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The Legend of Korra was the successor to the immensely praised animated Nickelodeon show, Avatar: The Last Airbender. One question that has been on the minds of fans of both shows has been “Is this an anime?” Today, I will choose to talk about the more recent of the two, The Legend of Korra. In my opinion, The Legend of Korra falls under a specific grey-zone in between western animation and the genre known as anime. Anime is defined as “a style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children” by the Oxford dictionary. In this case, I would not define The Legend of Korra as an anime, seeing as the show, like Avatar, is an American-network (Nickelodeon) production. Be that as it may, there is something else that we must take into consideration about The Legend of Korra: nine episodes were animated by a Japanese animation company, Studio Pierrot while the other forty-three were animated by a Korean animation studio, Studio Mir. So, while the idea of the television program was created by a Western company, the show itself was animated, in part, by a Japanese studio that had already previously produced countless animes. Hence, Korra falls in an unclear spot in the middle. It is also worth noting that the definition of anime is not crystal-clear. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines anime as “a style of animation originating in Japan that is characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes.” In this case, because of Korra’s anime-like style and genre, it would be undoubtedly considered an anime. In my opinion, The Legend of Korra cannot be fully defined as a cartoon, nor as an anime. To say it is a cartoon would put it in the same category with shows like Steven Universe or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and that does not seem entirely appropriate, seeing as Korra is much more action-centered and less whimsical than most children’s cartoons. To say it is an anime would also be incorrect because Korra was not conceived in Japan. In conclusion, The Legend of Korra is neither a cartoon nor is it an anime because of its contradictory characteristics.
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The film “Suicide Squad” is a film about a ragtag group of supervillains captured and forced to do good by the government.
Overall the film in my opinion was subpar, not bad but not super (pun intended.) I found that some of the jokes and scenarios in the film were supposed to be kneeslappers. But they just fell flat, for instance at one point in the film Deadshot (Will Smith) said a line then there came a pause… there was no laughter whatsoever. The overall story didn’t fit together at some points, sometimes the film felt like Momento (but not in a good way.) But the film was good if you block out the negatives, there were jokes when you would here nearly the whole theatre laugh and some points when you could actually feel for some of the characters (I will tell you that moment in the spoiler section) At first the characters seem one sided and boring you didn’t care about them at all. But about half way there was a scene that you started to care about the characters and put some kind of direness in the movie because you think these characters could die. spoiler section One negative that I’m sure you have heard of by now is that there was a serious push in the promotion that joker will be a semimain if not main character. Sadly there where LITERALLY 4 scenes of him in the movie (trust me, I counted) which kind of ticked me off because the scenes with the joker were some of the best in the film. Anyway the scene I was talking about earlier was after a bad scene that had horrible pacing they went into a bar and talked and relaxed one of the only calm scenes in the entire movie when the characters motivations and backstory revealed. -------------------------------end of spoiler section------------------------------- In conclusion the Suicide Squad is a smudged masterpiece, a film that could be perfect but due to bad editing and intervening producers became a jumbled mess. For a better version of the film I highly recommend watching whatculture’s how they should have made suicide squad. Here’s the link https://youtu.be/uahcsm_8LI The Manchester derby is a match between Manchester United and Manchester City, the two teams are rivals and whenever they play it's exiting and tense. The derby happens two-three times a season. On September 10, 2016 the derby took plays in Old Trafford stadium, the home of Manchester united. With the game being play in Manchester United stadium, with Manchester City missing their best player Sergio Aguero, and with Manchester United new signings of Zlatan Ibrahimović and Paul Pogba, Manchester City looks like they were in for a smack down. But when the game started everything changed Manchester city came out fly, blowing by the Manchester United defense men like they were pylons. In the 15th minute something crazy happened, Kolarov shot the ball halfway down the field Ihneanacho headed it Kevin De Bruyne, De Bruyne tipped the ball past the defender and buried it bottom left. Manchester United was shocked. Their new signing Paul Pogba did nothing all game, and their new star Zlatan Ibrahimović had no help and couldn't do everything by himself. In the 36th minute Kevin De Bruyne took the ball into the box, cut in and shot, everyone frozen, but the ball hit the post bounced right out to Ihneanacho and he tapped the ball past De Gea and scored. Manchester United was devastated, but in the 43rd minute Manchester United got a free kick from almost center field. They crossed the ball into the box Claudio Bravo ran out and punched the ball, but when he went to punch the ball he jumped onto a defender and he fell, Zlatan Ibrahimović kicked the ball into the open net and scored. The referee blew for half time. The score was 2-1 for Manchester City. The second half of the game was tense, but nobody scored. The game finished 2-1 Manchester City. I hope Manchester city continues their amazing winning streak and I hope they win the Premier League.
