Recently, my class did a project on voting. We were trying to find out, “How did the right to vote go from a privilege to a right in Canada? It was actually quite fascinating to find out the answer.

It was very interesting that that not only extends to those three, but to all groups! Chinese Canadians, Indo-Canadians, Japanese Canadians, every major group of or the vote in the same way. By applying social pressure to the government, getting the public on board, making the government look bad, and ultimately getting the vote.
My partner Harry was exceptional to work with, sometimes I have problems with being in groups, and I was afraid that might happen especially because I missed a day during the working process for a band concert, but because I did a lot during the early storyboarding, he did a lot during the day I was away, and we finished early, hence I’m writing this in class and not at two in the morning Sunday night stressing out of my mind because I went skiing for the weekend and didn’t do any homework, it’s happened before, ask my teacher. I walked into class and she said “why’d you hand this in at 2 in the morning?” I just kinda shrugged it off.
I digress, I think I really liked this project because it was cohesive. Like sometimes in this program there’s a lot of good ideas but it’s kinda rushed and muddled, good idea, but not enough thought put into execution. But for this one I understood what to do, followed the road map, and I think showed a good result. Thank you for reading and I will talk to you later.

We did a Star Wars unit in class this term and it was fascinating…ly weird. The course work was oddly disjointed from everything else we did and while what we learned was interesting I don’t really see a point. Most of the stuff I do I see a point to why I’m doing them but I don’t see how learning this helped me at all. 

F*** iMovie, that app is stupid, I deleted the photos and interview from my iPad because I had it saved in iMovie and so I would hand that in… AND THEN IMOVIE DELETED IT. Apparently it doesn’t actually save, it just remembers what to source from your iPad, so I open in and it’s just three minutes and twenty eight seconds of blackness. In the end, I don’t really think I learned anything spectacularly new in this curriculum except that Apple sucks, and I hate iMovie.
So our two projects we worked on in the curriculum were a synthesis essay about one characters costume change throughout one of the trilogies, and a project where we explored anything we wanted. In the essay, I used Luke Skywalkers transition from light to dark.

Into

And here it is :

 Have you ever noticed that characters costumes represent their personality and feelings? For example, how the red guys in “Star Trek” are almost always unimportant and die quickly, or how you can always tell whether a dog is good or evil in a movie? Well, a less noticeable but arguably more important change is when characters change costume. Imagine if Captain Kirk started wearing red and died, or what if Darth Vader suddenly started wearing a white robot suit and turned good? Well such a costume change happened to Luke Skywalker from episodes four to six in the original starwars trilogy, his outfit went from good to troubled quickly and it’s interesting once you see how the change signifies the battle to stay young and the sadness of growing up.
  To start with Luke’s costume in “episode four”, it just embodies the light side of the force. It’s pure white and beige, and that just signifies light, purity, and untroubled, it is totally unblemished and looks perfect, essentially how a kid should be. Furthermore, it fits loosely, and shows that he is carefree and can do anything, it shows that he is largely untroubled as well as showing that he is a kind and childlike soul. Lastly, the neck goes low into his chest showing that he is trusting and doesn’t need much protection. His first costume is pure, light, and with a white shirt and coat, a beige pair of pants, boots, and belt it shows he is as unblemished as a kid should be. It shows all the idiosyncrasies you would expect from a main character but also shows many characteristics of a kid-like spirit.
     For contrast, in episode 6 his costume is almost entirely black, which is definitely a signal that he’s become more troubled, that he aligns somewhat with the dark side of the force now. The fit is much tighter and makes you assume he’s not the free range turkey he once was, he’s now closer to a dirty old steroid turkey that you get for two dollars at Costco, he’s become uptight and questions everything. The neck is a tight circle now, not a v-neck and that shows he’s become less trusting and more closed off to other people. His new costume shows that he is becoming an adult, a much more troubled person than before who trusts less and is less happy, he is farther towards the dark side of the force than ever before. His last costume is the equivalent of a business suit, after we’ve all given up on our dreams and sold out to corporate life this is what we get, an all black suit that makes you look uptight and sad. 
 To conclude, Luke Skywalker’s costume change shows his transition from a bright shining uninhibited kid to a troubled adult with too much to think about and not enough fun. It really signifies the whole battle of life, that you always want to stay young and uninhibited and happy but at some point turn into a boring, sad, troubled adult, sound a little scary? It is, because it’s far too familiar for our own liking. Luke Skywalker in Star Wars is every kid’s nightmare, turning into an adult.

And our other project was wide open, so I chose to do aerodynamics, specifically making the poorly designed TIE fighters better. 
   

