Everyone wants to be a perpetual motion machine. We all try harder as the days run out.

As December descends upon us once again, we find time to reflect upon the things that really matter in life:  God, family, friends...  And realizing that every single thing we do will have an immense impact upon our futures.

Alas! some of you will say.  That is not what the holiday season is all about!  The holidays are a time of relaxation, when you're able to take a break and enjoy life - a seemingly impossible task in our society of perpetual motion.

However, such is not the case for me.  My workload does not allow for holiday down time.  Being a dancer, stage manager, and head choreographer in a dance company requires the majority of my time - not to mention my religious studies, responsibility as a Sunday school teacher and in SAFE, my student advocacy/equality group.  I also have to worry about school work now more than ever (the next report card is the one that will determine my university acceptances).

As if these responsibilities weren't enough, this is my final year of high school - time to apply for universities, work tirelessly for good marks, and still manage to balance a social life with friends whom I might not see next year save during the occasional visits to the hometown.

I'm also in foster care.  This means that I have to schedule regular meetings with my social worker, lawyer, head of my foster agency, coordinator, birth family, and fill out absurd paper work.

Let me tell you something, everybody.  THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY FOR ME TO GET ALL MY WORK DONE.  I enjoy dance, school, and spending time with my friends and family, but everyone seems to expect that I will make THEIR class, THEIR needs, time with THEM, my first priority.

My advice to teachers, friends, and coaches?  Lay off a little bit right now.  It's virtually impossible for us to please everyone all the time during this time of the year.  We promise, we're trying our best.
Girl With One Eye

Put the days together, and they start to do some damage. If the mean is in the middle, then I know that I will manage.

My school is non-semestered.  This means that I have all of my classes at once, all throughout the year.

Let me tell you something, all right?  This is STRESSFUL.

Yeah, we get an extra day to do homework.  Sure, it gives the course a more epic and less rushed feel.  Sure, we get more early acceptances.

But maybe we would get more acceptances IN GENERAL if we weren't so worried about juggling seven to nine classes in addition to extracurriculars, clubs, teams, and a social life.  We also wouldn't look like this so much of the time:

That's all I'm saying.

Stressfully,

Girl With One Eye

You say your time has come, you're tired of waking up. Don't be obscene, I can't conceive of living without you.

Yesterday, another Day of Purple was observed in Ottawa.  The reason?  The death of Daron Richardson, the teenage daughter of the assistant coach of the Senators.  More specifically, her suicide.

The rate of teen suicide increased by eight percent in 2007.  This increase is alarming.  Why are so many teens committing suicide?

Through my own life experiences, teens are feeling enormous pressure right now - balancing school, a social life, extracurriculars, and jobs can be stressful.  Not to mention the insane pressure concerning body image, which drives many teens to eating disorders and fad dieting.  Teens have to be perfect.  If they aren't, either their parents, their teachers, their peers, or their coaches will come down on them.  It's an impossible goal that today's teens are trying to achieve.

If you or someone you love is suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts, there is help out there for you.  Tell someone - you'll be surprised at how much help you can get, and how loved you are.  If you really feel you can't talk to anyone in your life, contact the Suicide Hotline - American or Canadian.  There's so much to live for.  You are not alone.

All my love,

Girl With One Eye

What the heck is that smell?!

It's rotting milk.  Some girl spilled hot chocolate in her locker, and it's going bad.  They just opened the locker and cleaned it all out, so the hallway doesn't smell very good right now.

Gross?  Yes.  Unpleasant?  Definitely.

Not much we can do about it, though.  Wear a gas mask.  Hold your breath.  Suck it up, princess.

Girl With One Eye

You've got the love.

The dog days are over.  Kiss with a fist.  Hurricane drunk.

What do all of these phrases have in common?  They are all titles of songs by the popular British band Florence + the Machine.  They are also all songs I listened to at her concert last Wednesday night.

