Quick write: periodic table

Quick write: best meal

If someone ever asked me what my ideal meal would be I right away would say an East Indian feast. I absolutely love Indian food, which I might be biased towards as I've eaten it all my life because my family has an East Indian background. First there would be pea pilau. It would be fried in this seemingly sweet mix of spices, that would explode in your mouth once consumed. The smell would lead you to think that this is a rather tame and dull dish but once the first spoon hits your mouth you will want to scarf down te entire bowl because of it's addicting combination of spice and vegetables. The pea pilau would then be topped with a simple and traditions chicken curry. This dish would be filled with spices, enough to leave a good kick in your mouth but not enough to turn you away to chug back a pitcher of water. The chicken would be tender and again containing a sweetness that is then masked by the numerous spices inside. The sauce would be creamy and oily, and when topped on the pea pilau the combo would leave you drooling for more. Every good East Indian dish is accompanied by warm, soft naan bread. When you open up the bundle of bread your glasses would be covered in condensation from the steam rising. You would break the naan and scoop up the curry with the naan which would make the spice more bearable. On the side you would have non traditional glass of chocolate milk, because who doesn't like chocolate milk? My ideal meal would be someone traditional, that reminds me of my roots but never seems to let me down in terms of being a fantastic dinner choice. 

Quick write: Eden

When I think of my "Eden" all I think of is heaven. To me the only perfect land would be what heaven is like, and in my head I think I have my hopes of what that will be like. First of all heaven will have everything good, only good things can be in heaven therefore there will obviously be Starbucks, McDonald's fries, puppies, and kittens that never grow into full grown cats. I think that heaven will be the place where no one is sad, no one is broken, and where there is just this overwhelming sense of love and togetherness. I think heaven will be the place where there is always a party, you are always just joyful and celebrating that joy through amazing soulful music, dancing, and creative expression. Personally I would hope that heaven would only have sunny skies that never end and never snow, but who knows maybe by then I will miss the bitter winter.  I think the absolute best part of heaven will be spending eternity with a bunch of people who love Jesus and who aren't afraid to hide it, like what could be better? A place where you are made new, and you are free to be yourself no matter what that is. I think that heaven would be plastered with bright colours, blue, yellow, green, pink, orange, colours that make you think joy and happiness. Well I can't wait until the day where this all comes true, but until then I can only dream of what heaven will be like in utter perfection. 

Skype Session

1) what went well with today's skype session? 

I think today went well because all of the kids in Thompson seemed very attentive to what we were saying about our procedural writing. I think that we had good flow to what we were saying even though we didn't get in much practice. I enjoyed sharing a more light hearted topic of mine for our procedural writing and I think that both sides of the conversation were engaged and into what was going on. 

2) what's the value in using skype to collaborate? 

I think that technology especially skype has allowed us to connect with a group of younger students that we would normally not get to connect with. Technology has allowed me personally have so many oppurtunities to share with people who I normally would not have connected with. Our skype relationship with the grade three class in Thompson is no exception to this. I believe that people are meant to connect to other people and that distance should never be a barrier to having a relationship. Some of my best friends live miles away and through technology we have been able to keep in contact. I personally like bases like skype or FaceTime because it allows a very real aspect to come with our sessions because we can see and hear each thee without being anywhere near each other. I think technology can be used in a way in which is beneficial and positive if you explode outside of what we normally see in a class room. 

How to work at McDonald's

Procedural Writing: How to Work at McDonald`s

1) Lower your expectations

Photo Credit: Micayla McNaughtan

2) Wear a lame uniform

Photo Credit: Micayla McNaughtan

3) Learn to clean up spills, even if they`re not yours

Photo Credit: Shelby Graham

4) Change your sleep schedule

Photo Credit: Micayla McNaughtan

5) Practice your cheesy smile

Photo Credit: Micayla McNaughtan 

6) Be a burger master! ...or burrito master.

Photo Credit: Micayla McNaughtan

Photo Credit: Shelby Graham

7) Live a McHappy Life as a McLifer

Photo Credit: Shelby Graham

Why am I fully timetabled?

M.McNaughtan 

My grade 12 year, finally. Lots of people call this the year to have a good time with your friends, and go to as little classes as possible. But all throughout high school I made a choice to not take any spares. "You're crazy!" You may say... But I assure you my rational has a lot of meaning, and understand why I would do such a "crazy" thing might given you more insight into who I am. Since I hit grade 11, which is where you have the option to take spares I decided to be fully course loaded. I made this choice because of two reasons, I will let you in on the first. So it might sound clichè but knowledge is powerful. I think that being knowledgeable  about as many things as you can opens up so many doors for you about the world around you. Because I decided to take a ton of different classes I feel like I know a lot of different things that are actually some what useful about the world around me. I've taken classes like American history, world religions, law, psychology, photography, and the list goes on. All of these classes have taught me about various things that have actually been useful to me. The second reason is because I wanted to make a statement, and show gratitude. Education is really one of the most important things you can give to someone and yet so many kids around this globe could only dream of going to school like I do. So as a testament to all of those kids I decided to take full advantage of the opportunity to go to school. If I am one of the fortunate people who will be educated I will do it to the best of my ability. Since going to kenya this summer and sitting inside an old broken down classroom to learn I understand what education means. I understand that it is a gift that no one should take for granted. The truth is someone has to be a voice for the voiceless and sometimes that doesn't always mean speaking. This is just one example in my life that I use my actions to speak louder than my words, and use them to raise awareness about our world. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this, and if you have any questions let me know! A question for you all: what is the most useful things you have learned in school? 