Iaido is a sport that I have been practicing for the past three years of my life. It is a martial art that uses the iconic sword, the Katana, as a primary weapon and revolves around discipline of the mind and body (I know that that sounds very cliché). Canada is one of the main countries that practices Iaido outside of Japan, and last weekend, it hosted the second Canadian National Iaido Championship at John Abbott College. As soon as I found out about this, I signed up to compete, as this event takes place once every three years and it will not be in Montreal the next time. I arrived early in the morning so I could start practicing and preparing to compete before everyone else. The school was mostly empty when I arrived, but over the course of an hour it filled up with hundreds of others preparing to compete and some of the highest ranking Iaido masters in the world. I continued to practice for about forty-five minutes before I was stopped and told to get in line to compete. I arrived at the court where I was to compete and saw that the top ranking Iaido master in the world was judging me. My heartbeat started to increase and my hands were shaking as if I was in freezing weather. I stepped forward along with my competitor beside me, although he seemed much more calm than I did. And that was my mistake. Every one of my cuts was perfect and I did everything correctly, but the judges were able to see that I was nervous and that lost me the match. Even though I did lose, I learned that you don’t always need to win to feel happiness and satisfaction. As long as you know that you did your best and that you couldn’t do any better, you should feel proud of yourself and your abilities. Oh, I also became the youngest Iaido black belt in Canada.
We all have voices in our heads telling us the opposite of who we are. We also have a devil side and an angel side choosing a voice to stand up. We listen to the voices inside our heads because they are the ones that are controlling our minds. The devil and the angel on our shoulders are willing to hurt us and make the wrong choice because all they want is to win, they are their own enemies. Our voices inside our heads are the enemy. We tell ourselves in the mirror that we’re ugly, fat, too skinny and different. You seem to think that the anonymous voices are hurting you but they are actually your own voices telling you things that aren’t pretty about you. People seem to care about their looks and how they’re dressed, but all of us do have a say that we are all not perfect, we make mistakes but we learned from them. We don’t let people bring us down because we are stronger than we think even when you’re not letting the voices inside your head lose. Sometimes we just have to think positive and take a deep breath and say, “Today is an opportunity not a tragedy’’. We also tell ourselves from the voices that we are doing something wrong. We don’t have time to say that we are beautiful because we are not brave enough to say it. Don’t listen to the voices inside your head, there is already a war inside your head deciding what to do next. Listen to yourself and be happy with who you are.
If you're a student you definitely remember this feeling, if you're an adult, try to. The feeling of pure joy and happiness as you walk out the front doors on the last day of school, free to do whatever you want for the summer. Leaving school is more than that for me, it is the excitement of going home. I’m not talking about my house, you always hear the expression home is where the heart is, well if that is true then my cottage and the people there are my home. I have been there my whole life, I don’t expect you to understand, let me try to get you to feel a tiny bit of what I feel for these people. Close your eyes and Imagine the feeling of your mom kissing you on your forehead and your dad cuddling you after you’ve had a nightmare. Imagine laughing as hard as you can and being able to trust someone one hundred percent. That's what I feel for the people each and every one of them. Now you're thinking no one can feel this strongly about people who aren't in their family, she is probably exaggerating, but they are my family. I grow up with them, I tell them everything and although I may be happy to be back to school, nothing will ever compare to that feeling I get when I walk out the front doors on the last day of school, free to go to my home.