On Wednesday, November third, Florence played at the Sound Academy in Toronto, Canada.  The following is my half-review, half-excited gushing, about the performance.

My friends and I drove there.  On the way up, we went through increasingly less impressive areas of Toronto.  When we turned into the entrance for the Sound Academy, we passed a Go-Karting rink.  To summarize, the venue wasn't incredibly impressive.

There were two opening bands.  The first was supposed to start at eight, but didn't end up going on until nine.  That was doable.  And they weren't bad - they were a lot better than they sounded, anyway, on account of the subpar sound system.

The second band was bad.  Just...  Very bad.

Florence didn't end up coming on until about eleven.  I was less than thrilled about this, as my friends would probably be able to tell you.  My feet hurt, and I was thirsty.  I was grumpy.  I was upset.  I demanded that they fetch me a litter and carry me around for the rest of the night.  But when she came on stage, none of that seemed to matter.

Florence was superb.  She was wearing a killer dress, and was so sweet that everyone immediately forgave her for making them wait.

All in all, this was a really good concert.  The audience was into it, there was the energy and drama that seems to come naturally to Florence, and it was a lot of fun.

 

Also, there were definitely people smoking pot.  A lot of people.

 

So, those are my thoughts about the Florence + the Machine concert last Wednesday night!  LISTEN TO HER, SHE IS SO GREAT.

 

Girl With One Eye

Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat.

I'm fairly certain that I have mentioned my country of birth.  For those of you who haven't caught on, I'm from Canada - you know, the true North, strong and free?  The home of ice hockey and beavertails?  Still nothing?  We're better known for being the big, cold, mostly empty land mass to the north of the United States.  Ring any bells yet?

Well, there you go.  Hopefully that is a helpful visual aid.

I love Canada.  I think it's a great country; it has a beautiful landscape, is a melting pot of cultures, and, of course, everyone loves the free health care. (Except the people trying to pay off the debt it engenders - but that's a different blog entry.)

There is, however, one aspect of Canada that many could do without - the frigid winters.  Ask any Canadian you know.  It's fun to a point.  The first snowfall is always great; then come the first snow angels, the first snowmen, the first skating expeditions.  And then, of course, there's Christmas.

But after the first two months of a constant temperature of twenty below, the magic of wintertime seems to fade in a flurry of broken down cars, expensive snow gear, and frostbite.  The days get shorter, the workload gets greater, and many people are left with a pervading sense of stress and mild to severe depression.

There's no doubt that there are downfalls to winter.  For me, though, it's worth it.  Maybe that's just because I don't have a car, or have a higher rate of study halls, or am young enough to not worry about getting to work on time.  That's probably a big part of it.  But I think it's more than that.  I've had some of the best times of my life in the winter.  Hot tubbing in February, playing Said the Whale's This City's A Mess in my room while the wind whips the siding, the first Christmas my friends and I spent together - all are irreplaceable moments in my life, things I'll never forget.

So, I wish you all a happy winter.  I know it can be unpleasant, cold, and stressful, but there's beauty in it too.  Notice the beauty, and when times get tough, band together with those around you - sometimes it's during the times of greatest trial that we begin to truly appreciate the glorious world around us.

Girl With One Eye

The school can't even handle you right now.

Growing up, I went to a private, all-girls Catholic school.  I know what you're thinking - whoa, party!  And that would be pretty accurate.

One thing I remember most about growing up in private school was the uniform.  We had to wear very specific clothes, right down do the colour of our hair accessories.



Now, I think that to go to that extent is a bit extreme.  However, is a dress code a good idea?  Should we be implementing them in public schools?

I am the last person to tell anyone what to do, or how to dress.  Admittedly, sometimes what I see people wearing at school is so questionable that I begin to consider the positives of having a stricter dress code - those being the comfort level of the students, the lack of prejudice based on clothing, etc.

