U.S Teens Guilty of ‘prank’ Killing of Oshawa Boy

An American teen who shot his Canadian best friend in a prank gone wrong has been convicted of reckless homicide.

Nicholas King was a 14 year old boy. His family and him moved from Oshawa to Indianapolis when he was 5 years old. There, Nicholas met a fifteen year old boy (name can not be identified, due to him being a minor) and Kevin Edwards, 18. Him and Nicholas had bonded over video games, rap music and oddball humour.

A photo of Nicholas

Last October, the night before Halloween, Nicholas went over to his friends house around 8 pm. When Nicholas knocked on the door his friends thought it would be funny to surprise him with an assault rifle attack. Nicholas knocked on the door and as planned his friend took out the gun that Kevin had purchased and shot. To his friend, Kevin and certainly Nicholas's surprise a bullet came out and ripped through his neck. 

Nicholas's family were devastated over the lost of their beloved son/brother. "I honestly wanted to believe that this is all a mistake, a big misunderstanding . . . But I’m not naive,” Tiffany King wrote. Tiffany and Nicholas were very close and it was heart wrenching for her to lose her younger brother.

A photo of Tiffany & Nicholas 

The fifteen year old boy and Edwards explained it was all an accident and that they didn't know the rifle was loaded.

The fifteen year old boy has been sentenced to “indeterminate wardship” to the Indiana Department of Correction for reckless homicide.

Kevin Edwards was sentenced to four years in prison for dangerous control of a firearm.

In my own opinion I think gun stores and the United States should have stricter gun laws. The fact that a fifteen year old boy was able to get his hand on a gun, loaded or unloaded, is despicable. 

A Walk to Remember

From "Titanic" to "The Notebook"down to "Dear John"and all the way to "Love Actually", I've always been a sucker for a good love story. Most of my favourites are well known romance movies but my favourite of all time did not get the recognition it should have received. "A Walk to Remember" has and mostly likely will always be my favourite movie.

"A Walk to Remember" was released January 25th 2002. Before being made to a movie it was a novel written by Nicholas Sparks. It stars Mandy Moore & Shane West.

Landon Carter, bad boy, often pulled pranks with a group of his friends. When a prank goes wrong on fellow high-school student Clay Gephardt, Landon is threatened to be expelled (being the only one caught). His punishment was to participate in various after school activities, particularly the drama club. This is where Landon meets long time acquaintance Jamie Sullivan.
When Landon starts to have trouble learning his lines he goes to Jamie for help. They began working together and practicing at Jamie's home after school. Landon treats Jamie very coldly at first, especially when near his 'friends' but as he spends more and more time with her he begins to question who he really wants to impress.
The night the play takes place Jamie amazes everyone with her talented voice and her beauty. Landon and Jamie have their on stage kiss and the play ended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8f8RHWMPyY

This Video is of Jamie singing (what you will hear and see bits of) and all my favourite scenes.

Now that the play is over the two have no real reason to spend time with each other, but Landon still wants to be around Jamie and tries to become closer with her but Jamie repeatedly rejects him.
Landon's friends begin to question why he's putting so much effort into trying to spend time with Jamie. Belinda, Landon's ex-girlfriend, was particularly angry about Landon possibly having potential feelings for Jamie. Out of pure anger and jealousy she finds a photo of Jamie, cuts the head off of her body and attaches it to the body of an overly exposed woman. Her and her friends make hundreds of copies and spread them all around the school.
The next day one of Landon's old friends show this photo to him. He becomes extremely furious and confronts all of them (punches one of them) and tells them he never wants to speak to any of them again. Landon then makes his way to a crying Jamie and tells her that they are all just jealous of her. Not to far from then Jamie and Landon begin a relationship.

(My Favourite Part)
Landon takes Jamie out for their first date. They go for dancing and dinner. In the car ride afterwards Jamie and Landon talk for a while. Landon discovers that Jamie has a bucket list (things you want to do before you die). Landon then begins to drive somewhere and Jamie has no clue where. They both get out of the car and Landon tells Jamie to put one foot further to the right and one foot further to the left. Jamie asks whats going on and Landon than says "You're currently straddling the state line, you're in two places at once" One of the things on her bucket list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIaBsXFAXE

After that they get back into the car and Jamie brings up how she has always wanted to get a tattoo. Landon than pulls over into an abandon parking lot and pulls out a case full of temporary tattoos. He than asks her which one she'd like and gives her a butterfly tattoo on the back of her left shoulder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SStV6DMqFZ8&playnext=1&list=PLHzlgCNeVjt4u8d0OCpolrB1-MrdrXfYN&feature=results_video

Near the end of the movie Jamie and Landon get into an argument. When Jamie first argued to help Landon with his lines she said "Alright. But you promise me that you won't fall in love with me" Landon chuckled and replied "Thats no problem". Now that their dating and got to know each other very well Landon tells Jamie he loves her. Jamie freaks out, Landon than asks her why this is so bad. Jamie than replies that she has Leukemia and she will die, she hadn't told him before because she just thought it was the end for her (she stopped reacting to treatments long ago) but then she met Landon and fall in love.

