Now, for the record, it would be easier for all of us if we pretend this post was on time. Indeed, I cannot be sure whether or not it will be marked, but honestly? If finishing this will convince my mom that my summer break has started (it started 3 days ago), then it’s worth it. If you couldn’t tell, I’m a tad bit tired. Tired of school, tired of arguing, and ready to be done with this. Time to squeeze out whatever last bit of personality I can into this post. 

Image source: https://bodylanguagecentral.com/meaning-of-guy-staring-at-you-a-lot-without-talking-to-you/

Ok, what I wrote earlier didn’t exactly describe what I was supposed to write about, so here we go. For those who don’t know, in the PLP program, we perform an exhibition to show off our learning every winter and spring*. In it, we create a project based on the driving question of our assigned subject, and present it to those who tour the exhibition, who are mostly parents. This year, we in grade 11 worked on the subject of school improvement. The idea was that we would create an artifact to show our chosen solution to a given problem with the school system, and display it to our audience. Now, as for the details of my project specifically, well, keep reading.

*always in the summer

Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exeter_High_School_(New_Hampshire).jpg

Interestingly enough, my project was originally planned to be significantly larger. I planned to talk all about ideal school structures, management of school funding, how we can make it happen etc., while presenting that in the medium of a speech and a keynote (Apple version of powerpoint) presentation. I had also planned to create a model of an ideal school, a 2d model, but still a large undertaking. I was advised by Ms. Maxwell that that would be not only nearly impossible, but a waste of my time and potential. In hindsight, she was definitely right, so it’s a good thing I listened then! I ended up cutting it down to just the presentation, but of course, kept the basic idea for the project. It ended up being a pretty broad range of topics, and indeed  one hard to categorize, but not only did I manage, I ran a voting operation in which visitors to the exhibition could vote on the solution they wanted to see implemented, with ballots, a ballot box, candidate list, etc. In case you were curious, I was, in fact, the victor of the vote due to the fact that I simply asked people to vote for me, and they did. I suppose that’s the moral of the story: people will follow whatever leader is available, no questions asked. As for the exhibition itself, I’d say they’re getting less stressful by the year, which is ironic considering the fact that I’m actually doing more work in them, but I suppose my greater effort, and in this case, even leadership, has truly elevated my experience further. I’ll admit, I didn’t think I could lead anything, but I managed to not only play a big part in the floorplan, but I ran the vote, which was my idea, and facilitated exclusively by me. Wow. Just wow.

Image source: https://compassmedical.net/our-leadership/business-leadership-concept-building-team-and-effecting-solution/

Just this, and then the outro. That’s all that’s left. Unfortunately, this is the description of the core competencies, so it’s not the most pleasant. Regardless, our first competency is decision-making. I’d say this is the best I’ve ever done on this competency by a longshot. My project was largely based around the inclusion of different voices, and I like to think that I included as many as possible. I wrote of the problems of everyone, and thus did my best to consider other’s perspectives. I, of course, also made a lot of good judgments to help the group, and was truly much more independent than ever. We also need to talk about processing. Honestly? I didn’t do too bad here. My thought processes were as creative and intuitive as ever, but now were directed towards something more productive than usual. I reflected on and improved upon my work, and indeed showed my ability to adapt and think critically.

Here it is, the end of grade 11 posts. I’d say I feel nostalgic and happy, but nope, just tired. Here’s an ending.

*Brofist*

Last class, we joked about something a little. At the idea of calling this a “terminal presentation of learning”. It wasn’t until someone pointed out that that was actually accurate, that this was my last TPOL of my life, did it hit me: time has really flown by, hasn’t it? In this post, I’ll be talking all about my PLP experience this year, why I should move on to the next grade level, and even make some connections to my first ever PLP trip. Without further ado, let us commence!

Image source: https://www.kqed.org/news/11686760/ac-transit-riders-salesforce-transit-center-and-transbay-terminal

