Passion vs. Fanatics

I spent Canada day on my final rafting excursion at Owl Rafting.

It was a 5 hour drive from the wonderful white water rapids of the Ottawa river to our home back in Toronto.

While furiously scratching the mosquito bite, --of which I took a picture of, because I was waiting for the mosquito to finish drinking my blood and take back it's poison from my skin so it won't itch (which I now realize is a MYTH)-- I had an interesting conversation with my parents about fanatics.

What is fanatics?

Dictionary definition: a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal

Dad's definition: a person who thinks they're right and have the only possibly correct opinion. They're close-minded to other possibilities and force others to believe what they do.

My definition: basically what the other two definitions above cover, with an addition: Hate. 

Hate makes all the difference because that is what makes fanaticism a negative force. 

It is what separates fanaticism from passion and obsession .

While we were coming up with these definitions we had religious fanatics in mind.

But though it is the most popular example of fanaticism it is definitely not the most common or dangerous.

The worst fanatics are found on the internet,
(according to me, a young internet dwelling nobody).

Don't get me wrong. I love the internet, as I love religion. But there is good and bad in everything. 

Which is why it is important to know your stuff.

Why do I believe the worst of fanatics are from our beloved internet?

Two things:

1. lots of freedom

2. little social responsibility

Examples:

Reddit is one of many wonderful online communities dedicated to the freedom of expressing and sharing ideas. But this also means that people are free to hate. And the amount of hate generated is scary. Some of the people attracted to this great site may get a sharp shock when they come across some of the very opinionated people. My little brother was one of them.

Ask.fm is an example of little social responsibility. Being a site where people can post questions on other users' walls anonymously has proved to have a bounty of negative effects. The ability to do things unidentified has empowered bullies to get away with harassing their victims. Having the veil of anonymity to protect them, they have no responsibility for the actions.

So that's my thoughts on Passion and Fanatics, 
which I was supposed to post a while ago and only got to it now...



Truth be told, Blogger never ceases to get on my nerves. If it weren't for the annoying habit it has of completely disregarding all my font and text edits and putting in random spaces in the post, my updates would be a lot more frequent and consistent. Because I can only put up with Blogger's annoyances for so much, my inner perfectionist allows me only these rare posts. Pce.

Some Yoga and Rain

Despite sleeping at around 3:00am today, I woke up bright and early to go downtown with my two besties. But twas no ordinary city-dwelling event.

We went to the park at Fort York, got some free stuff, and rolled out our yellow mats to start the Lolë yoga session!

Close your eyes. 

After a bit of struggling with my hair, my friends helped me wrestle my layers and strands into a neat braid. With my bangs secured out of my face with the yellow headband Lole provided, my white tank top, and my comfy leggings, and one friend on either side of me, I was ready to surrender to the peaceful atmosphere. No more thoughts of prom, the after party, doctor who, my favourite book series, or even the fantastic discussions of last night's conjured salon in the gardener museum and the delectable "undercover" gyros and baklava from a greek restaurant on the Danforth. The harp is playing and with the music and the people dressed in white all around me I close my eyes and stretch.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

As the first words were spoken by the instructor the raindrops fell from the sky in little trickles.

Stretch. Expand your heart and reach for the sky.

The rain gathers on my mat and with my dirty feet, the mat becomes muddy.

I try not to fall as I strain to keep my balance for the yoga poses.

Metaphorically, I think to myself, the muddy water threatening to upset my efforts to follow the yoga session may represent all the filth of human wrongs. All the gossip and judging, all the barriers of awkwardness, all the resentment and reproach, fall away when the rain comes down to cleanse my body.

Feel the ground where your feet and hands may be firmly rooted. Feel the earth and the sky. Feel the rain on your skin as the heavens pour open.

We join hands in a balancing act. 

We join in the "ooommmms".

And we close our eyes to the world and open our imagination to what the instructor says.

Think of a person who you love, who has always been there for you and will care for you under all circumstances. This is usually your mother.

She, like you and I, and everyone, has known suffering and difficulties of all kinds.

Image you envelop her in your kindness and the spirit that you may extend from your hearts now, putting a smile on their face.

Think of a person you don't necessarily know too well, but you see everyday. It could be the person you buy coffee from, or a co-worker that you pass by everyday, or a neighbour.

