Silly Injury

heh
So, last week, by which I mean the thirteenth, during P.E. we were playing British Bulldog, and some time ago, my phys.ed. teacher thought it would be a great idea to change the rules for it a bit. Instead of tagging someone to make them It, one would have to either tackle them or lift their feet off the ground. The more I think about it, it seems pretty dumb to me, like really really dumb.

So, anyways, we were doing that. I was It(yeah, the guy who can barely lift his own little sister, trying to do that) anyways, I was trying to grab onto someone, so I could try and lift them up, and my pinky finger got caught in his shirt. He ran off, there was a tearing noise, next thing I know, my finger can't bend.

Turns out, I broke my finger on this guys shirt, fortunately, a minor fracture. Unfortunately, I tore a tendon. Clean off the bone...
Went in for surgery Sunday, now just waiting for the finger to heal up. So long as I don't do anything idiotic with my hand, I should be able to get the splint off the day after Christmas.

So, that's what's been going on in my life. The only other thing that may be worth mentioning is that I am attempting to audition for a voice acting role for some YouTube thing. While I'm holed up at home, going to see I can get that audition recorded.

Well, that's pretty much what's been going on in my life.
Later's, ☮

Ignorance is Bliss

Every once in a while I step out of my fortress of solitude, my domain of knowledge, and enter the internet proper. I have often forgotten at that point why I strongly dislike researching certain things. Like religion or politics. Mainly images involving those subjects. I forget that, while many people can be quite rational and intelligent, a lot of people are complete ignoramuses, and like to hate on other people's beliefs.

One normally won't notice it unless one uses certain search terms, like "shari'a family law" or "Imam family laws," at which point you see a lot of, quite frankly depressing stuff. Stuff that makes one think that maybe peace and tolerance is impossible. I hope that these thoughts are wrong, but it is the impression given when I look at the minority of people, you know, the ones who actually happen to be morons and do/say stupid stuff which can cause some serious contention, and negative connotations for the majority who, in reality, are actually nothing like that.

Aside from your excitement that I've actually updated this thing, you're probably asking yourself "why is he talking about this?"
Well, I'm doing a project in my religious studies class about a couple of religious groups: Islamic faith (specifically Shari'a Law) and Jewish practices (specifically Brit Milan)

I had have to do a visual presentation for on as well, so I chose Shari'a Law (though I was tempted to do a visual presentation about circumcision)now, positive visuals about Shari'a law are hard to find though, what with some parts of the United States government being against it, and several hundred ignorant citizens in many countries, combined with the percent of Muslim people who actually do conform the the stereotype regarding them(yeah guys, you are really not helping anyone with those stunts your pulling!)

Anyways, I am having some trouble finding the visuals, and some of the things that I have found kind of make me, upset, for lack of a better word.

Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant. On a lighter note, December 21st: end of the world! Four days after that: Christmas for all you Catholics out there, and those who just celebrate it anyways!('cause there is absolutely no reason you can't) Eight days prior to that will be the precise date of the ancient Roman holiday Saturnalia(which is still sort of celebrated nowadays), one day after the end of Hanukkah! Enjoy!

Good Evening Followers

As some of you may or may not be aware, we had been planning to go to Hawaii for some time. A year and a half to be exact.

 Well, yesterday, we finally got on a plane to Honolulu, well, technically it was a plane to Seattle followed by a plane to Honolulu, but you get the picture.

 All I can really say about this place is that it is truly beautiful. It has been warm since we arrived last night, even the rain is warm!

Something Funny

Ok, now, I am sure that many of you have, by now, heard about the Samsung vs Apple lawsuit, right? With Apple trying to sue Samsung for making a product that was similar to theirs? If you haven't I would recommend looking it up. (Actually, this sums it up quite nicely.)

Yeah, this post is pretty much my opinion about a sales report I read online regarding the aftermath of this lawsuit.

It was hilarious, I mean, seriously. Samsung lost the case, yet they proceeded to make a huge profit anyways. It was something along the lines of a weekly increase of 7% for their sales, and then after they lost, the Galaxy S3 gained a sales increase of about 15% for that report. After which Samsung's sales sort of "flat-lined," no real increase or anything, right up until Apple announced their latest iphone. which once again caused Samsung to have another sales spike, again about 14% increase, after which it went back to the 7% average.