I said a bit of this last year, but this year it’s so much more true. I’ve cleaned up my act in regards to school. I’m getting better grades, producing higher quality work, and overall just having a better time. If I’m being honest, I think that’s been due in part to the fact that I’ve had a shorter day this semester, which has drastically decreased my anxiety issues related to school. That certainly shows in my PLP grade, and I must say that I’m proud of the hard work I’ve done. An example of this would be my project, aptly named “Ideal School Structures”, that I presented at the recent spring exhibition. The project we were assigned was called “School, What is it Good For?”, and it was about our solutions to our chosen school-related problem and the artifact, whether physical, or in my case, digital, that we created to support our argument and show our learning. Mine was a presentation I made in Keynote that detailed my many, many, many gripes about school and numerous things I could think of to fix those problems. In addition to that, I ran a class vote in which visitors to the exhibition would have the privilege of casting their votes as to which presented solution to a given problem they would like to see implemented. I’ll admit, I should’ve expected that the vast majority of voters were family members of presenters, and that the candy bribes I had laid out weren’t going to change their minds, but hey, they tasted good, and it was a fun thing to run. This is especially true for me, as I won our little election with a total of 5 votes, 2 more than second place. As of writing this, I’m sure that everyone will think it’s fraud, and I may know for sure by the time I present, but whether they believe it or not, it was fair. I worked hard, and led something on behalf of the class. It felt good to do well, and I’m very proud of myself for this project. On a sidenote, I guess old habits die hard, because in true Nathan fashion, I both started and completed my project the night before the exhibition, just as I’m doing with this post!

Image Source: http://www.clipartbest.com/animated-clocks-clipart

Well, that was a success story if I’ve ever seen one! It’s good news, then, that I have another one! Earlier this year, and I talked about this in my MPOL, we did a project that I had been waiting for for years: a Cold War project. Simply named “The Coldest War”, this project gave us the task of creating a graphic novel that portrayed a historical-fiction story of the Cold War. I won’t go into incredible detail here, as I already did that in my MPOL, but the short version is that I worked hard, but also procrastinated, and did good work in the end. I was proud of my finished product, and truly happy with the grades I got as a result. The creation process was quite fun, and, since politics are a subject of interest for me, this project and the one detailed above were very good for me, as I can produce a quality of work on topics I enjoy that I can’t do otherwise. Overall, I’m happy with my progress, and once again, procrastination didn’t kill me. It led to an eventful night, but not a morning of failure, so I suppose it all works out.

Image source: https://www.military-stuff.org/cold-war-1998-s1-ep1-comrades/

Something amazing happened this year that my grade hasn’t gotten to experience throughout our time at Seycove in the way that PLP usually does: a trip. One of the big appeals of PLP had been the fact that we would get to go on overnight trips once a year. Unfortunately, due to covid, only our grade 8 Oregon trip ended up happening. That all changed this year, when students in grades 11 and 12 went on a trip to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, with special guest state California hosting our emergency overnight stay after we missed our connection flight due to our first flight getting delayed, but I went into more detail about that in my post I wrote about that trip. I must say, the two experiences couldn’t have been more different. It wasn’t only the shockingly different environments and cultures, as Oregon and Washington are almost exactly like home, but the people who were there, the experiences that we had, my outlook on life the universe and everything, etc. As someone who’s a lot more mature, and with very different opinions, I went to Washington and Oregon with a slight distaste towards America in the most Canada-friendly part of it. I went to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri with a severe dislike of the American worldview and Regime, and yes, I mean that, but that’s unimportant. To those of you reading from America, It’s nothing personal, I’m sure you’re all great people. Regardless, while I went on the first trip unprepared for what was coming, and with a mountain of work I would never finish, this time I was under control, worked hard, and was graded well for it, though I still handed in my work a bit late… I guess between that and the procrastination, well, the more things change the more they stay the same.

As my final example of my PLP learning experience, I, unfortunately, have to say something a little heavier. It’s not nearly as bad as the news my older POLs have often presented, and I’m sorry to kill the mood, but this needs to be brought up as a warning for the future, a warning that will be here so that I won’t make the same mistake again. Earlier this year, we did a fantastic public speaking project on the Manhattan project. I truly did enjoy the project, but I took too much confidence in my public speaking ability. It’s something I’ve always been good at, but overconfidence never served anyone well. I was so confident that I would deliver the best speech out of everyone, that I didn’t make the necessary preparations to actually pull that off. A gifted person is no better than anyone else if they don’t properly use their gift. In the end, my speech was fairly well-written, yet also terribly performed. I wasted the potential I had because I thought I was already the best, and I even ended up not writing a blog post about it. This is written here to remind me that while I can keep my old habits, if I let them consume me, I will never truly reach my potential.

Thus ends the last TPOL I will ever write, as next year I will be writing my FPOL (Final Presentation Of Learning). It’s been a wild ride these past few years. Indeed, for all I’ve changed, there are some things that I simply can’t shake, and if we’re to talk about old, outdated habits, then here’s one right now:

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*Brofist*

Time passes. Memories fade. People stop caring about the past. This mentality is the source of much of the world’s suffering, and indeed always has been. As is said in an adapted quote from George Santayana: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. I refer to this quote quite often, and with good reason. It can be applied near-effortlessly to almost any social studies/history subject, just like our current subject. Ooh! Fun fact! The reason I say “adapted” quote is because the original version was actually “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Regardless, I suppose it’s time to actually explain what this project is about, but first, I shall once again insert a picture of ol’ George.