So, during the long weekend I went camping. I went to Murphy’s point with my immediate family, my aunt, and cousin (we also brought our dog, Jack). During the trip, we visited an abandoned mica mine (mica is a shiny sedimented rock, it was a predecessor of glass and it’s now used in cosmetics). It was really interesting because on the 1K trail there they had a few little stands that showed how they moved the mica, how they split it, how they recognised it, and etc. When we got to the mine entrance, the draft coming from the mine was insane, when you walked in front of the entryway- it was like there was an over performant air conditioner in there. When you entered the shaft of the mine, the ground was shiny and slippery because of the mica in the rock (thankfully there was railings). Once you entered the mine, the first thing you saw was that on your right there was a lot of greenery, then you look up and you see that there is an opening to the surface.It’s intriguing and beautiful because the plants look like they’re falling into the opening and then seeping away when the shadow hits them. Then, you see a man in a bowler hat with a classic, working class, industrial era Brit accent. After that you saw the two water basins in the cave, the first one led out to another exit, but the second one seemed shallow, upon closer observation you noticed that the black in the middle of the basin isn't a reflection of the top of the cave, it just goes down that deep. Then we went to the man with the bowler hat and he explained that he was the foreman of the mine and he was looking for hire. He explained the three jobs in the mine. Just a little side note, one of the guys that was in the mine said that last year there was ice in the water basins. That night we slept well, after working in the mine.
So I Felt as though this is a subject that must be talked about, anyway, touchy subjects, what are they? In my own words they are things that people do not want to tell people or they are not generally meant to be talked about. Some examples that I can think about are: Bullying, Depression, Relationships, and it gets worse. But let’s say a close friend of yours confides in you about a situation, if it is something that you may be able to help with, by all means you should help. If it is a bullying situation it does not have as many repercussions as an abuse situation would. Now this brings me to the main topic again, is it the right thing to tell a teacher? In a family situation, it will take your own judgement for if it will make the situation better or worse, for example if an issue is simply in the past and is not happening anymore you can only really comfort your friend. But with something that is still going on, like if abuse is going on that is when you intervene. Now, with a different situation, molestation or rape, which I am aware I should not be talking about but I wanted to talk about how bad it can be, if someone was molested it is in the past and you can only comfort them, but then there’s the argument that this person is still out there, is it the right thing to do? Once again, like in every other situation, use your own judgement.
I believe that school dress codes undermine gender equality. There are so many dress codes rules, but have you ever noticed they are mostly directed towards girls? No noodle straps, shorts below your fingertips, shirt overlapping your pants, no bra straps visible, all these things are meant for girls. You rarely find a rule limiting the items that guys can wear to school, although I find it is equally as inappropriate when guys pull their pants below their underwear. Yet there aren’t any rules for them. When girls get cited for breaking the code and ask why, the most valid reason anyone gives us is that it distracts the guys. No one has ever asked us if anything the guys wear distracts the girls to make our education a distraction-free place. There are limits for what we could come to school wearing, but there are none for boys, except for removing their hats. Therefore they get to wear whatever they want to school so they are comfortable, but the girls can’t out of concern for distracting the guys. They are showing her that hiding her body is more important than her own education and that making sure boys have a distraction-free place to learn is more important than her own education. This is showing girls that their education is less valued than the boys’, that even today in 2016, that people think girls aren’t as valued. All these little things that still show there is gender equality problems in the world.
