55 Word Story

As the tail door rises, my heart sinks. 10,000 feet is a long way above the ground. But there’s no going back, and the only thing I can hope for is that my chute opens in time. Out I step, and I free fall towards earth. The ground is approaching, and my chute finally opens.

Stanley Cup Prediction

With the Stanley Cup Finals set to start tonight, the excitement and anxiety of many Canadians and Canuck fans is rising to an unprecedented level. With both teams finishing high in their respective conferences, the expectation is that the series will turn many big hits, and highlight reel goals. The old cliche "defense wins championships" has never been more correct than it has this year seeing as both Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas are tied as top playoff goalie with a 2.29 GAA and two shutouts. They also have the exact same win loss record at 12 wins and 8 losses. Look for the Bruins to come out as physical as they have all playoffs and to try and make the Canuck forwards pay the price for trying to skate the puck into the zone. As Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler are both amongst the top 5 in scoring, one can expect to see Zedeno Chara logging close to 30 minutes in icetime to shut down both the Canucks hot forwards. My prediction for the series is that it will be a very long, physical series with goals and hits coming in bunches from two way players such as Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton throughout each game. While the Canucks have Christian Erhoff and Aaron Rome both back in the lineup for game one, the Bruins will be without power forward Marc Savard for the remainder of the season. There is no doubt the series will drag on to game seven back in Vancouver, and that with the home fans screaming for the Canucks, the Bruins will take the cup back home to Boston. Vancouver is fast and has many offensively talented players, but the Bruins are too strong and physical and will more than likely wear down the entire Canuck roster before taking the cup home to Boston.

I believe that it is very critical to have a job that you enjoy. Considering you will be making a living at it, and doing it for almost 40 years, you must choose something that interests you now, and will continue to interest you until you retire. Im no expert, but if someone was to have a job they did not like and made them miserable, then the chances are pretty high that after spending 8 hours a day, and close to 40 hours a week doing it, they will drag their miserable attitude from their workplace, to their home and family. Not only can I personally testify for this, but when other members of my family or friends have a bad day at work, or continously come home from a job they dont enjoy, it is clear that their attitude is seemingly different. As far as my career choice goes, I plan on going to school for 6 years and getting a masters degree in human kinetics. With my degree, I want to try and become at the very minimum, a physiotherapist. If all is to go well, I want to try and become a trainer for a proffesional or semi professional hockey team. To achieve this, i will most likely need to work under another experienced physio for a few years, and then hopefully one of the people I have played hockey with in the past makes it big and puts in a good word for me with either a highly ranked junior team, or NHL team.

Novel Research

In the novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell, government control and censorship are present more so than any other theme in the novel. Even though the novel is purely fiction, these ideas are being promoted in many other countries around the world. South Korea, for example, has very very strict guidlines when it comes to certain freedoms that we take for granted here in Canada. The internet is a very usefull tool for things such as research, social networking, and entertainment. But due to all the fighting and political battles between North and South Korea, the South Korean government has blocked and intensified the censorship of all pro North Korean websites. In order to comletely eliminate influence from the north, the South Koreans have blocked many websites including Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. The Koreans are so serious about this serious matter, that the Korean Communications Commisison was created in order to not only block websites, but to provide an internet surveillance service for the government.

The Danger of Carelessness

  In the short story "The Perils of Indifference" by Shirley Jackson, a woman is stoned to death by her fellow villagers at the end of the passage. This can be related to many situations during high school and middle school life. Multiple students have been bullied by their peers due to peer pressure which is exactly what happens to the woman when she gets stoned by her own family! If kids grow up around bullying its what they're used to and they see no wrong in what they're doing. The same can be said about the children that are handed stones to kill their own mother. They have been brought up on this idea, and the fact that its their mother doesnt even bother them. While reading the end of the story, most people fail to comprehend what took place. Until you take a deeper look at yourself and your own life, it will remain the same way. But once you  take everything into perspective, you will soon realize how capable you are, and how possible it is for events such as this to take place.

  Elie Wiesels message in "Perils of Indifference" can closely relate to the topic presented in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. The message Elie Wiesel is trying to get across is that in most cases, not caring and not taking action, is even more harmful than releasing your anger in a negative way. As the black dot is drawn by the mother in the short story, the townspeople, and even her own family show no care or any compassion towards her. Instead, they hand her children large rocks in order to stone her with. Elie's points do not only relate to other ideas from stories, but they also depict many tragedys throughout history. As the holocaust was taking place in Germany and other european countries, the United States claimed that they had no knowledge of the events taking place. Think what you want, but to some extent the states must have had some idea of the horrific killings happening. The simple fact that they refused to act and let these events continue, is in a sense, worse than what the Germans were doing.

Perception is Everything

Beau Otta's presentation of "Perception is Everything" can be related to many different events throughout life. The theme he presents to the audience is that everything we see, is not as it seems. In every aspect of life, the way we view things can be manipulated to make us see and believe whatever they choose. Take for example what you perceive to be "normal". To one person, it can mean someone who has gone to university, or graduated high school, while to others, normal can mean simply the fact that you communicate and live your life in a simple everyday fashion. Some people say that it is our actions that define who we are. But upon further speculation it is really our perception of the world that defines us as people. In our usual daily routine we cross people we do not personally know, yet we still feel the need to stereotype them by what we see. Some people may first judge the hair style they have, or what kind of clothes they're wearing. Each of us has our own perspective of certain types of people and until we know them personally, the images we perceive in our mind, are the only things that seem real about them. In fact, with so many controlled views throughout society, the only real things we know are the things we picture in our imaginations.

The Worst Meal I Ever Had..

4:30. Time for dinner. As I walk up the stairs towards the kitchen the smell of scalloped potatoes drifts up my nostrils. Even though this will be one of my first meals at my new billet families house, I can already tell that it will be delectable. As I sit down at the counter alongside my roommate, a tall frosted glass of chocolate milk awaits me. What a perfect way to start dinner. As I crushed the milk, I watched as the casserole dish was removed from the oven.
  "Odd" I thought to myself, seeing as it couldnt have been in there longer than 5 minutes, which is barely enough time to melt the cheese!
  "Dinner is served" John said, as he placed the dish on top of the marble countertop. He zipped over to the drawer and pulled out a plastic spoon that would be used to scoop the golden brown delight onto our plates. Without hesitation my hand shot for the spoon the instant it was set upon the table. After recieving a glares from around the table, I dug in and dropped the massive heap of potatoes on my plate. Even though I was the first to dish up, I had enough respect to wait for the rest of the family to fill their plates before eating. At last the moment had come for me to dig in and experience what dreams really are made of. I grab the fork in my right hand and pick out a potatoe that looks about as good as it can get. The smell is overwhelming and I drive my fork into the sloppy mess. To my surprise, the fork bounces off the potatoe and comes close to rebounding back into my face! A wave of shock overcomes me and im confused about the event that had just taken place. I try once again, and just as I thought, the result is the same. I suddenly realize that the unthinkable has happened. Frozen potatoes. As John asks everyone what they think of the meal, we all glance at each other quickly and respond with a unified "Its awesome".
  The next five minutes passed in somewhat of a blur and I wasnt sure if I was close to passing out, or throwing up. I forced the rock hard vegetables down my throat and hoped that they would thaw out as I took my time. Before long I came to realize that there was no way the plate would ever become empty and that this dinner was nowhere close to what I had hoped for. I quickly excused myself from the table, as did my room mate, and scraped the food into the waste bin. With a sarcastic "thank you", we headed for the basement along with a handful of oreo cookies, and a granola bar.