(: School No More! :)

  Yes! School is finally over. Not every one is done though, people in my class still have to write exams. There are three more to write: math, social studies and science in that order. They wrote english language arts yesterday.

  Friday (next week) is the last day for everyone except grads. The day after that my family is leaving for a family camp down by Winnipeg MB. Before we get there, we are going to stay over night at my Grandma’s. After a week of the family camp, we are going home. On the way home, I will get dropped off at another camp. Sigh. Being at camp for two weeks is along time for me! The 1st camp is not to bad, but the 2nd one I am going to is more outdoorsish and it tires you out alot. And it has outhouses for bathrooms. (They are really not that bad)

  That is my summer. Oh, we might also be redoing the kitchen in my house. That’s all for now,

Wisher

This I Believe

   This post is is about what I find to be true. So what is truth? I think truth is not deceitful, not false. It is correct, hard to get out, hurtful, needed, sincere, loyal, faithful and reliable. I could go on for a long time on what truth means to me. Here is a dictionary defintion of truth.

   Many things are true to me, but the biggest thing I know to be true is that life is hard. Anything can happen to you no matter how impossible it might seem. 

   Just like Keith B’s post on a wiki I read, I have experienced many things that many people will never ever come across. I have had cancer twice, and missed all of grade 3 and most of grade 4 because of it. I am only 14. From this experience I have learned that life is not easy, whether you believe it or not.

   I am a Christian, and my time with cancer strengthened my belief that Christ is true. He is real. If not for him, I would not be here right now. I also know that even though I believe in Christ, he will not protect me from pain. Even though he will not protect me from hardships, he will walk through them with me. I take that as a truth too.

   I also find true that if you practice at something that you truly love doing, you will succeed.

Welcome! :)

   Welcome to my blog. My name is Keplyn and live in the small town of Snow Lake. Up here we have beautiful scenery and one grocery store.

   I prefer books and art, not sports, although I like to ride my bike. You can call me a book worm if you like because I love reading.   

   In my family I have one brother, a Mom and a Dad. My dad works in a different town because the mine in my town shut down a few years ago. I do not miss him to much because he is always home on the weekend.

   Today, my Grandparents (My Mom’s parents) are coming for a visit. They are staying until next Monday. I cannot wait until they get here!

   In school, my class is reading “The Hobbit”. I have already read it, but it is a good book so I read it again. As part of the novel study, we need to make a map of our own imaginary place, and make a guide book of creatures from our land. My place is called Spatargatura. Most of the names in my place I translated into Polish.

   I hope you all have fun doing the 31 Day Comment Challenge

Questions Anyone?

   OK, the next question Mr. Fisher wants us to answer is: What do you want to know?

   I want to know many little things. It doesn’t matter if I ever know the answers to these questions or not. For example; if someone speaks in Chinese, do they think in Chinese as well? What if they speak two languages fluently? Which do they think in?

   One of my real questions is: Is there a job out there that involves my interests and what I am good at? I am good with colours and patterns. I work well alone. I can get things done on time. I am interested in experimenting, and mechanics. I don’t know if there is a job out there that has to do with all or most of those things.

   I also want to know how to manage a household successfully. This includes taxes, how much to save and so on. I want to know this so I can use my money well in the future.

   I don’t have many more questions that I really really need to be answered. All of the questions I have left to ask don’t really need to be answered.

Why You Need Parents

   This week my class is answering two more questions. On Friday we are going to compare, just like last week.

   Question number one: What do you need from your parents?

   Well, I think that you need love and attention from them. They need to teach you life skills - like doing laundry and making a bed. If they don’t do this you might leave home and later find that you need to ask your best friend to teach you how to make your bed. You wouldn’t like to be embarrassed, would you? 

    Parents need to provide you with food and clothes. Some parents give their kids an allowance so they can buy their own clothes.

   I think parents need to make rules for their kids, but they also need to give them some freedom and privileges. Parents need to give their kids support, and they need to (try to)  understand.

   For me, I want to know why my parents make decisions that affect me. If I know why, I will be more likely to understand where they are coming from. I might not get get angry with them if I know why.

Reasearch Tools

   This blog post is supposed to be about all of the different ways I came up with the information I used to put my TED Talks presentation together.

The Hardware

   Well, first of all I used Google alot.  Not just for information but for images as well. When I got bored of looking at the same information and pictures all the time, I switched to Yahoo to see if I could get anything different.

   I also went to technorati.com to search for any blogs that might have some useful information on them. I found just one or two, but they gave lots of much needed information. I also used RSS to subscribe to them, but so far they haven’t given me anything else I am able to use.

   I did not use any books because when I went to look for some on my topic, they were already taken out.

   Overall, Google and Yahoo gave me the most information even though it was tough work finding it.(As always)  

Debt of Poor Countries - A Sad Topic :(

   I have posted this to let you all know about the sad state of countries that are in extreme debt.

