Little things to help your English

How can spelling mistakes be prevented? Many of you are probably thinking of the program on Microsoft Word that corrects it for you automatically. For handing in written work, such as essays, or journals, and short stories, many students make spelling mistakes. Now I will let you all in on my little trick that has helped me for as long as I can remember. Chatting to your friends on MSN, can have a bigger impact than you can imagine. On MSN we tend to use smaller words so that you don't have to write everything, but the truth is, because you're so used to typing like that, it will eventually affect your writting. When I was in the 7th grade, I was horrible at spelling, when I started to go over my corrected English projects, I realized that my mistakes were how I used to write on MSN, but at the time that I was writting these projects, I didn't even realize it. I decided to start writting full sentences, and with the capital in front of every sentence in my conversations. Some of my friends thought that I was delusional, but it had helped me incredibly. I hardly have any mistakes when I type, or when I hand in most of my work. Another thing that has helped me ever since I was little, were the subtitles, or closed caption on my TV. There are some channels that don't offer it, but the majority of them do. Because of those subtitles, I learned many new words and learned how to spell better, and read better. In a way, it helps my brain function, and multi-task, because I'm learning to read, but also paying attention to the screen. Little things like these, can really improve your technique of writting, reading, and spelling mistakes. Trust me people, it works!

Prom Overrated?

It's the year every student looks forward to. Graduating from high school, and celebrating by having your prom. Prom is known worldwide as a ceremony, where many people like to have a good time, and also get intoxicated, and wound up getting pregnant. The truth is, times have changed drastically, many parents still believe prom is a night where you make the big mistakes. Come on people, it's going on 2009, we have a whole new perspective on things. I went to prom last year as Jacob Bolduc's date, and I have to say it was fun, but I would not do it again. I've made up my mind that I will not be joining anyone this year. We have just found out this week that we have until Friday to buy tickets for 60$, and the price will go up another 10$ the week after, and again for the last week of October. Everyone thinks the same, it's too expensive, and you worry about having to buy 2 tickets, and finding a date already, prom's not until June! I agree that prom is a bit expensive, the way I think of it, the school should pay for a part of it. It doesn't have to be half, but even a quarter would help. I'm sure we have loads of money stashed away that are being spent on TV's in the classrooms that we don't even need! They've been there for a year already, and I'm sure we've used it for about the amount of fingers I have on my hand. When you truly think about it, girls have to pay for a dress (150-200$), many girls will pay to get their hair and makeup(130-150$), the limo (50$), and on top of that, an extra 120$ for prom tickets! All together that's sums up to about 500-550$! It's outrageous! We need to worry about saving money for college and university, not for prom! The way I will be celebrating my senior year, would be going camping with my friends, and playing beach volleyball, laying by the fire at night making smores, and meet other graduate students from other schools. In my opinion, our prom, is nothing but 6 hours of getting ready, about 4 hours of taking pictures, and another 2 hours of dancing, then having to wake up at 7 or 6am to go camping. Prom is overrated, Garnier prom, is definately nowhere near other high school proms.

Thanks-for-giving Turkey!

As you all know, it was Thanksgiving last weekend, most of you have probably celebrated it with your parents and had some good old fashioned turkey with the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, the gravy, the mashed potatoes, the pumkin pie, the sugar pies, the vegetables. My Thanksgiving did not go as planned. The day before Thanksgiving I was at my boyfriend's house where we were playing MarioKart Wii. My best friend Andrea who now lives with her dad in Newmarket, had decided to drive down and surprise us at his house. Boy was I shocked! We had all started to talk, and hang out, by then it was around 11. After this, Andrea had asked me to stay over at her house, but see, I had to get my parent's permission of course, but by the time I got in the house, my parents were sound asleep. I didn't want to wake them up, so I thought, why not let the kittens do the job for me? I opened their bedroom door, slowly walked in without making a sound, and placed the kittens on their bed. I walked out, then I heard my mom coughing, I thought to myself ''GREAT! She's up!­­'' I walked back into the room, and let her know that I was going over to Andrea's and will be going back to Shaun's house bright and early in the morning. As we got to her house, it was about quarter to one in the morning, and I was dead tired, yawning constantly. Her mom was still up, and we decided to go into Shopper's Drug Mart and buy some munchies for a movie night. We started to watch Dexter while eating chocolate and chips. I started to fall asleep about 10 minutes into the DVD. The same morning, I had woken up with an unbelievable neck pain, it had been because Andrea took up the whole couch! We woke up around 7:45am, in order to get to Shaun's for about 8:30 since Andrea had to drive back to Newmarket for 10. We decided to do a wakeup call, and boy was he surprised! Andrea had left around 9, and I decided to take a nap. By the time I had gone home, it was around 3, I was dragging myself up the stairs. For once in my life, I was not looking forward to the delicious Thanksgiving meal. I had fallen asleep in my room, even with my aunt and uncle downstairs, and got woken up around 6. I went down to eat, the food was just not working for me, so I decided to go back upstairs and get my beauty sleep. I started to smell some pie, but decided not to go back downstairs. I had slept my way through Thanksgiving!

