In what is not the first upset Canadian elections have seen recently. Let us all remember our very own Albertan election back in 2012. The whole province seemed to accept the likelihood of a Wildrose victory and for the first time in quite awhile it looked as though the Conservatives long reign might finally be coming to a close. However, election night brought a flip as the Conservatives secured their spot for yet another term, and the Wildrose were left with fewer seats than expected.

For those of you who haven’t been following what’s happening in BC right now, you can pretty much just place a mirror in the center of the political spectrum and you’ll get an idea of what’s going on. Seemingly against all odds, the Liberals have pulled through and will remain in power with a majority government, defying the expectations and stealing many seats away that were thought to go to the NDP.

So now I’m sitting here asking myself the same questions I did after the Wildrose were not nearly as big as a threat as everyone anticipated – what changed? And beyond that, how come we didn’t know? While what happened in Alberta last year and what happened in BC last night are on opposite sides of the political field, there does seem to be one glaring, common element between the situations: the stark contrast between what the polls expected and what actually happened. Nearly every poll across BC (telephone polls, online polls, etc) throughout the election placed the NDP in the lead ahead of the Liberals. Yes, the most recent ones did show the Liberals closing the gap, but nonetheless there was still a gap, and the NDP had the lead.

I can’t help but draw my attention to the polls themselves, which have proved to be a relatively unreliable source of information. Are people not answering honestly? Are the polls not collecting an accurate enough sample of data?

Or maybe there’s a last minute fear that sets in once peopleactually go to vote. Adrian Dix’s campaign for the NDP was all about change – breaking away from the status quo and making a difference for the better. But are people perhaps afraid of change? It does seem to be another common element between these two situations where the polls have lied to us. In the end, people chose to stick with what they know. They returned to their old governments despite someone offering change. I don’t think there is a clear cut answer right now. But I do feel confident saying that I’m not going to be taking any pre-election polls too seriously anytime soon. (And it wouldn’t surprise me if others in western Canada are feeling the same way).

Despite the crazy turnout in Vancouver there are still unanswered questions. Right now the biggest of which comes down to the Vancouver Point-Grey riding. David Eby and Christy Clark are still battling it out in the last riding to be determined. Througout the entire course of the night the counts flipped back and forth, with the leader seeming to change every time a new poll was brought in.

If Clark can claim this seat then it will be the final note in what can only be called a booming success of an election for the liberals. If Eby does manage to squeeze through, there will be some interesting decisions to be made. It’s nearly impossible to imagine the Liberals leaving Clark at this point, meaning that someone else will likely step aside essentially giving their seat to her.

Despite the crazy turnout in Vancouver there are still unanswered questions. Right now the biggest of which comes down to the Vancouver Point-Grey riding. David Eby and Christy Clark are still battling it out in the last riding to be determined. Througout the entire course of the night the counts flipped back and forth, with the leader seeming to change every time the votes from a new poll were brought in.

Regardless of what is yet to happen, it’s clear that BC’s election is one that can be added to the ranks as one of the most surprising elections Canada’s seen in awhile.

But recently, a new and weird idea was introduced to me by a friend: art made out of real food – not sweets – but your everyday vegetables, pasta, etc. This seemed like such a ridiculous and obsolete idea to me when I first came across it. Nonetheless, the idea interested me and so I looked into it a little and was amazed at what I found. There are literally people whose career is arranging food into pieces of art. Kind of weird, but definitely pretty cool. Below are some pictures of this – some pieces are as simple as arranging the food into a picture on a plate or surface, others make entire portraits out of one substance, and some arrange a 3D montage that it photographed. Though I would never be able to (or really want to) do this, it’s just pretty incredible to see what some people come up with.

Arranged on a surface: First is a woman’s face made out of vegetables, and second is an owl made out of onions.

This is a portrait of Rachel Ray – made entirely of pasta and beans!

These are more 3-D examples: A sculpted watermelon, and a 3-D Montage of the London skyline. If you look closely, you can see the all of the different food making up the buildings and canal – crazy!

So today I felt like discussing something that revolves around each and every one of our lives, that being The Law of Attraction. It’s something that is usually disregarded by the individual on a day-to-day basis which probably shouldn’t be because it’s something that affects us all and which can have quite the dramatic effect on us. People nowadays can be so negative about life and expect the worst to come out of any situation. And as long they keep that mindset, it’s just a time bomb ticking away. I recently took a trip to Calgary and was surrounded by people on the street who were so negative about life:

“Nice weather. Too bad it’s gonna be gone soon.”

