I have a new camera!

I wanted to have a means of taking my own pictures while voyaging en Allemagne and so I took out the flyers from Sears and London Drugs and the Source Monday night and looked at a couple cameras in-flyer and called over to Sears and put one on sale on hold.
We had a meeting to talk about the Colonialism resolution yesterday morning and had our practice round after school and after that I walked towards Brentwood with Kate and Gee then went to Sears and got my camera.
My camera is soooo pretty and easy to use and basically the same thing as my parents' but a little larger and better. I love my new camera. :-)

Um. I'm going to go work on my French project like I'm supposed to so until later all!
Me.

Vancouver's safe injection site successful: study

Top AIDS researcher suggests Harper government has 'profound bias' against site

Last Updated: Monday, November 20, 2006 | 5:38 PM ET

CBC News

Vancouver's safe injection site is slowing down the spread of HIV and helping drug users quit their habits, a new study finds — but an expert suggested that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government won't want to hear those results.

The study, which will appear Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, says the three-year-old Supervised Injection Site in the Downtown Eastside has been a great success.

The injection site, which drew about 5,000 users in its first year of operation, is a place where people can safely go to inject illegal drugs while being supervised by nurses.

"By all criteria, the Vancouver facility has both saved lives and contributed toward the decreased use of illicit drugs and the reduced spread of HIV infection and other blood-borne infections," Mark Wainberg, the director of the McGill University AIDS Centre in Montreal, wrote in a commentary published alongside the study.

The study — conducted by Dr. Evan Wood, a professor of epidemiology at the University of British Columbia, and his colleagues — found that drug users who visited the site at least once a week were more willing to enter detoxification programs.

The researchers also found that all users in the area, including those with HIV, have been sharing syringes less since the start of the injection site, which is the first of its kind in North America. They have also engaged in other safe injection practices like using sterile water to formulate their drugs and swabbing alcohol on their skin.

Users were less likely to overdose when they used the facility at least once a week, the study found.

Establish more sites, expert urges

Wainberg argued that the injection site should remain open. He said the federal government should be drafting legislation to allow similar facilities to operate elsewhere in the country.

Wainberg criticized the federal Conservative government, singling out Health Minister Tony Clement for cutting a grant that would have allowed further study of the injection site — something Clement himself has said is necessary.

"Why would the government on the one hand announce that additional time is needed to study the potential success of the Vancouver safer injecting facility and on the other hand eliminate the funding needed for such evaluations?" wrote Wainberg, who is also a professor of medicine at McGill.

He also cited the Harper government's handling of an extension to the "waiver of law," which allows the site to operate without fear that the users or staff will face criminal charges.

Wainberg pointed out that, in September, Harper's government refused a request to extend the waiver for 3½ more years, only agreeing to let it stay open until the end of 2007.

"One hopes that the current government under Stephen Harper, which has been in office since only February 2006, will be willing to learn and to revisit this issue," Wainberg wrote.

Government accused of 'profound bias'

Meanwhile, one of Canada's foremost AIDS researchers accused the federal government of being against the injection site, saying he doubts Ottawa wants to hear that it has been having a positive effect.

"I think that there is a profound bias in this administration," Dr. Julio Montaner, the director of B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, told CBC News in an interview tied to the release of the study.

"Unfortunately, no matter how many attempts we have made to have an intelligent and educated discussion about this issue, their principles stand in the way of evidence-based decision making," said Montaner.

"And to me, that's unacceptable."

The injection site is operated by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority in partnership with the Portland Hotel Society and is funded by the federal and provincial governments.

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I dislike...

the English language. The more I read articles or books in English lately, the more I think about how words are not said the way they're spelt or just look ridiculous as words. I truly do not like English.

*Cont'd from other post*

The only bad thing about the swing we did tonight was it was a three-step to the left, three-step to the right, back-step vs the one-left, one-right rock-step from jive which I want to revert to....
I'm sure I'll get over it soon enough.