Image source: https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/george-santayana-221.php

So, with that out of the way I think it’s time we lay out some information. This project is all about “Stories of Hope”, particularly in the American South. Of course, we first need to define a story of hope. A story of hope is a story about how people have showed resilience and faced adversity, inspiring others in the process. I personally had my own interesting direction to take this project in, more on that later, and by later I mean now. My idea was to prove a little theory I had. What was that theory? Simply put, I believe that by showcasing not just the inspirational and triumphant parts of a story, but the tragedies and defeats as well, I could paint a far greater and more impactful story. For example, if you had heard that Someone survived descending a staircase, you’d probably think that the statement was just a random, insignificant joke. However, if you had heard that someone had fallen down a flight of stairs containing 100 steps, broken several bones, crippling their ability to walk for months, forcing a rib to through pierce their lung, and causing a severe concussion that took a full year to recover from, yet somehow managed to cling on to life, you would likely be impressed at the victim’s strength to pull through. You see? Hearing simply that someone survived means nothing. I’m surviving writing this post right now. It’s when you hear the gruesome details of exactly what someone survived that opens your mind where you were once recalcitrant.

Image source: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/flight-of-steps-ester-rogers.html

I’ve gotten to thinking, what if your first thoughts about this project are the same as my own? That the American South is a strange choice for this project. After all, the South hasn’t really ever been in a position where they were facing great amounts of tyranny, it’s never been poor, and being a part o a developed western nation, the people there have great amounts of privilege afforded to them. I’ll admit, I can’t explain with 100% certainty, so I’ll do the best I can. First of all, there’s a history of slavery and racism, which I personally think was ignored too much during the project. Second, there’s the large number of terrorist attacks that have been carried out against the region. Finally, there’s the fact from Vancouver, Canada, where I live, it’s a pretty easy part of the world to travel to. If you didn’t catch my drift, let me spell it out. We went on a 10-day overnight trip to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri, with flight connection stops in Colorado (intended), and California (emergency nighttime stay due to delayed flight causing us to miss our connection flight). It was quite a trip, and while not everyone went, we still had a good time and learned a lot.

Perhaps the most important part of this post is to share my final product from this project. As for what that may be, you can either scroll down to learn, or read this if you want. Our goal was to answer our driving question: “What lessons and inspiration can we draw from the stories of individuals and communities that have faced tragedy and overcome adversity?” through the medium of video. Without further ado, here it is.

Alas, every post always comes down to this present piece. A necessary cog in the machine, at least, under our current education system, The core competencies will now be presented. Questioning ability was fairly strong in my case, due to my reasonably frequent asking of questions, and extremely frequent questioning of the system we live under. Processing is something I wish I could say I did well, but due to my failure to process information in a timely fashion, I lose a lot of points, at least, in my opinion, and I’m sure in the teacher’s opinions as well. Say what you will about my decision-making capabilities, but I’d say they’re pretty solid for someone with my levels of mental disorder. They’re not bad overall either. My ability to form my own strong opinions and subsequently act upon them is certainly a strength of mine.

That concludes this lovely post. I’ll admit, this was a big chunk of my Sunday. Still waiting for my Nintendo switch to be shipped back home after I left it in the hotel on a different trip, but you didn’t come here for my griping. What you DID come for is a nice ol’

*Brofist*

So… here we are. Writing a post… near the start of a project… yeah. Well, we may as well get this over with, after all, I’m writing this late at night, and my sinuses are pounding, and last night I ate WAY too many sour skittles left over from the movie I had seen the night before, making my teeth still hurt because of my poor habits when it comes to taking care of oral (don’t even) health. Ugh, first world problems, right? Regardless, that’s enough about my physical condition, now you need an update on my unsolicited* opinions!

