Maybe not in the sense that it was originally meant, but let’s all be honest here. After the long months of winter, to finally have spring and sunshine is pretty much a relief!

Alberta can be a fickle, fickle place especially when it comes to weather. I know I’m definitely pleased that the sun is out shining once more and the brown slush has been replaced by green grass! However, once the summer months get going sometimes us Canadians can be overwhelmed. After being limited to nothing but snow and ice for so long, sometimes it’s easy to forget all the wonderful things that summer has to offer. Which, is why I have decided to compile a list of some potential summer adventures.

(Alright the word adventure might be a bit much for some of these. But who knows what you can turn into an adventure?)

1. SUNIA! (Duh.) – the best adventure of all! It’s my favorite part of the summer. It could be yours too!
2. Go for a picnic – Round up a group of friends, spend a day making a lunch and then head off to a park. Pull out a frisbee or soccer ball for some good, old fashioned fun.
3. Go fly a kite! I mean this of course, only in a nice way. How many people actually fly kites nowadays? It’s a lost art.
4. Have a barbecue – Burgers. Chicken. Steak. Kabobs. (AKA, delicious!)
5. Check out festivals! Whether it’s folk fest or the fringe there are tons of crazy things to be seen and done at festivals that happen in the summer.
6. Go camping – Head to the mountains or a nearby lake.
7. Photo-walks – Grab your camera and head out. See what you can find. You never know what you find that could make a good photo, whether it’s that couch in an alleyway someone’s thrown away or just a ladybug you find in your backyard.
8. Roadtrip! Procure a vehicle for a few days, hop in the car and just drive!
9. Make orange juice popsicles. (Oranjuisicles!) – Cheap way to cool off and enjoy a lovely little snack. Just put a spoon or a popsicle stick in a glass of orange juice and stick it in the freezer.
10.  Summer Job – okay, not the most exciting. But once fall rolls around all that extra $$$ can be kind of nice!
11. Bonfire! – S’mores and hotdogs. It’s tasty and fun!
12. Move Marathons – Alright, so these aren’t exactly summer-exclusive. But when isn’t a good time for a movie marathon? Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, chick flicks, eighties movies. Take your pick and hunker down with looots of junk food!
13. Be a tourist in your own town – Sometimes it’s fun to go and check out museums, zoos, aquariums and more. Even if you’ve alreadyseen them, you might find something new!

So there you have it! Obviously there are many more adventures to be had. Maybe once you tackle these you’ll be up for some skydiving or mountain climbing! Happy summer-ing, everyone.

This years playoffs have not lacked in drama or intensity, what with all the suspensions handed out in the first round (including a whopping 25 games to Phoenix Coyotes Raffi Torres). While the media cries that the game is being ruined, I would have to disagree. Yes, there should be more respect between players and that is why you see repeat offenders like Torres, who just don’t seem to get it, get a huge suspension. But in reality, there have been playoffs like this one before (I mean in the 80s highlights of the battle of Alberta, all you see are line brawls!), and the game survived that. At least the players are playing like they give a damn! (Being an Oilers fan, we don’t see that much effort these days).

And then there are the series: usually you can pretty accurately predict most of the series, but this year? Forget about it. The president’s trophy winning Vancouver Canucks were downed in 5 games by the LA Kings. In fact, most of the perrenial powerhouses have been knocked out:  Vancouver, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Jose. This is not the year to make bets (or, maybe you should bet a little on the underdogs).

In the end, this is better than Christmas time for me. If only I didn’t have finals to get in the way of my enjoyment.

We as teenagers/young adults have a huge amount of pressure from either our parents, grandparents, and/or peers to know, and be 100% sure of what we want to do when we “grow up”. In other words we are supposed to be certain about what we all want to do for the rest of our lives by the time we are out of high school. Which for some people might be true. And they may know what that career or path is for them. …But what about the rest of us??

