Wednesday, November 24, 2010

School Schmool

Today I officially decided to be done with school.  I don't like it and it doesn't like me.  What pushed me over the edge was the lack of creative thinking and the oppression of change introduced by the students.  Of course if the teachers decided to make changes we would have no say and it go to a silly board discussion.  Someone who I don't want to spend the time and look up their name said that America's education was being destroyed because of our safety concerns and the cautions taken because of them.  Kids are no longer allowed to throw snowballs, make snow forts, goof around in the hall because someone in the school might get sued and that would be the end of the world.  I am not suggesting being sued is an easy thing to deal with rather that our society must blame someone for everything which I am suggesting is bad.  No longer do kids get the opportunity to run through the park because of the stalker we all fear is out there.  A society with no risks is hardly better than a bunch of robots.
My own unique situation was more about school policy and traditions.  Four times a year the school puts on a recognition assembly where all the people who excelled in academics (B average and above), did some fantastic sport thing, did some fantastic art thing, or participated in some big community deal are recognized.  Every year since I was in grade eight the assemblies have been boring ordeals that you can't wait for the end of because your butt has fallen asleep on the terrible seating.  The assemblies consist of reading out the names of those that should be recognized, clapping and then going for an extra long lunch.  I guess they even out the bad with the good.  So this year the grade 12 students were supposed to organize the assembly all by themselves and have a cracking good time.  We had one teacher that was on our side, promoting creativity and individuality, who helped us out.  Our new idea was to present the academic recognition in house team order with highest average house team presented and highest individual in the house team presented.  The idea was to mix it up, make it more fun, and a little more involving.  That didn't fly.  They (the teachers) wanted a normal assembly with a few new touches such as entertainment.  Moral of that story.  Don't tell them what your doing, just do it and surprise them.  That way they can only be mad at you until they see how well it worked.
Building on this and going more general I have been recently discouraged with how the whole school works.  For example, today in grade 11 physics we were watching a Bill Nye wave movie.   It wasn't bad but it only lasted 23 minutes which left us with 45 minutes to play cards and chat around.  That means most of the class is just for fun.  Why not just make the school days go to 12 noon and then be done?  That would also be bad cause then the teachers wouldn't get enough money.  What is the solution to our systematic problem?

Sunday, November 21, 2010

MLS - My Life Silent

Just watching a tad of the MLS final between Colorado and Dallas and couldn't help but notice the intensity of the game.  It looks like those players out there are fighting for the equalizer in the last five minutes when in fact the game is tied at 0-0 and it's the 54th minute.  Remarkable!  I would liken it to hockey in all it's crude aggressive end to end switching, I was surprised they weren't body checking each other!  Of course it's not exactly what I enjoy watching but it is a nice break from some game where one team is content to just pass around and not make any daring offensive push.  Looks like the all around control could improve and especially the composure.  and a few decent shots.  and maybe some more sick dangles.  Can't win them all.  Haven't cared to look for the result.  I would put money on Dallas.
My real purpose for this post was to explain my Friday action, or inaction.  I participated in the i am silent vow of silence.  The reasoning behind this was in part to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the UN signing the declaration of children's rights and also to raise awareness of children who are exploited or are living in extreme poverty.  This went fairly well with my only intentional talk right before six in the morning when I was required to explain to my coworker why I wouldn't be talking or replying to him.  After that i made numerous mistakes, probably around eight, where words just slipped out of my mind either subconsciously or just forgetfully.  It was hard though to not talk. One of the major reasons was I couldn't put in my knowledge into conversations that were completely ill informed.  Note:whales including blue, sperm, humpback, etc, have sonar.  It is not exclusive to dolphins!  Listening to people talk about these things and knowing they were wrong was not an easy task.  Another hard part was the lack of talking.  Similar to when you sit in a chair the whole day and your body becomes restless my jaw and mouth became restless.  One more reason was that you wanted to tell someone something but couldn't and so you had to think about how you'd tell them the following day.
Most importantly, the things I learned and experienced far outweighed the hardships endured.  For one, I recognized that even though I was oppressing myself I was still being oppressed and that was not fun.  To live without the ability or right to be heard is something I think we all overlook.  We complain in this country for trivial things while people in other parts of the world are denied basic human rights and are forced to go through excruciating situations and experiences.  Even now, two days after, I often give a simple head nod where before I would have said something.  Talk is cheap unless it's meaningful.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Stinky socks