*Please note that if you’re the ONLY person reading this, than you did indeed ask for my opinions

Image Source: http://www.dumpaday.com/funny-pictures/the-best-of-first-world-problems-15-pics/

So, you’re probably wondering exactly what this post is about. Well, simply put, its about stories of hope. If you want the more extensive definition, keep reading. My task with this post was to create a definition for the driving question of this project, and the terms related to it. First of, the driving question: “What is a Story of Hope?” A story of hope, as I would define it, is a story of survival, due to one’s resilience in the face of adversity. To put it another way, a story of hope is a story about how people have managed to live through the challenges, obstacles, and hardships that have, one way or another, found their way into their lives, through the use of  courage, determination, or sometimes even just blind luck. Most importantly, a story of hope is a story that we can look to in hard times to gain inspiration for how to deal with the troubles ahead, and to ensure that the mistakes of the pst are not repeated.

Now, if you were paying attention, you may have noticed that I dropped 3 important terms in my first explanation. In class, we have bee both studying and, dare I say, debating these terms recently. I believe, that if I didn’t before, I now have a pretty good definition of what these words mean. Survival is the act of living through an event, typically associated with hardships, for example, if you were, say, bitten by a shark, (which nearly never happens, sharks kill <10 people per year, whereas humans kill tens, or even hundreds of millions of sharks per year, don’t call out sharks on their thirst for blood you hypocrite!) you would be considered a survivor, or someone who has survived. Resilience, for its part, is one’s ability to stay strong and rise again when faced with problematic circumstances. The difference between survival and resilience is that survival is simply the act of surviving, whereas resilience is when one goes beyond that, and thrives as a result of an event. An example would be that if you lost a leg to a car accident, and you let that rule your life, then you may have survived, but if you owned it, embraced it, accepted it as a challenge and did not let it define you as a person, you have shown resilience. There’s another important terms here, and it’s the one that causes the first two to be necessary at all: adversity. Adversity is the challenge, the problem that you’re facing. The monster under the bed. The skeleton in the closet. The ghost in the attic. An example would be if (sensitive content warning) your people were facing persecution, the adversity would be the negative attitude towards your people, or the groups acting on this bigotry. These circumstances, horrible as they are, are the thing that allows us to become strong, and one day, ensure that the future generations don’t have to face the same problems.

When all’s said and done, that was honestly a decent post. It summed up everything pretty good, and the pain in my sinuses is gone! Naturally, this post, good, bad, or neutral, ends the same way

*Brofist*

Well, well, well. The year’s half over already. I gotta say, it’s been a bit different so far, a few things have changed; about me, about PLP, about the world, about everyone. We’re emerging from the ashes of the COVID-19 pandemic, I see the world in a different way than I have before, which is, of course, part of my transformation into a better person. PLP seems to switch up and adapt every year, which is, of course, what keeps it interesting. It’s also why I’m making this post, because even though it’s a good bit of work, it’s still reasonable and interesting, mainly because I can pour my soul into this post. For example, if I want to make a line that literally just says “cheeseballs” several times over, then there’s nothing that can be done to stop me other than breaking my fingers, threatening to kill me if I don’t rewrite it, or less drastic, but also less entertaining and dramatic, measures such as simply asking me to change it. The point is, it’s an amazing representation for PLP, as I can let my creativity shine, and truly produce work that I’m interested in making, which results in it being actually good.

Cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs cheeseballs

See? I’m so free, quirky and creative that I wrote TWO lines of cheeseballs! Really it came out to 3 1/2 after putting it into the blogging software, but that only proves my point further

Image source: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Utz-Cheese-Balls-23-Oz/10898644

So, it’s worth wondering, how did I learn this semester? Did I grow as a learner and is to the challenges presented to me? Did I fail miserably once again? As it was last year, I think I can simply say: “eh…”. What do I mean by that? Well, simply put, I believe that I truly did a pretty good job on my work, better than last year (partially because this year has had some of the most interesting projects yet!), and while there was certainly room for improvement, I think I can safely say I have accomplished work that I can truly be proud of through hard work, dedication, and F.A.I.L.ing. A shining example of this would be the several times I rewrote my script for our “Macbeth” adaptations for the winter exhibition. Buckle up, it’s quite a story. First, we watched parts of movie adaptations of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” to get an understanding of the play. Next, we worked on writing an adapted script which we would perform on exhibition night. The first trouble I ran into was the fact that the teacher didn’t like the Irish mob setting for my adaptation, then my seycove drug ring idea was shut down, bringing me back to the Irish mob, which was honestly kind of a win in my book. After that, I was told that the language adaptations I made were unacceptable, as I needed to use Shakespeare’s original language. I then found out (I wish I had known this earlier), that I needed to trim down the number of characters in my scene (Act V, Scene VIII) down to 3, from 5. That part was really tough, and after even more trials and tribulations, I finally had a good script. 2 years ago I don’t know if I would’ve even had the dedication to keep going.

