Has Earth done nothing for you? Do you feel like you just want to go away and never come back? Are you over 18? If you answered yes to all of these questions, you are qualified to go to Mars. 

In 2023, Mars One is hoping to begin a human civilization on the red planet. If you’re over 18 and interested, you are eligible to apply to be the first human(s) to set foot on Mars. You would be written down in history. 

Sometime between now and July, the Mars One organization will begin accepting video applications with a fee (between $5-75). You can send a video that explains why you should be chosen to go on the one way trip. By July 2015, they want to recruit 24 astronauts who are split into 6 teams of 4 people.

Mars One has already received 10, 000 emails from people who are hoping to one day to live on our neighbor planet.

This mission needs $6 billion to send the first crew of four astronauts, with $4 billion needed to launch the following crews. They also hope to raise money with a reality TV show, which we, the people, will choose the crews for the expedition. The show will consist of the training process and who seem fit to live in space and Mars. Their goal is to recruit people from around the world to create a diverse colony. The astronauts will have to go through 7 years of training and will do many test runs on how it will be like living in Mars colonies.

Everyone in the world will see the training process as well as the astronauts living on Mars.

They departure date is set on April 22, 2023 and the trip will take about seven months to get to Mars. I always knew this was going to happen, but I never thought it would be during this lifetime. This all seems so sci-fi, it’s scary that in 10 years, we will inhabit a planet other than Earth.

I think I would do this, if I was old enough. This is a once in a lifetime chance and I don’t think I would give it up. Of course, I would be leaving behind my home, family, friends; basically, everything. Things can go wrong during the mission. Never mind, I don’t think I would want to go, mainly because my mom wouldn't let me. I would sure love to watch the reality TV show and hearing news on how the mission is going. I hope everything goes according to plan because this is a huge step in humanity. 

Don`t believe me? I know this seems all too unreal but I assure you, it isn't. Search it up.

If you want to go to Mars, apply here: https://apply.mars-one.com/

In careers, we have to do this dreadful assignment... The Passion Project. Yes, a project which you are passionate about. Taken from our Futures Forum website, "It could be a physical product like a graphic novel but it could also be a skill that you have tried to develop.  It might focus on a career or occupation that interests you and you investigate it further. It could also be a digital project like a short film or video game. It might be an issue that you want to explore further." 

At first I was like, "this is easy, I can get it done in no time!" but I was wrong. You might think it would be easy finding your passion but it's not. We are actually supposed to do something about it. I always thought that if you really were devoted to something, you would keep it inside and never let the world see it. I usually try to keep my ideas pent up inside, where it can fester quietly as a mental illness. (Futurama reference) Anyways, whenever I felt strongly about something I wouldn't really want to do anything about, because realistically, I can't, but my teacher says otherwise. 

Not that kind of litter... One idea I had for this overwhelming project, is garbage. I never like seeing garbage being thrown on the ground instead of the trash can. I see it everywhere, and I wanted to do something about it. I guess this could be my chance. I want to create a day where everyone in my community picks up at least 1 piece of garbage they see lying on the road/grass/sidewalk etc. It would clean up the community and make the Earth happier. One problem with this is that it already exists. Not exactly, but there is something called the LitterProject where you pick up one piece of litter a day. The only reason my project might see the day of light because not many people remember to do this, so it would be a reminder that if they pick up litter once, they might do it again. Side note: Is it just me or do you always see McDonald's soft drink cups being littered the most?

Recently, I just found out my favourite course got cancelled for grade 11.. Spanish. 11 people signed up, and the minimum for a class to run is around 14-15. I never really felt this strong about anything. Spanish class was my one ray of hope left in my life. I took it last semester, and I loved it. I wanted to continue in this language even up to university and maybe my actual career. Coincidentally, I have to do a passion project and I connected the dots and thought, "why don't I make Spanish my passion?" My teacher encouraged me to do so, and I just might be able to get grade 11 Spanish up and running. As you can see, my school lacks language and culture. Yes, we have French, but barely. Spanish was the only other language and JHSS murdered it... at least just for grade 11's. My hope is that even if we have small amount of grade 11's wanting to take Spanish, we should still be able to take the course. All the people who signed up, feel this way, from my understanding. Our class average was above 80% so I think that the school should understand we don't kid around.  My love for Spanish class is everlasting and I have some faith my school will get their %#!t together (no offence, I really do love my school).

So that's all I've got, I hope one of my projects go through, I feel passionate about both. 

Why do our parents lie to us? 

Parents might say "honesty is the best policy," but when it comes to interacting with their own kids, mom and dad tend to stretch the truth. From claiming the existence of magical creatures to odd consequences of kids' actions, parents often come up with creative tales to shape a child's behaviors and emotions. According to BBC, most parents tell lies to their children as a tactic to change their behaviour.