However, it is not my place - nor is it anyone else's - to tell people how to dress.  It is a person's personal decision.  Clothing has become more than just a way to cover oneself - it is a form of expression, which the administration has no right to stifle.  A strict dress code is unnecessary for a high school, which is a small-scale culture to itself.

Girl With One Eye

She doesn't do major credit cards, I doubt she does receipts. It's all not quite legitimate.

The way the Canadian government deals with prostitution in this country has irked me long enough, and I think it's time that I share some of my thoughts.

Some people with whom I have discussed this issue think that prostitutes make their own decisions.  Sure, their jobs endanger them every day.  Most prostitutes have diseases, and some of them die as a result of their profession.  But it was their choice to become prostitutes, right?  They know the risks, and they could get out and get decent jobs if they wanted to.

This simply isn't true.  Most prostitutes are controlled by a pimp: a person who sells their services, keeps almost all of the money, and enslaves the prostitutes through debt and physical force.  Often, the pimp threatens the worker's family, or the worker themselves, with death if they leave.

Canada's laws regarding this issue are incredibly backward.  Technically, prostitution is legal in Canada - it is fine to exchange money for sexual services.  However, it is illegal to keep a "bawdy house", meaning that prostitutes are unable to take care of their own safety within a safe environment.  The act of solicitation is also illegal.  All this results in is the inability of law enforcement officials to prosecute the johns, while the victims of this system - prostitutes who are often controlled by their pimps - are penalized and arrested.

That's my piece concerning this issue.  But it's only a sliver of the information out there.  I highly recommend doing more research, and formulating your own opinions.

Girl With One Eye

Let's go back to the coast, baby, westward to the ocean.

Water.  Clean and fresh, water is necessary for life, health, and basic hygiene.  On the other hand, not everyone in the world has access to clean water.  Is this a basic right, or an economic good?

My country has one of the biggest fresh water supplies in the entire world.  The human population uses a ridiculous amount of water, especially in the west, and one day our supply will run out.  What will happen then?  Will we begin to sell our water to the highest bidder, give it away, or store it jealously?

It doesn't even need to come to the world running out of water.  Countries have, in the past, charged their people for water.  Collecting rain water was illegal.

In my opinion, water is a basic human right.  It is necessary for survival.  We would never deprive another person of air - why do the same with water?

Anywho.  That's my piece for the day.  Happy Wednesday.

Girl With One Eye

You want to hear about the deal I'm making?

I'm assuming that all of you have heard about the Chilean miners who were recently rescued after spending seven weeks trapped hundreds of kilometres underground.  If you haven't, then...  Well, see the previous sentence for a pretty accurate summary.  Also, you've been living under a rock.

The rescue mission was a beautiful thing to watch.  Men were reunited with their families, crying, laughing, and praising God.  Then came the endless press photos, which were aired for hours all day.

One of these photos depicted the miners sporting Oakley sunglasses.  This picture was splashed all over news stations all day.  The cost of the glasses in total was $6,300.  The cost of the advertising Oakley received as a result of this was a cumulative $41 million.

Was this morally reprehensible?  Nay, say I!  This is simply Western capitalism at its best.  Come on - the beauty of family reunions and saved lives mixed with shameless product placement.  What could be more American?  I have no bad feelings toward Oakley.  Good for them.  They had to wear somebody's glasses, right?  Three cheers for capitalism!

Girl With One Eye

Thinking is overrated.

I have friends from a variety of social milieus.  A strong percentage of my friends are huge gamers.  So, unfortunately, a lot of my time when I'm with them is spent watching them game, or listening to them talk about gaming.  Usually, I'm okay with this.  Though I am much too busy and not nearly coordinated enough to be interested in video games, I'm usually all right with this.  I have become fairly well versed in game speak, and I'm sometimes even entertained by it.

However, a while ago, the enjoyment I found in this simple activity began to dwindle.  My normally sensitive friend sniped some guy in the head from a building.  "I just raped this guy!" he shouted to us all, laughing.