Also <3 swing

I love swing dancing. I went off with people to dance and I have to admit I was perfectly content to just stay at home and work on debate and order in Chinese but I'm really glad Gee and Kate convinced me to come along.

<3 choir

Have I mentioned lately how much I love singing and Choir? Because I really do alot alot alot.

You Are a Powdered Devil's Food Donut

A total sweetheart on the outside, you love to fool people with your innocent image. On the inside you're a little darker, richer, and more complex. You're a hedonist who demands more than one pleasure at a time. Decadent and daring, you test the limits of human indulgence.

What Donut Are You?

Remember, remember...

Remember, remember
The Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot;

I know of no reason
The Gunpowder Treason
Should ever
Be Forgot.

I'm working on this essay for French...

I first wrote it in-class on Friday, on whether science should stay in French or even offered in French for Immersion students when they graduate from jr high and move into high school and I took the position that where there are possibilities to continue scientific studies in French, there should be the option of pursuing such courses if there is the demand. Let me tell you, I'm working on researching a little the availability of French Science courses from the Education Department site for the Government of Alberta and I'm pretty pissed that there's the option for francophone and apparently IMMERSION students to take their Sciences in high school in French. If I could have, and don't get me wrong, Science 10 and Bio 20 and 30 are and were fun and good in English and whatever, but if I had had the chance to keep studying Science in French, there's no way I would've gone back to English Science. *pouts* I don't want any comments that "Oh, well the Francophones suck" or that the "AB system for French fails its students" or anything like that, I'm just pissed that it's apparently available in this province and I had to relearn many of the basic concepts in English when I knew them perfectly well in French and I know it's probably completely impossible to find qualified French Science teachers in Alberta who aren't in Francophone schools (which are probably private and can pay them better) or in jr highs but still. *bitches*

So that's all for now. I'm pretty happy other than that. People were cool and dressed up today (unlike me, I'm not cool, I only wore my USSR flag shirt and claimed to be a Communist or the entire Soviet Union personnified) and my Bio teacher gave us candy and let us watch most of a CSI episode which we may or may not (but please let it be may) continue watching tomorrow and we made up and sang songs on economics in Social and spare was fairly unproductive but lazy and happy that way.

I depart to finish my essay then study my fucking ENGLISH Bio notes.

Bye all and happy Hallowe'en!
Me.

I love life.

So. School's going pretty well. I had a Bio test that went really well. We had fun British teachers in today asking us about French Immersion, apparently on a fact-finding mission to see how we do it to set up a similar system in England. We had Country Selection and even though the people running it are on crack it's okay because we have the ball rolling for MUN now. And I saw four (count 'em four) SUNIA friends today there. Then I had a fun conversation with Joseph walking around after Country Selection. I was kinda bitchy for a bit just because then I got home and had supper and a great chat with parents about life and how shitty some people are and how awesome others are. Then I went upstairs to work on Bio, a work in progress, and started talking to people on MSN to amuse myself while describing embryonic developmental stages and listening to Mozart on the cd player Kate donated to me. Then, much to my surprise, somebody calls and Dad says it's for me. I go and answer the phone and find out that it's Neil from SUNIA (the most amazing summer camp ever) and he invites me up to Edmonton on Saturday, Dec 16, at 11 in the morning for an interview for a counsellor position.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only my life's dream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I had to call people and talk to them about I had a really fantabulous conversation with Caitlin and Devon in Ottawa and I'm going to take a stagger shower for Caitlin to save water (get wet then put shampoo in my hair then turn off the water and lather then turn on the water and rinse, etc).

I love life so much.

To look forward to I have: Model Leg, Germany, SUNIA interview, the wonderfulness of Bio and Social, Model UN, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness which involves all of the above.

I'm off to bed to try and calm down a bit from the amazingness of Neil calling me and also calling Sean. (OMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!)

'Night!
Me.

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 22 Oct 2006 at 05:17:01 AM GMT is:

The estimated population of the United States is 300,037,616
so each citizen's share of this debt is $28,504.08.