“Yeah, I’m probably not going to get that promotion…”

The list goes on…

But the point is, if you constantly surround yourself with such negative thoughts, you ultimately become a negative person overall, with the habit of only being able to process negative thoughts and images all the while ignoring all the positive things that your life entails. They say you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it, and this is without-a-doubt completely and utterly true! Like with studying, if you have it ingrained into your mind that you will achieve honors by the end of the year, and you think about that thought on a day-to-day basis, you will achieve your goal. Obviously there are somethings you cannot get done. Such as, the ability to spontaneously combust into a plethora of pixies and rainbow vomiting unicorns; other than the desire to transform into something truly outrageous, the sky is truly the limit. Surrounding your life with positive people, thoughts and goals begins to transform who you are and although life does throw you curve balls, you begin to see that these problems that arrive have a definite solution and are not all bad; that they have a silver lining.

Let’s rewind back to when I was in elementary school. I was involved with the wrong crowd of people and couldn’t care less about grades. My parents saw this and transferred me to a private school, known as Tempo School. To this day, I remember coming home and balling my eyes out. Having to go to a school with uniforms?! Where it’s ACADEMICALLY focused?! At the time, it killed me. I only realize it now what exactly this transformation had done. What I saw, was a problem. I saw the negativity in it. But I guess that is just immaturity and ignorance at its finest. Who knew that this would be one of the most eventful situations in my life that transformed my mindset of education and its importance as well as fueling my previously non-existent determination and perseverance. To this day, I thank my parents for making that choice for me. For who knows where I’d be right now. Certainly not on the path towards being educated but much rather on the path towards failure and the constant image of negativity circumventing throughout my thoughts. And today I find myself, much taller than I used to be but also, much more positive. My life isn’t perfect but I like to think so, focusing on the positives and leaving little to none of my energy for those negatives.

Cheers,

Nick

I hope Dove truly had good intentions behind this whole campaign, but a few elements in the video irked me the wrong way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for supporting inner beauty and what Dove promotes… for the most part. I won’t rant a whole lot, but I do want to bring up a few things that I questioned in the video and hopefully you will in turn question more of the things that you watch on a daily basis because it’s incredibly easy to get lost in the popularity of it all and overlook key elements.

So first thing’s first, why was there only one man featured? Not a huge deal, because usually it’s women who get down on themselves about their physical looks so I guess I should be saying good on Dove for even having the one man, right? Hmm… not so much. Let’s quickly touch up on the fact that the majority of the video had the main focus on young, thin, Caucasian women. Don’t get me wrong, they did include a couple African America women as well as an Asian woman, but as far as diversity goes, Dove could have done a lot better. The Caucasian women were show cased significantly more and were also described in a more positive way compared to the other women. Maybe I’m looking into that too much, but as a company that prides themselves in diversity, they could have tried a little harder.

The last and most important aspect I would like to bring up is when the one woman states “I should be more grateful of my natural beauty.  It impacts the choices and the friends we make, the jobs we go out for, the way we treat our children, it impacts everything. It couldn’t be more critical to your happiness.”  Pardon me. “It couldn’t be more critical to your happiness?!?” Keep in mind that the “it” she’s referring to is edited in a way that strongly suggests she’s referring to physical beauty. What!?! I don’t agree with that whatsoever, and neither should anyone. Take a second and think about some of the most influential people in world who’ve made a huge positive difference in the world. Were they only successful because of how physically “beautiful” they were? The answer is no. At least it always should be. I’m not going to go all mother goose here and give a whole speech about how people should love you for who you are on the inside, but the people we surround ourselves with should be people who see beyond the superficial and love us regardless of our physical beauty.

Personally, one of my favorite kinds of beauty is found in words.
“Whatever you consistently attach to the words ‘I am,’ you will become.”- Zig Ziglar

1) The Actors: Alright this one is a little bit of a no brain’-er, because let’s be honest here, there is a reason why people are suddenly interested in movies staring well liked actors such as Robert Downey Junior and Morgan Freeman. (Im gonna be totally honest here and say that those choices might have been a little biased.) Or on the other hand, turned away by movies starring actors with poor reputations, and I’m not giving any names here… But one of them might rhyme with Shmicolas Shmage. Just saying.

2) Originality: What I mean by this is that so many movies today are just the same story underneath different circumstances. We have all heard the one about the knight in shining armor who rescues the princess and they all live happily ever after. The story doesn’t change if you make the knight into a farm boy, or a high school dropout or a police officer, it’s still the same story! What I am trying to get at here is that sometimes the best stories don’t have happy endings. The situation changes, not everything works out, and nothing quite happens like you expected it to go. That”s life, and sometimes the best stories are just brutal tastes of reality, and I’m sorry to break it to everyone who loves a good fairy tale but in real life sometimes there isn’t a happy ending. This is something that I think all the best stories are founded upon. They are founded upon the principle that sometimes things just don`t turn out exactly the way you want them to, and the ending is never for certain like in your average fairy tale because just like life you should not be able to know the ending before it starts!