I feel quite clever at this moment.  I just thought up a title of this new post that eludes to two very different things. The first thing is the obvious.  I just finished cleaning up my soccer gear from Friday and Saturday.  The whole thing gave off quite the aroma.  I opened the bag and my thoughts shifted to my mom and sister who are talking on the phone being meanies.  My mom won't stop bothering me about my hurt arm, insisting that it's broken and i need to go to the hospital.  It most definitely isn't and I most definitely don't.  My sister is making fun of me calling me a 'sookeelala'.  But the bag was gross and I just finished putting shin guards, socks, and shorts in the laundry.  Then I took the boots out and put them outside on a rack to air out a little.
Now as I look back at the last paragraph I get a kick out of the suggested word for the 'misspeldded' word 'sookeelala'.  It comes up with zookeepers, saloonkeeper, salmonella, and someplace. Nothing remotely connected to my sister's meaning except for salmonella if you include sookeelalaness in your dictionary of diseases.
The second thing this post was supposed to talk about was the weather and how I am very socked in today.  It has been like this for the last week.  The fall and winter sometimes yield 60 days straight where I don't see the sun at all.  Kind of sucky if you ask me.  I'm feeling like this gray weather is not improving my mood which is bad because my sleep sucked cause my arm hurt to move.  I was wanting to go pick blackberries but the rain won't stop long enough for me to put my pants, jacket, socks, and hat on.  Maybe a movie night tonight.  Ran out of creative juice.  Anyone have a place where you can buy some, please post a comment and I  appreciate it.

Monday, September 13, 2010

The cost of Meat.

All of you who do not know as you shouldn't unless I'm known personally to you, I am a vegetarian.  If your one of those that are super picky I also eat fish so if that disqualifies me then too bad for you.  I will try to explain why my eating no meat helps out almost everything, except the beef industry of course.
It all happened at the beginning of January after coming back to school from the two week Christmas break.  I was sitting on a couch reading a book called "The Atlas of Planet Management".  I turned to the girl sitting beside me and said, "I'm gonna quit eating meat."  She didn't believe me and for good reason, I often come up with spontaneous ideas that I don't follow through on.  Since then i have only broken the pact once when I completely unintentionally ate a hot dog from a free skating show.  I didn't realize I had eaten the meat until I went  up for the next one and was unpleasantly surprised to find that I had just eaten meat.
Soon after i made the decision to go meatless I told my sister who was traveling abroad and she right away agreed that it was a notable cause and she too has been faithful ever since.
The reason I do it is because of the inequality of peoples diet in Africa and Asia versus our North American diet.  Just the other day I was talking with my mom about the huge amount of waste we go through.  We North Americaners consume much more resources then we ought to and yet still there is little change in the way we look at the rest of the world.  The average american eats a record high 124 kilograms of red meat, poultry, and fish a year.  To contrast that the average Mozambique citizen consumes less than 6 kilograms of meat a year.  I am not saying that people in Mozambique should eat just as much meat as the rest of us but rather I just wanted to show how much more Americans eat.
The real reason behind my vegetarian kick is the large inefficiency of producing meat versus just raw materials that cows themselves consume.  To through out some facts; just shy of 40% of the world's grain is fed to livestock yet grain calories are converted to beef calories at a rate of 1:7.  That means that there would be way more grain available then there is now and poorer countries could afford to buy grain because the increase of supply.  Better alternatives to beef and poultry would be naturally occurring deer here in Canada and the many gazelles, antelopes, water buffalo, buffalo, wild boars, and whatever else that lives in the bush.  These are good alternatives because they convert natural grasses into protein where it otherwise would not benefit humans.  Any questions or flaws you see in my reasoning would be appreciated.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Architecture 102