I was shocked.  I looked around the room.  Nobody else seemed to be affected the same way I was. Apparently, this was normal behaviour.  Referencing one of the most disgusting indictable crimes in a casual way?  No big d.  Everyday occurance.

At first, I just rolled with this kind of behaviour.  But then I started hearing it more and more.  And not just the word "rape" being thrown around like a casual activity.  I hear "gay," "retarded," "faggot," "jew," "pimp," even the "n" word, every day.  Realistically, the chances are that almost every person around you either has been raped, is gay or a minority, or knows someone who is.  One in three girls, for example, has been sexually assaulted by her senior year.  And yet a majority of people use these words, and nobody does anybody about it.  Why?

I don't have an answer.  All I know is, using these words is simply stupid and inconsiderate.  It's not okay.  And I'm going to start doing all I can to stop the use of these words.

You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mammals.

Nudity.

So, now that that's out in the open, I suppose we can begin.  What did most of you think when I said that?  I hate to speak for everyone, but I'm assuming that most of you thought of naked people.  To go a little bit further, I'm going to assume that some of you were thinking of sexualized images.

Why do we think this way?  Why is nudity always associated with sexuality?  On one hand, the answer is obvious - most of the time people are clothed, and the naked body holds a certain mystique.  Then again, this is not always the case.  Children are often naked.  Tribal nudity is usually not sexualized.  And most people would not dream of sexualizing Michelangelo's David or the Venus of Willendorf.

I think our society is too sexualized.  Maybe that's just because my sister made me watch an episode of Jersey Shore yesterday, but I think it's more than  that.  Sex has become a focal point in our society, especially with young people.  No wonder nudity is so inextricably linked with sexuality in our minds.

Anyway.  This prompt was inspired by the article I wrote about the Dave St-Pierre show which I blogged about a while ago.  Score one for me.

All my love,

Girl With One Eye.

I don't want to hear you kick me out, kick me out.

When I was in Grade 9, I was a little intimidated, to say the least.  I mean, it's a new school with kids and teachers I didn't know, many of whom were much bigger than me - totally understandable, right?

But I soon found that my school was full of really spirited, enthusiastic people, and I had every opportunity to get involved in a lot of great activities.  One of these was Activity Day - a day where students could participate in a range of school-facilitated activities, including laser tag, mini golf, and ziplining.  It sounded like a lot of fun - and it was.

But the next year, in Grade 10, it was decided that Activity Day would be available only for Grade 9s.  That was acceptable, my fellow classmates and I thought.  After all, we had been able to participate in Grade 9.

The next year, in Grade 11, they decided that Activity Day would be for the students in Grades 9 and 10.  We were a little disappointed, but it was something that we could get over.

This year, in Grade 12, Activity Day is for every grade but ours.

Needless to say, my peers and I are rather annoyed.  We pay student activity fees just like the rest of the school.  Why are we not allowed to participate in the same events?

The only reasons I've received so far are that a) Grade 12s have other exclusive activities such as grad trips and Prom, and b) Grade 12s often skip.

The reason Grade 12s have grad trips and Prom are that our senior year is a rite of passage, and we have earned these events through three years of dedicated servitude.  The fact that we have these events does not revoke our right to other student activities.  We still go to dances, pep rallies, etc.  Why not this?

As to the issue of Grade 12s skipping, this may have some basis in fact.  But the consequences of the disinterest of some students should not be suffered by their peers.  Besides, it's not just Grade 12s who skip - to be honest, I skipped Activity Day in the ninth grade.

To conclude, if two or more grades are involved in a school-wide activity, every grade should have the chance to participate. To do otherwise is ridiculous and unfair.

Sincerely,

The Girl With One Eye

Anticipation has a habit to set you up for disappointment in evening entertainment, but tonight there'll be some love.

Mildly alarmed?  Questioning what you're seeing?  Maybe a little afraid for my sanity?  Let me clear things up.  What you see here is, yes, a collection of naked bodies lying on a blood-covered floor - but it's also more than that.  It is, in fact, a collection of naked DANCER's bodies lying on a blood-covered floor.

