Razzberry Cheesecake everything about anything 

            I am sure that you have heard about the Stanley Cup final between Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins. If you haven’t then I will tell you about it. On Wednesday June 17th there was a hockey game but it was special because it was the seventh game in the Stanley Cup finals (There are seven rounds at the most.). The Stanley Cup is kind of just a big trophy but it is just so much more special. Vancouver lost 4-0.

            The real fans stayed calm and were proud and could recognize that Boston is a really good team as well. The other “fans“  weren’t as classy. They all went out and started a riot! I don’t know about you but I don’t think that a riot is going to change the scores to Vancouver’s favor especially considering that the riot went on long after the game was finished. They were setting cars on fire, fighting police,  and stabbing people! At least the stereo-type about the friendly Canadians is gone! (She said sarcastically) The news doesn’t show the actual fans being happy just to make it this far in the competition. It just shows the riot. Now Vancouver doesn’t look like a very nice place to visit. It is nice just not at the moment. I went on a field trip there and left the day before the game and the riot. It’s a little unnerving to think that one day your walking around with your friends having fun and the next day people are beating people up just for liking another team. I think that hockey is a poor excuse to get seriously injured. 

            Now there is a big mess with broken windows, flipped and burnt cars, other assorted burnt items, glass everywhere and lot’s and lot’s of who knows what else. Who’s going to clean it up? Professinial cleaners have been hired but the real fans and other good samaritans are actually helping to clean up! I know that the rioters wouldn’t help clean up the mess they made because they weren’t smart enough to realize that they shouldn’t be in a riot and they probably aren’t smart enough to realize that they should help clean up. I would help clean up too but I don’t live there and I’m not old enough to go there all alone. If you could help what would you do?

CCflickr image vancouver_riot-5 by Mark Donovan Vancouver released under a CC Attribution Noncommercial share alike license

Last week was challenge 2! I am a little late but what is a girl to do right? I have become a member or bought things from these sites:

Now:

• Facebook
• Gmail
• iTunes/Apple
• Glogster
• Edublogs (Of Course!)
• Picnik
• Twiducate
• Moodle

When I was younger:

• Webkinz
• Club Penguin
• Ty Girls
• Ty Beanie Babies 2.0

Most websites ask for the same information. What country do you live in, phone number, email address and sometimes postal code. If you have to pay for an item you need to put in a credit card number. I had to answer most of those when signing up for those websites. When I googled my name I didn’t find any pictures of me and I was suprised that I didn’t find any because of Facebook. I suppose I am leaving quite a large footprint behind and that probably isn’t a good thing. In the future I will only sign up for things I really need to and I will cancel the memberships that I no longer use. Do you sign up for a lot of sites? Do you buy items online? Be careful because the more personal information you put online the less privacy you have. I will be a lot more careful from now on. How will you minimize the size of your footprint?

CC Flickr image: 42: Feb 11 by chrysics under a CC – Attribition – Noncommercial license

The blogging challenge has started this week. The blogging challenge is where you do a new blogging activity every week for 10 weeks. I am really excited about the blogging challenge because it will help build my blogging skills. I really hope that by the end of the blogging challenge I am a better blogger. Are you doing the Blogging Challenge? To find out what my blog is all about click here!

Challenge one

CC flickr image: mouse by BOSSoNe0013 Released under a CC Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike License.

There are all kinds of music. For example: short jingles, educational songs, pop, rock and cheesy love songs about how some guy just lost his girlfriend. There are countless types of music genres. Do you have a favourite? My favourite is pop. (Like most girls my age.) I am not the best at making music and I don’t know if I can really dance to it but I try anyway because it is fun and a way of expressing myself. How do you express yourself?

When I listen to music my mood changes. If I am sad or angry I can listen to music and feel a lot more happy. If i sing along and start dancing I feel extremely  happy. How does music make you feel? Music can also make me feel sad if it is a sad song that a can relate to. The typo (speed) of a song can also affect someones mood. A fast and sad song wouldn’t quite have the same feeling as a slow sad song would.