Unfortunately the 'Bekker Life' hasn't been particularly eventful.  Today, Saturday we had the dilemma of whether or not we should go on the Juan de Fuca wilderness trail.  The weather started out decent.  Monday was going to be sunny and then Tuesday and Wednesday was going to be a little rainy.  This morning however, we woke up thinking we were gonna go, only to find out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were going to be rainy.  A big bummer!  Too many times we switched from going on the trip to we shouldn'tgo and back again.  I guess it mostly all worked out for the good.
My sisters and friend didn't end up getting away from here until 2:00 so that would have made a very late night.  As well, back to the topic, I never would have ended up finding the queen ant that led me to my second post on ants.
Yesterday I decided to take a break from the hectic household that our home had become due to my two sisters, their/my (our) friend, and my energetic Nana.  I had just finished digging in two fence posts and as I opened the door I realized no one noticed I was gone and no one noticed the door open.  So, without attracting unnecessary attention that would turn MY walk into a walk along the highway, I quietly shut the door and jumped on my bike.  My idea was to visit a tree that in the spring a couple years back I had seen a swarm of juvenile queen ants.  My ant farm had recently been emptied due to the extremely quick mass extinction of my red ants.  I guess ants need oxygen too.  I definitely learned a few good lessons on ant farming.
To embark on my journey I went up the road on my bike to a little side road that carried on another 100 meters into the bush.  I rode the bike as far as I could and then jumped off and bushwhacked.  It was a gorgeous day for a walk.  The wind was howling and only a few drops of rain were falling from the sky.  The temperature was probably somewhere around 15 degrees which felt wonderful as I jogged lightly through some farmer's field.  After only a short time I decided that it was probably getting close to supper time.  I was on my way back when I noticed a short log overturned and a little bit of sawdust stuff underneath.  I turned over the log to find a few carpenter ants scurry out from a hole.  I was joyful.
So now today I went back to get my ants.  At first I just went back with a yogurt container and I soon realized that the container would be insufficient.  I ran/biked back home to get a garbage bag and a saw.  I was going to get those ants.  I returned back at the nest 15 minutes later breathing hard.  I immediately went to work sawing away.  The ants really didn't like the vibration caused by the saw as i could see them scurrying out of the hole carrying larva and generally giving the appearance of someone whose house is being ripped apart.  Two saw cuts later and i had a two foot section of log in the garbage bag.  For some reason it looked like all the ants moved out.  I decided I needed to come back with something good so I dug around a little more.  To my extreme excitement I discovered more rotting sticks in the ground that housed many more ants.  I picked up a few pieces and I was off.  The trip back home was kind of hard seeing how I had a garbage bag that weighed near 10 pounds and I had to bike home.
When i got home I shook the ants out of their wooden nest and found that a very large ant was at the bottom of the container.  My heart quickened a few beats as I thought, "Did I finally actually get the queen."  I put the ants in the farm and my hopes were reassured when I looked again.  I definitely got the queen this time.  This nearly wraps up my architecture 102 course.  In the end i learned that carpenter ants make their home in rotten wood, not sand.  My ant farm is not best for rotten wood.  Hopefully these ants learn how to dig in sand!  Will definitely post again on the welfare of my new queen.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Architecture 101

To start you all off, I don't want to elude you by making you think I actually learned about architecture.  What I did learn was that finding an ant queen can be quite challenging in late August.  My sister and I finished the Ant Farm I started a couple days ago.  After a couple hours of using the router, sawing, and caulking it was done.  When we finally looked back at it, the sight was quite impressive.  If you are an avid ant farmer and are going to comment go easy because it was my first ant farm.  All we had to do then was pour sand in it and add ants.  So we thought.

