Invisible Children

This past Saturday, I woke up at 9am, took a shower, packed my bags, went out to Walgreens and bought sufficient quantities of food and water to last me through the rest of the day and the next morning. I then proceeded to pick up one of my close friends from her house, and drive to the train station where we met about a dozen other students from GBN who were sharing our interest in this important cause: Invisible Children. This day, we were going to be part of a HUGE crowd of teenagers and adults from the chicagoland area that wanted to aid in The Rescue of Joseph Kony's Child Soldiers.

It was about a 45 minute ride on the train from Northbrook to Union Station. Once we got there, we walked from Union Station to Federal Plaza. Here was where we would be "abducted." Our group was given a piece of twine that we all had to hold onto on our march to our "LRA camp". The march all together was about 2-3 miles, however, with an added factor, it felt much longer.

It had been forcasted to rain, but no one had any idea how much that would turn out to be. Before we even left on our march, it started lightly drizzling. By the time we were halfway there, me and my group were absolutely DRENCHED, and it was storming like crazy. Pouring, freezing rain is an understatement! By the time we got to the LRA camp, we started seeing lightning, and our group leader, Mrs. Flannigan, told us there was no way we would be able to stay overnight. We ended up leaving at around 7pm, and headed back to Northbrook.

We ended up celebrating on the train, as we still helped raise awareness for this important cause. We were able to make it through the entire march, regardless if we stayed overnight, and we all donated a generous amount of money before we left. During the march, we often paused and looked back at how many people were behind us, standing up for our same beliefs. Looking at these people, also soaking wet, walking through the streets, it was one of the most impacting sights I have ever been able to see. We couldn't see the end.

Still, I feel a little disappointed that we weren't able to spend the night. There were groups that were able to stay, and although it was out of my power, I was sad that I wasn't able to tough it out. The children in Uganda aren't ever given that kind of chance, to just back out when things seem too tough. It pains me to think of what they have to deal with daily, when we couldn't even spend one night sleeping in the rain.

I strongly urge everyone who is able to help, please do. Go to the Invisible Children website. Watch the video. Buy a shirt, or a DVD, or a bracelet, anything. Spread the word. Help these Invisible Children return home.

Quants?

What does physics and Wall Street have in common?

You might think next to nothing.  If you did, I bet you'd reconsider after reading this article

They Tried To Outsmart Wall Street

here's a short excerpt form the article:

"They are known as "quants" because they do quantitative finance.  Seduced by a vision of mathematical elegance underlying some of the messiest of human activities, they apply skills they once hoped to use to untangle string theory or the nervous system to making money."

I found it so interesting to see the correlation between these very important areas of study.  As a math dork myself, any application of math to everyday life intrigues me.  Most people think of math as a boring class filled with busy work that will get you nowhere in life.   However, people like these have been impacting our world in ways we have no idea.  I personally commend these men and women for doing what i aspire to do when i get older: to apply mathematical logic to my profession, and to apply it in a way that greatly influences many people.

SMiLE!

for those who don't know me too well, i'm a person who always needs to be improving at something.  if i have no goals i am trying to accomplish, i will end up going crazy!  so the newest fad i've been researching is cosmetic dentistry, specifically teeth whitening.  i've looked through many websites and found this website the most informative.  i encourage everyone who is also interested in this topic to look at that website for risks, caveats, and more.

i'm not planning on doing any in-office whitening treatments, so it's very important to find a treatment that can be purchased over the counter, but still be reliable. so if anyone has any recommendations from firsthand or secondhand experiences, please let me know!

"a bunch of rocks"

While I'm sitting in the computer classroom today, rummaging through various blogs in every corner of the internet, I find one that particularly sparks my interest. Not for the actual text of the post, or it's comments for that matter, because they were related to ideas for people way more tech-savy than me. But the link that sparked their discussion is the same that sparks mine. The link to the original blog can be found here, but the picture I am talking about is here. Take it in any way you want, and may it spark whatever discussions/reactions you wish.