Leaving for U of A tomorrow...

and I'm pretty pumped for it. Yay U of A's awesomeness, not only of the fantastic new people and the activities we're gonna do and West Ed and the debating, but also that I'll see some great people from SUNIA which is quite exciting!
I wrote an okay Social essay today, it would've been good had I really thought about examples and such to use and my SEX kinda fell apart and examples ran into each other. However, I did write it on the computer which was both a good thing and a bad thing, the easy removal or repositioning of sentences was nice but sometimes the accents were a bit trying and the typos and whatever.
French wasn't completely terrible, I'm pretty sure Bandol likes me and I don't know how to feel about that.
Bio was pretty good, we continued our study of the human reproductive system, moving on from the basics of men to the basics of women today, or at least what's between their legs.
After school I went to try and find Mme Dunn to talk to her about the animal thing to relax people for U of A but I could not find her. Instead I had a good trilingual conversation with Sra Noble about Spanish and wanting to use different words from each language at different times and vegetarianism and travel and German and the Spanish ladies at Sears and general chatter.
Then home again home again to pack a bit for tomorrow, which I'm going to go finish when I'm done here, and eat supper and kinda lounge around. I will do review and such as soon as packing is done, which shouldn't take a long time at all.
If anybody wants to volunteer info for my Social project, my part being the "defis de Nigeria", it would be greatly appreciated.

So good-night to you all for now and I'll write all about U of A and the Edmonton experience when I get back.
Me

Bio and French are hateful. Social and Spare...are not.

So I don't like that I've done less than happily on several tests and quizzes in Bio so far. As well, French is pretty useless however we've got to a part of La Neige en Deuil where there are fun descriptions of things.
Unlike French and Bio, Candace's birthday party last weekend was quite wonderful and the Olive Garden makes good pasta. Candace's little sister, who's name I can't remember (sorry Candace!), is very fun to make faces at and play rock-paper-scissors with and such.
I shall update later as MP is kicking me off his comp.

Bye for now!
Me.

I had choir first...

and now I'm all happy and awake. I got up around 6 and was at the school about twenty-five after seven and we went over Bridge over Troubled Water and In Remembrance from Requiem and quickly over Dry Your Tears Afrika.
I am currently avoiding working in French, we're doing skits about mountain climbing related activities to familiarize ourselves with the vocab before we read Ch 4 of La Neige en Deuil and we have to find definitions then make a skit and use at least 30 of the 40 words on the list in it. Excuse me while I die. *dies*

Anyways, I have Bio next and we're doing the ear and discovering how mature my class is, when Ms Ng told her joke "Prince Charles has large pinnas (said pin-ahs)" we chuckled and thereafter whenever she mentioned the pinna at least someone would laugh. Don't get me start on the cochlea and cochlear duct, so ridiculous.

At lunch we have our second real debate meeting, featuring Anne on vocal hygiene then discussion groups for people going to U of A and to Western, which are at the same time so I won't have to research whether we should make people with "unhealthy lifestyles" pay for their health care!

In Social after lunch we'll write the Chapter 2/3 test and work on our mobiles and maybe present our Chapter summary video on democracies and hand out the associated tests and notes.

Then comes Spare and I'll go get my passport photos taken at Sears then go home and work on homework things.

I'm almost done my passport, all I need is to find my birth certificate so I can write some number from it on the application then get my identity validated by reliable people and then I can send it off with government issued cards and I'll be waiting with anticipation for the passport to come.

Dad was scoping flights for Stuttgart for the end of November and if we catch this seat sale we can get four people onto a flight from Calgary to Frankfurt, two hour lay-over in Frankfurt, then a 45 min flight to Stuttgart and basically the same thing back. I am le excited. :-D

Anyhow, I'm going to maybe consider doing some work for French, even though we have until next Monday to prepare for it so really work isn't entirely necessary at this time but suggested I guess.

Bye all!
Me.