I know.  What a huge difference, right?  But this is honestly a dance show.  It's a shot from Dave St-Pierre's production, La pornographie des ames - translated by the NAC as Bare Naked Souls, but literally meaning Soul Pornography.  Intrigued yet?

You should be.  Because if you weren't tipped off by the lack of clothing or the stage covered in blood, St-Pierre's artistic creation has proved to be extremely controversial.  Covering a range of topics from rape to suicide to fat jokes, this production sounds like it's trying its hardest to push the boundaries - and apparently, it's succeeding.

Dave St-Pierre, a Montreal native, has cystic fibrosis - a disease whose sufferers' average life expectancy is 37 years old. Currently, St-Pierre is 33, and pursues his dreams of exposing the grittiest, as well as the most beautiful, side of humanity with passion and perseverence.  The dancers, as well - a group of fourteen, both professional and amateur - must also be applauded for their commitment to their art.  It isn't easy to be completely vulnerable on stage, especially with something this "weird".  It takes people of true character to share their art despite what anyone thinks.

The soundtrack isn't bad, either - this mix of dance, theatre, text and video is set to music by Bjork, Coldplay, and Maria Callas, just to name a few.

Personally, I'm going to go see the show.  If you live in the Ottawa area, it's showing at the NAC from January 27-29 at 8:00 pm.  Tickets are about $30 for adults, and about half that for students.

So go see it, if you can!  I'll be reporting my reaction in February, after I see the show.

Sincerely,

The Girl With One Eye

Well, how the heck did you think you could beat them at the same time that you're trying to be them?

A Dozen Writing Tips

Yes, really.  Writing tips.  This is legitimately the topic today.

To be honest, I haven't read "writing tips" since I was about eleven years old, so perhaps this was a beneficial experience for me.  On the other hand, it took me about two full days to actually read it through, as my brain was constantly telling me that I had better things to do.

But let's ignore that for now, as my inability to finish the article in a timely manner may be entirely due to the ease with which I am distracted.  Though I agreed with the basic principles of what Jonathan Dube said - like being comprehensive, entertaining, and taking risks - I also think that strict rules pertaining to writing stifle a writer's voice, which is so contrary to everything I want in life that I tend to reject such rules immediately.

In conclusion, fight the power.  Resist the man.  And most of all, never, ever compromise your own unique voice, because nobody else can say things like you can.

More or less yours,

The Girl With One Eye.

I told him everything was political, and he asked me what that meant.

Well, I'll tell you what it meant.  It meant that everything about our lives, every event and action, has political implications.  Whether it's in your school, your family, or internationally, your actions have consequences.

Politics is defined as "the art or science of government or governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal and external affairs."  Or at least, it is according to answers.com.  More accurately, and with more comprehensible language, politics is the way we as people decide to organize ourselves - or, in some cases, control each other.  Whatever floats your boat, right?

Wrong.  Because sometimes, through a difference of ideologies, culture, or economy, people use their politics to belittle, opress, et al, their fellow man.  Only through the efforts of free people who are able to fight inequality are people saved from opression.  It is the responsibility of the citizen to be aware of the world around them, and passionate about their love for the world.

Enter, me.  The Girl With One Eye - an eye for politics, that is!  See what I did there?  That was a pun!  Leaving aside my undeniable hilarity, let me tell you a bit about myself.  I'm a student who's passionate about politics, love, dance, music and a host of other things, and I want this blog to spark discussion.  If you have something to say, please don't hesitate to comment, or email, or whatever it is you do.  Without discussion, there's no point in expressing opinion.  I don't want to be talking to myself - I do enough of that on my own time.

This is just my intro letter - your little window into me, as it were.  My political opinions on a variety of subjects will be coming your way momentarily.  So until I experience something that sparks my interest, I will leave you.  Enjoy your life in the meantime,

The Girl With One Eye