There is a logical cause and effect which can be inferred from this: such as, after Samsungs court defeat, the people wanted to be sure that they got a Galaxy S3(which some consider to be a better phone) before they were taken off the market as some feared; or it could be that the lawsuit just acted as free advertising for both companies, and as it may be possible that the GS3 was a better phone, at least in the public eye, that it increased sales figures for both companies.(I do not know if this is the case however, as I have not had the fortune to stumble across a sales report for the iphone models over the same time period.)

Another thing was with the release of the newest version of the iphone. People expected it to be better than it was, I guess. People with money, who wanted to buy a new phone, who had been holding off until the iphones release, who were dissapointed in the lack of improvements that they had been hoping for. These people would then go out to buy that phone that they still wanted, so they went with what was already out, and that they new worked for what they wanted. Thus, sales spike for the GS3.

Either way, I found it amusing that every time that Apple made a move that would surely put them ahead of Samsung, Samsung just went right ahead and made a larger profit. It's like, if business was a somewhat high-stakes game of chess, and every time Apple tried to put Samsung in check, Samsung takes it's king out of danger and puts them in check instead, and it does so slightly better than Apple does.

That is just how I am seeing it though, it may be nothing like that at all.
C'est la vie

Random stuff

Okay, so school has been ridiculously easy so far, I mean, I barely have to stay awake during class and I still understand everything that I'm being taught. Darn review from last year section.

So, yeah, boredom is there, why can't we have more tests or something?!? Sigh. Well, it should get loads more difficult by the end of semester two by all accounts. And on the plus side this means that I will get the chance to join chess club next week, and use the gym, and work on the two classes that I might actually have trouble with this semester.(religion and Italian)

In other news, Tom Pratt* camp is this weekend, and my venture company is going. Problem is, I only just officially signed up for scouts this year, and the cut-off for the camp was the 17th. Oh well, I guess I will be unable to assist in the training of scouts this year, maybe next year. Though I will be going to Great Escape** next weekend.(note to self, sign up for great escape)

Well, that's all for now followers, stalkers, people who let their dogs use the computer, etc.

* Tom Pratt is a camp for both vents and scouts, where the vents, their advisers, and trainers all help scouts get their permits for fire lighting, knife and axe work, etc.(permits are required to be carried by scouts whenever they intend to do activities that could be considered "dangerous," essentially, it proves that they are able to use those tools safely, or at least "know" how to.)

** Great Escape is a camp done at the beginning of every scouting year. Envision several hundred people, aged about ten to eighteen, playing, what is in essence, a huge game of tag in some farmers field, then put it after sunset. Yeah. It is a lot of fun, and totally worth going to.

Huh, it's Been a While

Yeah, so this is what has happened with me since I last posted:

• I don't have an aneurysm, apparently, yeah, it turns out that, although my artery is larger than is normal, and can turn into an aneurysm, it is not one right now. So yay me

• I started school, obviously. I am now in grade ten, as most of you have already guessed. So IB program, still easy, expecting it to get harder soon.(please get more difficult, please, oh please, oh please!)

• I have tried to start writing (no progress yet,but fingers crossed)

• I have started scouts, yeah, (technically, I am now part of a venterer company) So, more camps and stuff.

• And, relevant to (in fact caused by) the previous point, I may be getting facebook. Needless to say, I am dreading this with every fiber of my being. I don't want facebook, I really don't. (unfortunately, it may be necessary for communication purposes with the scouting program...)

Oh well, really, that's all that has been going on with me, aside from what I'm tempted to call depression in myself, but am without any proof of.

Playing Life on Hard Difficulty!

Welp, my body seems like it is just waiting for the most opportune moment to crap out on me. I mean, really? WTH? So having a reduced immune system, combined with a weak heart and brittle bones wasn't enough for you, huh? Fine how about an aneurysm?

I just realized...

I just realized how much I'm still holding on to everything. How what I had done, or had nearly done, was still being carried around.
I get it, this is old news, yes, I tried to hurt people, we know, that was then and this is now, get on with your life, etc.