My mother actually told me ‘If you lie, your tongue would turn black’. I believed this and would lie in front of a mirror to see if it was true. Of course, I actually thought it turned black because I was that gullible. 

Now that I’ve grown up, I understand why my parents did this to me. It’s so much easier to say that “we can come back another day to buy it” than explaining that it is overpriced and useless. From experience, I can say that I was an unreasonable child and didn’t want to hear ‘no’. Sure, it might anger you that your whole childhood was full of lies but it was for the best. Children are stubborn and the only way to control that behaviour is to tell them lies because at such a young age, we would believe in anything adults told us. 

Can these lies be justified? Some of the lies may limit the children from the real world. I know we are too young to actually understand but lying about actual issues may make it harder for the children to understand what is actually going on. This could give kids mixed messages at a time when they are trying to figure out how to navigate the social world. I personally think that it is fine for a parent to lie to their kids but only to a certain extent. Saying ‘spinach gives you big muscles like Popeye’ is completely fine because it would promote healthy eating but lying about a death in a family is not okay. Teaching about death at an early age saves the trouble for when they grow up and find out their pet hamster didn’t run away but died. The more you lie to your child, the more your child won’t trust you as they get older. Thankfully, my parents didn’t constantly lie to me or else I wouldn’t be as trusting as I am now. 

Here are just some of the few things our dishonest parents told us (or at least similar):

‘If you don’t stop crying now, the police will come’

‘I didn’t bring any money today… we can come back another day to buy it’

‘Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny are all real’

‘If you don’t behave, I’ll call Santa and tell him not to come to our house this year’ 

‘You can be whatever you want to be’ 

‘If you keep making that face, it will get stuck like that’

'If you swallow gum, it will stay in your stomach for seven years' 
' 
My personal favourite, ‘The ice cream van only plays music to let children know it has run out if ice cream.’

We hear these lies now, and they may sound ridiculous but back then it was all too real. We only wanted to hear simple explanations and the dumbest lies are the one’s our parents could make up on the spot. But what really confuses me is the fact that we all were told similar lies. Did all our parents have a meeting which was called, ‘What lies are we telling our kids today?’?

Everybody knows that when a cat purrs it obviously means it is pleased and/or content; but that is only partly true.

I was doing some research of the science behind a cat's purr and what resulted was not at all what I expected. It is possible a cat's purr is a way of self healing. When a cat is injured, they start purring which helps them ease the pain and heal themselves. A cats purr is at a frequency between 20 and 140 hertz, which promotes pain relief, healing, growth and repair of bones and muscles and all that other fun stuff. Maybe they myth of cats having nine lives just may be true. In a way, they have super powers.

The purr has other uses too. Cats purr when they are under stress. If you take your cat to the vet, they may be purring but not because they are happy. Also, mother cats use purring as a way to communicate to their newborn children. Kittens are born deaf and blind so they use their purring and their mothers' as a way to find each other and feed and get fed. Purring is a great bonding mechanism.

The next time you notice your cat purring, think twice because it may not be that they are happy. Most likely, yes, but there are always other possibilities. That's the coolest thing about cats, they have so many abilities we never thought they would. 

Below there is a video about "The Science of Cats". The guy talks about the way cats purr and summarizes everything I have said above in 20-25 seconds. He also has many other interesting facts about cats which I think are just awesome. 

I apologize in advance if you get a song stuck in your head but that's what this week's blog is about.

Ear worm: an ear worm refers to any song that is so catchy, and at the same time extremely annoying, that it feels like a worm has crawled into your ear and eaten the intelligent parts of your brain so that you hum the song all day long, no matter how much you hate it.

I got this definition from Urban Dictionary and I love this , it describes it beautifully. I hate ear worms and I know you do too. As much as 99% of us are affected by ear worms. It drives us crazy constantly repeating a same part of the song and it makes us hate the song and never want to listen to it again, yet while you're reading this, you're thinking of some song that you know you will regret that you thought it.  Isn't it the worst when you have an ear worm but you don't know what song it is? You just know a section of the song, most likely the chorus and you just keep on repeating it in your head. Sometimes you become so lazy that you don't bother on searching up the song so you just become insane.

Ear worms can actually cause brain damage and make you insane. Who knew this can be so serious? Ear worms are very dangerous because if you tell your friends that you have a song stuck in your head, it might get stuck in their head too and you won't have any friends left. 

