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.

Walk a Paragraph

"97.1 Sun FM" the radio blasted as the time reached 7:00. As quickly as I could I rolled to my left and slammed by hand down on the old grey, beat up alarm clock. I swing my pale white legs off the side of the bed and reach for my slippers. As my eyes start to become more focused the rest of my apartment comes into veiw. Its not as bad as it looked before as I added paintings and other decorations to the walls. I wander over to the fridge and open the heavy stainless steel door, and once again it opens to emptiness. I pour a glass of milk using the remainder of the carton and proceed to sit on the couch next to my framed diploma I earned just last summer. As I reach over to the cheap wooden coffee table I realize that today is Sunday, and I dont have the latest issue of People Magazine. Considering its somewhat of a tradition, I rummage through my room looking through every article of clothing I own for loose change. After about ten minutes, Ive scrounged up just enough nickels and dimes to buy my magazine. Within a quarter of an hour im dressed in my usual white lulu lemon hoody, and yoga pants.I leave my short blonde hair down today and on my way out of the door I stop to grab my sunglasses. The mall isnt to far from my apartment and considering I had to sell my vehicle to finish school, the walk is fine with me. Sometimes I wish the mall was even a little bit further from my place, the extra walking could come in handy to help burn some extra calories throughout the week as i cant afford a gym membership like i could in the past. I get to the mall in a matter of minutes and instinctively head right to the front of the store where the magazines are kept. I grab the latest issue and proceed through the check out. The walk back home is much more refreshing as the sun has made an appearance and many of the flowers are once again starting to bloom. Upon returning to my apartment and perusing through the new magazine, I decided it would be best to check my emails. The old computer takes its time as always, and millions of thoughts are running through my head, most of which are bad. Over the past few weeks I have dropped off many applications at different locations just looking for a minimum wage job to help pay rent and feed myself. Minutes pass, and my nerves are starting to get the best of me. All I can do until the computer loads is hope, and from prior experiences my hopes dont do much to influence the future, or the past. When the computer finally gets up and running I open my emails and to my excitement, an inbox message from a local business saying that my application has been accepted is awaiting me. I havent had a feeling like this in years. At last, my life finally seems to be headed in a direction away from struggling to keep a roof over my head and a fridge somewhat stocked with food. Ever since the day 9 years ago where my mom died in a car accident and my father left, my life has been somewhat misguiding, but today, more so than any other day, I finally have a reason to a smile.

21st Century Education

In moving on with our lives past high school there are a variety of life skills that come in helpful. Being honest and hardworking are in my opinion the most important. If you are someone who is able to tell the truth, and work as hard as you can on anything life throws at you, you will most likely have a succesful and fufilling life that you will be able to look back on with no regrets as well as pride in what you have accomplished. I belive that during our higschool lives, these skills are not being developed as well as they could be. With so much pressure put on how students perform on certain tests and quizzes, some students will resort to cheating in order to make theyre parents and teachers proud. This does not help whatsoever with becoming an honest hard working individual. In fact, it is going in the complete opposite direction. In order to improve the growth of these crucial life skills, high school should be more about improving as a whole and not just cheating in order to attain the grades needed to proceed into post secondary education. Eliminating tests would have no benefit, but if the tests were taken for different reasons other than to just assess what has been learned in the past chapter or unit, they could be more affective. Upon entering highschool, a series of tests should be taken that involve no knowledge of logarithms, or how the human nervous system operates, but instead the tests should be taken to show your level of honesty, integrity and ability to work hard to achieve a goal. Lessons should be tought on how to improve these skills as well as other things that may not be directly related to the essential morals of a person. Throughout ones life in highschool they could constantly be tested on how they are improving not only based on theyre grades in school but also on how they are improving on the inside. To graduate, you must be able to prove your honesty and integrity levels have grown and show the rest of the world that you are not like anyone else, and that you can contribute to the working class society in a unique and special way. As far as I am concerned, I have no regrets about going through the public school system as is. Minor tweaks could be made to improve the system, but overall it isnt as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Next year I will be taking a year off, to work, maybe play junior hockey again and do things that I enjoy. I have a plan of what I want to take in university but it is still subject to change. Physiotherapy, and helping other athletes such as myself rehab from injuries is something I have always wanted to do, but there are so many other things in life, such as technology, that are growing not only in terms of how complicated they are, but also in terms of how crucial they are becoming in everyday life. Sometimes I get the feeling that if one does not recieve any type of formal education on using the worlds latest technologies, we will eventually fall behind and become useless within our community. With so many changes in todays world, my thoughts on what I want to do with my life are changing almost as often as Apple releases a new Ipod. I can only hope that when my mind is completely made up, my choice will not be one that haunts me as I move forward past school.

Super Powers

Being able to control the minds of others and anticipate exactly what they're gonna do are only a few of the perks of Mind Control. With a power as great as this there is literally no limits. Reading the minds of others can come in handy in many different situations, unlike other random super powers. Powers such as flying and teleporting are very interesting, but in the big scheme of things, they are essentially useless. Mind Control can not only get you out of sticky situations but it can also help you to completely solve the problem with no negative effects for yourself. This is the power to destroy all powers. If someone with super human strength approaches you, all you have to do is hack into their mind and convince them to not attempt to hurt you. Any power that even tries to destroy yours has no chance what so ever. Other super heros think they're so cool with their lame costumes and weak powers. With mind control not only can you come across as a normal person, but you dont need to roam the streets in a ridiculous outfit drawing unwanted attention to yourself. Even in everyday life this power can come in very usefull. Say you just noticed a new house on the market, and the listing price is way out of your price range. You could either go to the bank and convince them to give you money which is not rightfully yours, or you could do something a little bit more legal and just make the real estate agent sell you the house for much much less than what it should sell for. As you can see this power clearly reigns supreme over everything else. A wise man once told me that "with great power comes great responsibility". More true words have never been spoken.