3) Passion: This one is just so evident for me while watching a movie. The passion I am talking about here is the one shown by the director and the rest of staff making a movie. Sure you can`t see the director exactly while you`re watching it but whether or not the director is really into his film and truly believes that it will succeed is clear as mud.

4) The Music: I almost feel like I don`t even need to explain this one. The music in a movie can be the difference between it being absolutely terrible or completely amazing! Like let`s have a test! I want you to yell at the top of your lungs if you don’t know the words to a single Disney song?… Did you hear anything? Yeah me neither. Disney has done an absolutely amazing job with the music in their films and they are praised for it! Another good example of a great movie with an awesome soundtrack is the newly released Django Unchained! They somehow managed to fit old western tunes and Kanye West in the same film and they did it like a boss! It’s a great movie and I suggest you guys check it out if not only for the soundtrack!

Alright well those are my main criteria for judging an amazing movie! Now I can only hope this summer will be filled with some awesome films! Ill see you guys at the movies!

- Luke

Today I’m going to be sharing something very personal with you, something very
few people (besides anyone who ever added me on Facebook) know…

I’m a Farmville addict. It’s okay, I’m in recovery now, but it’s been a long and
painful journey.

I first hopped on the Farmville bandwagon on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 6:49 PM
(thank god for Facebook Timeline eh?). Many of my school friends were playing,
and my news feed was littered with reports of lost turkeys, ugly ducklings,
yellow ribbons, and mystery eggs. So that fateful November night, I installed
Farmville onto my Facebook so I could see why everyone was so into online
Farming. I blasted through the tutorial and now I was planting strawberries
like nobody’s business. Harvesting them the second they were ready (literally
— that weekend I sat by my computer and counted down the seconds until my
plants were done, so I could have maximum efficiency). I advanced 12 levels
that weekend. I had the bug; I was on fire.

Next week I painstakingly scoured my news feed for stories of mystery eggs, lost
turtles, and lonely sheep. I had my friends gifting me things every day -
they were excited for me to build up my farm. I started acquiring a bunch of
animals, I had more plots of land, I was earning ribbons and awards faster than
you could say “Jiminy Cricket”. I was levelling up, passing people who’d been
playing for longer. It was all a blur those few months. Buoyed by my
enthusiasm, more of my friends were playing. There were more lonely cows to be
found, more mystery eggs.

Then it all started to go wrong. Farmville went out of style. Many of my friends
stopped playing; only the diehards remained. There were still a few of us going
strong. I was blinded by my addiction. Everything I saw was farming related. I
wrote a poem for English class about Farmville (If I ever find it, I am
posting it on this blog!)

It was all I could talk about. I even went out and purchased a Farmville gift card
using real money. I was in deep. The remaining players kept dropping off. Soon
there were only 7 of my friends still playing. We were all above level 30 and
we were in it to win it. We were going to hit level 70 (the highest level there
is) buy the expensive Villa house and retire in style.

At this point my farm had grown pretty big, but to maximize the coins and the
experience points I earned, I was still only planting 4-12 hour crops. I
would harvest all 400 plots of my land 4 times a day by hand (I didn’t use the
tractor much, because fuel was expensive). I started to get cramps and severe
pain in my right pointer finger (the mouse clicking finger). I didn’t care, I
kept going. I was waking up an hour earlier than I usually did to harvest my
crops before school. I needed more friends so I could get more gifts and have a
better chance of getting mystery eggs. I did what you should never do – I added
strangers from Farmville forums to my Facebook page. (Warning: DON’T EVER DO
THAT!) Soon it was only my friend’s mom, my online friends from the USA
and Australia, and me playing. I was still going with my previous intensity; I
was deaf to my friend’s advice, and deaf to the mutterings that I was crazy and
obsessive.

Then one day Farmville became a publicly-traded company, and slowly the game
became less fun. Farming became more of a chore than a joy. And then one day, I
let my crops wither. I didn’t have it in me to log back on. I burnt out. I quit.

Gradually I got my life back. Slowly, my Facebook news feed started showing my friends again, not just posts about animals and ribbons. Life was good again. I’ve never fully healed from this experience. (I’ve actually permanently damaged my mouse clicking finger from playing Farmville. Even typing this post hurts; I think its arthritis or something).