Envision your hand extended to them, sharing your love and happiness with them.

Think of a person, in your mind, of whom you hate. Or think you hate. 

They too, have had felt anger, frustration, worries, and anxieties. They've felt pain and gone through difficulties like you and I, and everyone.

Shed your hatred and glow with love. And extend to them your kindness, so that they may also feel happy.

By this time the rain is really pouring. 

Eyes closed, I take in the surrounding downpour.

My lips quiver because I'm so moved by the whole ceremony.

I feel the raindrops streaking down my face. 

But I taste a little salty warm water on my lips.

I realize that intermingled with the rain are my tears slipping down my cheeks.

With a final "ooohmm" we finish, roll up our mats, and rise to leave in tranquility and peace.

It was beautiful!

Source for this picture

To learn more 

about 

Lolë and

 their free yoga sessions visit 

http://www.lolewomen.com/ca/en/

On a side note: Prom was great and the significant amount of bow ties was FANTASTIC!

What can I say? Bow ties are cool.

Oops. Sorry, Tennant. 

You gotta admit, though...
normal ties are so last year. 

Like you.

Aha. But you will always be loved <3

The Doctor Who Workout

Last day of school today. 

Not actually, because I still have exams next week and then marks review day 2 weeks later.

Here’s what it’s looking like so far:

Monday –study for exams

Tuesday –accounting exam

Wednesday –marketing exam

Thursday –math exam

Friday –have a wonderful “go me” party because I officially don’t have any more to worry about for grade 11

I’ve got it all planned out. And now that I’ve established that the whole of Monday will be dedicated to studying and most probably Saturday and possibly Sunday, I’ve decided to give my lovely spirit a rest after two whole days of signing yearbooks at school.

What better way to do that than watch Doctor Who?

Best. Show. Ever.

I’m on the latest season, still haven’t watched the season finale. And I’ve been absolutely dying to watch it after the many hints that my favourite character in the whole entirety of the show is going to have some amazing parts in it!!!

Honestly, my feels for River can’t get any more feel-y. I predict a lot of heart wrenching moments and I hope I don’t pass out while watching, and only hope that I'll be able to see through my teary-swelled eyes. 

Till then, I will have to get through the last episode before it: Nightmare in Silver.

I don’t think it’ll be that good, so to quench my anxiety I have developed a method to dispel my restlessness (a workout idea, the result of putting together the best of every one I found on Google).

The Doctor Who Workout:

Every time…

You hear the TARDIS make its noise = 10 jumping jacks

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver = 10 crunches

Someone says “Doctor” = 10 bicycles

Someone gets in or out of the TARDIS = 10 squats

Someone travels through time, space or both = 10 burpees

Any character says “It’s bigger on the inside” = 10 high knees

The Doctor, or any other character for that matter, talks to the TARDIS = 5 push ups

Can't wait to get started! 

"Canadian Camping"

Yesterday, after a fun lunch at my school's Fun Lunch (free food + bouncy castles for two whole hours), I helped out at the Best Buddies "Canadian Camping" event!

We played The West Wind blows, Darling If You Love Me, Cat and Mouse with the parachute, Octopus, Link Tag, and went through an obstacle course. 

(see the end of this post to learn how to play)

As for food, we ate the typical camping barbecue of hot dogs and burgers. 



For dessert, we devoured the crown jewel of camp food: Smore's!!

toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched by two graham crackers 

= one seriously delectable treat!

Food included, everything was great!

The buddies and the associate members loved it.

We went back inside and put back the whole cafeteria-full of tables and chairs. With my arm muscles sore from a day's worth of table lifting and body exhausted from helping out with Fun Lunch and Best Buddies, I went home feeling super happy. 

Being involved with the school's great events is the best! And even though next year I won't be in as much clubs as I am this year, and consequently won't be in Best Buddies, I know that I can count on these bunch of students to do a great job for  next year's events.

*Special thanks to Cindy Nguyen for letting me use her amazing photos!

Visit her blog at http://www.cindynguyen.ca/

(she's the one who has inspired me to create this blog!)