These days there are just sooo many options for us when trying to choose a career we want. Whether it is becoming a musician, a doctor, or a news anchor. There is just tons of them. There are also careers that a few years back didn’t even exist. Or stuff we hadn’t even heard of before. So to some extent, the idea of making and “informed” decision is MUCH harder than it seems.

We may have an idea of what we want to become, but don’t really know how to get there. Or maybe we have already thought of making a choice, but we aren’t completely convinced that it is the right one.

I am writing this not with the intent to freak you out or anything… but rather because I want to give you guys a bit of advice. Hopefully you’ll find it helpful.

Try not to be scared when choosing a career. Or sorry, let me rephrase that… It is okay to be scared to some extent when trying to choose a career that you want to pursue. The problem comes when you let “being scared” paralyze you and you create lots of pressure and stress for yourself. Don’t over think it. (I know that is much easier said that done. Believe me… I went through this myself.) But just go with an option that you think would suit you best, that makes you happy, and that you feel that you’d really like. And by that I don’t mean not to do any research on what that career may be. But rather, do the research, know what the career entails, and find out if it’ll get you where you want to be in the long run. After choosing a career, even if you aren’t a 100% sure about it, the best thing you can do is to give it you all!! Even if you feel like it’s not the right thing for you.
I know that sounds  like something your parents would say… but it’s true. I’m speaking from experience. When I first started my university life, I went into a faculty that for the longest time I thought was meant for me. Even as a kid, I saw myself in a job like that… but as it turned out, it really just didn’t make me happy. So after a year, I decided to switch my undergrad to something that was totally on the other side of the spectrum. And surprisingly, now I know that my second choice is exactly what I want to be.

So what I’m trying to say is, that whether you want to be a comedian, or a lawyer, or maybe even a superhero, don’t doubt yourself!!

Give yourself the chance to try it out and see if it is in fact what you wanted and expected. It if works out great!! But if not, that is still good. It gave you a chance to find out more about yourself. And remember… there is always time to try something new!!

I’m lucky enough to attend a school where hatred and bullying is not tolerated in the slightest. In fact, my school is a kind of utopia in comparison to most.  People roam the halls wearing everything from brand name designers to corduroy pants and tie-dyed shirts. This isn’t to say we’re all hippies and sing kum ba yah, but there is a level of respect set in place so that we’re all comfortable and able to be ourselves. Now that’s fine a dandy, but what if you don’t attend my wonderful high school? Then what? Well, I’ll tell you. The whole issue of bullying and judging one another is not going to stop overnight. We’re kidding ourselves if we think that’s the case. In order for acceptance and love to become present in our schools, it has to start from home and at a young age. Bullies are the way they are for many reasons but the most prevalent being how they were raised. This shouldn’t come as a shock. It may be they’re parents are divorced and they’re dealing with that frustration, it may be they are insecure; it may be they live in a broken home. Whatever the case may be, most of the time bullies aren’t sound individuals and they need help. I’m by no means defending them. HECK NO! I’m just saying that if children were taught at a young age to value themselves and other people of all races, genders, orientations… so much hatred and animosity could be spared in their futures. Now I know that this is a longshot but it’s not a farfetched idea. The simple act of affirming your value and loving the person staring back in the mirror will allow for positivity and happiness. At least that’s what I learned from Tyra Banks. Just kidding, Oprah taught me that. Kidding again, my mother did. In all fairness, people judge one another within the first 10 seconds of meeting them and/or looking at them and that’s just how our society works. What I feel we could do is keep our judgements to ourselves.

I know I didn’t go detail about the documentary Bully, and even the subject of bullying but I feel as though by playing up the severity of bullying and the consequences associated with it, I’m exacerbating the issue.  Although I do want to leave you with one thing at least! Remember those rules we all learned in kindergarten like “If you have nothing nice to say, then keep it to yourself”? Well, it’s truly as simple as that.

