Dec 2 2012

Exploring the Wander!

This is about the wanderlust side of me and I know everyone has a little bit of wander in them! When I was younger, our family of six would go on vacations to places like Cuba, Cancun, and Puerto Vallarta. However, the older my siblings and I became the more difficult it became financially to go on vacations. The last vacation I went on was to Florida for a week. It was a lot of fun during my time there but I have always wanted to see more. It has been five years since my family and I went on a vacation and my wanderlust craving continues to keep getting larger each year. I love watching The Real World on MTV where a certain number of people are selected to live together for three months somewhere gorgeous! The previous season, they went to St. Thomas and even though I was not there I fell in love with the place! They met so many new people, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and grew as people! I have always wanted to travel ever since I was younger. I would love to become a reporter and have the ability to travel the world, meet people, eat new things, and really learn about myself during all of it! I want to feel the thrill of it all and be able to say I have traveled to more than three places outside of Canada! I have always dreamt of a better place then where I am currently living. I knew that there had to be bigger, more beautiful and new things to offer me in this world. All of my life I have lived in either Mississauga or Oakville, Ontario with both places not as glamorous as Paris or Hawaii. Now do not get me wrong, I have been outside of Canada before when I was younger. I have been to Cuba, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, and Florida but still those four places did not fill my wanderlust craving. With still being eighteen I have plenty of time to make plans to go traveling. I have always dreamed of just gathering essentials and go backpacking through a gorgeous place like Rome or Thailand. I have had this wanderlust craving ever since I was a little girl. I would watch travel and fantasy movies where people fall in love under the Eiffel tower right when it light up at night, or finding treasure on a beautiful beach! Of course I know, that will not happen to me but even meeting new people, eating new foods and finding myself in the process. That is probably the biggest reasons on why I am so passionate to travel, to find myself and really embrace the beauty of different cultures and the world!

“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Nov 29 2012

The New Blakelock High School Exams!

Halton District School Board has recently changed the exam procedure at Thomas. A. Blakelock high school in Oakville, Ontario due to parent’s complaints of their children spending too much time at home during exam breaks. Students and parents speak out on the pros and cons of this new exam procedure.

“There was not enough prepping time for a few students, so we spread out the schedule to one exam a day. Even though there are added exams now, splitting the exams up would have made it simpler for students rather than two a day. Exams being written in class would be a more comfortable atmosphere with less distractions, and their home room teacher would be able to really assist a student on a question,” said Heather Stewart, Vice Principal and Head Exam offical of Thomas. A. Blakelock.

The new exam procedure has exams for every subject students now must take over the semester and no longer provides students to have a week off for studying, but a spread through out the week of exams. Eliminating the large room exam as well, most of exams will also be taken in class with their usual classmates and teacher.

“I don’t mind the new exam procedure. Yeah, it is a lot of work and can be stressing, but in a way it does help with organization and time management,” said Ana Marin, a grade 12 Blakelock student who compares both the old and new exam procedure.

The old exam procedure had a week off for students to study for certain of subjects that needed an exam like English, French, Math, and Science but had maximum two exams a day leaving some days for either studying or free time. The exams would be located in a large room with their entire grade, while teachers would monitor and assist students if they needed help.

“I liked the old exam way better, because I had less classes to study for and a greater chance of getting a better mark due to the exam study week off,” said Siri Holik-Cave, a grade 11 Blakelock student who has experienced both exam procedures.

Most parents agree with the new exam procedure due to the different schedules students would have received from the old one. Parents found that their child was spending too much time at home. It seemed that the old procedure when it came to the week exam break was unbalanced for students.

“Over exam break one of my children would have completed their exams earlier in the week and would spend the rest of the week playing video games while the other two would be studying for an exam that was later on in the week,” said Rob Adams, a father who has had three children that all attended Thomas. A. Blakelock high school.

The old procedure gave students who did need those extra hours to cram in more study time for subjects like English, French Math, and or Science found it easier and better for their overall mark, providing a University exam experience. Its schedule however also made it unfair for some students who had a few days to lounge around at home, while other students spent studying. The new procedure teaches students how to time manage and hopefully become more organized for future assignments. However, it does seem to lack the amount of studying hours, and students do lose the University exam experience.

Since every school is different from all schools in the district Halton District School Board will plan to change the procedure if overall it is not as effective as the last exam procedure. They do not want to risk the overall performance marks of students in their district.

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Oct 22 2012

Kid Cudi’s Indicud is #5 for the Most Anticipated Albums of 2012.!!!

Kid Cudi’s new album will be hopefully releasing soon. Being listed as number five most anticipated of 2012 with still no news of the release date, and only two songs officially out. Has all the Kid Cudi fans ecstatic for his new album to officially come out. Kid Cudi or Scott Mescudi with his new techniques in his music and with his powerful lyrics many fans believe this this album Indicud is going to be amazing!