The West Wind Blows

Chairs are arranged so that everyone is sitting in a circle, with no spare chairs. One person, without a chair, stands in the middle of the circle and says "The West Wind Blows on anyone..." and can continue to say things like "anyone wearing a blue shirt", "anyone who has a sibling" or "anyone who likes pizza", etc. so that whatever the person in the middle calls out, anyone who fits the description has to get up and find another chair in the circle. The person in the middle also runs to a chair and the last one left without a seat gets to stand in the middle and say "The West Wind Blows on anyone... (fill in the blank)".

Darling If You Love Me
Everyone sits in a circle, with one person in the middle. The person in the middle had three tries to approach someone in the circle and get them to laugh or smile. They go up the the target and say "Darling, if you love me, will you please smile?", while doing something ridiculous to make the person smile. The target, all the while trying to keep a straight face, has to reply "Darling, you know I love you, but I just can't smile." If the target is successful and does not smile, the person in the middle moves on to another person. If the target does smile, then he/she switched with the person in the middle and then goes on to choose someone else to make them smile.

Cat and Mouse

Everyone holds onto the outer edge of the parachute. One or two people take off their shoes and step onto the parachute as the cats. One or more people go get on their hand and knees and crawl under the parachute as the mice. When the game starts everyone holding onto the parachute flaps their arms up and down, making waves in the parachute. The mice crawl around underneath the chute and the cats have to catch them. It's harder than it may sound because it's very easy for the mice to blend into the waves of the parachute.

Octopus

Everyone lines up along one side of the playing field. One or two people stand in the middle as the Octopus. When the Octopus yell out "Octopus" all the people lined up have to run to the other side of the playing field, and avoid getting caught by the Octopus that chase them. If they get caught, they sit down where they've been tagged and become Seaweed. Seaweed are stuck in their spot and can wave around their arms to try to tag the rest of the runners.

Link Tag

Everyone pairs up, linking arms and spaced out from the other pairs in the field. Two people do not pair up. One is the chaser and one is the runner. The runner runs away from the person who chases him/her and can link arms with any of the pairs. Once linked to one of the people in the pair, the runner is safe from the chaser. But the person on the other side of the three-person-link is not. Because links can only have two people, the person on the other side of the link detaches from the link and becomes the runner and the chaser chases him/her instead. If the chaser catches the runner, then the roles switch. 

Life's Trust Fall

Since I've last blogged I was a partner-MC for a talk by Mr. Siamak Hariri about his experience designing and building the Bahai House of Worship in Santiago, Chile, in South America.

The talk was titled "Understanding the Creative Force: The Experience of Building the Chile Bahai House of Worship". 

And true to it's name, the talk was an absolute inspiration and I instantly fell in love with the building and the creative process it is going through to be built.



Mr. Hariri described ideas and creativity as something you fall into. Like trust falls, you simply have to believe that you are going to be safe in the end. You have an intuition so you just go for it and let it take you further than you could imagine.

And to think that it all started from doodles, only images of what he admired; motion and fluidity of a dancer with her skirts flown around her centre body; the perfect imperfection of woven baskets; and the kind of light that filters through a canopy of trees. 



He didn't even know what it would look like but he sculpted his vision out of trying different things, experimenting and living different opportunities. And once he found what he was looking for, he had to communicate all his ideas and designs to engineers and other people who were apart of the project in order to make it happen.



And it's interesting because this doesn't have to relate to only architecture, as much as listening to the talk made me want to pursue that career path. I had to remind myself that the idea of taking inspiration, making it into something tangible, and then sharing it with other people is a universal concept you can find anywhere.

----

Just this Monday I had put in a $1500 (CND) deposit for a MetoWe trip to India for August! 
The grand total is $5000 and the pressure to fundraise to cut some of the cost is on!
I just hope that my rash decision to go on this volunteering trip pays off. Then again I had been wanting to go for a looooonnnnnggg time. I guess I'll just do my best to fundraise for it and do a trust fall with life -and enjoy the super awesome trip!



Apparently yesterday was International Siblings Day. And I had no idea.

But I've actually spent a lot of time with my little brother yesterday!
Despite a lot of homework waiting for me, I watched snippets of Doctor Who (THE BEST TV SHOW EVER -alongside Avatar the Last Airbender of course), played frisbee, and watched Rise of the Guardians (-oh how I love Jack frost-) with him!

So even though I had no clue about the official Siblings Day, the wishes of the world has ensured that I made time for my brother. And the fact that I had fun with him without the obligation of the day, made it all the more sweeter.