Chinese man's poem lands him 7 years in jail.

A man in China was sentenced to 7 years in prison for writing a poem. The poem was about getting people to, "the square" in order to protest the government. Another two victims were sentenced nine and ten years in prison for similair reasons. The authorities are able to arrest citizens after repealing a criticized law on counterrevolutionary activities.

Personally I think it is very stupid to inprion a person for simply something that they wrote, no actions were taken by citizens after the peom was read. Also the defendant has said that he did not even make the poem public that he had only sent it to his friends through emails.

This law should be opposed by anyone who is able to change it, it is taking away from peoples' free speech and this is agaisnt human writes. Somthing needs to be done and the victims of these cases should be released as soon as possible. 

Woman accidentally pronounced dead finally gets her disability pay.

An Ottawa Citizen and cancer fighter named Susan Campbell had two months of her disability pay cut off. She contacted the federal office to find out why, and the reason was that she was legally dead. After two long months of scrambling to pay her rent and food Campbell recieved her much needed money. Even during the time while she was waiting she contaced Gail Shea the minister in charge of Revenue Canada saying, "I did ask at that time, whether things were going to go quicker". The response by Gail was a no. The problem seems to have been because of the 30 year old computer system which was recognized that needed an overhaul in 2010.

This story is very surprising, that it would take two months to fix a glitch causing a woman in such need to wait for so long to be able to pay for her regular life needs. I think the problem definitely should have been fixed a lot quicker then it was, or that Campbell should sue Revenue Canada for such a big mistake.

The computer system is being updated and there is $250 million being put towards the improvement of the computers.This updating should have been started in 2010 as it is said it will take nine months to complete. The worst thing to be cautious about now is wether the system will have any other glitches within the 9 month period causing a lot of problems for Canadian Citizens which should be addressed as soon as possible.

Summer Olympics

In 2012 Canada hosted the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver BC. The next Olympic games will be hosted in London England. The 2012 games were amazing just like they always are, always filling people with excitement, suspense, and incredible joy. I am sure that this years summer games will be the same. The games in Vancouver were great, but they received a lot of criticism from the British media. Many people believe that the British were trying to make our games look bad to make their own look more grand and have them more appreciated.

I think this is just completely stupid. Other countries should not be competing agaisnt each other to try and have a better Olympics then the last, especially not bashing. Each country definitely has their own special niche to bring to the table and that should be enough. If a country does like a another's Olympics better they should compliment them and not bash them.

It is the Olympic games, a rare time that only comes around technically every 4 years and we should not spend our time bashing each other but rather sitting together and enjoying the athletes show off their life long training.

Ski Club

Yesterday was the first day of Ski Club at Colonel By. For the first trip the club including myself went to Edelweiss. The weather was cold and there was a lot of freezing rain the day before so many people thought the conditions were not going to be favourable. Although, when everyone stated skiing and snowboarding they found out that it was a bit cold but the snow conditions were fine and I personally did not see any patches of ice. The sad thing about Ski Club this year is that not as many students signed up as last year. There was actually such a significantly lower number that a whole bus was cut.

Ski Club is a wonderful activity and it is a shame that more people did not join. However, I have talked to a lot of my peers and they said that they would have joined but they were not aware of when to do so. I also had this problem but I was lucky to sign up on the last day. I think the main problem is not loss of interest this year but that the club was not advertised effectively.

For next year, If I was a grade 11 student I would encourage students to sign up for this fun filled club. I would also make sure to have the sign up week better advertised so people are very aware and ready.

2012 The End of The World?

Many people believe that this year the world will end in December. People believe in this theory because of the Mayan calender and its predictions. The Mayan calender predicted that man will reach the moon at a certain period of time and it was not very off. The fact that the calender ends on December 21st many people think that since the calender is done then the world will be over as well.

My personal beliefs are that the world will not end. Just because a calendar ends does not mean it is the end of time. When the Mayan's were making it they oviously could not have created a calendar that goes on forever, so, it would obviously stop at some point in time.

I think that people are getting to hyped up about the whole "end of the world" thing and they are taking it too seriously. Also, if the world were coming to an end there would be nothing we could do about it so we would just have to continue living our lives just like any other day.

Name's Day Celebrations

In Polish tradition people celebrate their birthday's but also their "name's day". A name day is a day or possibly a few random days throughout the year that have specific names attatched to them. These days are celebrated as importantly as birthdays with presents and happiness. Some people are lucky because their name's show up two or three times a year.