I have dabbled in other online games since I gave up Farmville (Kingdoms of Camelot, Frontierville, Farmville again, Tap Zoo, Simpson’s City Builder) and frankly I’ve became just as addicted and I don’t know why! I’ve never deleted my farm. I couldn’t, not after so much hard work. I know it’s always there waiting for me, if I ever wanted to plant just one more field of strawberries.

Helen

1) You haven’t seen the movies below.

2) You don’t understand football. It can’t be that you don’t like football. Everyone who understands football likes football.

For those of you that fall within those categories, not to worry – I will show you what you need to know. Here is a list of my top three football movies.

Remember the Titans

Ever wonder what that “Left Side! Strong Side!” thing was all about? Mystery solved. This movie is amazing.  Guaranteed it will make you cry the first time you watch it. No one can do it like Denzel. (Look out for baby Ryan Gosling!).

Any Given Sunday

Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, do you need to hear more? I think Al Pacino can sell you on this point I’m trying to make so check it out:

Friday Night Lights

Okay, here is my confession. I have never seen the movie. I have, however, seen the series as many times as is humanly possible. The show is the best thing I have seen on TV…EVER. It is so well produced I can’t even describe it. The characters are so real. I could gush about this show forever but I will let you watch instead…

Well, there you have it! I hope this has convinced you to watch at least one of these – you will not regret it.

TED Talks span every possible topic and cover everything you need (or didn’t really need) to know. The first ones I started watching were by Hans Rosling, who is a really cool dude and actually is the founder of the non-profit foundation, Gapminder (which you may recognize from the Social Studies classrooms of particularly awesome teachers). He basically has made it his mission to break down a lot of the misconceptions and pre-conceived notions that developed nations tend to have about the developing world, and makes these really cool videos where he animates data and tries to achieve a “fact-based understanding of the world.”

This is one of my favorites of his – the visual tools that he uses are very effective at helping people to understand the complexities of what he talks about (plus, we are introduced to his multi-talented side!).

Another reason that I love watching Talks is that I can learn about things that I’m not exposed to elsewhere. Being in Engineering and just generally being squeamish about most bio-related things has held me back from learning much at all about the “natural world.” I’ve always been interested in animals in particular, and although this Talk is full of what I would typically describe as “yucky things,” I was totally blown away by it.

And, finally, TED can be funny and add things to your knowledge that you didn’t even know you were missing. For example, as it turns out, I’ve been tying my shoes for 20 years now (okay, probably 17, to be fair…) and I didn’t even know it. Did you?

Hope you enjoy these TED Talks, and feel free to comment or message us on Facebook if you have favorites of your own!

1. Start a new TV series.  I know, I know, summer is for going outside. But living in Edmonton has taught me never to rely on good weather for entertainment. Last summer I watched Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks. Both equally good shows. Arrested Development has made it to my not-so-concrete favourite shows of all time list. And Freaks and Geeks features young James Franco and Seth Rogan there’s no way you can go wrong.
2. Go to some sort of festival! Edmonton and Calgary both have Folk-Fests! If Folk music isn’t your thing Alberta boasts a ton of other festivals like Big Valley Jamboree, The Bluegrass Festival, and Boonstock. There is something for everyone and who doesn’t enjoy spending time outside listening to live music.
3. Find out what things your city has to offer for the summer. I LOVE EDMONTON IN THE SUMMER! There are all sorts of things to do here. There’s The Fringe, Taste of Edmonton, the Street Performers.  Honestly just open up a newspaper and I bet you will find something.
4. Go on a roadtrip!! This one can be tricky, because it involves someone with a (hopefully) reliable car and some spending money. But if you can swing this one go to the mountains or just another city for the day. It’s a great way to spend a day or two.
5. Get a job. My mom always made me have a summer job while in high school. But I LOVED IT! I worked at McDonald’s, and I say that with pride. If you are truly interested in my four years experience there I wrote a blog about it.. or just ask me. I met some of the craziest/coolest/funniest/weirdest/interesting people while working there. McD’s isn’t for all, but try having a job! With all this expendable cash you may be able to do more things on this list anyways
6. Volunteer somewhere- I volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters one summer and I don’t regret it. It’s an amazing experience and looks great on a resume- if that’s something you are interested.
7. Go to a summer camp! Whether its SUNIA, Math Camp, Bible Camp or some sort of other camp, just go! You will have the opportunity to make new friends and have experiences that you may not be able to otherwise. I’ve been to a lot of different summer camps in my 21 summers, and each one had something exciting to offer.
8. Take up a new hobby. Whether it’s sewing, collecting something or another, or making an online blog… really anything! I bet you will find your spare time is consumed with this.

So that’s my list- and no I do not work for travel Alberta! I believe there are a lot of things you can do in the summer without going out of the country! I would love to hear what you do with your summer!!

-Melissa