blog near you, "Music" is a three part series on just how music drives our world. Be ready.

Physics...

2 trains are travelling in the same direction in a straight line. Train A travels at 100km/h and train B travels at [(speed of train A)+(i^2)]. If both trains are 500m long, and they leave the station at 1PM, when will train A completely pass train B?

Why hate love?

For the people who have read all my entries, that should be making sense right about now... :P

I hoped that someday it would happen, and I think it finally has. It's been my most common topic, probably because it is what I am looking for the most right now. I just have a compass needle inside me that's always pointing me in that direction. Now I pray it will have all payed off.

Ok, so maybe I use this example too much, but it just goes to show how simply it can be stated. Now medically, maybe that's what I'm feeling, but medical descriptions can only go so far. It's so much more than what you can just write out in words. Love is something you have to experience to know. That's why my only thoughts are on her. But now I need to take the next step. Question is, what is the next step, and how do you get your feet to move?

Egotistic much?

As humans, we have the internal need to be liked by others. We will do anything to gain approval. Some examples:

In social studies class, our teacher posted the range of marks for our position papers, from 10/30 up to 30/30. All I hear after that is, "I bet I got that 10." A very wise friend of mine once told me/reminded me that this behaviour is self seeking and egotistic. Do we honestly thing that we are going to so astronomically fail that paper? No. Why we say that is we want the people around us to say, "oh no, you'll do great. In fact, you'll probably get 30. I got the 10 I'm sure." And around & around it goes. SO what's happening here is people are subconciously asking for praise, and they get it. It's a har habit to break too. I've been trying, but it's just so natural.
"Just because you fail, doesn't mean you didn't try".
And now an additional note, all those people who said they'd get 10/30 got in the 20's. Ha!

That's my only example right now, but I might come back to it soon.

Graham

Love is in the air...

I love this comic. Fred does an interesting portrayal of how some people view love in a negative light, while Copper is optimistic.

On a side note, I want to name my kid Copper now.

K9

This is Jenna, and she is the most amazing dog. I won't bother to explain all the reasons I love her, because that can only be felt between the two. So I'm just going to let the picture do the blogging.

copper

It's an amazing comic I just found. The artist does one a month, but they're just SO beautiful. I put this right up there with Calvin and Hobbes.

copper

Health Concerns

What's up with people these days? Do we have no regard for our health at all?

Example 1:
I am sitting near the front of a bus (Calgary Transit), yet I can clearly hear the music from someone's headphones near the back of the bus. Like, what's the point of blasting your eardrums to nothing? To block out ambient noise? Well now the problem is that you're creating more noise, and people have to block THAT out. So why not just turn it down to a level where you can hear people talking? At least that way you'll still be able to 20 years from now.
That also brings to light the fact that hearing-aid companies are going to do very well soon. Time to invest I guess.

More to come later...

I saw a film today, oh boy....

It was called "Tough Guise" and it was about masculinity problems today. It may sound like a boring CALM movie, but it actually brought up some really good points. Really, as males, we will all at some point in our lives put on the guise of a tough guy, trying to prove our self worth. To me though, all it did was support my conclusion that the media we have today will eventually kill society. There's just so much violence out there, its bound to make an impact sooner or later...

Another film I'm going to see is Elizabeth: The Golden Age. That makes me more excited than no one in particular. I hope it turns out to be a good movie though.

Again, nothing deep. I really should spend more time writing, shouldn't I?

My goodness, I am tired...

This is something I really didn't want to fall into. Getting so slowed down by homework that it's difficult to remember time without homework. And really, I'm not looking forward to next year now. So as I try to figure out long division in math, and explain division of labour in social, (as well as factoring in math and factors of production in social), I feel like a nice, long weekend without homework is required for me to get back up to speed.

I feel bad for not writing something more profound in these past few entries, but I've got a few ideas, just not enough time to write them out.

Thanks everyone for your readership!

The new look!

This is just a simple post to introduce to you the new home of my blog. I decided it was time to switch to something geared a little more toward blogging, and this is sponsored by Google, so Blogger is my choice. You will also notice a little thing called 'comments' at the bottom. Feel free to use them a lot.

All the best,

G

Mrs. Martin

To a lot of you, this won't be very applicable. But it's been on my mind a lot, so I'm going to write about it.