   This all has to do with the TED Talks project we have been working on in class for the last 3 months or so. Mr. Fisher asked us to write a post on what we had learned form our research.

The Research

   So here it goes: When countries in Sub-Saharan Africa finally gained independence, they were doing really well. The life expectancy was 45-50 and over. They were building hospitals and schools. Then along came the World Bank. The World Bank offered to give these countries a loan. The countries agreed to take the loan. Soon after, the life expectancy went down drastically, and all the work the countries did between taking the loan and their independence vanished. All this happened because of the conditions the countries needed to meet before they got the loan.

   Above is a real story-it is also an example of what can happen to a country when it takes a loan. I’m not saying loans are bad, just that you need to make sure you will be able to eventually pay them off.

   When a country is really deep in debt, it might lower the standards of the things they produce to attract investment and cut the costs. They might fire a bunch of people that work for them, and/or lower the pay. When a country does this, a brain drain happens. Brain drain means that all of the educated people leave to find better paying jobs. 

   When the standards are lowered, the schools and health care might disappear - for the poor. If you put these things together they make poverty.  Poverty causes many diseases, homelessness and hunger.  25 000 - 30 000 people die a day from not having enough food. That is like have someone die every 3 1/2 seconds!   

   I have found over 50 organizations that are helping people in poverty. Some of the programs they run include food for education, child sponsor, and microfinanceprograms. These are all working well.

   There is lots being done for the people in the debt laden countries, but not much for the countries itself. I have learned that there have been a few reductions from the debt that some countries owe, but no complete reductions.

   That is all I cantell you without telling you my whole presentation. If you really want to hear it I guess you have to come to Snow Lake on Tuesday April 15th.

The Difference

   The last two blog posts I wrote were about culture and success. All of the kids in Los Angeles also wrote posts about these topics. now it is my job to compare these blog posts. *Remember, what I write depends which blog posts I have read. You may find something different then what I have posted. 

Success  

   Success. People had many different ideas about success. The kids in LA wrote that success was not about money, but about growing up and being independent. To accomplish what your hearth desires. They said it was a privilege to acquire it in life; an advantage. Some kids wrote that if you are successful, you have a good character.  

   Now for Snow Lake. Kids here said that success was having lots of money, a good job, friends, parents etc. They think that being able to buy things is success. However, not everyone has this opinion including myself. We think that if you enjoy what you do and are happy with life you are successful.

Culture   

   Many kids in LA wrote about just one culture on their blog post. Most of these were Mexican. There were some different cultures, but not many. They talked about all the things they do that relate to their culture - like the food and traditional celebrations, decorations, music and dress. Everyone’s blog stated that they knew exactly where they came from.   

   When I read through a random selection of blogs this morning, all of the Snow Lake kids said that they’re from a whole bunch of different countries. These include Ukraine, England and
France. Because of the assortment of cultures these people have, they don’t really follow one. Some might have bits and pieces of each culture in their lives though. While everyone in the LA class knows where they are from, very few of the Snow Lakers know what cultures they are from.   

   It is kinda neat that pretty much everyone that lives in Canada is from at least one or two different cultures.  

   So from the above comparing, I see that the kids in LA and us kids in Snow Lake are very different in our ideas of success and culture.  

Next Up: Success

   Have you ever wondered what what success really means? There is the dictionary version, which can be found here, and what it truly means to you.

My Thoughts

   For me, I find success in a job well done. This can be anything from getting a good mark on a test to finishing cleaning my room. When I am content with my life, I feel I am successful. True happiness = Success. A successful life is doing the things you want to do well.

   Before I started writhing this post I wrote down definitions of success. I wrote “Success is to do well at a task, in life.”  also  “To meet a goal”  I consider my Dad successful. He enjoys what he does at work, has a family he can support, 2 vehicles, a boat………… I think he is happy with where his life has gone, and where it is going.

Culture. So, What is it?

   Culture is a hard thing to define without looking it up in a dictionary. If you want to, here you go.

What I Think

   I think a culture is made up of many different things. These things include food, clothing, language, customs, holidays, traditions, beliefs, religion and the type of country they live in. There is also people. People speak, live and do these things. They make the culture alive. I think if you did not have the people, you could not have a culture.

   When I started to think about where I had come from, I realized that I had roots from Poland, Ukraine, England and of course
Canada. I know people who only have one culture in their belt, and I also know people who have many.

   In our house we live like a Canadian family. There might be a bit of other cultures in our daily life, but not alot.

   I think you cannot save a culture in a box. As I explained earlier you need people to make the culture happen. These people need to have lived in this culture all of their life to be truly part of it. 

Definition

   My definition of a culture is: A group of people that have their own way of doing things. They eat different food, speak differently, have their holidays and have their own religion and beliefs.