Image source: http://crosslight.org.au/2015/09/14/political-power-and-passion-macbeth-review/

As I detailed in my “Macbeth” post, which I linked above, not everything went perfectly during the performance, and indeed nothing ever does go EXACTLY as planned. Fortunately, the ability to adapt and overcome is central to our PLP education. For example, while delivering a speech in “The Manhattan Project Project”, I admittedly forgot where I was in my lines, and indeed ended up improvising approximately 1/3 of the entire speech. It’s really a shame, as it was honestly a solid speech, but at the end of the day, I’ve been known to improvise anything that I can get away with improvising, so really it’s nothing new. As an example, I had actually fully improvised a practice speech for the same project that we were SUPPOSED to work hard on. I suppose that is probably one of my biggest flaws: overconfidence and arrogance regarding subjects of familiarity and interest. The number of things history-related that I’ve just breezed through like I knew everything already is staggering. The sad part is that my ego keeps getting fed by the fact that it usually works out just fine for me. Sometimes I think I could stand to be knocked down a peg. One thing that may help with that is the fact that the reason I didn’t link “The Manhattan Project Project” in this post is because, as of writing this, the post has not been completed…

Image source: https://blog.gaijinpot.com/teaching-japan-guide-english-speech-contests/

So, above all, I think that this year my worldview has truly broadened. My opinions on countless issues have changed drastically (let’s not talk politics!), my realization of my ever-approaching adulthood is becoming more prevalent with each year, as I even have a plan for when school ends, and a backup plan! It’s hard to imagine that I only have half a year left of the  notorious grade 11. I’ve been hearing about how awful and difficult this year would be for so long, but honestly? I’ve really been liking it! I’ve truly been having a lot of fun in PLP this year, and of course, would hope with all my heart to be reaccepted into the program next year, or even just next semester for now. Furthermore, from what I’ve heard, it’s all uphill from here! At least, until high school ends. I’ve heard your 20s aren’t a very fun time. After that I’m going to be deeply absorbed in my work. Then, considering my choice of career path, I may not be able to retire until I’m too old to really enjoy much anymore. Regardless, let’s not focus on the negative! Let’s focus on you, me, and more importantly the upcoming…

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*Brofist*

Good morrow, fine folk! By royal decree of the mighty king Nathan I of the domain of YoBoyNyate, prince of tardiness in regards to his blog posts, accomplished collector of mental disorders and frustrator of minor authority figures, thou shalt read through this informing and bounteous notice to ultimate completion on pain of missing out on this post! Thou’rt most decidedly wondering, what, praytell, could this strong and beautiful monarch be offering from his archives most plentiful in golden words? Thou shalt know the truth by, and only by, enduring this egotistical introduction for but a pittance of moments. In a few words, we mighty learners of the PLP program hath been educated most definitively on the subject of Shakespeare. For the boors in the audience ever present in all but the classiest establishments, here be thine context for the reversal of thy peasant mind.

Image source: http://www.yurtopic.com/society/people/shakespeare-facts.html

Ah, sorry about that, I couldn’t help but indulge my Shakespearean side. In all seriousness though, it seems “King Nathan I” left out the important detail of this also being related to our PLP winter exhibition. Notice how I linked the program. See, I realize I should’ve been doing that since grade 8, but it is what it is. Anyways, we do an exhibition showing off all our learning every year, which explains the title of this post for you dirty minded folks out there. So, without further ado, let’s get into it!

So, what to talk about first… hmm… need to think… unnecessary space fillers for comedic effect are good… they would also make this post seem far longer and more clever than it is… the reader either chuckled or rolled their eyes at that… the writer is grinning inside but outwardly showing off a serious case of RBS… oh yeah! I should talk about our amazing learning process! Hmm… what to start with… hard to be sure… oh yeah! We watched a lot of adaptations on our play of study, Macbeth, you know, milk of human kindness, ‘twere well it were done quickly etc. Naturally, we took notes, which unlike other years, I actually DID participate in, so it was only fun to a reasonable-for-school extent, but still, not bad! By studying these adaptations we learned a ton about the playwriting process, which equipped us for the future in which we would write our own plays. Let’s see… mine was about… okay, okay, I’ll stop doing that. Mine was a highly recommended-against scenario, specifically, I tackled the subject of the Irish mob. I’m not going to tell you ALL about my back-and-forth journey with all my writes and rewrites, just that I got a chance to F.A.I.L (first attempt in learning), S.A.I.L (second attempt in learning), T.A.I.L, F.A.I.L again, F.A.I.L again. S.A.I.L again, and I think you get the idea. In the end, I had a product that I believed I could be truly proud of. Not everything went perfect, mind you, but hey, that’s just what it it means to F.A.I.L. On a sidenote, I learned while writing this just how many numbers can be made into a _________. Attempt. In. Learning acronym.