When songs get stuck in my head it is usually just one line over and over again, and sometimes I can't remember the words so I'm just making sounds from my mouth but not really making any sense. For me, Disney songs seem to stick. "A Whole New World," and "One Jump Ahead," from Aladdin are very catchy, and I can hum all day long. Recent songs like "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen and "Single Ladies," by Beyonce. We all remember, "Brand New Chick," by Anjulie. That song was horrible but horribly catchy. Britney Spear songs also tend to stick to your mind.

Here are some more songs that just might make you crazy:
-"...Baby One More Time" - Britney Spears
- "Hey Ya!" - OutKast
- "Toxic"- Britney Spears
- "I want It That Way"- The Backstreet Boys
- "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" - Eiffel 65 (stuck in my head right now)

Here is a video I found on Youtube which is another list of very catchy songs that I haven't said except for one. 

The Galapagos Islands is the destination I want to be at. When I save enough money, the first place I will be travelling is to the Galapagos Islands. You may have heard of it, but do you know why it is so famous?

The Galapagos Islands are 13 large islands with about 100 small islets. It is located on the equator in the Pacific Ocean. It is on the coast of South America and belongs to Ecuador. The Islands are most famous for their highly diverse ecosystems. Plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Because of the isolated area, species have evolved to survive creating unique physical characteristics. It was here that Charles Darwin began his Theory of Evolution by natural selection. The coolest part of visiting these unique islands, is that you are able to get close with the rare animals. 

Everyone has heard of Lonesome George who lived on the Galapagos Islands. He was the only surviving giant Pinta Tortoise but he unfortunately died in June 2012.

Unfortunately, the Galapagos Islands are threatened due to environmental degradation. Many of the native species have become endangered or extinct due to foreign species that have been introduced along with other human activity. I just want to visit this exotic location before it gets run down by human interference. Isn't that funny? Everything is going well until humans come and ruin it. 

BEWARE THERE ARE MANY SPOILERS FOR THE SHOWS; THE WALKING DEAD, BREAKING BAD AND DEXTER. 
We all watch TV shows and have those beloved characters but what about the ones you hate the most. You hate them so much but something bad happens to them and makes the human part of you feel for them. Below are my opinions. 

Lori Grimes from The Walking Dead;
Out of all the characters in The Walking Dead, I hate Lori the most. She is never watching her son then complains about how he is so irresponsible. She gets mad at everything her husband says. She cheated on her husband while the world was ending. When she told her husband that she had an affair she told him to kill Shane (the one who she cheated with). When Rick kills Shane for her, she freaks out and never talks to him again. She manipulates everyone around her. She is just overall a terrible mother and wife. In the episode "Killer Within" everything changed. Lori died giving birth to her daughter, Judith. I couldn't believe it. I actually cried watching that scene. The way she was saying goodbye to Carl was unbearable. And seeing Carl cry like that. Aw man, that hurt my heart. Although I didn't like Lori one bit, I didn't want her to die. She was a horrible person in every way but she didn't have to die. I actually felt bad for everything bad I have ever said about her. 

Skyler White from Breaking Bad;
Okay, so I'm not all caught up in Breaking Bad. I'm only at season 4 so far but I'll tell you what I think about Skyler White so far. 
I don't like her at all, and if you ask anyone who watches Breaking Bad, they will say the same. She is constantly in Walt's business, getting mad at everything he says or does. She sleeps with her former boss and tells Walt about it. For the record, they were separated.  She gets mad at the fact that Walt smoked marijuana but smokes herself while she was pregnant. Gets angry at Walt for making too much money. But in actual point of view, she is the only good person in this show. She is trying not to get Walt arrested in any way she can. She never murdered someone but everyone else in the show has. She is actually a good person in a real situation. I feel really bad for her, she never wanted this. It's not her fault her husband is a meth cooker and her brother-in-law is a DEA agent. She wants to protect her family but yet everyone hates her. 

Rita Bennet and Maria Laguerta from Dexter;
I guess Rita doesn't fit into the category of hated characters but she was still a little annoying. Okay, that voice was a bit too creepy, she is just scary the way she talks. At the beginning she was very sweet and quiet, but later on she expressed herself more. She began humanizing Dexter. Dexter actually loved her, which I guess is great but come on, that's not Dexter! When Dexter walked into the washroom with her in the bloody bath tub was so unexpected! I didn't even think that the Trinity killer would even think of killing Dexter's wife. It was really shocking. I didn't even know what to think, except that she didn't deserve to die, she did nothing wrong, like ever.
Maria Laguerta is a completely different story. At the beginning she seemed like she was no threat but when Sergeant Doakes died she just went crazy from then on. She was getting on to Dexter and I don't think anybody liked that, even Debra. I began to not like her when she thought Dexter might be a serial killer and the fact that she was telling everybody about it. I knew Dexter was going to kill her, and I didn't really mind, she wasn't that great of a character but when Debra walked in and shot her. WOAH. I felt bad for Laguerta, she was always a great character before she was getting onto Dexter.