I felt...

the Terry Fox assemblies Erica and I co-mced went rather well today. And the Leaders' Debate for our "election" was fun.
Thailand has the crazy for their military coup while the Prime Minister was off in New York to address the UN General Assembly.
Also, WTF with the Hungarian PM admitting to lying during the last election and posting the script of the recording at a closed-door party meeting on his blog?
And yeah, basically the world has the crazy.
Oh oh oh, Sam, Pete, Kees, Trevor, MP and I went over to Branton over lunch to show and tell Branton kids why they should join Debate at Branton and come to Abe too. T'was good fun.

Must go sleep for sickness afflicts me.

Bye for now,
Me.

After looking at the SUNIA photobucket....

and the recent flashbacks and cravings for the food, even from a certain dinner, I realize how much I miss it.

One More Thing!!!!

The make-up of the Germany Team this year has been finally determined, well mostly, I'm confused about one part but I'm sure I'll eventually get an explanation for it!!!
To represent Aberhart and Canada (as either Canada A or B) will be: Erin, Georgeanne, Kate, Kevin and myself.
I'll have more details Tuesday after the meeting to figure out the schedule and such definitively.

Til later,
Me.

Back after popular debate, my blog will have a real update.

Hello all. It's me! No, I haven't died or moved to a cabin in the backwoods without internet access, I just haven't really been inspired to update lately.
So, let's see... School's going pretty well: I have three classes with Kate so either we're going to drive each other nuts or get along really well or some permutation of such conditions, we share Social first, Spare second and Bio third, she has Chem last and I have French last. It's quite handy, actually, to not always have to know what class I have next because I can turn to Kate and we can usually figure it out between the two of us. And Social is just generally awesome, we watched a movie Thursday and Friday that featured a very very strange "game show" with the "contestants" being representatives of different ideologies (Absolute monarchy, Representative democracy, Communism, Socialism and Fascism) and yeah. It was very... unique. The Communist rep had a peculiar way of speaking that featured her pronouncing each syllable almost, very Shatner-singing-esque, while the Socialist was extraordinarily enthusiastic about everything and frequently couldn't contain her excitement and would flail her arms around and clap and bounce up and down and then the occasional shit-disturber Anarchy guy would come through and rant and rave and then run off stage.
My Bio teacher is very organized and has her own website which she posts many of her notes and links to animations and things on, which can show you what's happening so the manner that a nerve impulse travels down a neuron makes at least somewhat more sense than zero.
And I have Bandol but good friends in my class so we manage to not slam our heads on our desks too often, though her complete incomprehensibility and astronomically high heels are distracting.
Anyways, Kate's on her way to work on our video for Social and Georgeanne will be coming in about a half hour along with Sean and Gaby and assorted peoples to work on our video and alternately prepare posters for Take Back The Night tonight, which I'm very excited for, and I'm going to go eat some food to be able to be all energetic later on.
So, hopefully this update will keep the crazies pacified for a while.

Until then, bye!
Me.

More Random Quizzes

What's Your Celtic Horoscope?

You're Totally Sarcastic

You sarcastic? Never! You're as sweet as a baby bunny. Seriously, though, you have a sharp tongue - and you aren't afraid to use it. And if people are too wimpy to deal with your attitutde, then too bad. So sad.

How Sarcastic Are You?

You Are Sunset

Even though you still may be young, you already feel like you've accomplished a lot in life. And you feel free to pave your own path now, and you're not even sure where it will take you. Maybe you'll pursue higher education in a subject you enjoy - or travel the world for a few years. Either way, you approach life with a relaxed, open attitude. And that will take you far!

What Time Of Day Are You?

You Are a Chimera

You are very outgoing and well connected to many people. Incredibly devoted to your family and friends, you find purpose in nurturing others. You are rarely alone, and you do best in the company of others. You are incredibly expressive, and people are sometimes overwhelmed by your strong emotions.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

You Have Low Self Esteem 36% of the Time

Generally, you feel pretty darn great about who you are, even when you mess up or fail. Occasionally, a huge setback will make you question yourself, but you pick yourself up quickly.

How is Your Self Esteem?

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be

Come to the darkside, we have cookies

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?