Swine Flu

A new influenza has scared everyone. It was even thought that it would turn into a pandemic, but what has happened to it know? Once the swine flu started in Mexico there was news about it everywhere and on every television news channel. When you sat in your car all you would hear is about this new flu. People now have started to relax and not think about it anymore. However, it is still a major concern because there have been a total of 719 cases in Canada. When this influenza started it was just in Mexico, but now it has spread to Canada with some force. Many schools were shut down in the Unites States. My family was also worried by this new flu when we first heard about it. I started being more careful and I also started following some of the ways to protect against this new problem.

In my opinion people should still be aware of the consequences and symptoms of the swine flu. So if anybody in someone’s family was to get sick they could get it treated right away. This would help decrease the spread of the swine flu. If we still kept the awareness high people would continue to wash their hands. It has the same symptoms as seasonal flu so it is hard to tell if it is swine flu or just a regular flu. For this reason there is a helpline to ask people if you might have it. If you want to be safe then you should go to your doctor and get checked. This is better than waiting to see if anything bad happens and then it’s too late. I have tried to wash my hands as much as possible so I can stay away from this nasty flu. I hope that soon scientists find some kind of injection to help cure people that might catch this dangerous flu.

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/media/nr-rp/2009/2009_0520_h1n1-eng.php

Vaisakhi

Vaisakhi is celebrated mainly by the Sikh religion. Vaisakhi celebrates the birth of Khalsa and is celebrated around the harvest season. This is when Guru Gobind Singh made Khalsa. It was basically the starting for the Sikh New Year. This holiday originates in Punjab, specifically at Anandpur Sahib. It is very important and is celebrated in Punjab. It is also celebrated in many other places. In Canada it is also celebrated; locally in Abbotsford, Vancouver and Surrey. This holiday is celebrated on April, 14; however a long time ago it used to be in March. It started from March 26th and now we celebrate it on April, 14. This holiday is celebrated by a religious parade that goes through town. It is also celebrated by going to the Gurudwara (Sikh Temple). It is one of the most important celebrations for Sikh faith.


Our family does celebrate this holiday. We are Sikh religion so we celebrate it. The religious takes place in Vancouver, Surrey and Abbotsford. They usually occur at different times. Sometimes we go to the Surrey parade, but we always go to the Abbotsford one. When it is Vaisakhi we go to the Gurudwara (Sikh Temple). The parade that happens in Abbotsford is for another reason, but it is basically the same. It is different because the one that happens in Abbotsford is in September. During the parade we walk alongside the floats. There is also lots of food being served, but I usually do not take any because I have many allergies. I think that this holiday is very important to me because it is for the birth of Khalsa and all the sacrifices Guru Gobind Singh made to establish it.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/holydays/vaisakhi.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaisakhi

St. Patrick's Day

In Christianity St. Patrick is one of the most commonly known person. He is the saint of Ireland. He is very well known, but his life is sort of a mystery. He was born in Britain into a wealthy family. The holiday was created in 1737, March 17. This was when the first parade of St. Patrick’s Day took place. This celebration celebrates or remembers St. Patrick’s death. St. Patrick died in March 17 so that is why we celebrate it on March 17. People have feasts in remembrance to the patron of Ireland (St. Patrick). The Irish celebrate this with big feasts, green clothes and gathering as a family to celebrate it. We also celebrate St. Patrick’s Day to remember St. Patrick’s death on March 17. However, we do not celebrate this like the Irish do. We focus more onto the green clothes, and leprechauns, rather than the actual religious idea of it.

I did not know all this about St. Patrick’s Day. When I thought about this celebration I usually think about the green leprechaun. I did not know the actual background information to it. Even on television they show the leprechaun and a pot of gold, but not the actual background story about this celebration. I do not celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but it was interesting to find out all this information on it. I am curious about why green is so important to this holiday. When I was researching I did not find this either, but I still wonder why. This holiday seems pretty interesting and I actually did not know much about this celebration before I had done this blog post.


http://www.history.com/content/stpatricksday/who-was-st.-patrick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Patrick

http://www.theholidayspot.com/patrick/

Mardis Gras Celebration

Mardis Gars is celebrated in many different places. In Binche, which is in Belgium, this is one of the most important celebrations. It is also celebrated in Nice, which is in France. These are not the only places that celebrate Mardis Gras, there are many more. Mardis Gras celebrates the spring season that is about to start and the winter that has just passed. It also celebrates fasting for 40 days which is showing compassion for Jesus. Mardis Gras is celebrated in many places around the world. Some of the countries are France, Germany, Guatemala and many more. This celebration starts before Ash Wednesday. It is the period before the fasting, and lasts until Easter. It goes for about 40 days. There are many variations on how it is celebrated. Some traditions are that everyone wears green, purple and gold. People also fast for 40 days and select something that they will not eat for those 40 days. Beads are also thrown around and a parade also goes around. There are also big floats on the roads. There were also many changes made to this celebration.

I had not heard of this holiday until today. When I looked at the name of the celebration I sort of got an idea of what it might be because Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” in French. I did not really understand this celebration, but once I started reading about it I got a better idea. I think that the way many people have changed it is sort of wrong because you should keep with the original traditions and not try to change a religious celebration. People should have kept this celebration to its original traditions, but a few minor changes might have been fine. I had never heard of this celebration before, but I learned many things while researching for this blog post.

