Walking Dead #5

Walking Dead post #5

Eventually Rick manages to make his way back to his house. Once he arrives, he notices that the front door is swinging open. He bolts inside to see if his wife Lori and son Carl are still sitting inside, possibly taking refuge inside the remnant walls of what was once a home, but they are not there. Clothing and personal effects are missing from the home which can only mean one thing to Rick. His old partner Shane (Rick used to be a sheriff) had rescued them and taken them somewhere that they would have a higher chance of surviving whatever catastrophic situation is taking place. Rick puts some clothes on and continues wandering through the streets hoping to find either traces of his family or someone who can inform him as to what has happened since his coma. He sees someone stumbling towards him making moaning noises and tries to talk to him. He gets knocked down by this individual, but then realizes that he’s trying to take a bite of his skin. Right when Rick is about to get bit, a shot rings out and the Walking monster is struck dead.. and Rick slips into unconsciousness..

Walking Dead #4

Walking Dead post #4

After Rick finally gets out of the hospital, he realizes that no one is around. The streets are empty, vehicles are scattered with no drivers in site, and all of the cars are no longer in parallel arrangements but randomly crashed into each other.  Rick continues stumbling through the streets in his flowing hospital gown trying to analyze the disastrous situation that he has quite literally walked into. As he’s walking he sees a bicycle laying on the ground so he decides to take it in order to make it easier to make his way home. On his bike ride, he sees half of a person dragging themselves across a lawn with their hands. As Rick approaches this individual, he notices that her face is missing chunks and all of her teeth and gums are showing, along with all of her body remains decomposing. Rick decides to leave her and continue on his way back to his house…

The Walking Dead #3

Walking Dead #3

So in the first episode, Rick Grimes (who is the main character of the series) awakes from a coma. When he awakes, he walks out of his hotel room to find stretchers and other hospital equipment shoved up against the outside of his door. He did not understand why any of these objects were present in front of his door but he decides to venture out into the hallway to find someone to tell him what exactly is going on. When he starts wandering around the hospital he realizes that no one else is in the hospital. The lights are mostly turned off except for a few that are flickering in the hallways. When Rick tries to find an exit, he stumbles across two doors that are chained shut, which have "Don't enter, dead inside". The door then begins to pulse forward with the motion of something pushing on it from the back, when two grey fingers with long broken nails creep out and start scratching at the door. Rick gets frightened and continues to wander through the halls trying to find an exit, which he succeeds in doing...

Blog post 10

The Walking Dead. First off, I'll tell you where my interest in the Walking Dead came from. When the show first came out, everyone was ranting and raving about it but I thought it was just another boring show that received way too much hype from the media. I did not give it very much thought because I thought there were better things to do with my time and did not want to waste it by jumping on "Walking Dead" band wagon.

My then friend, now boyfriend, was a huge fanatic of the show and tried to push me into watching it but

I refused to fall into the trap…Until I got sick.

One faithful day in the winter semester of 2013, I got very very sick and was laying around at home trying to find something to do with my time and I came across the series on Netflix. I turned on the first episode and after that I was stuck. I couldn't wait to watch the rest of the seasons that were on Netflix. I will never ever miss another episode in my life.

Intro to The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead will be my topic for this series of continuous blogs. I will be picking one or two episodes (randomly) from the four current seasons and writing about my thoughts on the episodes and why this series is absolutely amazing.

For those of you who have not watched an episode yet, or have been living under a rock, this entire series is about a zombie apocalypse and a group which struggles to survive it. They move a rather large group (large in the sense that most of the world are now zombies, which will from here on out be referred to as “walkers”), trying to find a safe haven.

Writing experiences

I could never imagine being 22 years old, deaf, blind, and writing a book. It would take forever just to wrote a sentence, never mind an entire book. In our day and age, we can type something up in the blink of an eye, edit and re-edit it in 10 minutes, and have a final copy 40 minutes later. I don't know how such a young girl with so many life challenges could spend (what I imagine would be) a very long time writing a book.

Personally, I like writing by hand when I have to write notes, but I really cant imagine writing any of my papers out by hand. That kind of stuff needs to be done on my laptop for numerous reasons, such as: ease in editing, time that is takes to write out a huge paper, and automatic corrections (spell and grammar check). To write out or type up (on a type writer) an entire book sounds outrageous in todays way of life.

The only similarity that I see is: in the time period that Helen Keller wrote "Story of my Life", the most advanced form of technology was a typewriter. The most advanced technology that we have are computers. It's not like Helen just decided that she was going to make life difficult for herself and not use a computer. She used the only technology she had available then.

There are many differences in writing in Helens time period and in our time period. They also include the level of acceptance of certain topics such as sex or personal love lives. These are newly acceptable topics to publish.

Internet nonsense

Every time I open up the internet, I come across a variety of issues that are becoming more and more common. What used to be a convenient place to find information is now full of “trolls” and miserable people who have nothing better to do with their time than verbally offend and insult random strangers. No matter where you look there are constant arguments and insults, 85% of which are totally nonsensical, being thrown around. Whatever happened to thinking before you speak? Apparently that mindset has succumbed to the downfalls of hiding behind the anonymity of the internet.