This concept of being able to be fully conscious of your dreams is referred to as “lucid dreaming.” While you are in a lucid dream you can are 100% aware that you are dreaming, and can control exactly what happens, what your surroundings are, and what you do in your dream world.  It’s a really tricky thing to be able to do, but once you have mastered it, I can guarantee it is one of the most rewarding experiences of all time.  You can use your dreamtime to explore your mind, and even find personal growth. The only tricky part is being able to tell between real life and dream world. Here are a few tips and tricks I have picked up on my quest to be able to lucid dream. I strongly encourage you to try these out if the idea of being able to control how you dream appeals to you at all!

• Get committed. This is not something that you can think about once a day and expect it to happen! It took me about a week and half, but I have read articles that it has taken people months to be able to lucid dream!
• As I mentioned earlier, it is really difficult to be able to distinguish real-life from your dreams. Once you can tell the difference your subconscious will allow you to “wake up” in your dreams, so you can actually experience and remember them. In order to train my mind the difference, I drew a black dot on my hand. Every time I noticed the black dot on my hand, I chose and object to look at, and fixated on it for 3-5 seconds. I also asked myself,  “am I dreaming?” The trick behind this is, in “real life” the stationary object will stay the same after those few seconds you spend staring. If you are dreaming it will change places/shape/colours/ etc.

KEEP A DREAM JOURNAL!!! This is extremely vital in the practice of lucid dreaming. How will you know if you are having a lucid dream if you cant even remember what you dream about!? Bottom line.  Also as a side note, if you can’t seem to lucid dream, Google some of the things you dream about! You can potentially learn a lot about yourself! Obviously take the internet interpretations with a grain of salt, but they can be kind of cool!

• This last technique I have not personally tried, just because I love sleeping and the idea of waking up a few times throughout the night absolutely does not appeal to me. What you can do is set an alarm clock to go off every 5-6 hours while you are asleep. Once the alarm goes off, you should sit up and try to remember everything about the dream that was just interrupted. While thinking about this, you should also keep the idea of lucid dreaming running through your mind. Think about things that you will do once you have control of you dreams. According to a few sources this technique works pretty well.

Lucid dreaming is one of the most exciting things I have ever experienced. The only unfortunate thing, is that your mind doesn’t like to let you have control of your dreams for very long. Most lucid dreams last about 5-10 minutes. It has been said you can’t do it for much longer, because your conscious mind gets tired and/or your unconscious mind likes to take control of your dreamtime. Like I have said many times, if you can achieve this you will be in complete awe of all your mind is capable! Good luck everyone, and hopefully you get the chance to experience what I have.

Melissa

Though many people may find him dry, one of my favourite humorists is the bard himself. Who can go wrong with such hilarious one-liners as “misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” This is a clip of his newest Tragedy, entitled William and Kate.

If that didn’t get you going, perhaps your sense of humor is even more overtly political, in which case I whole-heartedly recommend the King of Kanadian Komedy, Rick Mercer!

…outdated albeit educational.

Maybe you’re like me and can’t seem to get enough Potter fix. If so, A Very Potter Musical may be just the thing! I will warn you in advance, however, it is Act 1, Scene 1 of full length musical, and once you push play, you will very likely be unable to hit pause!

Finally, my all time favourite comedian. Not only are his remarks witty, his timing uncanny, his creativity genius, but he is English, and that makes all the difference. I give you John Cleese in…

The Scientist.

and

Fawlty Towers.

and

The Ministry of Silly Walks.