This again?

I am learning basic programming. Again.
"But Alex," you may be asking yourself, "every other time that you tried this, you barely stayed on it for a full day last time. Do you predict any difference from last time?"
To which I can honestly answer that I have no idea. However, I will do my best to stick with it. Who knows, I may actually show commitment to this task. Feel free to laugh at any time.
Now I'm going to quote Thomas Edison

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

Okay, have a good day.

Okay, I finally got around to reading one of the stories written by H. P. Lovecraft, and I have to say that it was a good read. By which I mean it was one of the most terrifying things I have ever read! Part way through I felt my heart-rate increasing, like it was trying to beat it's way out of my chest. During the read, I just thought that it was a rather disturbing tale, but afterwords, the first thought that came unbidden into my head was that it genuinely scared me.

Life is Good

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

As you probably already know, today we had a thunderstorm. Big, dark clouds; rain; lightning; and wind. All told, it was rather beautiful in my opinion.

Owch

I am in some pain. I just got seven teeth pulled and one tooth exposed. It hurts. I also can not talk.
Just in case any of you think that it is a good idea to do something like this, it's not. It just hurts.

Alberta Election

Alright. First off, I wish to apologize about my being a month late with my updates. I allowed myself to become distracted by other things. But I promise that I will do my best not to let this happen again in the future. But anyways. The provincial election for Alberta recently ended.

Religion

First off, if you have a strong opinion of religion, I might advise against reading any further, as my opinion may be very different. If you chose to read this anyways, then please be respectful in your comments. I am interested in your opinions on the matter, especially if they are different from my own.

Bill C-10

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein

 I feel that this very nearly sums up bill c-10, passed by the Stephen Harper led Conservative government. This is an omnibus bill, that is to say a bill that contains several smaller bills, that covers things from "violent offenses," to Internet crime, to sex offenders. In my opinion though, the new laws proposed in this bill are blanket laws that will increase the amounts of criminals going to jail, and not really doing anything about them.This seems to be, from the Conservative party's standpoint, a good thing, dangerous people being taken off the streets, apparently for good. 

This seems like a good idea in theory, but there are several problems with it:

• The first problem is that as a general rule, you will get more people who will become criminals even with tougher laws in place, and good people will make stupid mistakes. Both of those groups of people will be caught up in this system and be added to the soon to be growing overall criminal population.
  
• Second problem is that we had a system that was proven to be effective, our crime rates were at their lowest in years, the system we are adopting part of is proven to be ineffective by the government of the United States. Take Texas for example, you probably know what their system was like, and they were having too many criminals for the system to handle, so they tried doing what we used to do in Canada, with rehabilitation programs, and they were actually able to close some prisons as they were no longer needed.
• Third, is money. Lets face it, keeping people in jail is reasonably expensive, about $200per prisoner per day, not only that but it is taxpayers money going towards paying for the continued upkeep of a huge building filled with people who did bad things. This also means that you have to take funds away from other areas, potentially including healthcare, education, government funded rehabilitation programs, etc. The loss of which could cause negative repercussions, or they would have to increase taxes, which would make things difficult for many people.
• Rehabilitation costs about a tenth of the cost of imprisonment, not only that, but it does reduce amount of crime as a notable amount of time they will in fact be capable of becoming contributing members of society again.

 That is not to say that this is entirely bad, as some criminals cannot be rehabilitated and this would take some risk out of the system, but I do disagree with what the government has done. I do hope that this was actually a wise decision. Only time will tell.

Beauty

  I have often wondered, "What is beauty," or more specifically, "What is ugliness?" I never truly understood what people mean when they say that this person is "ugly," or that person is "beautiful." I understand the commonly perceived notion of beauty, effectively a healthy person with a decent muscle to body mass to height ratio, and that "ugliness" can be used to describe someone who has a noticeable physical "defect," but beyond that, should someone describe a person just with the terms ugly or beautiful, only someone who has very nearly the exact same definition of either word would be able to tell what that person is talking about. I, however, have a much looser idea of what beauty is, it is more that I judge beauty based on what I can tell about their personality.