I feel like everyone is so interested in material things that we forget everything around us. We are so obsessed with what others think that we forget ourselves. We are so concerned on what phone we have, which makeup brands we own and how our body looks that we forget to appreciate the simple things in life. We obliterate the important things because we are so caught up in everyone else’s life that we simply forget our own. We miss times with families so we can go shopping with friends. We miss those important special moments because we are on our phones checking our social media to see who liked our photo. We are so scared to get negative comments that we take thousands of photos to feel good about ourselves to just delete them all in the end. We need to be confident and not care what others think. We need to spend more time with the people who we love and who love us. The people who are never going to leave you. The people that are never going to gossip about you. The people who make you feel safe and accepted. These are the moments we need to cherish and these are the people and atmosphere we need to surround ourselves in. This is the only way in my opinion to really find yourself. The moment you stop being like everyone else, that is the moment where you will be able to look in the mirror and love yourself. That is the moment where you can say “I am who I am”.
Pop culture icons of the 21st century play a very big role in our society, all for the good of the people. There is no end to what they have done for us. One of these amazing people that should be acknowledge is Lilly Singh. Lilly also known as IISuperwomanII on youtube, is 27 years old and has over 9 million subscribers and fans. On December 28, 2015, she released a video called The #GirlLove Challenge. The goal of this challenge is to end hate from one girl to another. We are all in this together and all in the same place. We are all self conscious teenagers and adding hate to that, can be self destructive, especially at a young age. In society, girls are bullied because of their appearance, social status, friend group and sadly also because of their intelligence. This bullying is also from one girl to another, based on mostly jealousy. Lilly has created this challenge to stop the hate. The challenge #GirlLove is encouraging many people to think twice before doing anything harmful to another physically, emotionally and mentally. This video has done a lot to people and has helped them by making them take the challenge for themselves. Since most of her fans are teenage girls, many have made a difference to how they act towards others, especially at school and towards girls their age. Lilly Singh is a very memorable person. Like most other people on youtube and social media and she has put that to great use. Today was the Glee club tryouts at school, and as usual, I was incredibly nervous. I had to audition in front of a bunch of people, and it freaked me out so much to the point where I was shaking. Every year, I get so nervous and worked up about auditioning, and yet every year, I get up and sing. Afterwards, I’m fine and excited about the year to come.
After being a part of the Glee club for two years, you’d think I wouldn’t get nervous anymore. I would be used to the feeling of being in front of all these people and singing my heart out; but no. Every year, I almost decide it’s not worth it because I let fear take over and rule my life. It’s quite sad, to be honest, that I don’t do half the things that I want to, all because I’m afraid, and I think of all the worst possible outcomes if I go and do those things. There’s so much pressure in today’s society to be perfect in everything and succeed in everything you do. It’s causing so much unnecessary stress on everyone, and this makes it so hard for people to live their life to the fullest. We’re scared of failure, of being judged, of not fitting in, and yet we take no risks or do anything that we really want to do. We should learn to take more risks in life, and stop doubting ourselves. Hopefully doing those things can lead to a happier life. After all, we only get one. A Hazardous Black Hole: The Crushing Pressure Faced By High-School Students by Madison Kaiser9/21/2016 As the last summer sunset lights up the sky and we set our alarms to ungodly hours of the morning, it’s time for the return to school. But September doesn’t come without its hurdles. Climbing the grades, students feel a growing pressure to succeed, causing crushing stress. This pressure is a serious problem with a number of causes.
Many parents want their teen to thrive, be the top of their class, get 100% on a test. But what should be more important is their child’s mental well-being. We students need encouragement to succeed on the home front, but adults need to watch out for when the level of pressure or stress hits an unhealthy level. At those times we can’t see clearly, and need to be redirected from potentially dangerous paths. But pressure doesn’t always come from the outside: it can just as easily be caused by us, the students. We want to prove ourselves, push ourselves, be the best that we can be. That’s a great way to live, but if you don’t know when to stop, you’ll end up getting sucked into a black hole. It’s not too late: we can still change course, succeed and be happy at the same time. But if we fall, start sliding into darkness, that’s when we need our family, friends, and teachers, to grab our hands and pull. “The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time.” - Edwin Bliss How long can one treck through a desert of literature? Where all one can seem to read are flat, uninteresting YA ( young adult) novels? A place that is dry of adventure and new ideas? Well, it seems I’ve been stuck for a long time, and it seems as if there is no way out. Sometimes I find a small oasis, one book that keeps my interest for that time, but then I finish it and can’t seem to find another. Then I am once again thrown back into the search for another series, but I feel as if almost every book I pick up that is for young adults/teens seems to be flat and boring, with not much of a storyline and very undeveloped characters. I’ve even tried doing searches on the internet, with a little luck, but then I’m back to waiting. For someone who reads far more than she should, even a few months can feel like an eternity without a good book. I feel as if this desert will never end, or when I do find a book I’ll find an escape but then be kicked out and thrown back into this on stretching landscape of boredom. Call me over-dramatic, but I surely can’t be the only one who feels this way.