I attended Simon Fraser Junior High school from 2003 to 2006. During that time, for two of the school years, I had the most amazing teacher. Her name is Mrs. Martin. She was the most amazing teacher I have ever had, and frankly, think that I ever will. Her teaching methods, though they seem strict at the time, taught myself and all my peers such great study habits that we cannot imagine what we would be like without her influence. Unfortunately, the time has come that she must retire, and that makes every one (that I know of) of her alumni quite sad. So to honour her, I was thinking it would be amazing to have a thank you present from all the alumni I can contact. Then, by collecting around $5 from every one of them, I would be able to have a large award produced, and we could all come in sometime and present it to her. So here's what my plan is.

First off, I need to go talk to her, and find out if the rumours really are true that this is her last year. That wouldn't be too much fun it it wasn't, and we awarded her before her last year.

Second, I would talk to Mr. Johnston about it, and see what he has to say. I'm sure he would be in full support, and would have many ways of helping us out.

Third, using the power of Facebook and many other means, I would try to contact as many alumni of hers as possible, and have them join a group.

Fourth, I would work hard to become a control centre, and collect/pool all the money that our members would (hopefully) send in. (A side note, I would be sure to use all the money possible, and any extra would be given to her directly).

Fifth, I would create an event so that everyone know exactly when and where to meet (likely the last day of school), and then we would surprise her (good spot for Mr. Johnston's help).

Sixth, we would present it to her, she would break down in tears, and we would all be so happy, because she has changed our lives :).

That is my plan, and I am going to execute it very soon. So, on Thursday I'm going to go talk to her after school, and make sure it's a go. Then I might talk to Mr. Johnston if there's time.

And that's all for now. Dinner time! (it's 7:00 now - I take breaks while writing...)

People Watching

I never realized how interesting people watching can be. Here I am, sitting in a van while the rest of my family shops for groceries in a small farm grocery store. I laugh as I watch the little kid that's overweight for his age carry the pumpkin that he wanted so badly into his equally overweight mother's truck. What a pair. There's another woman, and she's got a camera around her neck. A bald man walks beside me. A kid in those stupid heelies rides by (why don't they ever fall???)

Anyways, it's October. The month of Halloween. There are only a few things I like about Halloween.

• There's lots of candy, even if I don't get to go door to door.
• I get to be artistic;
• I carve a pumpkin, but instead of a face or something like that, I peel just the skin off, so that the light can shine through, and that makes it a lot easier to create intricate designs.
• I create my sister's halloween costume. Last year I made an iPod that was as tall as me. And it looked so realistic. This year I'm making a Starbucks cup, with a giant head of foam for whipped cream.

But other than that, I don't really like all of Halloween. To me, the idea of making things with the only purpose of scaring others just doesn't make any sense. That's really the reason I am so opposed to making a horror film. In my upbringing, I have not seen horror movies. It's really something that has been passed on by my parents. I the idea of making something that my parents don't approve of just doesn't work with me.

Is there any polite way of asking someone who's smoking to stop? It's just that even though I'm appalled by people who are addicted to poisoning themselves, I can't bring myself to get them to stop. [End of post - I ran out of time]

Farewell

No, you're not getting rid of me...

The sun was setting in the West,
The birds were singing on ev'ry tree
All nature seem'd inclined to rest,
But still there was no rest for me.

Farewell to Nova Scotia,
The sea bound coast!
Let your mountains dark and dreary be,
For when I am far away
On the briny ocean toss'd
Will you ever heave a sigh
And wish for me?

The drums they do beat
and the wars do alarm.
The captain calls, we must obey,
So farewell, farewell to Nova Scotia's charms,
For it's early in the morning
And I'm far, far away.

Farewell to Nova Scotia,
The sea bound coast!
Let your mountains dark and dreary be,
For when I am far away
On the briny ocean toss'd
Will you ever heave a sigh
And wish for me?

I grieve to leave my native land,
I grieve to leave my comrades all,
And my parents whom I held so dear,
And the bonny, bonny lass that I do adore.

Farewell to Nova Scotia,
The sea bound coast!
Let your mountains dark and dreary be,
For when I am far away
On the briny ocean toss'd
Will you ever heave a sigh
And wish for me?

I have three brothers and they are at rest
Their arms are folded on their breast
But a poor simple sailor just like me
Must be tossed to death in the dark blue sea.

Farewell to Nova Scotia - Traditional

You can ask me any time what my favourite song is, and that will probably be my answer. I've never been to Nova Scotia, nor do I have any emotional connection to it. I simply love the song, and feel a strong emotional connection with those who would sing it - sailors. It was introduced to me while sailing on the Pacific Swift with SALTS. I love sailing. It's just amazing. And the song just perfectly illustrates the heartaches and dangers those sailors went through.