In my personal opinion, I find it incredible how many people feel impatient waiting for a few extra minutes for class to end, and I myself am certainly a culprit of this. But in the grand scheme of things, think about it. The time we spend in this world is way too short for us to not utilize it to it's fullest extent and appreciate every second of time we are given. And thinking about that, I am much less likely to complain.

Through finding this website, I'm compelled to finding more of these comics, so expect more links and posts about them!

oh, canada

So for the few of you that aren't aware, I'm basically obsessed with Canada.

People tell me, "You're crazy!! America is way better! We're awesome! God bless America!!!!!"

I understand a lot of people's love for America. Well hey, it's the country we live in! I can say that there are a lot of great aspects of America that I love, but what about the undeniable ones that many people don't? And honestly, I like America too! I just think Canada's better! Many countries don't like America. They claim that we get involved in everyone's business when we aren't welcomed, our government is corrupt, we only see one side of every issue in the media, etc. But, when it comes to Canada, what do they have to say? Even the most patriotic of my friend's only had to offer to this argument, "Well, Canada didn't create anything beneficial. [For goodness sake], even Canadian bacon is just heated ham!"

Actually, there are many great products that came from/were discovered by Canadians. Like the candy Smarties? Or how about the telephone? Zippers? Velcro? Zambonis? Basketball? Lacrosse? Hockey? Apple pie? Pictionary? Paint rollers? Kerosene? Instant potato flakes??? These are just few of MANY products from Canada. For a more extensive list, click here!


Not only do we owe a lot of gratitude for those inventions, there are more reasons to love Canada. They have the largest English population that never surrendered to anyone or withdrew from any war. So what if they don't have a strong military? So far, they haven't needed one? It was also rated on the GPI (Global Peace Index) 11th most peaceful country. Want to know where the good old USA ranked? 97th. To examine this list for yourself, click here

This is why I honor Canada so much. Even with it's proximity to the USA, it's been able to avoid all the corruption we've been nailed for. Canada and the USA are very similar in many ways, and they make great Allies. I find Canada a more peaceful, chilled out version of the USA. Plus, they talk really fun, eh?


People call Canada America's hat. Well let's think about it. Hats are cool and fun, and no one ever blames them! Go Canada!

waiting for the snow

It's almost one month till snowboarding season!!!!!

So I do a club called Snowbird.  I wait basically all spring and all summer and all fall for this time of year, and it's almost here!  The first Snowbird date is supposed to be December 6th at Alpine Valley.  Hopefully it sticks to that because i don't know how much longer i can wait!

Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is because snowboarding is one of my favorite sports and i encourage everyone to sign up for it!  I believe it's about $60 to sign up and $50 every week you decide to go.  It's nearly every saturday and it's so much fun.

I just bought new gear and I'm pretty excited to take it out on the snow.  Hope to see y'all there! :)

homecoming $$

So it's usually the guys that have to cough up the $$ for homecoming, right?  That's what I thought too, until I recently found out that one of my homecoming groups is going all out on everything!  Now I find myself spending cash left and right for every little thing imaginable, and some things not-so-cheap.  On top of it all, I'm going to both Glenbrook North's and Glenbrook South's homecoming.  Not to say that I'm upset about that, but I can see the cringe in my parent's expressions whenever i bring up homecoming, because they already know that I'm going to ask them to open up their wallets once more.  You might think I'm overreacting, but let's just take a second to tally up my homecoming expenses at the moment.

• Two homecoming dresses 
• Two pairs of heels 
• Necklaces
• Customized homecoming sweatshirts
• Next-day breakfast
• Sleepover snacks
• War paint (for the activity) 

I'm also the kind of person to look for some ways to save money here and there, but even with that in mind, I'm still spending roughly $270.  Now, isn't it tradition for the guys to handle 

everything and all the girls do is enjoy the night? If that costs almost $300, I can't wait for turnabout!