Mid Semester Reflection

Six word memoirs:

I really enjoyed making the six word memoirs. I think that it was a good challenge for myself as a writer because it forced me to tell my story in six short words. I feel like the messages I was trying to get across were quite heavy and deep, but by being forced to convey it in 6 words allowed me to simplify what I was trying to say, and get down to the heart of my message. I think for me personally what went well was having the ability to connect my words to personal visuals. I really love creating graphics, and photos so to be able to tell a story that relied a lot on the visual aspect was something that I felt I was strong at. Something I know I wanted to improve on was my choice of punctuation. Throughout all of my six word memoirs I went with a simplicity approach, by using just periods, or at times a comma followed by a period. I wish that I would've challenged myself more in using different types of punctuation. I think with the 6 words memoirs I chose that additional punctuation would've been unnecessary, but I would've liked to have allowed myself to try different things. Overall I really enjoyed the six word memoir project, and I think it will be something I use outside of this class. I really enjoy telling stories, and sharing about things that matter to me and i loved the challenge of creating an impactful story in six short words.

IGNITE presentations:
At first i would say more than anything the IGNITE presentation stressed me out. I had a relatively good idea of what I wanted to talk about, but i was nervous about the format as well as how I was going to convery my message under a strict framework. Having such a loose idea of what needed to be in a "good" IGNITE, but having a tight format really put pressure on me to deliver what I wanted to say. I don't feel that i was rushed or unprepared for this project at all. Sure more time is always nice, but I felt like i had my project together in a presentable manner for the due date given. One thing for me that i would say didn't go well was my timing during preperation. I was really stressing about saying what I needed to say, and doing it in five minutes. With all of that being said it led to me feeling really nervous when I practiced that i talked so fast that you would not be able to understand me, and that my presentation was two minutes short. With some practice, and voice recordings I was able to listen to myself and fix where I felt I was not paced, and learn how to be calm even in a seemingly stressful situation. I think that alone was a huge learning moment for me, staying calm and being confident in my message even in restrictive circumstances. I think this project made me a better public speaker, because although I have given many presentation with a similar message, this one pushed me out of my comfort zone and exposed my flaws as a speaker, which in turn caused me to grow in my speaking skills. Overall I think that many things went well with this project, I think that I did the best job that i could've done given my time frame, and would like to experiment with new templates of presenting in the future.

Blogging:
Blogging for me was a new experience. Usually I like to live in a bubble and not really be super open about my life, esspecially in an online setting. That being said I think blogging was a little bit of a struggle for me just because with the whole posting assignments thing it almost seemed like no one would know if i handed it in late because it was online instead of in person. I think this was kind of a poor attitude and once i got rid of that i found myself enjoying blogging more because I had more time to share about things i cared about rather than just assignments. In terms of personal additions I went with more of a quality of quantity approach. Instead of posting tons of links and pictures everday i decided to think about things that were on my mind and give a longer and more indepth post on my thoughts, and opinions on that topic. I know that in the future I would like to make more personal additions, but I feel the ones that I did post were high quality. Commenting on others blogs is what I struggled witht the most. I don't think that I did a very good job about giving constructive comments to others. Comments from me were in very few quantities most becuase I think I forgot or never really thought about the fact that it was something I needed to do. In the future I think it would be nice to do more personal additions featuring questions to start a conversation, as well as give others good constructive comments.

Connecting and engaging:
I find many things we do in this class interesting because it pushed me outside of what I expect from an English class. That being said i would like to contribute more to the class so I can get the full potential out of what this class has to offer. Sometimes I find myself being that quiet observer in class, mostly because I want to digest what I am doing or what we are discussing instead of always doing the talking. I also think that most of the things that I have to say are good contributions and that I should share more than keep to myself. One thing I would like to do more of in class is ask questions. I think that asking questions is a great way to gain more information and perspective on what we are discussing. In terms of attendance I think that I have been here on a regular basis with my assignments ready to go. I think that most of your success from a class comes from just being there, so that is something I have for sure tried to value throughout this semester.

Goals:

1) More comments: I would like to spend more time commenting on others blogs. I think that this will be a good way to start conversations, as well as make the blogging aspect of this class more interesting and personal. I like the idea of being able to see other peoples work and giving them comments to encourage them or help them out.

2) Ask more questions: I would love to prioritize asking questions, whether that be on my blog, others blogs, or in class. I think that posing questions on my blog will encourage others who are looking to comment to start a conversation. I beleive that commenting with a question on others blogs will allow me to understand more about them, as well as why they made the choices they did. And I think asking questions in class will allow me to get the most out of it, and understand why and how to learn in the most effective way I can.