So all Kid Cudi fans are so excited for his new album Indicud to come out, although a release date on the album has not been made, Cudi fans have been waiting very patiently. Recently off his new album he has released ‘Just What I am’ featuring Chip da Ripper, which fans loved making them want to hear more off of Indicud. Kid Cudi has been spending most of his time collaborating with Kanye West and many other successful artists. Creating big hits like ‘Mercy’ and ‘Creepers’ off of Kanye West’s albums. Kid Cudi was coming back with a bang due to his negative feed back from his last album WZRD. As of last week after posting the teaser of ‘King Wizard’ over YouTube, it finally came out. I have always been a huge Kid Cudi fan, and even when WZRD did not get the greatest feedback, I still loved the album just because it was created by him. When I turned to Kid Cudi’s music, it became almost therapeutic which not only made me feel like I wasn’t alone, his powerful lyrics, creative outtake on music, and chill beat just spoke to me. I wouldn’t doubt if it is like that for many other Kid Cudi fans as well King Wizard is about his being real and never changing who he is, despite the negative feedback he got from fans on his last album. Kid Cudi is determined to keep his music up and stay real. I personally as a huge Kid Cudi fan loved every album he has created, and yes that included WZRD. Even though WZRD has more of a rock tone which fans didn’t seem to like as much, the lyrics still remained powerful and still had that perfect touch of Kid Cudi that I loved. When King wizard came out, it made me that much more excited for Indicud to come out. Kid Cudi has been constantly tweeting about how this album is going to be the greatest thing he has created yet. Kid Cudi has tweeted on October 2 at 4:27pm “mark my words, INDICUD will be the greatest album ever made. Know that I’m not lying.” To all of his tweets, and hearing two songs off the album it makes fans super excited to get the release date from Kid Cudi. He sends an underlying message of you are not alone, even Kid Cudi himself has been there before. He connects to his audience of singing about things he has thought and felt over his life experience

http://storify.com/shayarmstrong

Oct 8 2012

Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder!

The average size for women in the US is a size 12 -14, however they will absorb from various media that they are not beautiful due to the way they look. Media for years have been controlling what is in trend and what is beautiful. Many girls and women follow the media which causes them to have self-hate or even pushing them to surgery to change the way they look. I find we always want to look like someone else instead of being happy, it is up to us to not follow in media’s trend and just love ourselves, after all you are one of a kind.

The media has been telling us what is beauty for a long time. For many years girls and women have had issues and insecurities with their own bodies and or the way they look, some even push themselves to the point of starvation, depression, self hurting or surgery. Over the years media’s idea of beauty keeps getting more popular, leading more women and girls to feed into the idea of what people think beauty is, depending on the size of their jeans, what type of make-up they own, or if their clothes are in trend. Has anyone ever seen a commercial advertising a women on her amazing personality? I don’t think so, most of the time you see women indulging themselves in low fat yogurt, dancing about after shaving their legs, or even strutting around in the newest Victoria secret bras and underwear. It does not stop there either, most of these commercials have super skinny, non-realistic women who can simply put on a size 0 or 2 without struggling. These are the women people aspire to look like, which is realistically unhealthy. The real question is, why do we listen? I believe we listen to fit into this world, it’s the people and things like peer pressure that make us listen. Usually it’s the small things that hit us the most, like your parents saying “Do you really need to eat more of that?”, or going to school and having to deal with those mean popular kids, then walking around and seeing media’s idea of beauty everywhere. It can be very overwhelming, people usually take the images they see from the media and interpret it as happiness but realistically, this is not the case. I believe true beauty is being yourself, because that is what will truly make you happy. Wanting to be someone else and are willing to risk one’s own health in the process is not my idea of happiness, it sounds more like torture to me. Like the old saying goes ‘You cannot love another until you have learned to love yourself’. We live in a world where younger girls want to look older and older women want to look younger. Every decade hem lines get shorter and clothes become less existent, have you seen Jersey shore? Girls clothing just keep getting more skimpy to attract their mates. Most men of course don’t mind 2012′s new dress code, but most of the time they will turn around and call these girls “Whores” and “Sluts” due to their appearance. Now we have lost respect as women, where males will spend one night with you just to call a cab and dismiss us the next morning. So at the end of the day, following media’s idea of beauty seems to usually lead us to self hurting, or the trashy look. Even celebrities, the very people who are seen as beautiful in media, wear a lot of make up, are usually photo-shopped, and work out mostly everyday with a hired professional trainer and are still insecure and frustrated about their life. Like singer/actress Demi Lavato, most people knows her story but for those who don’t, Demi became famous on family channel and Disney where she had her own show, and had about 6 albums out since 2008 to her latest album that debuted in 2011, Unbroken. Demi entered the Television world saying she will not change who she is, and media will not get to her. However, after about 2 years in the lime light Demi began to break down where she became very insecure, leading her to cutting and being bulimic. So that is the sad thing, people who are seen as beautiful still have issues of their own. So really, the want to look like someone else or the people we see in the media, is a really pointless, vicious and unhealthy cycle. We aspire to look like the very own people who have to same amount of insecurities as we do. So why can’t we just be happy with ourselves? Many women who are not exposed to media’s idea of beauty on a daily basis are the ones really enjoying their life. It’s the girls and women who focus on the quality of life, helping others, and aspire to be the best person they can, are the women who really experience true beauty.