Snow in the Fraser Valley

This year was one of the snowiest years in Abbotsford history. The snow was basically up to our knees. The city had about 21 machines going around clearing up the roads. However, many people still thought that the roads were not clear enough or the machines missed some roads. They probably were not able to clear snow off every single street. For this reason many people probably had to stay home for a couple of days because they could not get cars out of their driveways. As the temperatures lowered, black ice also formed on the roads making the job even harder for the city. Black ice also causes many accidents, therefore clearing the roads was essential. The snow plough machines leave snow on the sidewalks making life for pedestrians even harder. Many people had to walk on the road because the sidewalks were completely covered with lots of snow. People were also being reminded to shovel their driveways and sidewalks. The city also wanted people to clear the sewage system covers, if they can, to reduce flooding when the snow starts to melt. This year Abbotsford has experienced one of the snowiest years in its history.


I enjoyed the snow overall, but there were also many negative parts to it. My sister and I went sledding in our park as it has many hills. This turned out to be a pleasant experience, but driving for my parents was tough. Almost everyday I had to shovel our driveway and sidewalk so our car would not slip. Since our tires were the all-season type they would get stuck in the least amounts of snow. This was an unpleasant experience for my family. When our car got stuck, which was much too often, we would have to give it a push from the back and it still would not budge. Kindly, our neighbors helped a few times too. My parents had to go to our sweet shop each day so they did not really enjoy the snow. On one occasion our car would get stuck on almost every stop we took. Finally my dad decided to go buy some snow tires. It took about three hours to do this, but we were able to acquire them. Then almost everything changed. Our car would not slip at all. When almost all the routes going to our house were stuck our car was still able to make it home. Snow tires turned out to be really useful for us this year. Along with this we started off school with a snow day because further snow had come overnight. This year was just amazing because I had never seen this much snow fall in Abbotsford before!

Link to the article summarized:
http://www.canada.com/abbotsfordtimes/news/story.html?id=c8e894e2-2365-417e-a25e-71ef6f693a87

My Birthday

On my birthday, Thomas Edison gets his light bulb right. After 14 months of hard work he finally gets it perfect in 1879. It lasted for about 13 ½ hours. It was an incandescent light bulb. For the first time it actually worked. This is very interesting to me because I take interest in science. I feel proud when I think of it; because it happened on my birthday it is different than just reading it, I can make a connection.

A food scientist, William A. Mitchell, was born on my birthday. He was the one who invented the orange drink, Tang and Cool Whip. He also made a very popular type of candy, Pop Rocks. The candy that ‘explodes.’ He was actually trying to make a soft drink, but the carbon dioxide helped make the exploding candy.

In the U.S, 1963, the first trim line telephone was placed into service; you could also take an extra $1 charge. The company that made this happen was the Michigan Bell Telephone Company.

Just about 10 years ago Bill Clinton signed to get a 520 billion spending package. It was shipped to him. This happened right befor the next Congress (105th) would come. This money might have been to improve the country, but I don’t think that money was actually put to good use.

Columbus discovers America on my birthday. He did this in 1492. This is an amazing event because otherwise it might have taken many years to figure out where America would have been. Along with this America is one of the most important countries of the world (not resources wide, just ‘big’). This discovery had changed many history books and people’s thoughts about the world during that time.

My birthday is certainly amazing!

Sites Used

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/10/dayintech_1021

http://www.todayinsci.com/10/10_21.htm

http://wjz.com/watercooler/Today.In.History.2.840670.html

http://www.worldofquotes.com/history/10_21/1/index.html

Opinion on Article and Summary

Summary

In eastern Congo there were many people who lost their homes or were forced out because of the violence and fighting happening there. A group of people, ‘rebels’ took over the area. Many problems have occurred where people have to go and flee the area or leave their homes. About 250, 000 people are in the middle of this problem. The UN is trying to help out as many people as they can. They bring in food and try to lend a hand to everyone. Many had also fled the camps and most of the areas are deserted. It could be because of the rebels, who may have forced them to flee once again. Some trucks that come with food are filled with cabbages and onions too! It shows how much of a mess they are in, and food is scarce. The UN was also going towards Rutshuru, but this area was also taken over by rebels. Because of the fighting and chaos there is only one thing for slight medical help. It is only a hospital that may not be able to support all these people. This is all occurring because of hate. It is also because of what happened in Rwanda and some of the wars. There are many conflicts occurring and this one has raised awareness once again.



Link To Article: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/11/03/congo-aid.html



Own Opinion


I think that this event shows that many countries in Africa have to go through many problems. Because of some corruption and unstable societies rebels and other tribes just come in and decide to conquer the area. They do everything with force and it really disturbs me. The people have to suffer even more problems on top of their daily life. Many start starving and some are victims to the rebels. I think that somebody should help this area out and the many other places in need. Not just the UN and other organizations, but the country and the government should try and make everything stable. I feel very sad when I hear stories like these because I can relate it to myself and see how I am living my life. While some are running for their lives we could be running for a competition or a chocolate bar. Overall, I think that Africa has to go through so much and they need help. I compare my life with some of theirs and what happens their really touches my heart.