When I think about it, I'm a romantic at heart. My dream jobs are

• Director

• Tall ship sailor

• Parks Ranger

• Philosopher

To be paid for those things would be quite amazing. So maybe they're not too romantic, but they're, different. I don't know how else to describe it.

So I"m sitting at this computer, typing into a digital journal. In the room beside me, my family and some friends are listening to some really good old music. The record player is turning slowly, and the music brings back memories, even if I don't have them yet. Then again, do I really want to think back to the good old days of the music of Eminem and all those rappers that do nothing to make us happier? What about the carefree lifestyle that can be looked back on so happily by the older generation among us? I don't want memories of the music I'm living with right now. It sucks. I hate popular music. That's not totally true actually. I do like lots of it, but certainly not all of it. If I were to listen to every song on a person's iPod, I would dislike about half of them. Especially if it's hard rock. Then I really despise it. In fact, I'm liking this old music on the records. Happy music that makes you smile, especially with friends. Now we've got that dark emo junk that does nothing to improve our lives, it just complains about it. Maybe I'm way out of line with my facts here, but that's just the way I'm feeling right now.

AMAZING GRACE!

^^^Best song in the world IMO^^^

I was practising my horn a while ago, and it was amazing, because I practised outside. And by outside, I mean right by the calmest water there is, and the notes just bouncing and hanging off the mountains. Filled with emotion, Amazing Grace found it's place among those stones and water drops. I'm hoping someone will take a picture of me playing on the rocks. That would be very photogenic.

Anyways, I've had very little to say of substance, just my musings. Then again, my quota of deep thoughts are written in my previous post. This is just because I wanted to write something. So thanks for reading.

Peace.

New Formats

If you've been reading this blog lately, you will have noticed some changes. First off, I've added a title to the newer posts now, and the addition of colour to the date/title and to some key words in the text. As well, even though it's not too important, the date format now has periods between the numbers rather than slashes, just be

cause I think it looks cool. Finally, the time of post is a part of the title. This is the time that I started writing. All times will be in Alberta time unless otherwise specified. So there you go, the summary of changes.

Addiionally, you might have noticed the absence of ads on this blog since it's inception. There are two reasons for that. Firstly, I've never liked flashy ads when I'm trying to read, and wouldn't want people being distraced by stupid ads when contemplating the deep philosophical topics on here. Second, because I'm not 18 yet, I wouldn't be able to get any profit from the ads. So basically, if I ever do introduce ads, you can be sure they will be plain text ads, and that I will profit from every click :D

Ok, I'll write up my last description of my 3 most powerful words in English. The last one is really actually a word that belongs with a question. I hear it all the time, and can be one of the hardest questions to answer. That word is why. Or more commonly, "Why?", because we almost always will phrase it as a question. In fact, can you think of any use of why that isn't a question? I certainly can't...

I allude to Calvin and Hobbes a lot here, but that is simply because they make such great points. This next strip illustrates one of his better why questions.

Just for everyone's information, I'm using transmogrifier.org to get all my Calvin and Hobbes strips.

It's not a direct why question, but it might as well be. And it really poses a good question. Why do we fight with each other? It just doesn't make too much sense. But the reason why is my third most powerful word is not because of the questions it poses, but because it creates a reason for change. If we just accept things for the way they are, nothing will ever change. Case in point, if no one ever questioned why we fight in wars, nothing could be done about it. So because of the use of why, changes can be made by those who ask it. Again, if we didn't ask why we do things, nothing would happen. It is because of why that changes happen.

I don't have many other arguments for the use and power of why, but I'm going to leave that to you. Think about what the words hate, love and why mean to you, and how they apply to your lives. Just keep it in mind when you use those words, and see how seriously you're using them. Do you really hate school? Do you really love those shoes? Are you serious when you ask why?

Graham

Love.....again...

When I first got into this car, I wasn’t too excited about traveling for 7 hours. This wasn’t helped by the fact that my parents couldn’t agree about who’s fault it was that we hadn’t left on time. So that made the first 2 hours awful, with everyone pouty and not too happy. Thankfully, we then had dinner, and put on some music. I swear, music can cure anything. I want to be a doctor and just write out prescriptions for music and laughter. They certainly seem to help. Either way, Stuart McClean has helped make the mood a lot lighter in this van, quickly speeding West to Shuswap lake.

I promised a second installation on those 3 powerful words.

My second one is the exact opposite of hate, and it might just be stronger. That word is love. Now, I know I’ve mentioned love many, many times on this blog. That’s one proof of just how powerful it is to me.