  I actually once or twice asked people at my school what the word ugly means. The answers I received told me that I was probably asking the wrong people about it. I came to the conclusion after some discussions with my parents that the old saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," was true. In these eyes, beauty is an unimportant aspect to the overall person; a nice thing to have, but never anything to truly worry very much about. There are many people in fact who are not what people would refer to as beautiful, but are very successful in their careers. This is just my opinion however, and I can not say for certain that you will not find a way of refuting me.

A short Message of Apology

To anyone still reading this, I am sorry that I have not been as vigilant with updates as I should have been. Several weeks have past and this is the first time I have actually thought about my blog in all that time. I will not allow myself to get so distracted from this in the future.
Despite  bump in the schedule, I promise that it will not be made into a regular occurrence, and if something should happen so as to lead me incapable of writing, I will try to leave some notice on the blog.
Once again, to all of my readers, I am sorry, it shouldn't happen again.

Swiss Sanitation Satellite

There are several news stories about the new space probe being developed by the Swiss. The CleanSpace One is supposed to be approximately the size of a shoe box, and capable of latching on to any old satellites or pieces of satellites and bringing it to a relative stop to earth, causing it to fall back to the surface in such a way that the CleanSpace One will burn up with whatever space-junk it has latched onto. This could be quite useful. Due to information given by NASA scientist, Donald Kessler, who stated that the density of objects orbiting the planet could greatly increase in a short period of time. The density could become such that space exploration could become temporarily impossible, or at the very least far more unfeasible for many generations.

This appears to be the opinion that most stories written about these unmanned vessels, that they will work, and are not a waste of resources. This is stated in one article when it states that:

One of the most attractive aspects of the "CleanSpace One" project is that it will reportedly be downright cheap. Initial estimates put the costs for both its production and launch at 10 million Swiss francs (€8.3 million/$10.8 million).

This states that the author believes that unnecessary resources will not be wasted on this project, and that the cost will be downright cheap as far as budgets for space programs go. In addition, one statement that is often said is generally something along the lines of "Is there any surprise that the first people to clean up space may be the Swiss?" This is referring to the waste management systems and the "green" energy practices used by the Swiss Confederation. It seems to be that people expect that the Swiss Confederation to continue with a waste disposal program that is apparently significantly better than many other countries.

The Aftermath

In my last post, I mentioned how it was "one of the most difficult things I have partaken in." I must say that the movie was a "best case scenario." We were not kicked out of the movie theater. In addition to that, the 3D effects were okay by my standards, somewhat blurry at some points, but not that much unnecessary "popping" out of the screen.


Actually, I would like to give a thank you to my friends who invited me to this, as I would not have had a reason to leave the house last night, and would have probably been watching TV and playing Xbox all night. I did enjoy going to the movie, so thank you, all of you.


On a somewhat related note, I am looking forward to the release of the movie based on The Hunger Games, as the books were good, and I would like to see if they are able to do the series justice. My fingers are crossed.


I am sorry if the length of this post is not up to previous standards. I just do not have that much to say today.

Herding Cats

 There are some things that you attempt that turn out to be really easy to accomplish, and then there are things that turn out to be almost as difficult as herding cats. What some friends of mine are trying to attempt is part of the latter, not impossible per-see, but without organization, one of the most difficult things I have partaken in.

What we are attempting is for a group of about fifteen people to go see Star Wars episode 1 in 3D. It will be difficult as I do believe that the movie has just been released in theaters today, and tickets are approximately $18. I am starting to wonder if this was really a good idea, but even if it turns out to be a worse idea than watching the entire Doctor Who series in one sitting, I am going to see it through to the end.

  

However if someone in our ridiculously sized group does something that causes us to be banned, either from the theater temporarily, permanently, or the entire mall for any amount of time, I may have to reconsider who my friends are. It probably will not be that bad. If worst comes to worst, we will probably just not be able to see the movie, or not all of us anyway.

Well, I should probably wrap this up for now. And to anyone reading this who noticed that I have fallen behind on the updates, I apologize,  I allowed myself to fall behind. In addition, if anyone takes offense to things that you read on this blog, I am sorry, I did not mean to directly offend anyone.