Summer Girls by LFO. When you’re five years old, you don’t necessarily realise how music is not made by throwing together random phrases that barely rhyme. Instead, you just completely agree: New Kids on the Block did have a bunch of hits and, you know what, Chinese food does make me sick. Made sense to me then, and I can’t help but say I still feel the same way now. Watch the video, I bet you didn’t know it was a staged Abercrombie & Fitch commercial. Here is the best worst song (and music video)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1dfEf1qOt4

Big Brother. If you say you’ve never seen this show (and loved it), you’re lying, we all know. It is so completely ridiculous with all the drama and crazy competitions – pure entertainment. All I can say is that I can’t wait for the summer! Check out my favourite Big Brother moments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2RdQyQ2zrA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SNHZ-R3Pes

Clueless. There is no way you were raised in the 90s and haven’t seen this movie. Absolute classic. Cher – the girl whose closet you’d kill for but if you were her, you’d have to kill yourself.  This movie has taught me so much about who I DON’T want to be, not to mention the worst insults I could ever think of. It was the precursor to Mean Girls and all your favourites. Here’s the trailer if you feel like reminiscing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFR9TNsByLk

I could honestly go on forever; I have a lot that I should be embarrassed about. Hopefully, I’m not alone here!

Bangkok, Thailand

Florence, Italy

Rome, Italy

New York City, USA

Istanbul, Turkey

Cape Town, South Africa

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Sydney, Cumberland, Australia

Barcelona, Spain

Paris, France

Have you been to any of these places in the past? Which city (cities if more than one) would you like to visit in the future? Let me know!

Anyway, what I am looking to confess here is something that is maybe as widely known about me, but is less frequently a commonality I find between myself and women of my age or younger. It is a facet of my being which at once oozes from all of my pores and is simultaneously something I feel the need to keep hidden.

I am a feminist. 

There. I said it; I used the “F” word. Admittedly, it feels odd to state this fact–one which I wear proudly on my sleeve or any one of the number of buttons on my backpack–using such a contentious mode of admission as that of the ‘confessional,’ but there is something about the word which lends it to such an intimate disclosure. Upon asserting myself as a feminist,  I can only imagine the stereotypes which emerge in your mind: I hate men (which I don’t, I actually have very close relationships with people of all sexes, genders, and orientations–it is the patriarchal status quo that I take issue with), I am angry (I am, but for a bunch of different reasons and not as a permanent state of being), I don’t shave (I don’t and it is glorious), etc.

As you can see, there are a boat load of misconceptions as to what it ‘means’ to be afeminist. Sometimes it can seem like a jumble of contradictions: I haven’t shaved my legs in almost two years but the idea of leaving the house without make-up sends shivers down my spine; sexist jokes make my skin crawl, but I love comedies starring Seth Rogen. I learned early on in my feminist awakening that sometimes to exist in a system of such institutional inequality you need to embrace these contradictions in order to keep your sanity. It is in this way that feminism isn’t something you passively ‘do,’ instead, it is something that you actively (re-)create on an individual level every day of your life. It can’t be distilled to the tired cliche stating “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people too,” because feminism is about identifying and correcting all sorts of oppression. It also means turning that critical eye inward and examining all of the privileges we each take advantage of on a daily basis by nature of merely having access to informational resources like the internet.

Thus, maybe in hindsight this isn’t a confessional so much as a declaration. I, Sam Pearson, am a feminist.

Studies show that even a short 30 second intermission from your work can help refresh your mind, let it start up new ideas, and even relieve large amounts of stress being put on your body by constant work. What happens is our brain literally takes a breather. Like when you go for a run and take a break in between. It gives time for you to breath and refresh yourself so you can continue at a constant rate without overtiring your body. Breaks should be in between 2 to 5 minutes maximum. Just enough for your brain to take a breather before continuing working.

A major problem that can arise from taking a short break however would be overdoing it. Like it states above breaks should be maximum 5 minutes. Any longer and it poses the risk of making it impossible to get back to work. Studies show that distractions that last longer than 5 minutes causes the brain to take another 15 minutes to bring itself back to speed. So I guess the secret is all inside moderation and self control. Sites like Facebook are tedious for causing lengthy breaks and should be avoided when thinking of possible sites or activities you can do during a break.

A worthy point would be that breaks and procrastinating are 2 completely different things. Procrastinating involves avoiding work, while taking a break refreshes your brain for more work to come. Maybe reading this blog could serve as a worthy break and hopefully not a part of lengthy procrastination.

Luke Melenberg