Something New

I was thinking about it in class today, and I've come to the conclusion that I'll be doing something a little different than the others. I will post a music video that I'm in love with once a month. This month, well actually it's been one of my favourites for the past couple months, but it plays on the Country station on TV, and also on the radio at 95.9, and 95.3. This song is called SarahBeth sung by Rascall Flatts. The song is about a teenaged girl who has just been diagnosed with cancer, and it explains how she deals with it, and how she finds out. The saddest part for me, is probably the chorus, and the last verse, it talks of her going off to prom with her first love. Not only did she lose her hair by then, her love shaved his head too in order to make her feel more comfortable. This is probably one of the first few videos that have managed to bring me to tears. I find the video really shows us how it's like to be diagnosed with cancer, and that it could happen to so many young people. With my mom being a breast cancer survivor, and my uncle just recently going through chemotherapy for lung cancer, it affects me that much more. If anyone you know is diagnosed with any type of cancer, this song really reaches out to you.

The Pressure's On

It is our last year here at Garnier, most of us have been here for 6 years already! It's crazy how fast it went by! This being our final last year, the college and university field is weighing in. It's already stressing me out by having to pick at least 3 colleges to apply to, plus another two, just in case. I have looked at programs at different universities, it's amazing. I can remember being in grade 7 like it was yesterday. Time really does fly by alot faster than you can imagine. Picking colleges and universities can be quite challenging. We have to figure out what programs we want, where we want to go, there's alot of pressure there. We still have a couple of more months to figure it out, but for early acceptance, it's already this month where you need to apply! It's crazy! For those of you who still don't know what to do, now's the time to see a guidance counsellor and try to narrow your interests into a program. I'm set, but there's still that pressure into what I'm going to do afterwards, and if I even get accepted! I've got my fingers crossed for Fleming College, where I would be renting a house with one of my best friends, Victoria, who is already a student at Fleming. The upside is that it's not too far away from home in case anything happens, but it's still living without the parents! I never thought the day would come!

The Lottery

The very first time that I read the short story '' The Lottery '' was back in 2007, I don't really remember what my first reaction to it was. I think I was a little shocked with the whole outcome, with the person who had a black spot dies. It was a little twist that I wasn't expecting, but then this morning, when we had a discussion about what it could symbolize, and we started to give examples. I was starting to realize, we base our lives on our own morals, but we can't decide our fate. It is not in our control to be born where we were born, or who our parents are, or what country we were born in. It was our fate. Although, living where we are, we start to build our personnalities that are formed by the ones who surround us, and the problems we have to face. We can be in control of our lives, when I see people on TV, where the drugs and alcohol ruin their lives, it's because they were the ones who decided to try it, and they were the ones who knew what it could do to them, yet they did it anyways. It is not in our hands to decide the fate of another human being. We do not have the rights to that. When people who murder others, they are put in jail for a certain reason, who are they to say that it's their time? It is not our responsibility to decide the other one's fate.

My first Big Leagues Game!

This is definitely a night to remember. It all started out with my dad's boss who happened to get the hockey tickets from a contractor. He offered them to my dad, and he sure took them! The tickets were over 180$! We got them for free, but the greatest part, they were amazing seats, row 24! It was Saturday night at the ACC, a pre-season game between Stanley Cup Champions, the Detroit Red Wings, and the Maple Leafs. I was ecstatic for the whole day, as soon as I walked into that arena, it was finally hitting me that I was at the big leagues. I had gone with my dad, the game didn't start until 7 o'clock, but of course, I was too anxious, and decided to get there for 6. The clock was counting down on the big screen to game time. About a half hour before, both teams had come out on the ice and started to warm up. I started recognizing a few names, Hossa, Cleary, Osgood, Joseph, Antropov, Pogge, Meech, Blake! I was getting pretty into it. Throughout the game there was alot of contact, which is why I love that sport so much. There were a couple of fights that occured on the ice, and you can bet I was standing on my feet yelling " FIGHT! FIGHT! " The twist of that, at the same time as the big fight was happening on the ice, there was a big outbreak in the stands! There were several security guards that were breaking it up, and a couple of cops. It was so intense to have seen that at the same time as the game. I had alot of Leaf fans around me, which I wasn't too fond of, I would boo everytime the Leafs scored, and cheer when the Wings made a goal. It was amazing to hear the pucks and the sticks hitting the ice, the cheers of the crowd, it was an amazing night. I suggest you just for once, to go see a Big League game, it really is worth the money to go once in a while. I even ended up on the big screen twice! That doesn't happen to everyone. I will never forget that night, it was unbelieveable! Detroit had won 4-3, it was a close game. The Leafs had 23 shots, while Detroit had 20 shots, if I remember correctly.

A Must-Read Author

Some of you may not know, but I hate reading books, and by the word hate, I mean can't stand reading a book! The worst books to read are the ones they make you read at school, especially the french ones. They're always about stupid subjects. Although, I will admit that I did like '' The Outsiders '' and also '' Lord of the Flies '' they were alright. But the ones that get me going, are the crime books written by famous author, Max Haines. For my 17th birthday, I asked for some good crime stories. My dad bought me 3, 2 of which were written by Max Haines. So far, I'm reading the biggest book I've ever laid a hand on, and I LOVE it! It's The Collected Works of Max Haines, Volume 5. It's a big book, combined with a bunch of little 4-5 page stories. The way he writes, is as if you were there, in those times. There are 3 parts, Celebrity Murders and other Nefarious Deeds, Which includes; Charlie Chaplin, Jimmy Hoffa, Martin Luther King, Ted Kennedy, John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe, O.J Simpson, and many many more. Murders strange but True, and Murder most Foul, which I can't wait to read! Max Haines is an incredibly good author; he uses an unbelievable technique that connects the readers to the story. If you are a crime fanatic, his books would be my number 1 choice to read!