Here are my reasons. First, there are millions of stories, plays, songs, movies, notes, letters, sonnets, and blogs about love. When you think about it, there aren’t a ton of stories, plays, songs, movies, notes, letters, sonnets, and blogs about hate. If you have ever felt the feeling of love in your heart, (or your brain, if you want to be scientific about it…) you would understand how so many writers can spend their entire lives rhyming and composing about the word.

L, is for the way you look at me

O, is for the only one I see

V, is very very extraordinary

E, is even more than anyone could more adore…

Love is a powerful thing by any definition. I don’t have a dictionary with me, but love is not something easily defined anyways. There is only one man who defined it for me, and I believe him to be the best philosopher of his time. His name is Hobbes – not the French Philosopher, but the cartoon character.

Though it may not be a completely ‘medical’ definition, it does allude to the complexity and variation of feelings we feel when we ‘fall in love’.

As a side note, we have the phrase of “fall in love”. What does that mean? I once read about how cancer is seen as a much more harmful disease than it actually is (and that’s not to say it isn’t hard, I understand the difficulties) because people use war analogies to describe it – “Battle cancer” or “Fight cancer” come to mind. So if it’s possible for just the context of a word to alter one’s feelings towards it, can the same be said for love? What if you were said to ‘fly to love’ or ‘drift in love’? They sound awkward to say, but ‘falling in love’ doesn’t make much sense either.

When you’re in love, things seem to take on a whole new shape and form. Imagine that you are suddenly forced to look at everything with glasses that distorted the world in the manner of the bottom of a wine bottle. Everything is out of proportion to what we see normally. (That brings to light the thought that if we were raised looking at life through such distortion, would it become as natural as sight is to us?). We would feel as if every part of our life is thrown out of balance. I often find it amusing to talk to young elementary students (particularly the male variety) on the topic of love, because they view it as disgusting and strange. Perhaps that stems from the unease felt with such a topic. Indeed, at such a young age, not much is known about love and how one is to feel about love at that age. Being a great lover of the Calvin and Hobbes comics, I enjoy the progression of understanding I uncover from the words of those young philosophers. (Another story would have to be that I learned what a psychiatrist was because of C&H).

What I’m getting at here is, love is something that doesn’t make much sense to those who haven’t felt it. If you have never shared love with another person, I will attest that it is a wonderful feeling that everyone should feel.

The upsetting part about love today though is the fact that more people are unable to stay together nowadays. Divorce rates (though I don’t have access to actual numbers) have skyrocketed in the past decades. It seems that people just don’t love the same way any more. There’s the simple love, and that’s the just-graduated-love-of-my-life love, and the let’s-have-sex love, and the I-love-you-for-a-limited-time love. And then there's the intense-never-ending love. In the past, those couples would stick together for their entire lives, through thick and thin, dying in each others arms. Now if people stay together for 15 years, they’ll have surpassed the national average! It’s crazy talk.

Either way, love drives our world, if not less than it did in the past. That’s why I think it deserves to be one of the 3 most powerful words in English.

There’s a calm surrender,
To the rush of day,
When the heat of the rolling world,
Can be turned away…
An enchanted moment,
And it sees me through,
It’s enough to make Kings and Vagabonds,
Believe the very best…
And can you feel, the love tonight,
How it’s laid to rest,
It’s enough for this wide-eyed wanderer
That we got this far…

Ok, I don’t want to write up another explanation on another word, so I’ll let you stay in suspense for one more day. Hopefully it’ll be interesting enough for you.

One other thing I’m thinking about right now is switching to another format of hosting. The only reason for that is for you, and your comments. What I’m thinking is having something like Blogger become my new host for this blog, and that would allow you to comment on what you read here. The only thing about that is that I enjoy the HTML abilities of Google Page Creator. If you just read my blog though, you don’t need to care.

Anyways, I’ve had enough of typing, and it’s getting pretty dark out, so I’m going to call it quits. Thanks for reading, and please send me an e-mail or make contact of some sort, and we can discuss any topic you want. I like talking.

Peace & Blessing,

Graham

Three little words...

They may be just three more words in the dictionary, but they really decide how we live every day of our lives.

Last night, as I was falling asleep, I was thinking about what I might want to write in my blog today. I was reading an article on WikiHow about how to write a good blog article, and it said to basically write deep, and to start with something to capture the readers attention. I couldn't come up with anything really deep, so the first line is my best try so far.

Anyways, the words. The first one is hate. Merriam Webster defines it as intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury and extreme dislike or antipathy. This is my first word because it has driven so much of our world, and it has such an intense emotional background to it. Using an example that we've been covering in school, Napoleon hated Great Britain, and therefore started many battles with them. This hate caused hundreds of thousands of people to die. When we say things like, "I hate this class", or "I hate this", we typically aren't doing the word justice.