Oct 5 2012

Making new friends, Losing old friends.

So my first month of college has been so much fun, meeting so many hilarious, sweet, and kind people at Humber College. I love the campus, my courses, and the many events planned there like open mic night. The weekend is here and I found myself inviting a friend I met at Humber to join my family and I for our thanksgiving dinner. I do remain connected with my high school friends, but I have noticed recently that we have been fading. Most of the time I find I am arguing about small issues with my friends, and it just makes me want to move on already. Most of the people I met at Humber have told me that they have stopped staying connected with high school friends, and it is bound to happen to me. At first I did not believe them, because I thought I had so much love for my high school friends, that we will never stop staying connected. However, it has only been a month and there are now only now 3 people I find I still stay connected with that really make me happy, Jordan, Tess, and Chloe. The thing is, these are the people I did not spend enough time with during high school. Now they are my rock, without texting one of those three during the week would probably drive me insane. Do you know those people in your life that you are so grateful for? That best friend? Well luckily for myself I have found 3 of them. Now here is where I gets complicated… The friends who you thought you loved but realizing you no longer can stay connected with. These people were my comfort zone, I have stuck with them for so long during high school, I didn’t want to let them go, even though they have hurt me in the past. Wait, I am not perfect and have had my own problems but all I need are honest friends who care about me. Soon enough friends fade, and people move on, and change. It would be really rare for someone to be with the same group of friends their entire life, right? So soon enough you will have to move on. Believe me, it is easier said than done. I am still having small issues letting go of my old friends. But moving forward will make you happier in the end. I am happy I am learning about this now, and I am really looking forward to my college career. But don’t beat yourself up for letting go of a few people you cared about if it isn’t working out. Things happen for a reason, and if that person was really meant to be in your life, they will come back.

Oct 2 2012

How I feel about Journalism

So I made it through my first month in College, work has not been much of a hassle yet but staying organized and keeping up with all my classes are much needed when my workload becomes more intense. I have not been that stressed out yet, just making sure I do not miss any assignments and quizzes in the process. I realized having a computer is something highly important to have, with organization, taking notes, and making it easier to keep updated with Blackboard to stay in touch with teacher’s and my classmates. So far I love journalism, my favourite class is my elective class Social Digital Media where we talk about twitter, Facebook, blogs and many other accounts used to socialize currently. I loved journalism ever since the day I went to my first Much Music show at age 16, I fell in love with the environment of the workplace, the updates on new music, fashion and celebrities. When being on the Much Music show the hostess and camera crew loved my energy and always seemed to place my in the front of the crowd, and while the music videos were playing, the small box on the left corner of the screen usually displayed my friends and I dancing and laughing. When the show was over I got a call from my family who were watching the show live, and my parents called me a camera hog because most of the time the camera was on me. I’ve always been a diva when I was younger, I loved being on camera and getting the most attention in the room. I love getting my voice out there, getting dressed up and talking about Fashion, Celebrities and music. Recently my mother found a box of all the old videos I use to record myself and I found about 5 videos of me pretending I was Opera hosting my own show and my sisters would dress up like celebrities including commercial breaks in each video. I guess you can say I have been passionate about this since I was little. I used to think I wanted to be a movie star, which little diva didn’t? However, as I got older and getting the privilege to attend the Much Music shows I found out what I really wanted to do with the rest of my life. Not only Much Music but I would love to work in any Entertainment Television company like Etalk, TMZ and even MTV. I would easily show my outgoing personality, yet professional and successful in what I do. I know this pathway is competitive, in face most of the friends I have made so far in my Journalism classes have the same dream I have. I can’t say what would happen to me in the future, but as long as I am happy with how I am living my life. Maybe I will move to America working for a small entertainment show, I will never know. I just have to dream, work hard to get where I want to go in life.

Shanice Armstrong ☮♥

Dreaming is what will motivate you to get you where you want to go.

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