Celebrating a name's day is a great way to be proud of your name. It is a way to apprectiate you for you. Another great thing about name's days are is it's like having multiple birthday celebrations throughout the year. Being able to celebrate more is always good, and when its about yourself too, it's even better.

From what I know name's days are only celebrated in Poland and possibly a few other European countries. It would be great if canada established their own names days on the calendar. I believe many people would enjoy having to celebrate their names and it would add more joy to Canadians overall.

Holiday Break

This holiday break I was working a lot and noticed that many customers I served would either say merry christmas or happy holidays. This reminded me of the debate between wether people should have to say "happy holidays", or, "merry christmas" to each other. Many people believe that it is offensive to say "merry christmas" to citizens who do not celebrate christmas.

From my point of view I dont think anyone should get offended from someone saying "merry christmas" because the saying only means well. As Canadian's we are a kind people and if a person is told "merry christmas" it should be taken as a kind gesture not as a sign of offense.

"Merry christmas" is a statement that represents family coming together and having a good time. Yes it is about the birth of Jesus and not everyone is christian but everyone can value and appreciate spending time with family.

Rememberance Day

Tomorrow is Rememberance Day and some say it is becoming less recognized and appreciated due to the fact that the events that we remember on this day are too far in the past. It's true, both world wars did happen a long time ago, and a lot of things have changed since then. Technology has advanced and it's like the whole world functions is a different way now. But, that is not a reason to treat Rememberance Day as a thing of the past.

Rememberance Day is a day showing about showing respect to all the troops who fought for the Canada we all live in today. Without them Canada would not be the same as it is today. For some people to say that it is not important anymore is just ridiculous. People died to defend our country, and yes it was a long time ago but that doesn't mean we should start forgeting. We should never stop remembering because those troops risked their lives and died for us to live in peace, and to me, to forget about it all would just be completely wrong and immoral.

The people that think it is not as important to remember anymore need to wake up and realize that there is something very significant worth remembering, even though if it was a long time ago. The significance of the events out weigh the amount of time ago that they happened.

The Death of Halloween

I went out for Halloween this year to do some trick or treating for the last time because hey im in the last year of highschool so why not. I noticed that there was not a lot of people going house to house early one but i thought it just must be too early. As the night went on I began to realize that there were not many people going around at all. No its not like the streets were empty, but, when I was a kid i remember the streets being filled with kids just like me all dressed up and full of spirit.

I feel as if Halloween is dying, like all the kids parents are possibly too lazy to take their kids out and don't encourage them too or maybe they just take the easy way out and wait untill all the left over candy is on sale. If thats the case then its a real big shame, Halloween is a time of fun and a great holiday event to celebrate.

Halloween needs a re-birth. The streets need to be over-run with candy maniac kids again and more citizens needs to decorate their houses to scare the lights out of trick or treater's, because thats the whole point.

I used to love Austin Powers's movies, all the stupid humour and dumb jokes was great. The way they made fun of bond movies in the whole plotline of the films was also hilarious. For example the scenes were Dr. Evil (cliche exagerated name) would ask for and exagerated ridiculously high amount of money if he was to halt his evil plan of destroying the earth or whatever else his plans would be.

I think they should have continued to produce theses movies. There are a number of new bond films that have been released so why not any new Austim Powers movies? They were evidently greatly enjoyed by their audience because there was not only one film but a number of them. So why? Why did they stop making these great comedies?

What I think is that a director or actor or someone from Hollywood should step up and say something. They should try and start a movement and try and bring back the production of these awesome and loved films for the enjoyment of a lot of people.

Halloween

Halloween is a great time of year when everyone gets in spirit and dresses up, and the best part, free candy! Simply a very fun time, and I remember when I was a kid it was awesome when someone left a bowl of candy with a note that said, " please take a few" because if any kid was lucky enough to find one they would obviously unload the entire thing into their candy sac.

The thing about halloween was though, some neighborhoods had a lot of people that didnt participate. I think thats a shame, theres no harm in taking part its all just for fun, and for the kids obviously the free candy is what its all about. Another aspect of halloween that wasnt enjoyable was when people would give you weird candy or that hated-by-all stupid taffy that is so annoyingly sticky and not a pleasure to eat at all.