We took a break for lunch and my sister made me an excellent whip cream parfait with chopped almonds, pecans, and hazelnuts with layers of granola and banana dispersed throughout.  To say the least, it was a delicious lunch that tasted much more desert like then lunch like. Probably for good reasons.
After our energizing break we set out to find an ant queen which we were led to believe was an easy task.  The internet can be so misleading sometimes.  After moving a large pile of rocks and excavating a crater in our cement like soil we thought maybe we got the queen.  The whole nest had just been transplanted into a cardboard box.  Acquiring sand was our next task, a quick trip to the end of the property ended up being somewhat of a workout.  We slowly bucketed the sand into the farm.  We realized halfway through that intricate patterns were being strewn with the mixture of dark and light sand.  We kind of created the Rocky Mountains with sand.  Soon after we fetched some ants from our cardboard box colony and waited.
The following hour was devoted to waiting.  Let me tell you parents, if you want your kids to be senselessly amused for hours get them an ant farm.  If I didn't have to do other things with my life I think I could have spent the rest of the day watching these critters.  They would dig a small tunnel and then it would collapse and then they would dig a new one and it would once again collapse.  The ants had no sense of where they were throwing their dirt either.  One would stick it in the hole of another and that one would put it back in the other's hole.  So much for teamwork.
My responsibilities called me to go get some food and watch a movie with my sister.  My ant watching was over for the day.  After a delicious dinner of enchiladas filled with pumpkin, beans, carrots, and cheese my sister and I went out adventuring to find more ants.  We found a large red wood ant nest and took an ice cream pale full of them home.  We stuck the sticks and ants into the farm and they went at it.  The thing they went at was the previous occupying black ants.  I decided right there that to demonstrate the effects of Europeans on North Americans, history teachers should use an ant farm.  The europeans (red ants) quickly took over and enslaved the few non-europeans (black ants).  That's when i feel we are all very animalish.
To get back to the architecture subject.  I must say that an ant farm does not promote quick architecture.  Definetly not in my case.  My ants were ripped out of their home, put in an alien environment, and then introduced to giant vicious red ants that mostly tore them apart.  Tip of the day is that ants take a while to build the intricate tunnels you see on the ant farm commercials.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Beachin' It!

Today we went for our nearly daily ritual of swimming.  It was a full out affair today with multiple air/foam mattresses, towels, fins, and even a little bit of snacks.  The last item was particularly fun for me seeing how I was quite starving after all the rafting around.
Let me explain.  My sisters' idea for today was to do synchronized back flips off of the air mattresses they brought.  Unfortunetly, when that turned out to be a near failure (the mattresses mostly sank) they decided that logs were the new way of doing it.  Just to make sure you all know, the mattresses did not sink because my sisters are particularly overweight (because they're not) but because they just weren't buoyant enough.  Anyway, they commandeered me into helping them build/carry a raft into the water.  We used boards that had nails already in them and used a fist-sized rock to slowly pound the nails into the somewhat punky logs.  After three pairs of now raw hands pounded away we got a little makeshift raft together.  Now was the time to test it.
The four of us cautiously clambered onto the raft as it sank with each new foot.  We quickly decided that it would be a better idea if we didn't all go on it.  Our ranks were reduced to three as we set out.  The raft quickly fell apart.  The idea of a raft was beached.  The flotilla was reduced to one sturdy log that resembled a surfboard.  The synchronized back flips never were completed.  The 'surfboard' log held only two of us and wasn't really stable enough for two of us to do anything but barely manage to stay above water.  I guess the Bekkers wasn't meant for synchronized back flips.  Windsurfing however is a different story.  Any one want to trade some wind for another post?

Saturday, August 14, 2010

First Post ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here I am, sitting at the computer, when an idea pops into my head to try my hand at blogging.  I quickly searched blog and came to blogger right away.  A super simple setup led to a speedy start.  Before I finally clicked the button to actually create a blog with this title and purpose i consulted my three sisters who were having a small chat in the lounge.  One was concerned about privacy, one was concerned about whether there would ever be any posts, and well, one wasn't really concerned at all.
Here at my first post I'm trying to give you an idea of what this is really going to be about.  But, I don't really know.  Some people think we have a pretty exciting family life while i think it's unusually normal.  One thing hopefully you will see change over the following months as the bright sunny season leads to the dull days where the lack of sunlight fails to recharge my thinking cap is a more exciting 'live for the moment' lifestyle.  Hopefully there will be a shift towards spontaneous ideas that may or may not come to fruition.  In the end, the blog will probably be about what I ate for dinner or what place I came in at the latest football tournament.  Hope you enjoy!