It seems as if most authors are writing to become famous and to make money, rather than to simply get an idea out and write for the pleasure of storytelling. Time after time, most books I’ve read seem to follow a certain pattern. I have noticed that if a certain book does well, many other authors will attempt to mimic it. This pattern makes certain genres come in waves of popularity. An example of this is when The Hunger Games came out and did very well, with Divergent following closely after ( Divergent being a “mimic” of The Hunger Games), there were dozens upon dozens of books taking place in a dystopian, post apocalyptic setting. The problem with this is that firstly, not all authors can write a book in the 'trending’ genre well and readers such as I, who prefer stories of epic fantasy or something that isn’t 'trending', are stuck scrounging book review sites and libraries just to find one book to read. Not only this, but because most authors are writing simply to make money, when the 'trending' genre of my preference does come around the stories that come with it are not usually of the greatest quality. Sometimes the author is just palpably bad at writing, but I’ve noticed another pattern. Not only will authors try to mimic the latest highest grossing book but they will either try to mimic one that had done well in the past or try to be too original. The problem with this is that it can get horribly confusing and sometimes strange to the point of misunderstanding. An author should only write if their idea is bursting at the seams of their mind, a rocket ready to launch. Please,at least do it ( or refrain from doing it) for the sake of us bookworms.
Roller coasters… even the word sent shivers down my spine until today. I’ve realized something about myself that I had never realized before. Since I can remember, roller coasters scared the living daylights out of me, but to my surprise that changed. It all started when my brother had asked me if I wanted to go to the LaRonde amusement park. The excitement I felt to go was short lived when I realized that there would be rides, including roller coasters. The thought alone made me scared out of my mind... but it was too late to back out of going so I sucked it up and left. When we finally arrived to the place where I was sure would be the end of my life, we met up with other people who were so keen on doing the most intense roller coasters available at the park. I swore to myself that they were the craziest people I had ever met. Until I rode my first roller coaster. The rickety old ‘Monster’ coaster that was built in 1985 was the beginning to my new found love for the fast pace, dropping and flipping mechanical creator of amusement that is ROLLER COASTER. From that first amazing ride, my braveness and joy grew. The next ride we went on was the highest at the park with the steepest drop. I absolutely loved it. By the end of the day, my heart was filled with amusement and thrill. I decided to do the most intense coaster there; The Vampire. It went backwards and did more flips and quick turns than I could have ever counted. So today, I can say with a passion, that I love roller coasters and equally love the thrill of dropping at top speed. Sometimes, you can find something that brings you joy in the least expected places.
I’m sitting at the dinner table eating this amazing dinner. The wonderful smells and pleasant atmosphere have inspired me to write this blog. My whole family, including two of my good friends, are seated around me. My dad, using his newest obsession, the barbecue, had spent a good hour grilling our meal. The result of his hard work is this gorgeous platter of meat placed before my eyes. Finally, everyone has arrived home and they are getting peckish. Not being too hungry myself, I didn’t really mind eating so late. My friends were another story, they’d had nagged me for food all night. After many pillow fights and wrestling matches, they were very eager to eat. We dig in and the supper is fantastic. Everyone is passing the food around the table, feasting on whatever pleases their eyes. The meat is gone before anyone could even think about having a second helping. As always, the vegetables are the last to go. My grandparents just arrived at my house. My grandfather went over to my sister at the far end of the table to wait for my parents to finish cooking his meal. I’m pretty sure he and my sister have gotten into an argument about who’s smarter or something like that. Sadly, the dinner has come to an end. We all get up to rinse our plates and stack them in the already overflowing dishwasher. My friends and I are now off to take a walk to the park up the road. We shouldn't be there long because it’s getting late anyways and my street is frightening at night. I’d better be off!
