Geocaching in the Winnipeg Cold

I am very sorry that I have not posted anything on my blog in a very long time. This is because I have been in Winnipeg for Easter. I go to Winnipeg every year over Easter and now it has become a tradition to visit my family there. It was a very fun trip and I did lots of things. One thing that was really fun and interesting was going geocaching:
Geocaching is kind of like a big, global scavenger hunt. It is also like a sport in which you use a GPS (global positioning system.) First of all, you have to buy a GPS. Then, you go to some websites where you can find the exact coordinates of a cache (to learn what a cache is, see below.) You then put the coordinates of that cache into you GPS and press GoTo on your GPS so that you can actually find the cache. Now this is the cool part! Once that is all done your compass on the GPS will start to point in the direction of what your cache is. So then you follow the directions and eventually you will find the cache. Then you can leave something for someone to find.
A cache is what you are trying to find when you go geocaching. They are usually a small bucket that has a logbook. In the logbook, people who have found the cache will write down their names and some stuff about the cache. Another type of cache is a microcache which is really small and is sometimes as small as a film canister. These will only have a logbook and usually nothing else. People can also put some items in the cache. These things are small toys or figurines, CD's, writing and many more. Once you find the cache you can choose to take something in the cache, if you want to do this though you must leave something behind.
When I was in Winnipeg we went geocaching in Bird's Hill Park. We searched for 3 different caches put ended up only finding 2 of them. It was a very fun experience, even though sometimes we did get cold and wet it was always exciting when we found the cache. It will be interesting to see what geocaching is like in the summer!

Operation Disc Drop (Updated Version)

Tonight I saw a really cool thing on the CBC show The Hour! It is called Operation Disc Drop. It is where you make a CD of your favourite music and then you drop it of anywhere in the city where you live. I encourage everyone who reads this to do this. (Auntie Heidi!) I did one last night and I am dropping it off tomorrow at the bus shelter across from Garneau School and beside the Movie Studio in Edmonton.
Also if you found my disc, I put a link to this post. Could you please post a comment to let me know that you received it? Then, once you've listened to all the tracks, please figure out some of the artists that you like and search them up, then you can listen to some more great music! After you listen to some more great music pass the CD on by dropping it off at another public place! Thank you!
To learn more about Operation Disc Drop visit the article on The Hour's website by clicking here.

Oh, and by the way here is what I posted on The Hour's Blog about my disc drop. (Auntie Heidi!):
Hi, my name is Isaac and I'm 11 years old. I thought that this disc drop thing is a really cool idea so I thought I'd make one myself! I made it tonight and I'm going to drop it off in the bus shelter for the bus stop across from Garneau School and beside the Movie Studio in Edmonton Alberta.Here are the tracks that I put on my CD:
1. I'm With Stupid - Chumbawamba
2. Remote - Heidi Wurmann
3. Say It Ain't So - Weezer
4. Way Back When - Buck 65
5. Smile - K'Naan
6. Ain't No Reason - Brett Dennen
7. Civil Twilight - The Weakerthans
8. Body In A Box - City and Colour
9. Chango - Ozomatli
10. Dashboard - Modest Mouse
11. Wheat Kings - The Tragically Hip
12. King Of Spain - Moxy Fruvious
13. Underwhelmed - Sloan
14. The Plot - White Rabbits
15. Record Body Count - Rheostatics
16. In The Valley - The Lovely Feathers
17. Senses Working Over Time - XTC
18. I Know I'm Not Alone - Michael Franti and Spearhead
I hope that who ever finds my CD likes it!

Very Depressing

The results are mostly the same. So far the leading parties in the ridings are:
PC-70
Liberal-10
NDP-2
WildRoseA-1
Yes-depressing. I don't really think it will change in the last few hours but I'm still at least a bit hopeful. Hopefully the NDP will get a few more seats and maybe the Liberal a few more seats but there's no doubt about it - The World of Isaac is now projecting: The 11th Conservative majority government in a row.

So that's all for now. I'm going to bed very depressed. And scared for the future that will be coming for Albertans.

Good night.

CBC Projecting that PC Will have Another Majority Government

Already! CBC is already projecting that the PC will have the 11th majority government in a row. I posted this on the CBC website:

Isaac Wurmann (Edmonton__Strathcona) wrote:
I am eleven years old and I am outraged! The PC are even more ahead than last time and there is even less Liberals and there is the same NDPs. Even that is on rocky ground. The leading NDP ridings are changing from 3 to 4 all the time.
How is this change? Isn't that everyones slogan? How is a PC government for almost 40 years "change"? It is maddening and sadenning.
I am scared that all the Liberal and NDP seats that we have here in Edmonton will be taken over by the PC! At least there is the same amount of NDP seats. But there is definately not enough Liberal.
I am horrified with our government and our province.
I may have to move.

Oh - and can I now say that NDP has 2 leading ridings? 2!!!! How dare they! This may be the worst election in a long time. I am outraged. I really may have to move.

I will be posting more with up to date information on the election.

Stay tuned.

Ollie's Field Journal Readers Theatre

Last weekend was the readers theatre that I was talking about earlier. It is the book Ollie's Field Journal by Patti McIntosh about a girl from Toronto who goes to Niger, Africa to learn about malnutrition. It is a very interesting book and is very educational.

Anyway, last weekend my class went to the Stanley. A. Milner library to do a readers theatre at the book launch. Our World Vision Committee also set up a booth there asking for donations. Well, we raised $165 adding to the rest of the money that we raised to help us reach our goal of $4000. By the way we have raised $1221.93 and we have $2778.06 left to raise. Here are some pictures of the book launch.