Music is everywhere from a super market to a dance party and everywhere in between. I think that is a good thing because I love msic. Do you like listening to music everywhere you go ? Without music life would be very bland. Imagine a horror movie without music. How lame would that be? It wouldn’t even be scary. That is why music is so important to me.

Image: boom box by: Jenn and Tony Bot released under a CC Attribution Noncommercial license

In class we have been talking about Internet safety or what I like to call Inter-safety. Being safe on the Internet is very important to me. You never know who will be online. There can be some strange people on the internet and you could be talking with some at any second of the day but I don’t want to scare you I just want to make you aware of who is out there.

Here are some simple ways to keep yourself safe on the Internet. If you meet someone and you seem to be getting friendly with them don’t make any real life plans because they might not be who they say they are. You should also be careful of what pictures or videos you put on the web because you never know who will see it. Some people might also get the wrong idea and there are endless amounts of bad possibilities that could happen.

February 8th was safer internet day! Safer Internet day is basically to remind people to be safe on the Internet but not just that day but everyday. People think that the Internet is just this cozy little place for just you and your friends but it isn’t. It is called the world wide web for a reason. Do you know what that reason is? It is because it is world wide! Anybody can see what you put on the Internet and most of the time that isn’t a good thing. Once you put somethig on the internet you can’t get rid of it. Chances are that a seargh engine has scanned it and added it to it’s memory, so anybody can search it up later.  That is why you need to be careful on the Internet.

  CC flickr image: keyboard by Kekka released under a CC Attribution license.

On February 23 it is Pink Shirt Day! If you do not know what that is I can tell you. Pink Shirt Day is basically an anti-bullying day and you wear a pink shirt to show that you support it. Many children have been bullied still being bullied now but I don’t want that to be the case. I want a world where bullying doesn’t exist. What do you think?

I have never been bullied so I must know something kids who have been bullied don’t and I would like to share my knowledge with you. First of all you want try to ignore the bully because if you don’t react  the bully won’t have as much “fun” and leave you alone. If that doesn’t work, and the bullying continues, hang out with a group of friends. Like they always say, “There’s safety in numbers!” Lastly if it is still going on then you should tell an adult. After all that your bully problems should be done.

Now that you have read this far you are probably wondering: Why is it a pink shirt? Isn’t pink the breast cancer colour? I will now tell you why it is pink. A few years ago a grade nine boy was bullied for wearing a pink shirt. A couple of grade 12 student decided to make sure that this would stop. They bought a bunch of pink shirts and alerted other students to wear pink the next day. A lot of people borrowed the pink shirts that the grade 12 students bought and even more people brought their own. I would be willing to bet that the bullies were very surprised when they saw so many pink shirts.

I plan to stop bulling by stepping in. I will not just be a bystander. What will you do to stop bullying?

image: pink shirt by Huzzah Vintage released under a CC Attribution Noncommercial license

 I think art is a way of expressing myself. There are many different types of art such as dance, music and of coarse pictures both hand made and from a camera. In my class we have been learning about and artist named Jackson Pollock also known as Jack the Dripper. The picture that you see on this post is in a Jackson Pollock type style. I made it and you can create your own.

Pollock used unusual supplies to paint his pictures.  He would get great texture  by putting broken glass or sand in his paint to make it bumpy. Pollock would also pour paint onto the canvas straight out of the can! He could get paint to be about one foot thick and wavy. Talk about texture.

Many artists have value in their art but I am not talking about dollar value. In art value is kind of like different shades of a colour such as dark purple and light purple. I think Pollock used value in his art because my virtual painting has many different shades of colours and I made it on a Jackson Pollock website.

There are all kinds of shapes in the world. Jackson Pollock painted a lot of different shapes most of which probably don’t even have a name. Most of his shapes were things like sploshes and splashes and maybe even your occasional splat. Even made up shapes are still shapes though.