That’s a dumb plane design, so I gave it some lift and airfoil and voila, it was a great aircraft. And if iMovie hadn’t sucked so much I would be able to show you a creation of it, but it was essentially a modern plane but with flaps at the back for lift, that retract when it’s out of gravity, so it doesn’t fall out of the sky, you see the TIE in TIE fighter stands for Twin Ion Engines, which is very effective in space, but if you’ve seen the force awakens, you see them in an atmosphere, and they’re not falling out of the sky like dead birds like they should be. So I built a new TIE fighter so it could fly. I’m very sorry iMovie is the worst. 
To conclude, I enjoyed the whole experience and actually learned more than I expected, but I don’t really see it being applicable to my life. Thanks if you read all of this, and if you do send me an email at joelh@seycove.ca saying boogalaboogalaboo. Mostly because I don’t think anybody reads these, anyway peace, Joel out!

During the first term we had the chance to write an expository essay on one of many topics, and I chose to write about “your favourite music genre and why you like it,” and it was very interesting. Attempting to articulate my thoughts was the toughest part, like I knew what I wanted to say I just didn’t know hoe to say it. I really enjoyed this essay style, and hope I get to write like this again about another topic, here’s my favourite music.
Have you ever listened to Elton John’s “Madman Across the Water”? Or watched the Who’s “The Real Me”? Have you ever watched a live performance of Freddie Mercury and Queen? Have you ever heard a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo? These are some of the greatest shows of musicianship, showmanship, and guitar ever put into music and that is why classic rock is my favourite genre of music.

 To start with, the showmanship that was showed by classic artists surpasses a thousand times the seizure inducing performances Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and any dub step artist that you would go to now. People have said that Queen’s Freddie Mercury put on the best show in the world, yet he didn’t have laser shows or left sharks, all he had was a smoke machine or two and his horrible dancing. On top of that Elton John has nothing but his back up band on stage (I went to see him last year) yet he still has amazing stage presence because his music rocks and his piano playing is amazing. There’s not many people that can fill a stadium by just sitting there and playing a piano, but he does, even with his little sausage fingers. Then there’s my favourite showman of all time, Angus Young. He dresses horribly in short shorts and sometimes ends up shirtless onstage (which is horrible if you’ve ever seen it) but puts on fantastic shows with his power slides and windmill guitar playing. The showmanship these artists use is incredible and surely not matched by newer artists.

 Furthermore, a great guitarist is what takes a mediocre band to the next level, you can cycle in and out band members like crazy but as long as that great guitarist is there you’ll keep having fans and keep getting money. Think of Jimi Hendrix, he never needed a band because he was such an incredible guitar player that he could carry a show by himself. Or Carlos Santana, who has a rotating background band, but always sounds great because of his silky smooth guitar playing. In addition, the Who have lost arguably the best bass player that ever lived (George Harrison) and arguably the greatest drummer ever (Keith Moon) and still sound great because of their great 70 year old lead guitarist Pete Townshend. And the list keeps going, AC/DC would be nowhere without Angus Young, John Bon Jovi is what made Bon Jovi such a great band. All of these guitarists made their bands skyrocket with their skill it’s impossible not to point them out.

 Finally, the musicianship is what makes it the best genre of music. Elton John’s piano playing, Freddie Mercury’s singing, the bass and drums in the who. If you ever want to learn what you want to play the bass like, go listen to “The Real Me,” by the Who, and same if you want to hear how to play the drums. Elton John and Billy Joel are great pianists, just go listen to Elton’s “Candle in the Wind,” or Billy Joel’s “Piano Man,” for a master class in piano. The musicality and skill they play there instruments with is seldom nowadays, where we get crappy musicians get popular because of their looks. There’s seldom real musicians that get popular these days,and that’s sad.

 Overall, classic rock is easily the best genre of music, with its amazing guitar that has entranced so many, the musicality and other instrumentalists are unmatched by any music that came after it. And the showmanship they exude is the reason they sell out giant stadiums, not because of their looks and ability to hire great stage managers, and eight year old girls that love them. It’s incredible to watch old performances and it’s sad that musicians aren’t as great as they used to me.

Last month our class wrote a narrative essay on something that happened to us, and I enjoyed it. It was a fun experience to write and this is my favourite type of essay so far, I hope you enjoy reading my essay about a solo I sung.
The male voice is a complicated thing, it has three main parts to it that any advanced male singer has to understand and navigate through. Your main strongest voice, called your chest voice, your super high voice, called falsetto, which is what most prepubescent males sing strongest. And your head voice, which is the mediator in between high and low. Most guys head voice is the weakest part of your voice, and in the transition between these there is a vocal break where you have to change what voice you are using.
 The Chan Centre is a beautiful concert hall out at UBC that is shaped like the body of a violin. The shape is important because most string instruments are shaped this way for resonance, and that is why the Chan Centre is shaped the way it is. Chor Leoni is one of the top men’s choirs in the world, based in Vancouver they mostly perform here but do tour occasionally, because of their local schedule people from all over the world come to see them. And in this beautiful venue I had the most incredible opportunity I’ve ever had. To sing a solo at the chan.