If you've ever said "I hate you" to someone, and really meant it, that should really have shocked the person. I've said it about 3 times in my life, when I've felt extreme anger against someone (mainly my parents). Immediately afterwards, with a bit of reflection, I realized that I really couldn't hate my parents. It was just pointless. There are many reasons why hate is one of my three strongest words, so I'm not going to write them all.

And since I'm running out of time in this spare I have, I'm going to have to make you wait for the other 2 words in the coming days.

Ok, ok, I've been a bad blogger. Once again I've fallen into the trap of forgetting about this writing medium I've got. I know there aren't a lot of people who read this, but every once in a while someone does, and then talks to me about something I've said, and it just totally makes my day. Even better, some people will not just read my most recent entry, they'll actually read all the way to the bottom. And that's wonderful. It makes me happy to know that people like what I have to say.

A while ago, someone said to me "They must be running out of ideas, because they just keep redoing the same movies over and over again." Who ever that was, and I don't remember who, I think you're wrong. The film industry (and all the other creative industries) do not have a set number of ideas that will eventually run out. It's not like the big jar of cookies that's so huge that you can't ever think you'd reach the bottom of, but eventually do. No, the ideas are endless. One reason I could understand this statement though is, as an audience, there are just some ideas that we wouldn't be entertained by, and that's a limiting factor on creativity. So really it's not the ideas that are running out, but our public tolerance. Or something like that.

A wise man (my dad actually) once told gave me a description of Forever. Imagine, if you will, that there is a rock of fantastic hardness the size of your house. There is a man who will gently rub that rock with the softest cloth in the world everyday for one minute. Think of how long it would take for him to rub that rock down to the size of a grain of sand. That is nowhere near Forever. Now imagine him doing that again, and again, until he had as much sand as there is on Earth. Again, you're nowhere near Forever. Basically, Forever is something that Humans are not given the mental capacity to fathom. Forever has no end point. Forever = . What sparked this explanation was my question of eternal life through God. [Now some of you will want to skip over such a blatant religious topic. Please bear with me.] For those of you who do not know, God has promised us eternal life with him in Heaven, if we only accept his friendship - a club if you will. Now, eternal life sounds like something from a SciFi film, but it's not - it's totally real. When we die, our souls will leave our bodies and travel to the gates of Heaven. This is the final deciding point. Those who have accepted God as their Savior and friend will be allowed eternal life in Heaven, while (most unfortunately) those who do not will end up suffering in Hell. I do not treat this lightly friends, and even though people will always joke about the parties in Hell, I promise you there won't be. And I'm not afraid to say Hell, because it's as real a place as Edmonton or Florida. The thing is, some people just can't give up their pride and accept God. And that's going to end them up in Hell. I'm not a 'fire and brimstone' guy, but sin will put you right in there with the worst of them. Let me summarize a few books of the bible here. We are born into a world of sin, and that can't be changed by us. Fortunately, God loves everyone (really) so he sent his kid (Jesus) to live amongst us. That's no small thing either. Because Jesus was the son of God, he was without sin, and therefore was able to go to Heaven. But God had other plans. He made the rulers of the time have Jesus executed by the Cross (crucified), and put all the sin of every person in the world on his shoulders. Then Jesus died with the sin, and cleared the path for every person to go to Heaven. Some people call Jesus "a great man" and I agree, but there's so much more to it, as I just wrote above.

Now consider this. Your only son who you love so much has just died for others, and that's going to allow them to live without their sins. I'd be kind of upset at the people for sinning in the first place, so I'd want to make it hard for them. God's not like that. All he asks for is that we ask his forgiveness for our sins and that we will follow him. Sounds easy, right? In a sense, it is. You say the magic words, and POOF! you've been guaranteed eternal life in Heaven. And really, it can be just like that. But God also calls us to spread the word, to love others, etc etc, and to keep ourselves free of sin. That doesn't mean that once you're a Christian you can't sin. Heck, I sin all the time. The difference is, I can ask for forgiveness, and like the loving father that he is, he gives us his grace.

So I've gone off on a tangent here, but what I've really wanted to say was, eternal life is within your grasp. No one's going to make you jump into a Christian costume, you're just going to be asked to do what God calls you to do. And Christians are a nice bunch. I can almost guarantee you that you know at least one, and for the most part, they're some of the nicest people you could know. But enough about that for now. If you've read through all that, and are still interested, please e-mail me and I'd be glad to talk to you more.