3) More personal additions: I think that I could include more personal additions on my blog, and maybe some that aren't as long but even just a link, or a photo I took.

He is risen

So today is Easter. I think Easter has really changed over my lifetime. As time goes by it seems as though this Easter weekend has turned into just another long weekend. For me Easter is the single best day of the year. Easter is not the best day because I get an extra day off, because my grandma got me a Starbucks giftcard, or because of all the food I know I will be consuming tonight. Easter is what it is because today Jesus stomped on the grave and conquered death. Like it's hard to keep quiet on this holiday when really it is the ultimate joy for a Christ follower. My creator came to earth to live with his creation. He lived a perfect life, one that was admirable at the least. Then he willingly took on the most painful death any human could imagine. He hung on a cross besides broken people like myself, and declared that "it is finished." Someone who was perfect died for my imperfection. Three days later they went to check the tomb where Jesus was buried but it was empty. He was dead but then he was alive. I don't know about you but this story kind of blows my mind. Firstly because it's crazy that the creator of everything ever even had a desire to have a relationship with me, so much so that he would take the punishment for all my faults forever. Like it doesn't even make sense. But that's the point. Grace doesn't make sense, it's not supposed to. I don't have all the answers, and I don't why some thing are the way they are. But I know that I have a God that loves me so much that he would die to have a relationship with me, and that is the ultimate gift. That's why I celebrate today. This whole "Christianity" thing has rocked my world, this whole following Jesus thing has given me the most blessing of a life. Times may not always be easy, but I know for a fact that from start to finish God has my best interest in mind, and I will follow him. Christ is risen; He's risen indeed. 

Igniting, and presenting

Tonight I was given the opportunity to give an ignite presentation. There was a lot of unique aspects to this presentation and I was so blessed that I was given the opportunity to share my mind. First off for those of you who don't know an ignite presentation is one in which you are given exactly five minutes, and you have a slide show with 20 slides that self advance every 15 seconds. Being an avid presenter these last few months, I was thirsty for a new challenge in my relm of presenting. Generally I would get up with a PowerPoint and speak to each picture and answer the questions my audience would have on my specific topic. Being forced to convey a strong message in such a short period of time was by far one of the more challenging things I've done. One thing I learned from this whole experience was sometimes you can't over think things. I remember when I first started writing this presentation and stressing over saying the right thing, or making everything line up. But after pouring my heart out into those five minutes I can now say that if you are passionate, people will listen no matter if you're presentation is perfect or not. Another fear I had going into tonight was my audience. Generally I speak to students about my adventure to Kenya, and how they can get involved in being a change in the world. Tonight I was speaking to a more educated audience and it was hard not to let that one aspect freak me out. I guess my learning moment from that was people are people. People of all ages will care about what you have to say, if you care about what you have to say. Spreading my message of being a light in this dark world is something that I feel extremely passionate about and no matter my age, or how technical my message is, people care because I care. I can't wait to see where my future takes me, and I hope that I continue to challenge myself in spreading my message of being a spark in the darkness. Thank you all for supporting me, and listening to what I have to say. I am so incredibly blessed to know how many people support me and passion. 

Stop and smell the roses

Life's moments happen so quickly, they come and go, some highs and some lows. It is impossible to stop time, but it is possible to stop and enjoy it. One thing I have realized is sometimes instead of fretting the details, you need to just stop and have a good time. I think people have this mind set that in order to be happy and have a good time, all the elements of that situation have to be in your favour. Let me tell you a story. When I flew to Kenya this past summer the 

elements were for sure not in my favour. First off my flight to paris was delayed so I literally got off one 8 hour flight, and got straight on another. The flight into Nairobi was long and tiring and to make matters worse the airport had burnt down the week before, so we landed and walked onto a bare tarmack filled with small portable tents that held baggage, and immigration services. My group walked up to one of these small tents to hand in our travel papers, only to find it flooded with travellers anxiously waiting to get out of the chaotic Nairobi "airport" at 3 in the morning. After waiting over an hour in a crowd of complete strangers, we went to go pick up our bags. So here's the thing due to the lack of buildings at the airport the tent had open piles of luggage from all over the world with loose leaf papers saying where they were from. We walked into the tent and everyone quickly grabbed their bags as I stood there in utter shock that I had no luggage. I was about to travel to the middle of rural Kenya, with no clothes, no toothbrush, no anything, all with a group of complete strangers. I guess the only "lucky" thing was that I wasn't the only person to have absolutely no possessions other than a bible, a camera, and some granola bars. This person and me coped through this awful situation, and literally became inseparable throughout our trip. You wouldn't see one of us with out the other, and you always associate us as a pair. It's funny how I met one of my best friends, because of a situation that was far from ideal. Instead of dwelling on the details, I just let it go and ended up having one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Just to let you know four days later my luggage was driven out to our camp and I can't say that I wasn't off the walls excited to put on a clean shirt. The moral of the story is that sometimes it's more enjoyable to play in the mud, than to struggle out of it. Instead of allowing myself to swell on the bad, I stopped and smelled the roses and just let life happen. Slow down, be okay with the letting the details go, and allow yourself to be happy when the world tells you to be down.