Movies that Yaning and Halalcohol really need to watch

Well due to a recent bout of nagging I received and the sudden realization that a lot of people I know (Yaning, Halalcohol, etc.) need to get out more, I will now be posting a movie - related list every couple weeks or so in a (probably futile) attempt to get some of you out there to see it.

Starting with the most obvious, here are my 5 all time fav movies/series (all fan-boys out there who want to argue with it can post, but I'm not gunna give a crap.)

1. INCEPTION- not only is this movie a feast for the eyes, it leaves you thinking and wanting more at the end of it. Moviegoers can attempt to take in all the information in a single screening or just sit back and watch a $160 million budget hard at work.

2. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN - if you haven't seen this film yet, you deserve to be locked up in a concentration camp and forced to watch it over and over. This is a WWII gem and even though there might be an excessive amount of blood and gore, the emotional depth and conflicts in this movie make it well worth the 2 hours and 50 minutes.

3. The DIE HARD series- this far through the list you probably have realized that I'm leaning towards action movies, but what do you expect? Chick flicks? I mainly like these movies because they have a very good concept and enough eye candy to keep you interested in said concept. with that said, the Die Hard series is about as hardcore as action movies get.

4. UP - you knew it was coming. This movie was pixar at its best (at least in my opinion). All the charm of a cartoon fish and a family of superheroes now suddenly gets injected with emotion when an old (human) man gets added into the picture.

5. BRAVEHEART- as cheesy and cliche a lot of the scenes in this movie will seem, let me tell you that this was the most powerful movie I have ever watched. The so called overused plotline was still very fresh in 1995 (the release year) and the ending will at least leave you somewhat teary eyed...

Jr. DEEP

...Hellooooooooooo? Why'd it suddenly get so empty? That was completely unexpected.

Anyways, I've spent the last week at Jr. DEEP (a camp hosted by the U of T) with Yaning and Tom, as well as our other group member that won the All Science Challenge (ASC), and it's been a blast. The closing ceremonies were yesterday, and I'll surely be missing all the fun and games as I prepare for a three week trip to the other side of the world that involves missing the orientation and first week of high school.

It hasn't exactly been fun walking into walls while half asleep in the morning everyday, but that's definitely a small price to pay for all the experience and fun that happened at the Medical Sciences building. I was a bit disappointed at first that all of my other ASC group members were sent to Biomed 2 and I was alone in the foreign land of Biomed 1, but at least I made some new friends, if that's what people you've known for five days could count as. I knew that if I were with people I was familiar with, I'd never have made an effort to interact with others. And as a bonus, I got the better class and the better instructors, which meant that we finished things faster than Biomed 2, so we had more time for fun things like trivia and riddles.

Another advantage of being alone was that, naturally, I had no competition for answering the questions, and by the end of day one, I was the know-it-all, respected by both instructors and classmates (I think and hope).

One of my favourite parts was actually on day one. Everyone was placed into a group of four, and as a start off to get to know each other, we were given the task of creating a marble roller coaster. Now I'd done this already in grade five, and we had to use toilet paper rolls to create the track. That was very frustrating, since toilet paper rolls obviously do not bend however you want them to, which makes the turns bumpy and reduces the speed, and if you don't like the way you did a section of the track, you had to tear a bunch off. It took a month or two to finish.

This time it was much easier. We were able to use pipe insulation halves, each piece no shorter than 60cm. It was extremely flexible and smooth so the marble rolled effortlessly, and if we accidentally made a hill or loop too high, all we had to do was give some slack, reducing the slope.

Apart from that, some other highlights of our week were dissecting a frog (each pair got their own!), visiting the Materials Sciences building to learn about biomaterials, and making a hydraulic arm. The challenge for the arm was further increased by creating a budget that each group had to stay in. The currency used was "Dollheads", a term created by the four instructors because all the bills had their heads on them.

In... less than eleven hours, I'll be at the airport, waiting for my flight. The time has finally come for me to say goodbye to grade eight. With a heavy heart, I'll be moving on, waiting for whatever happens. As Grace once put as her personal message, "Show me that good things come to those who wait."

5 Really Awkward Moments

Awkwardness is the force of life that controls such uncomfortable and unpleasent sensations as the blank in your mind when you're walking hand in hand with your girlfriend and you pass your ex on the street, or the abrupt silence when your parents walk in on you confiding your darkest secrets to your friends. It's usually proceeded by embarressment, which only fuels the fire, as you which you could just vaporize into the air, or jump into a hole after farting loudly in the library. And this list commemorates some of the really undesirable positions in which everyone has found themselves in at some point. Note that this is not a list of the craziest or most extreme wish-you-could-just-die moments, but contains several points that anyone can relate to. In no particular order, let's begin!

Summer "Break"

My summer has been pretty eventful so far. By pretty eventful, I mean, having something to do almost every day of the past month. This consisted of of the first 2 weeks of July to be taken up by "Computer Camp", which only around about half of our times was spent on the computers, another third was taken up by sports and activities like dodgeball, soccer, or Graveyard (it's a fun game), and the last sixth was swimming. Speaking of swimming, for the next two weeks after that, I had to wake up for Bronze Cross at 6:30 every morning, meaning I was pretty tired 24/7 for those two weeks. Finally, when I finished my Bronze Cross, I had a 22.5 km hike over the weekend, which wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't carrying a 30 or so pound pack, while also having the job of making sure the stragglers in my Scout Troop wouldn't fall behind. This resulted in me walking slower than usual, which wasted more energy since I actually had to try and walk slower. It's not like I regret anything I've done, but I sure am looking forward as August rolls around.

The Decision

She couldn't believe it. This was just all too much. There was absolutely no way she could bear to comprehend it. Half an hour ago, as her watch beeped to signal the eighth hour, Lisa was walking home from the local grocery store with her husband, a bag of sweets in one hand and a vanilla fruit cake in the other, sitting in a pretty pink box with light blue stripes. It was Riley's sixth birthday, and they were planning a surprise party at noon. Both their daughter and five year old son Charlie were still sound asleep as the couple rounded the corner and walked towards number twenty in the old townhouse complex. But not for long.