When you’re hiding behind a computer screen, all brain filters go right out of the window. You do not take your audience into consideration and you do not proceed with the same care or caution that you normally would in a face to face situation. You wouldn’t normally drop racial slurs or make slanderous statements about gender if you had just met someone and were having an initial conversation with them. If you ever watch a video onYouTube (on just about ANY topic), there are volatile, confrontational and offensive comments everywhere. Everyone seems to lose their sense of self as soon as they read something that they don’t like. When you’re on the computer and reading things that irk you, you normally do not take the time to cool down and think about what to say and how to effectively communicate your thoughts in an appropriate manner. The hot-headed version of you comes out and every single firewall that you’ve ever had in your mind goes flying out the window. I also find that people over-react to articles or opinions that they read online. They take everything to heart and take jokes way too seriously, or do not pick up on inflections or intonations that would otherwise be apparent in a spoken conversation.

There is also a good side to having the internet as well. In addition to the inconsiderate people who abuse the anonymity there is also the good people who use it as a vessel for themselves to let loose. Men are supposed to be “big and strong” and all that jazz, but behind a computer screen they can actually show the emotional side. They do not have to be strong and masculine; they can also be gentle, kind and show the rest of the world who they actually are. I feel like there is an incredible amount of pressure in society for men to be made of pure muscle and six packs, and for women to wear dresses and be pretty and sweet all the time. Behind a computer screen women can show their strong, independent and intelligent side without criticism from men and the same goes for men who decide to counsel individuals or show their considerate and supportive side. There is also a lot to learn from some individuals on the internet, simply because of their expertise in a certain area or life experience that, without the internet, you might not be able to gain access to otherwise.

Burkas in Airports

I know that many people will not agree with this blog post but it is something that drives me absolutely crazy. Airports are secure areas and need to be treated as such. An airport is somewhere that should be a neutral area, where religion and beliefs should not come into play. The fact of the matter is, in a secure environment you need to be able to identify individuals that are in those area.

The topic that I will be addressing is Burkas being worn in airports. I totally respect an individual’s right to wear whatever clothing they want, and their freedom to partake in whatever religion they want. Don’t get me wrong and take this as an attack on any specific religion or belief system. When boarding a plane or any other form of public transportation, the officials in charge need to be able to identify whatever individual is underneath the Burka. Wearing a Burka is simply not appropriate while going through airport security.

I find it quite troubling for numerous reasons:

1.      Any person who boards an aircraft needs to be able to be identifiable. You should not be able to produce a passport picture that includes an individual covered in a Burka (which does happen). Part of the reasons that we have passports is to produce government issued identification. How can you possibly identify a person which is covered by a Burka in their passport photo and in real life?

2.       Any person in the world could dress up in a Burka and refuse to unveil for “religious reasons”. It is a huge security risk, not only to airport and airline personnel, but to the public as well. Someone who is not allowed to fly on a plane could easily cover themselves and claim that it is for religious reasons.

3.      The public that are put in the situation of a veiled/unknown individual boarding a plane are put in an uncomfortable position.

Again, I am not writing to say that individuals who are devout to a religion should not be able to practice it freely, but there is a time and place to take place in those religious activities. I fully believe in freedom of speech and freedom of choice, but in an environment such as an airport, precautions need to be taken and all individuals should be totally identifiable at all times. In a secure area, security overrides everything else, including religious beliefs.

Mexico 2013

In the summer of 2013 I took a trip to Mexico. I went to Cancun with 4 friends, which meant 5 of us in total. I should have known that an odd number of people never works out the way you want it to since one person is always left out, but at the time I hadn't thought about it. I thought we all would have gone and had a good time but I could not have been more wrong.

Keep in mind, all the individuals I had gone with were related in some way, two being siblings and two being cousins. I was related to none of them which should have set off some internal alarm bells but alas, I had to learn the hard way.

One of our evenings consisted of the cousins arguing about who had grown up in a harsher environment. The argument took place in MY hotel room, which led to myself and one of the other individuals leaving the room for two hours. After accidentally leaving the secure area of the resort, we managed to find our way back into our safe zone and returned back to the room once we thought it was safe. We were dead wrong. Upon placing my ear up against the door, I once again heard the muffled argument. My accompanying partner and I decided to take a little bit of a longer walk down to a near-by pool and stuck our feet in while we discussed the days events. At approximately 2 AM, we returned to a now silent and vacated room (my idea of heaven) and went to bed.

The next day, we had gone on an excursion which included rappelling, zip-lining, snorkelling and swimming with dolphins. Most of the day had gone extraordinarily well. All of us had been getting along, chit chatting and exploring the jungles of Mexico. Upon all of us piling into the van to take us to swim with Dolphins, more exciting (note the sarcasm) events unfolded. Not only were we driving down a gravel road full of bumps and quick turns, but one of the expedition leaders had found a Python slithering around the floor of our van. That was slightly terrifying, but the rest of the excursion was fine.

The next night, the siblings had got into another argument about God knows what, and one had stormed off back to their room without saying a word to the rest of us. These people are driving me nuts at this point so I had tried to FaceTime my family back home in Canada (a country that I was missing very much). Long story short, the internet is so crappy in good ol' Mexico, the FaceTime attempts had failed numerous times.

I could not wait to get home. And I will not be returning to Mexico with this group of nut jobs.

Hey there world