image source:
site

Anyways, regardless of my last sentence, it’s not like I didn’t drop a huge bomb, with “not everything went according to plan” so I do believe I should talk about it. First of all, my scene was based around a huge knife fight, and the first issue with that was that I had completely forgotten to make fake knives, and I couldn’t really rewrite the whole thing on the night of the exhibition, so I managed to ahold of some butter knives. Remember that, it’ll matter later. Next was a mess-up with much more immediate consequences. So, I had volunteered to give the introduction of behalf of my theme group, which is a group made up of those who all decided on a common theme that describes all of their “Macbeth” adaptations. Now, this shouldn’t have been a problem, but I had the really bright idea of just improvising the whole thing based on some key points. That didn’t go over very well, meaning it started well, but I completely messed up and was promptly escorted off stage, then out of the building via one of those cartoon hooks they use to pull actors off stage. Just kidding, I kinda just walked away. Good news, my teacher wasn’t mad at me, as she said everyone would forget about all of this in 5 minutes. The real problem, however, came during my own performance. Aside from myself, it featured Jakub Hoffman and Logan Wickstone, and there was a little problem with line memorization, and not on my part. Regardless, the biggest mistake was mine to make. Remember those butter knives from before? Well, I may or may not have accidentally cut Jakub with one, both while rehearsing and in the play itself. Not much of the audience noticed, but I felt really bad about it. Jakub wasn’t mad, but honestly, it was a serious bad decision to use the butter knives so aggressively on my part. Like I said earlier, we all F.A.I.L from time to time.

Image source: https://thesurvivallife.com/fight-with-knife.html

In everyone’s life, they have things they want to do, and things they don’t. Furthermore, they tend to want some things more than others. I myself want to slack off, but I want to produce good quality work and get into university more than that, so here we are. It’s time to talk about the curricular competencies. Questioning is one them, and I’d say my questioning abilities are pretty solid, but not amazing, my reasoning being that I asked tons of questions of both my peers and my teachers about how to make my work better, however I could’ve asked even more, could’ve asked better questions, and could’ve been less demanding. On the topic of analyzing, I did pretty great. Why? Well, simply put, I worked hard on doing a faithful and thought-out interpretation of “Macbeth” that made sense on multiple levels, and it paid off as I see it. In terms of communication, I would go so far as to say I excelled. It seems cocky just to write this, but here we go. If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s speak in front of a crowd with confidence, volume, and, more importantly, a lack of embarrassment. I truly let this, along with my rather apt proficiency in acting shine during the exhibition, and it honestly felt wonderful.

Well, when all’s said and done, that was a relatively easy and low-stress exhibition. Our teachers might disagree, but honestly, at least in grade 11, most of the work was done a while BEFORE exhibition night, and it honestly wasn’t even that much work. That’s really all I have to say, except for one other thing 

Ahhh, the second in this terrible two of summertime, ungradeable blog posts. Feels “good”. This is just going to be so fun, swell, and engaging.

So, what are we talking about? Why, another project about the significance of the North Shore. Do I sound like this concept is invoking some ire? Well, allow me to explain something my teachers hate, will hate, and have hated to hear: “The only reason anyone would care if all of North Van was destroyed would be that Ryan Reynolds would be gone” – Liam Erb. Like I said, the teachers would disagree, but I will say what I will. You can’t infringe on my right of free speech. This is a free country! This is an outrage! This is unfair! This is injustice! Down with the tyrants! Give me liberty, or give me death! ummmm… sorry… got a little bit… carried away there let’s say. Regardless, this is a project all about significance on the North Shore.

Image source: http://thetyee.ca/Culture/2018/01/08/America-Fractures-Beginning/

So, my project. As I may have mentioned before in this blog but am too lazy to go back and check, I have a great passion for history and politics. If you think that’s boring, then you are an unkempt, mundane, feeble-minded, boorish simpleton and I shall not entertain you any longer you provincial peasant. Wow… I’m a bit on edge right now… I went from Canadian, to American, to British. Ideally I don’t become Russian next. That reminds me, did you know that I have actually written posts on here entirely in Russian? This was BEFORE the invasion, mind you, so it wasn’t in poor taste at that point. Well, that’s not true, but it was LESS true then. Anyways, I created my project on the Korean war’s impact on North Vancouver, although I was allowed to extent it to greater Vancouver, as it was a bit hard to focus on Korea and North Van when it’s literally the most white area of the city. See, that’s a little thing called systemic racism, considering that non-white people are often set up for failure resulting in us crackers being far wealthier than everybody else. I think I did an ok job on the Korean War regardless though, as knowledge of history helped, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Vancouver has been one of the most important places regarding Korean War discussions.