Jamie's cancer becomes worse and she collapses to the floor one day. Her father rushes her to the hospital where they meet Landon.
He stays there all night and refuses to leave Jamie's side. Jamie wakes up and grabs a book from behind her and hands it to Landon. This book formally belonged to Jamie's mother, before she died of cancer. In the book are her mothers favourite quotes. She tells him to flip to a certain page and read a quote. This being one of my favourite movies and by far my favourite quote, "Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful."

Her father finally tells Landon to go home, as does Jamie.

News gets out about Jamie's illness and Landon's long time best-friend Eric comes and apologizes, as do all his other friends.

Jamie is finally released from the hospital and Landon brings the telescope he made her to the balcony of her room so she could watch a cornet (another one of her wishes). Landon then asks a question that Jamie had been dying to here, he asks Jamie to marry her. She says yes and once again Landon accomplishes making a wish, Jamie's number one wish come true, to get married at the same church her parents did.

Not to far from the wedding Jamie passes away.

Four years later Landon returns to Jamie's home narrating the movie. He speaks about how Jamie and him had a wonderful summer with more love than anybody could possibly know. He speaks to her father about how he never got Jamie to witness a miracle (one of her wishes) and her father tells Landon that Jamie did witness a miracle, him.
Landon than goes to the docks and says how he misses Jamie but he believes their love is like the wind: he can't see it but he will always feel it.

If I were to rate this movie I would give it five stars, 10/10. The care and love they both shared for each other was spectacular and was all around an amazing story.

Bubble Trouble (The Best Game Ever)

Some of the best days of our lives have occurred during our childhoods. When growing up you mature and move on from the things you've enjoyed when younger and simply leave them in the past. But sometimes habits stick to us. I've found it extremely difficult to stop playing games on Miniclip, specifically, Bubble Trouble.

Bubble Trouble is a singular or two player game. The objective of the game is to destroy the bubbles approaching to you from the side or top of the screen (for twenty two levels). To do so you must align yourself with the bubble and press 's' or the space bar (depending on which player you are). As you progress the levels become more difficult. And to make it even more challenging each level has a time limit. Each player has five lives and when your player is it by a bubble it will lose one of the five lives.

When you shoot the bubble items occasionally come up. There are many items but these eight are my favourite types of items:

Blue Arrow-  The blue arrow looks like a blue box with a black arrow in it. This will put you back to your normal arrow.

Green Arrow- This will look like a green box with a line through it. the green line will have little lines coming out the sides. This will make your arrow stick to the top of the screen for a period of time.

Time- This will look like a yellow alarm clock. This will give you additional time to your level.

Gold- This will look like a gold coin. It will give you 100 points to your score. 

Gold x3- This is the same as the gold coin but it will have three of them. This will give you 300 points.

Money-  This will look like a paper note with a dollar sign in the middle. It will give you 500 points. 

Ray Gun- This will look like a colourful triangle. Its main colour is blue and the other colours are yellow and red. This will make your weapon become that triangle and you can shoot better combos with it. 

Shield- A cylinder shaped shield around your player to protect you from getting hit by a bubble.

The video above is of two players defeating the game Bubble Trouble (which I've never been able to do) 

The sound effects in Bubble Trouble are highly entertaining. You can hear the sound of the arrow swiveling and the bubbles popping which makes the game all much more fun. 

All in all Bubble Trouble is a very entertaining puzzle game. This challenging game will never let you leave unless defeated. If I were to rate this game I would rate it a 9/10.

The Royals Watch

http://thestar.blogs.com/royals/
The big milestone in a couples marriage is when they have their first child. Its a memorable, tough, enjoyable time that won't be forgotten. This time is often shared with family and friends. But I don't understand why the whole world needs to know why William & Kate, mostly known as "The Royal Couple", are having their first child! What makes your first child better than everyone else's? NOTHING, because they aren't! Everywhere I look, every single news channel has spoken about Kate's bump or how she is expecting and I am just sick of it.

This article discusses of how the couple began a head start on buying baby toys. Why in the world was this made into an article? On CP24 there is a box below the news anchors talking about things that they didn't find significant enough to speak about, even for a couple seconds. Why are deaths of people in this box and not the fact that William & Kate already started buying baby toys for their future child? This just doesn't make any sense.