I personally think Pollock used a lot of form. Form is when shapes are bent or put together to make width and height. Like I said before the paintings he made could sometimes be up to one foot thick. That’s what I call width and height.

Jackson Pollock used a lot of lines in his art. There are all kinds of lines such as curvy, straight and even zig zag. I think most of Pollocks art was made with all sorts of lines. Lines can be used for just about anything from a circular like form as kind of a head on a drawn person to a tail on a cat or dog.

Space is where you use flat objects to make it look like something is faraway just by angling your camera right, or if you are drawing a picture making the object smaller and more to the top of the canvas.

People might put colour in there art but they might not because black and white painting are very nice. Pollock used alot of colour. I think that if he didn’t use colour then his art wouldn’t have the charisma that it has.

There are some differences between my virtrual painting and a real Jackson Pollock painting. One difference is that mine has no texture because it is just on a computer screen. Another difference is that mine has no form. Do you see any width and hieght in my picture? I don’t. The last difference is that Pollock used actual painting supplies (some of the time) to create his art and I used a computer.

This year we have learned a little bit about Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is the place where new years resolutions first started but back then they were about farming.  Their year started in the spring when they planted seeds for crops to grow.  For 2011, I chose four new years resolutions.One of them is personal another is about school and the last two are local and global.

I will start with my personal goal because I think it will be the hardest. I am trying to eat healthier foods, eat smaller portions, less or no snacks and work out. I will do this because I care about my health and want to live to be 10o years old. To help me eat healthier foods I will ask for less junk food in the house, eat veggies when they are served to me and at a restaurant if they ask if I want a side of fries or a salad I will ask for salad.

Now I will talk about my school goal because who doesn’t like school? (some of the time.) For my school resolution I am going to study for tests. I know what your thinking: “Wow, you don’t study for tests? How do you get by in school?” My mom is always confused because my brother and I both don’t study and we somehow pass our tests. I am going to study anyway because it can’t hurt right? To do this I will bring study sheets home and actually use them, ask for help when needed and whenever I have free time I will study.

Now let’s look at my local goal. My local goal is to donate to the SPCA once a year. I want to do this because I feel really horrible for all the animals there. They break my heart. To do this I will save $1.00 a month until my birthday in June, ask for money for my birthday and donate that along with my savings, and I will remind myself that it is a little bit of money for a great cause.

To finish off I will tell you about my global goal. My global goal is to donate $40.00 to WWF once every 4 months. I want to do this because I am a little bit of a hippy and really want to change the planet for the better. I can do this because every 4 months my allowance adds up to $80.00 so I think I can spare half of that for the animals.

I usually just keep my goals for 2 days, so I haven’t been very successful with them in the past. I really think I will actually follow through with my goals this time because I feel very strongly about them this year.

image: New years hat by hownowdesign released under a CC Attribution Noncomercial No Derivitive Works license

In class we have been working on creating a dance routine using pivot stick figure animation. It has been really fun making this dance. It was kind of hard to think of the choreography but I just had to think less and just think outside the box. I picked the cardinal background  because I always imagine a Christmas card with a cardinal and some snow. That just sounds really pretty to me. Here is my Dance Off  routine. I hope you enjoy it!

Allie’s Dance Off from Jaki Braidwood on Vimeo.

Do you have A dog? If not you should. On November 5thI got an Irish wolfhound puppy. His name is Merlin. He is very big. When I say big I mean big. He will be almost as tall as me when he is full grown. They look like giant terriers. My friend Jenny has seen him and my other friend Lexi has not seen him but really wants to. Merlin is so cute. I could just eat him up! I can pet his back without bending down. He likes to bite everything but mostly my family and I. We all have cuts and bite marks all over our arms, but at the end of the day I always forgive him.

image: wolfhoundby *jame* released under a CC Attribution- share alike