Image source: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/gapyeong-stone-korean-war-memorial-langley

WELL… two posts in one day, a mandatory watching of night of the museum, a haircut, and then a 2:30 am departure for New York. If I wasn’t super privileged to have access to these things, I’d probably complain about this all taking too much time. That’s the end of this one, yet it ends like all of them do.

*brofist*

Well… haven’t done this for a while…

If you’re wondering what I mean by that, well, read my earlier blog posts. The short version is that it’s been a while since I’ve had to make a post about not having REALLY completed a project. What was that, you may ask? It was our “believe in good” project that focused on learning and growing as people via learning about the mantras, yes, that’s the tern I will use, of the book: “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective people”. You’ve probably heard of this book, which we will now discuss.

Image source: https://www.simonandschuster.co.in/books/The-7-Habits-Of-Highly-Effective-People-Revised-and-Updated/Stephen-R-Covey/9781471195709

So, the Seven Habits were written and created by Steven Covey, a man who specializes in human relations. He went to the trouble to read success literature, in other words, self-help books, from the past 200 years. Specifically an American perspective, sadly, but nothing can really be done about it. Anyways he found, and keep in mind this was years before the turn of the millennium, that over the past 50 years, the so-called “Character Ethic” of BEING a good person had been overturned by the “personality ethic”, which shined light on the concept of LOOKING like a good person, and just focusing on other’s opinions of you. He concluded that people had forgotten how to be effective citizens, and so he compiled his own experiences and knowledge into a book.

Image source: https://knucklingdown.com/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people-is-life-changing/

Above you see the seven habits themselves. The habits that drove me to be unable to finish the project. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. I admittedly was turned away by the absolutely colossal workload that inevitably rears it’s ugly head as a result of being in PLP. Couple that with procrastination, extreme anxiety, and a lack of motivation, and things don’t always go very well. However, I DID make some interesting documents, in which I described the story of a hated man named Jimmy, who overcame his contemptible ways with the help of a habit doctrine I affectionately, in each one, said was fit for bishops and abbots. Not that I, don’t take this the wrong way this is just my opinion, have a very positive opinion of bishops or abbots, but it is what it is. I thought it was an interesting analogy.

Well, that marks the end of this contradictory post. In case you were wondering, it’s contradictory in the way that I actually IMPROVED as a learner this year. I’d like to say I’ve fully learned my lesson, but considering I’m writing this on summer break, less than 12 hours before I leave on vacation, with one more to do today, perhaps you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Fortunately, I don’t think I’m very old yet, as I’m still willing to say:

*Brofist*

Crayfish. Yes.

Sadly, the teachers would disagree. The pitch for having a crayfish projected on a giant projector screen was rejected, so we had to make do without it. The shrimp in the business section were, similarly, rejected. Sorry, I should back up a bit. Hello and welcome to our spring exhibition! Or, at least, the blog post I’m writing on it. You can’t turn back time, I’m sorry. The exhibition was good though, really good. As for the theme, impact. It was all about impact on the north shore, by individuals who have truly made a contribution to our community. These are people who’s legacies can be felt by anyone in North Vancouver, whether they know about the person or not. of course, now it’s time to get into that.

Image source: http://www.krcu.org/post/discover-nature-colorful-and-quirky-crayfish

So have you ever heard of Kevin Bell? No, I’m not talking about that one MLB player that kept getting in the way of my online research by having the same name. Anyways, Perhaps you have, perhaps not. Whether you have or not, by the end of this blog post, you will be convinced of his significance. So, Kevin Bell is a man who was instrumental in the designation of Maplewood Flats as a conservation area, and put countless amounts of time into volunteering there. His role in founding the wild bird trust, and saving the good ole’ mudflats, the best birdwatching area in North Van, from being turned into a shopping mall and an “Eco-Friendly” Marina, have truly earned him the title of a local legend. Want to know the best part? Just to lend credence to his status, I’d like to point out that it wasn’t me, him, or his family that I first heard refer to him as a local legend. That was a brief summary of a few of the fantastic qualities of Kevin Bell, now to move on to the research process.