  I was in a choir run by Chor Leoni to get teenage guys out to sing, the final concert was at the chan centre. I won the final solo in a beautiful gospel song called “There’s a Man Goin’ Round.” I was very nervous as this was my first solo and it was a very weird singing range for me as I had to transitions through my chest, head, and falsetto voices.

 I was very nervous to the point of barfing while eating my lunch, when one of the tenors came up to me. He said, “I heard your struggles with navigating your vocal break; would you like some help tenor to tenor?” I quickly accepted, he took me into a secluded corner of the theatre backstage and got me to sing it two times through. Then asked me a question, “can you sing it all in your head voice? Transitions in solos don’t sound great.”

  I had the last solo of three, so I sang the first two verses as a back up and go a little off pitch. As I walk up and think about his words, and ask myself “can I do it?” I start it on a note I would normally use chest voice for, so I try it in my head voice and find it’s ok, and as the solo is ascending I start to get more and more nervous that I can’t hit the high note. As the note approaches my stomach drops out from under me I’m so nervous. I climb the scale and hit the top note perfectly. I look out at my parents in the front row and watch their faces dissolve into tears as I take my last breath and end my solo on a descending run of notes. I smile at the audience and bow, his advice had worked and I cannot thank him enough.

 I have never met that man again, I have looked through Chor Leoni a hundred times and can’t find him. It’s funny that somebody who changed my life so much, I never knew their name. I don’t know anything about him other than he was a tenor for Chor Leoni, but he gave me so much more than I could ever have asked for. It was incredibly disorienting changing my solo an hour before I sing it in front of one thousand people, but it was worth it. I will remember that moment forever, but those fifteen short words changed me more than a solo ever could have. And this has kind of become a life philosophy for me: If you can do something without transitions do it, because transitions don’t go well. Lots of things in life change, and I hope I can remember those words when things are changing, because if you can just skip the transition it will be better for everybody.

During the gold rush, people would flood in to places with gold, in the hope of getting what exactly? And now, the best selling iPhone is pink, yet they call it “rose gold,” why do people want it? Why is gold a symbol for coming first? I think I have cracked the code, in this picture I outline why gold is important in the past and present. It was actually quite enjoyable racking my brain, because why does everyone love gold? It is an interesting question, but my favourite fact I learned is that it is a smart investment because its price is very steady, I know where all of my money is going in the future.

In September our class wrote five writing prompts with varied topics to improve our writing skills, they were as crazy as “what could happen to make people into cannibles?” and as tame as, “if a cop were to come to your school undercover, give some tips on how they would fit in.” My least favourite writing came from the prompt “If aliens took one actor away because they thought movies were real life, who would they take?” And this was our first one, but mine isn’t great.

My favourite writing of mine came from the prompt “if a cop were to come to your school undercover, give some tips on how they would fit in.” I am quite proud of this writing and think it might even be my best writing of the year.

Play the saxophone, I mean it, you don’t have to be good, but just show up to band class and play the saxophone and nobody will suspect you. You can wear whatever you want, even if you wore a cop outfit people will think you’re joking but pick up a saxophone and you will just be accepted. You should also play a sport, probably soccer or hockey are the most common at Seycove. Don’t be a sports star though, because then people will suspect you, be a little less than average at sports, and play the saxophone. You also have to hunch, if you look around the school everybody is hunched over from gaming, that brings up another good point, start gaming. Usually a good place to start would be first person shooters, Call of Duty, Halo, Destiny, or Counter Strike are all good games to play to fit in, play Xbox, not PlayStation, and always have your phone in your pocket. Those are the basics, now for some more subtle stuff, you need to make it look like you’re kind of struggling in school, not enough to need a tutor or anything like that but just a little struggle, even if you were great in school and got straight A’s, don’t do that here. There’s many keys to fitting in, but you always have to play the gosh darn saxophone.

I really enjoyed these prompts and hope we write like this again, it is fun and entertaining and you can really see growth between my first one and my last one.

Hello, this is my spring SLC blog post, over this year I think I’ve done good work, I’m really proud of how my metaphor machine and the movie turned out. See: http://www.blog44.ca/joelh/2015/06/15/the-machine-is-finally-finished/ I think I really improved using explain everything See: http://www.blog44.ca/joelh/2015/03/23/trains-learning/ as start of year example and http://www.blog44.ca/joelh/2015/05/26/cuban-revolution/ as end of year example. I didn’t totally fail my goals, but I didn’t totally complete them either, see: http://www.blog44.ca/joelh/2015/01/20/conclusion/. I think I did pretty well, it’s just they were a bit broad, so I completed them but not was fully as I could have. If you have questions, comment. Thanks for reading

This is my groups ethics video. It is a video debating the ethics of Zoos. There was an in class debate to go along with this, and was way better than this video, but the video is still top class, you should just ignore my acting skills though, I was never meant to be an actor.

The metaphor machine was a great project to do. I learned so much about the American Revolution, and about simple circuitry, and though I had trouble with me teacher and my group, it was a fun project and I hope that we get to do more like it next year.