When we are young, we are given this ideal concept of beauty from society. Whether we are at the grocery store, the corner store to pick something up, or even at the dentist, we see magazines sitting on tables or for sale. The headlines always read about how some celebrity has changed their appearance drastically and are looking better than ever, or even people’s tips to losing weight. Immediately, we’re influenced by that, we become used to these abnormal and hard to achieve beauty standards; criticism becomes mainstream as well. When we get dressed to go out, you don’t wear what you want, but how you want to be seen to fit in, for others to have satisfaction. We have to disguise our personality to be able to “fit in”. But at the end of the day when you look at yourself in the mirror you see the real you. The one with bags under your eyes from the lack of sleep, the one with messy hair, chapped lips and lifeless eyes. We are no longer happy with ourselves. We tend to see a lot of billboards, and the models are always “beautiful” by society's expectations. Ads on tv for stores, or even the windows of stores, have models that are so different from everyone else but we don’t realize that. It’s like we are wearing a mask society has put on us, one that isn’t peeled off enough. We don’t see beauty because we were taught that beauty is a full face of makeup, perfect teeth, and shiny hair. We see someone completely different, somebody only we have seen; we don’t feel beautiful because we are taught that we aren’t.
You’re standing in front of a class, your face starts to turn red and your hands begin to shake. The words you have practiced for hours on end come out in mumbles, everyone's eyes are locked on you. You seem to be paralyzed, people begin to whisper and your heart pounds. Welcome to the everyday life of a shy or socially anxious person. Speaking from a perspective of someone who is extremely shy, I can say the school is one of the main sources of stress and can cause an overload of pressure. From speaking in front of the class to oral presentations it is not an easy time for people who can’t control their paranoia. Teachers always say that speaking in front of the class can help your fear when it can actually cause more bad than good. Students with an extreme fear of this can have panic attacks and knowing that a presentation is coming up can take a toll on their health. It can cause sleep deprivation, lack of eating and in some extreme cases depression. Although I do believe it is good to step outside of your comfort zone and sometimes I do think people need a push. I do not believe students should be pushed to the point of breaking. Although it does not necessarily have to be the cause of the teachers it can be caused by other parties as well. Such as the student striving to be brave and confident like a friend, by doing this is can cause too much anxiety while taking a path unknown. In some situations, it can really benefit the person and I do suggest leaving your personal boundaries, but at the speed you wish to proceed. Pushing yourself over the edge won’t benefit you or make your anxiety go away any faster, if anything it can make it worse to quote Steve Maraboli, “I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear.”
The Change Between School and Summer
The change between school and summer was kind of hard. On a normal summer day, I would wake up late, at around ten o’clock. I would get dressed then I would either go for a bike ride, or jump on my trampoline. I would usually call my friends and we would go to our public pool after lunch. We would stay at the pool for around 3 hours than we would go home. It always felt like the summer days were longer. When I would get home from the pool, I would play some video games. Dinner would normally take place at around seven o’clock. After dinner my brother and I would watch a movie, than we would go to sleep. After school started my daily schedule really changed, especially mornings. Now I have to get up at 7:10 sharp every morning, to get to the bus on time. After waking up at 10 for the past 2 months it is pretty hard to wake up 3 hours earlier. I am also kind of moody in the morning, and moody doesn’t look good on me. Time is also hard to adjust to. Since we have homework, I no longer have enough time to play video games because of my bed time. Though the school year has started, I still have fun. I go for a bike ride now and then, or jump on my trampoline. It even feels like summer might have never ended. By Luca Della Rocca |
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