Image source: https://www.nsnews.com/living/memory-lane-full-time-volunteer-works-for-the-birds-3050136

The research process was, as I mentioned earlier, made difficult by the interruptions from other people with the same name, but it was still possible. My main sources of information were an article written partially by Kevin Bell himself, and an interview I did with him over FaceTime. I actually first got in contact with his wife, Trisha after emailing him, and her reading it and responding to me. As for how I got that, well, you’d be surprised how easy it is to get people’s emails when attempting to do so. In other words, I got it by contacting the wild bird trust, got a reply, and was given his email, his wife’s email, etc. Due to the way I did the research, and the interesting person I was researching, it was a really cool experience.

There was more to this project, of course. There was our research on the apple ad campaign “Think different”, specifically the ad “Here’s to the crazy ones” that inspired the project. This was an ad that, while it never directly said “buy apple products”, showed several video clips of people who had been influential and made different decisions than was the norm. Whether or not they would’ve actually wanted to have any affiliation with apple whatsoever, that’s another story, for another time. We also watched movies, namely Schindler’s list and Erin Brockovich, that depicted people who truly worked hard to help others and make an impact, and I must say, movie studies are fun.

Image source: http://wallpapercave.com/think-different-apple-wallpaper

Well, all good things must come to an end, this post too. Please don’t take that out of context anyone reading this, please. Regardless, thank you all for your time, and thank you to our impact makers for changing our lives.

*Brofist*

Yet again, we are here. Yet again, we reflect. Yet again, it is time. Yet again, we present our learning. However, this time we have something better to say. Something beyond the simple childish regrets of times past. Something just special enough to truly be worth writing, as opposed to lingering within shadows of doubt. Today, we write about a time that Nathan Jack Fawkes Talbot decided to put a tiny bit more effort into school.

Image source: https://www.dailysquib.co.uk/entertainment/20781-the-science-of-surprise.html

Hard to believe, isn’t it? That yours truly would be putting some real commitment and elbow grease into something as hated as school. Whether you choose to believe it or not, keep reading, as this Tpol blog post is not a simple case of wallowing in the mud of regret and negligence, while simply scraping by off the pathetic fragments of laughably slipshod work. This time, I have at least put a little bit of effort into school, which is more than I can often say. Don’t expect this to be ALL sunshine and roses, but it will at least be little less grim than average for my presentations of learning.

Image source: http://www.uuworld.org/articles/story-light-darkness

So first off, how did I approach all of this differently than I have in the past? Well, simply put, I have put more effort in. I’ve taken more pride in my work, and learned to truly enjoy some of the more interesting projects. When I have fun or am at least engaged, I can truly do well, and some projects, such as project podcast, have really fuelled my creative spirit. I will include a link to my podcast right here. In my podcast, I had an opportunity to spread my knowledge and experiences to the world. I worked hard on it, and absolutely adored how it turned out, because I got to talk about video games, create music, and my research, well, that was the most fun part, for reasons I’m sure you can guess. Doing interviews was really cool, even if it was just people I already knew well. All in all, project podcast was a fantastic project, and it’s honestly heartbreaking that we don’t do it again in grade 11.

Of course, PLP work can be frustrating at times. Right now, I’m gonna share some experiences. So, one of the main characteristics of a PLP student is that they all constantly complain about PLP. It doesn’t mean we don’t like it, that’s just the way it is. Whenever I do that, some of my friends outside of PLP might ask: “Then why stay in PLP?”. To that, I always say that I like the program, and the work is really fun, it’s just that there’s a massive workload when compared to other courses, and it’s far more difficult to get good grades. I know this, and still, I’m staying in PLP, and hopefully, provided nobody intervenes, will stay in PLP for the entirety of my high school

Unfortunately, we now have to come to the grim part of this post. I may have done better in PLP than ever before, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve done all that good. I have messed up, I have overdue work, and I understand that in that aspect, nothing has changed. However, we all F.A.I.L from time to time, nobody’s perfect, as long as I continue this trend of working harder, I believe that I will someday do truly great. No matter how many missing assignments I have, no matter how much I procrastinate, I will never truly give up.

Image source: https://www.teepublic.com/mug/381398-undertale-determination-heart

Wasn’t what you expected, now, was it? This different kind of post. This time, I was far more positive, and could safely say that I was being realistic the whole time, not optimistic, not pessimistic, realistic. I’m very proud to say that even if it’s just a little bit, I can safely say that I’ve improved, learned, and grown as a learner. Some things always stay the same though, such as the next bit.

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*Brofist*