For halloween to be an even better experience I think as much people should participate. Also, the citizens that hand out the candy should educate themeselves or just use some common sense as to what candy's they should by and hopefully boycot that damn taffy...

Twitter

Twitter is an amazing way to know what people are up to and their opinions on things, and its also very cool because many celebrities use it so people are able to see what their up to and gain a little bit of insight on their personality. All people have to do is sign up and start "following" whoever they like. (following means to subscribe to someone so that you can see all of their "status updates" or a.k.a. "tweets".

I think Twitter is a very cool invention and I love that you are able to see what celebrities are up to and also see what they like and what other celebrities they are friends with. Many celebrities commonly have funny or very interesting tweets.

I think many more people should use Twitter because it is a very cool app for people to use.

Caf Food

I recently entered my school caf at Colonel By and with our new healthy menu being implemented, there is a lot of things I dont like. First of all the food is more expensive and there is less protions. The food is also made with healthier ingridients but it does not taste nearly as well as before. My biggest issue is why would anyone pay more for less? To me thats ridiculous.

I believe that its not what the Caf sells but it depends on the individual and how they decide to eat. If someone wants to be healthy then they will, if they want to go grab some junk food, why not let them? It should be their choice. I understand that the general idea is to create a healthier nation of kids but its really not in the school boards' control, kids can be going home and still eating unhealthy there so it really doesnt matter what the board implements because I believe its truly not up to them, if someone wants to make a change in their life to be healthy, they have to do it on their own.

Filming for Film

This weekend me and my film group had an awesome day of filming. We only filmed for about an hour and a half and we were able to manage a very high number of different camera angles and a lot of very intersting and presentation shots. I am very pleased with our group because the whole day we were always able to make good compramises. Every argument was handled resposibly and we were able to execute our duties so swiftly that we almost finished editing the same day. Now looking over the video I am very pleased with the results and hope to continue to work with this same group as much as possible because I believe we work very effectively together.

Ottawa Music Scene

As we speak Ottawa's music scene is growing, but when we will ? What used to be a somewhat average city with the odd very famous artist visiting not so often. More recently many more big names have been showing up in Ottawa like Lil Wayne and Taylor Swift among others. To stand corrected the big names from the rock/metal kind of bands did show up to Ottawa frequently enough I think. The issue is the rap, in between Toronto and Montreal were kind of hard to miss, so why not book this city on tour its gauranteed on route.

Ryhme Scheme

students of colonel by are crafted into geniouses at every turn. there are many different things they learn. lightly concerned about the future. all they need is their computers. and they can start a battle something of a war. they wana look like j shore and shop and that book store. But theres only one thing they need, parallel structure. Mind blowing itll make your mind rupture, seperarte from sub-culture, scaven like a vulture. With this tool they will proceed, through a life that will succeed. A journey to overcome that some have already won and even been done and done. A life of fun and fantasy thats all we'll see yeah hopefully.

Ski Club Fundraising

At CB a lot of people including myself like to sign up for Ski Club in the winter and hopefully get to go on the end of the year trip. The ski club program is extremely fun and a good time to spend with friends. Last year the trip was to Mt. St. Anne and Le Massif in Quebec and it was a great trip. I would definitly reccommend going to either of these hills to anyone next year.

 This year for fun, I though it would be a smart idea to start to do some fundraising this year with all the participants from ski club. Members from ski-club will then be able to choose a hotel and hill package that meets the new budget. If the students end up raising enough money for example they may book rooms in 5-star hotels with room service etc. Also, if the students could manage to raise enough money the trip could be extended to a week long over the March Break for example maybe with other excursions too. If everyone in the club agreed to start fundraising I think the trip could be made unforgetable.

Closing Roads For Longboarding.

Today, its hard to find easy free excursions because of the nations focus on capitalism and lack of focus on actual fun for youth. Many teenagers in the recent years have picked up longboarding. Longboarding is cheap and fun but requires a lot of road space to use up. Usually us kids just weave through traffic and speed past people on the sidewalk risking safety at every turn. I love longboarding and I have many times come too close to becoming injured or injurying somone else. Sure its fun dodging traffic and scaring people walking on the sidewalk but to be truely apprectiated, I believe there should be changes made for longboarding to be fully enjoyed. The city should gather up a council of longboarders and collaborate to find the best possible times to shut certain roads down. Im sure there are a lot of roads left empty at certain hours and this would work greatly to all the longboarders advantage.