Here is my class before we actually start reading the readers theatre. If you look behind us you can see that they were putting the book up as a PowerPoint on t he wall behind us.

Here you can see how many people were there for the book launch. It was absolutley packed inside and overflowing!

Here is our class after the two readings of the book. In the front row there is the writer Patti McIntosh, illustrator Tara Langois and photographer Dustin Delfs.

This was a great success and I hope that Ollie's Field Journal will soon become a big hit!
To learn more about the book visit the website by clicking here. By the way. There is just a place-holder for the URL address right now but hopefully the website will be ready soon!

Notley Knocks on my Door

Tonight I was suprised when Rachel Notley (the NDP candidate from my riding) knocked on my door. She was coming around to all the people in the riding and talking to them about what she will be doing if she wins the seat in the provincial election on March 3rd. The NDP have been holding this seat for many years and has been one of the only NDP ridings in the whole province I'm proud to say.

She talked about what she would be doing about rent control as many of the houses in this riding are being rented out and rent control has become a growing problem in this city. The answer to that - just keep on trying. In question period just keep bringing it up until something finally gets done about it. And she talked about immigrants coming here are being taken advantage of because they don't know their rights.

Me, if I could vote I'd vote Notley and if you live in my riding I hope you do too!

To learn more about Rachel Notley visit her website at www.rachelnotley.ca.

Humans Being a Bad Role Model for a New Epoch

Ok - first of all, an epoch is a time period that lasts for many, many years. An epoch changes to a new epoch when a massive change happens. Well, scientists are saying that we have entered a new epoch called the Anthropocene. By the way, the epoch that we left was called the Holocene which started about 10,000 - 12,000 years ago when there was the last ice age. But this isn't excactly a time for celebration. The big massive change is that human activities have now become the dominating force of change on the planet and lets just say that us humans aren't being a good role model for the smaller, lesser beings on Earth.

If right now you are thinking, well, I'm not really that much of a dominating force on the planet, am I? Well, yes and no. One person alone is not a big force and threat to the planet but all 6 billion people on the earth is. If you look at the air, humans are quickly changing the compostition of our atmosphere by burning huge amounts of oil, coal and gas. So now Carbon dioxide levels are one third higher than they were 200 years ago! Ok, so that's one way us humans are drastically changing the planet. Humans are also the cause of the extinction of many species which may lead to a mass exticntion. Humans are also replacing huge areas of vegetation with agricultural crops.

Next we go to the oceans. Because of the burning of fossil fuels and creating carbon dioxide our planet is heating up and ice is melting so oceans are rising. As water heats up it also expands which makes it rise even more.

So that's that. Us humans have become such a force that now we have our own epoch just for us. What are we going to do with the earth within the next century, that is the question.

This information was taken from the David Suzuki website. To see the original article click here.

If Swimming was Easy They'd Call it Hockey!

And that's a true fact! I was at a swim meet most of the afternoon today and it wasn't that easy. I swam five races, first it was 50 metres freestyle, then 50 metres breaststroke, then 50 metres butterfly, then 50 metres backstroke and then finally a 100 metres IM. In case you didn't know a 100 metre IM is 25 metres butterfly, then 25 backstroke, then 25 breaststroke, then 25 freestyle. I improved a lot on each race from my previous race and that's really what counts! By the way, the picture above is of me doing my 50 backstroke.



Also everyone participated in two relays. This is where you are in teams of four people and each person does 1/4th of the race. The first relay was a fun relay where you had to balance an egg (it was plastic!) on a spoon and swim to the other side then hand it over to the next person in your team. The second relay was just a freestyle relay where each person swam 25 metres freestyle. The picture above is of me talking to my coach after a race.



The picture above is me doing the egg and spoon relay. About the "if swimming was easy they'd call it hockey" - it really is a true fact! Swimming takes a lot more skill than other sports such as Hockey or Football. It is also the number one best excersise!

New Childrens Book Talks of Malnutrition in Niger, Africa

As part of the World Vision fundraising activities that my class is doing, we are doing a readers theatre of a new book written by a friend of one of the kids in my class. This book is called "Ollie's Field Journal" and is about malnutrition in Niger, Africa. The people who are putting together the readers theatre came to our class today and we each got a copy of the book. It looks very interesting!
First of all though, some of you are probably wondering, what is malnutrition! Malnutrition is when children do not get enough food or not enough of the right nutritious food and it mostly happens to babies from age 6 months to five years old. This is a big problem because more than five million children die every year because of malnutrition.
This new book tells the tale of a Canadian girl named Orphelie (Ollie) who goes to Niger, Africa with her mother who is there to help children with malnutrition. Ollie meets many friends, sees a giraffe, learns five words in Hausa and learns lots about malnutrition.
One thing I learned a lot from reading the story and thought was interesting was the Peanut Paste Prescription. This is what doctors prescribe to the children who have malnutrition to help them get better. The Peanut Paste Prescription helps 9/10ths of the children who get it. The Peanut Paste Prescription contains: peanut paste, vegetable fat, dry skimmed milk, dry whey, sugar and mineral and vitamin complex.
This is a very interesting book and if you see it any where read it! I think it will be a great readers theatre too!

The Peters Map

Allison, this is for you!

There are many different maps all around the world. The map that most people are accustomed to is the Mercator Map. This is the map that almost everyone knows is really out of proportion. Canada and Russia aren't really that big and Europe is actually not bigger than South America though it does appear that way on the Mercator Map.

The Peters Map is a map that shows everything in proportion. It shows that Canada and Russia are not as big as they seem and that South America is in fact bigger than Europe. One of the biggest things that I think you notice when looking at a Peters map is how big Africa is. It really is huge!