Awkward Silence

You ever find that there is a break in a conversation where you feel as though you need to keep talking, but there is no way to continue to talking without feeling as though you are rambling? I guess that we all have moments like that at some point in our life. I'm not entirely sure as to what it is that makes those situations as uncomfortable as they are, perhaps it is that at that point, you realize that several people were actually paying attention to what you were saying, or that the other people in the room may have stopped doing whatever it is that they were doing, and it almost feels as tough their several several people watching you, waiting for you to say something else.

I guess that moments like that are awkward because you feel that people might be criticizing what you've said. I, in fact find this silence one of the two most awkward things about talking to people. The other thing is actually talking to people. If you were reading this post hoping for some advice about this, I am not sure that I am the right guy to help you, as I sometimes go out of my way to make awkward social situations, and the rest of the time accidentally create them.

Medical condition

 Yesterday I went to the hospital to find out about the results of a blood test that I had done a while back. This blood test was done to determine whether or not I have a the same medical condition as my brother and my dad. Their suspicions were confirmed, I have an uncommon genetic disease known as "hyper IgE," or "Hyperimmunoglobulin E syndrome." I am not overly educated on what this condition does exactly, but what I do know about it is that it involves having a higher amount of a specific antibody referred to as IgE, and there are several negative side affects of this. Specifically, less of an effective response against infections and diseases. I am not sure how long it takes for this disease to actually start causing me problems, or even that it will, for that matter, but one should be aware.

 My dad has had this condition his whole life, and it has been in more recent years that it has actually started to affect him from what information I was able to gather. My younger brother, however, has had this condition directly affecting him for a large portion of his life. I, however, have not gotten very ill in a long time, and when I have gotten ill, my immune system has been most effective. However I will be starting up treatment soon, I think, that will prevent me from contracting some very unpleasant diseases. As confident as I may feel, the truth is I am somewhat more at risk than most people my age of getting a deadly disease or something like that.

 I suppose that what made my parents wonder if I had this condition was the fact that I look so much like my dad. A large amount of my facial features I have inherited from him, combine that with skin problems when I was younger and the fact that my baby teeth took a long time to extract themselves. All of those were signs that I may have had this condition. The fact that my brother has it as well defiantly made the possibility even more likely.

 I am not sure as to what I should expect when the treatment starts. I suppose needles will be involved, I don't like needles being poked into my flesh. It stings. But I suppose it will be necessary, in order to get the antibodies required for the body's defense. Oh well.

 On a lighter note, I am finally done the midterms! Which means that I am half way through the school year. I have a mixture of emotions towards this, both sad and relieved. Once the school year is done, I can relax somewhat more freely. On the other hand, school allows for a constant to be maintained in my schedule, a reason to go anywhere at all. Oh well, that still isn't for several months yet.

The first writing

 I am starting this blog to try and get my thoughts in order in my day to day life. In addition, this will get me ready for when I need to do writing projects. My problem is generally that I have trouble writing out large sections of writing material. I generally am unsure of what to write, so I often just stare at the paper, unable to write, and wander away. In fact this is a perfect example, right now I am actually rather stuck for what to write and went to play with the camera feature of my laptop. But this is why I am doing this.

 If I can write things often enough, then I get the practise I need to be able to write short essays whenever it is needed. If I can manage that, then I will be ready for the finals for grade 12 and eventually university, when I get there. Of course I will need to actually keep doing this fairly often.

 As it stands now, there is no schedule in place as of yet for when I will post these, but I am going to try for at least once a week. I foresee that the rate of these being written will increase as it goes on for a period of time. If I can, I will eventually be able to write through almost any distraction: television, video games, loud noises directed in my ear, so on and so forth.

 The subject matter that will be covered here will be, really, whatever happens to be going on in my life, so long as I find it interesting. At least interesting enough to write about, anyways. I should be able to find something at least once a week that is interesting enough to write about. If I am unable to, well, I will have to try to figure out something at that point in time, should it come to that.

 I hope that this project goes well. It probably will go well, yeah, it will. This will work, quite well in fact. So long as I don't forget to do this. My future in the educational system is dependent on this.