Many maternity wear franchises in England have tried getting Kate to wear their clothing. Why you ask? Because these companies believe that other pregnant woman will want to wear clothes from their store just because Kate's "rocking it down the sidewalk to the grocery store". What makes you want to wear clothing from the same store as Kate? Its not like she wore it and signed it herself for you? Shes just a regular lady.

All across North America, from England to all over Europe, this baby's arrival is being waited for. I don't get what all the fuss is over. When I was born the only people that cared or knew were friends and family! So whats so special about this baby? Are they going to create world peace? Are the going to find a cure for cancer? Are they going to make this world a better place? No one knows. And no one will know until the child does so them self.

My main point of this all is that I & everyone else in this world should be able to go a day without hearing what The Royal Couple is doing to get ready for the arrival of there baby that is six months away. Its just a regular man and a regular woman who are having a regular child.

Social Media

     Social media is everywhere. Its in the news, on the papers and especially on our computers, it's become apart of our lives. Businesses use it for marketing. people use it for communicating, some even use it just to waste time. But is it really a good thing? Everything you put on the internet stays they forever. Delete buttons? Just for show, what ever you want back isn't yours anymore. Is that not the least bit frightening? Social media may be all around as but it does have its cons.
      Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, texting, Email, Google+ and Tumblr may seem like fun and games but truly they aren't. Almost all of the listed ask for 'Personal Information' such as your name, last name, age, city you live in, postal code and country. They say you can keep that information private from others, but can you really? Passwords are involved for any Social Media site out there. They say to include numbers to make it more secure, but will that really help? All of these things can be hacked quite easily. Social Media lacks privacy.
     People use Social Media to get to know people, talk to them, meet new people, keep in contact with friends, basically as a different form of communication. But what happens when people become so dependent on Social Media? The can lose social skills, face to face human contact and ultimately become isolated from people. Scientists have evaluated social isolation in many studies, and have determined that it can lead to mental, psychological, emotional and physical problems including depression, anxiety, many other things.
     You use it everyday and can think its perfectly normal but it isn't mentally healthy or psychologically healthy. It may be all around us but that doesn't mean its good for you. Social Media may be all fun to use and be completely harmless at first but in the end it is bad for our society.

If I Could Change Myself

     There are two types of people in this world: Insecure people & Non-insecure people. I classify myself as an insecure person. I have many flaws that I'm dying to fix, but the thing is, I can't. These flaws are what make me, me. But sometimes I don't want to be me, I want to be the smart one, the funny one, the athletic one, the pretty one, but I'm not. I'm just plain me.

     If I were given the chance to change three things about myself, I'd first change how I act socially. When it comes to meeting new people I become as awkward as one can be. I completely forget how to make conversation & become abnormally shy. I would change this about myself because I believe that it really holds me back from showing people what I really am like underneath my socially awkward layer.

     The second thing I would change about myself if given the chance would be my non-athleticism. Since I was a kid sports was never my thing. I've tried learning from every possible way but it would never work out. All my friends have at least one sport that they shine in but I've got none, I really just want to change this to satisfy my desire to always fit in.

     The last thing I would change about myself is my size. Almost everyone I've ever met in my entire life has pointed out that I am extremely thin for my age. Some people even point this out to me daily! It frustrates me so much! Do they really think I don't notice this everyday! That I don't hate the fact that clothing I've bought in elementary school fits me to this day? Some even try telling me that I starve myself! Excuse me for thinking that you don't know my eating habits! I would gladly change this about myself because its pointed out to me so often that I basically resent my size.

     These things are qualities about myself that I would want to change in a heartbeat, but I won't. These things are what make me the unique person I am today and no matter how much I say I hate them from time to time, I would never get rid of them. I'm me. Socially awkward, non-athletic, extremely thin, me. And I wouldn't change it for the world.
   

Curiosity Lands On Mars

  The significance of Curiosity's mission is to inspect Mars for valuable resources and key things for life. Also to see if humans will ever be able to live on the Planet. This trip is significant because they have prepared for it for a long period of time and it will show NASA if Mars is needed to re-visit because if they spent a lot of money sending Astronauts up to Mars and they found nothing it would be a massive waste of time and money.
  During the two years Curiosity will spend its time searching for the chemical building blocks needed to support primitive organisms, such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and oxygen. To do so it will drill into Martian rocks and examine some of the planet's famous red soil. From this information I can infer that NASA has faith that they will find something on Mars. I think this because they invested a lot of time, effort and money onto the Curiosity so they must have a feeling that there are some valuable resources on Mars.
  If Curiosity were to find valuable resources on Mars I think that they would first observe the pictures that Curiosity had taken. Then they would decide if they were to re-visit the planet. If they were to re-visit Mars they would bring the resources back to earth where they would thoroughly analyze them. If they found everything they wanted to find I think that they would test to see if humans could survive and potentially live on Mars. Also I assume they would use some of the resources to substitute for other resources that are running out.