What does “chasing home” mean? And to make things clear, I am not going to talk about the movie Chasing Home. On March 27, I'm attended TEDxWaterloo 2013 and it’s all about “chasing home”.


“Chasing home” is a very vague concept. It has more than one meaning to it. I was asked to put my input in this and it took me a long time to think about what it actually means. After some soul searching, I think it means somewhere you belong. The word “home” itself means somewhere you live permanently. I don’t know about you but if I ever found out where I actually belong, I would want to be there for a while. Being a part of something is what we've been aiming to do all our lives, thus “chasing home”.

I like the concept of “chasing home” because it is kind of like trying to find that place where you can be yourself. Most of us have to fit in, be like everyone else. We shouldn't be told to adapt to a certain code. We should be able to be who we are. So chasing home really means finding a point where you don’t have to change yourself for others. You can just be who you are without anyone trying to change it.


Dream pursuing also plays into this because we are trying to be in a perfect harmony, our top of the mountain feeling. We all want our dreams to come true but we always find a reason to delay it. So, we are constantly trying to aim to that goal even if we aren't trying. It makes sense, though. Once we achieve our dream, then what? We keep pushing it so when we finally accomplish it, it will be the best feeling in the world, a feeling you can only feel once in a lifetime. “Chasing home” can translate to “delaying our goals”.


There are many other ways to interpret what “chasing home” means but this is what I think it means. Are you able to decode "chasing home"?

People regret their pasts and worry about the future but do they ever think about the present?

The problem with us humans is that we never live in the moment. We are too concerned about what will happen and too caught up in what was. I, personally never take the time to think about what I am actually doing. I’m too busy thinking about what I need to do. I’m sure there are people who can relate. I want to live in the moment but it is too hard. You try it for yourself. You just end up thinking about what you want to eat and how fun that party was last week.

Many people have pasts they regret and live the rest of their lives grieving upon it. Then there are people thinking of the future, what job they are going to get, how many kids they are going to have. Then there are people like me, wondering how the world will end. Pretty pessimistic, eh?

Life is not very long and we shouldn't waste our time caught up in the past or the future. Enjoy your life today because yesterday is gone forever and tomorrow may never come. Don’t waste your days hoping for a better upcoming ones. Do something you wouldn't normally do. SOMETHING SPECTACULAR! I will try the same. Just like in High School Musical, we’re all in this together.

Here is an amazing quote, from an amazing movie.

Many people are familiar with the placebo (pluh-see-bo) effect but I will still recap it. The placebo effect is used in medicine and is essentially a “fake treatment”. A placebo is used as a control in clinical trials, to compare the effectiveness of a new drug. One group actually gets the drug and the other group is given what they think is the drug (i.e. sugar pill). The groups aren’t aware if they have the real or the fake drug. Basically, it is to see if the drug really works or if it is all the patients head. This is necessary because in some conditions expecting an improvement in symptoms may actually cause an improvement, and this bias must be excluded from analysis of the drug being tested.

So really, a placebo effect is a treatment with no real efficiency, but psychologically the patient believes it works. An example for that we can all relate to is advil or tylenol. Their main purpose is to decrease pain. When we take it, we believe our pain will end but does it really? We have so much faith in it that we force ourselves to believe it worked.You may improve merely because your expectations are so strong.. It’s all mind over matter.

The placebo effect is not only limited to medical uses but be used in our daily lives. We have all seen that after-school special with the ol’ switcheroo. Buying non-alcoholic beer instead of real beer. That is a great example of the placebo effect because ultimately everyone ends up wasted. They presumed that alcohol gets them drunk so they force themselves to be drunk. People are convinced by what they hear. They choose not to listen to themselves but to the opinions and fact planted by other’s ideas and beliefs

Brand names are another example of our daily lives. Something automatically becomes better if there is a brand name on it. There was a study in Shunan Zhao, based on the concept of the placebo effect. In the experiment, there were 4 water bottles, three of them were branded companies (ex. Aquafina) and one was tap water.The catch was that all the water bottles had the same tap water in it. 31 students had to rank the water from 1-10, ten being highest. In short, tap water was ranked the lowest and the branded names had very high scores. Although, the water was the same in all bottles, the brand is what made the water taste better. In their minds, they thought bottled water was better but in reality it was in their head.


The placebo effect affects all of us. We just don’t realize it because we choose not to. We would rather believe package description than ourselves.

I can also get into religion but it would be better for both of us if I didn't.