Entry # 19: New School Term, New Topics, Final Year in Post-Secondary Education

This is going to be my final year in post-secondary education, it will be very different not returning to Conestoga College after the summer term. Anyway, let's get underway what has happened over the summer term, I have not been posting blogs throughout the summer because, I believed that, the summer it self would be a very quit, nothing big will occur, I was horribly mistaken, the Russian Separatists shot down that passenger airplane, ISIS taking a page out of Adolf Hitler's book, and the airplanes being shot down or gone missing.

International News
This summer has been horrible for airlines, my family and I stopped using airlines because the fee for a family of six (6) would be ridiculous, but that is not the point, the main factor I am truing to understand is, why are passenger airplanes being targeted? This is the question everyone should be asking themselves right now, they are not a threat, they just move people from one country to another. Russia is going to be in huge trouble, why, the European Union, Canada and the United States have imposed sanctions that will hurt Russia's economy and move them into isolation. This is summer, as I say again, has been absolutely horrible for airplanes, mainly passenger airplanes. The crisis in Israel and Gaza, that is also extremely terrible, the cease fire that was supposed to last 72 hours, only lasted 48 hours or less. There is so much tension between the two that, I have a feeling, will wipe each other out, unless the United Nations and the EU and Western countries help them compromise, I know that the United States is doing their best to help, but so far it is like taking two steps forward and two steps backwards, it is not going to get better when the two sides absolutely hate each. This summer, around the world, has been, violent, deadly and dangerous, I do hope, we will not be looking into the face of another world war.

Waterloo Region News
Now for news coming from Waterloo Region, construction season is still in full swing, the proposed LRT has been approved, and the construction for it has begun. The infrastructure for it is being done, and the person who's lawsuit got thrown out of court for trying to stop the LRT, has given up his case. Grand River Transit has implemented another of it's iXpress routes back in April, the mid-region iXpress. This iXpress travels from Sportsworld Crossing (King Street. E in Kitchener) to the Cambridge Centre (Hespeler Rd) via Maple Grove Rd (Highway 38), the Community of Fischer Mills in Hespeler, and the L.G. Lovell Industrial Park. From the research I have been looking at, the 203 Maple Grove iXpress's future route will be Franklin Blvd, Fischer Mills, Maple Grove, Sportsworld, Conestoga College Cambridge & Doon to Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener. I went into detail if Waterloo region will get anymore iXpress routes, and from what I have been reading, we will be getting 5 more, the 204 Victoria-Highland iXpress will be implemented next year. I have a feeling that 2015, a lot more changes will occur, just like in 2011 a lot of changes were made.

I will be doing weekly updates for the blogs, I will do them every Sunday, since Sunday is the beginning of the new week, I can cover the past week's news and other updates as the week follows. During the week, I will make a brief news break, no blog, the blog will tie everything together.

NHL Hockey news
NJ Devils veteran goalie Martin Brodeur will not be returning in the Devils jersey (I have a hunch he will retire this season)
NJ Devils goalie Cory Schneider singed a 7 year contract
Montreal Candadiens P.K. Subban has agreed to an 8 year contract

That is this month's updates, the weekly blog posts will begin in the second week in September.

Enjoy the rest of your summer everyone.

Cheers,

David

Entry #18 Blog On Hold from April 25 2014 to September 1, 2014

Good day my fellow internet surfers,

As of today, this blog will be put on hold until further notice. I have been focused on studying for final exams and getting a full-time summer job.

To enter this final blog of the term, let me just say, it has been an honour providing you with insightful news topics throughout Canada, Waterloo Region and the United States, as well as sharing peaceful and positive images on the Facebook page.

I WILL be sending brief updates on the Facebook page, but they will range from 1-7 sentences long, with a lot of information.

The peaceful and positive images will continue to be posted.

I hope you've had some fun reading some of the issues and events occurring throughout the Waterloo Region, I will be posting brief blogs in the future, none of them will be lengthy, possibly just one to tow paragraphs long with my final thought.

I Hope you all have a safe May long weekend and a safe summer.

This is David Sej, signing off, for now.

Entry #17: Waterloo Region OK's LRT and Kitchener Prepaires to Pay for River Road Expansion

It has been a month since I posted my last blog about the issues of bullying and why folks today should not take it as a joke but as a serious offense. This blog will have a different look at things and topics within Waterloo Region.

Yesterday, Waterloo Region Council OKed the $818 million dollar LRT project and one business owner threatened Regional council with a law suit, but one councilor said the project is on "solid ground". The business owner said it violated section 24 of the Regional Planning Act, which says "Despite any other general or special Act, where an official plan is in effect, no public work shall be undertaken and, except as provided in subsections (2) and (4), no by-law shall be passed for any purpose that does not conform therewith. R.S.O. 1990, c. P.13, s. 24 (1); 1999, c. 12, Sched. M, s. 24." All I can say is, this guy has done SOME of his homework with regards the LRT, he is so right with the local business along King Street (From Waterloo to Kitchener), when construction begins to put the tracks along the route for the LRT, it will hurt local business greatly. They will lose a lot of profit during the summer, until the contruction for the LRT is completed in that area. As a person that takes public transit, I do enjoy the Region's bus system, which is known as the Grand River Transit (GRT) but taking the LRT might be difficult for others. The main question I want council to answer is: Will the LRT make connections with the GRT buses or will we get to watch as our connection pulls out of a transit terminal as we wait for the next one? Since I have been taking GRT for seven (7) years now, I have seen great things and great changes within the system and along each of the routes. I would rather see my tax dollars go towards aBRT (a Bus Rapid Transit) with the routes operating every 15 min Monday to Saturday and 30 min on Sunday. That is the one transit system people would love to have, but sadly, I will ask this question: do you want your taxes increased to help fund for this project? I can answer that: I have a hunch the majority of you would have said no to this. Thus, we have to live with the LRT.

Final Thought for LRT: I can see the region's economy, going down for the time of the construction of the LRT, I am pretty sure aBRT for Waterloo Region would be better for people as it would cost less money (I have done the math on this one)  and it would be more effective and would create more jobs in the Region.

Changing gears now, time to look at the River Road expansion!

Last year, the city of Kitchener has approved the expansion of River Road that will avoid some rare salamander special along the original route. The route goes around the salamander habitat and will link to Bleams Road (on the other side) of Kitchener. As I told my parents this morning, this expansion is desperately needed, because the one road (Fairway Road) is bombarded with traffic and there is no other way around it, which is why the interestion of Fairway Rd. at King Street E is one of the most dangerous intersections in Waterloo Region. With the River Road expansion on the way the traffic on Fairway Road will remain the same up until the opening of the expanded River Road in which, many people will use that road.

Final Thought for LRT and River Road Expansion: our tax dollars should be used to fund and operate aBRT, I have done the math on this, for 3 iXpress Routes (202 University iXpress, 204 Victoria-Highland iXpress and 206 Ottawa Street iXpress) it will cost $6.2 to get the stops implemented and run the routes themselves. Which is much cheaper than to operate a $532 million dollar train from Waterloo to Kitchener. The River Road expansion is an excellent work of tax dollars.

Entry #16: Bullying

Bullying, one of the worst things to experience as a child, an adult and as a senior citizen. Bullying, back in the 90's and early 00's, was more a face-to-face, verbal, physical, and emotional pain a person can cause another person. As a child growing up in the 90's (I was born in 1993) and first started school 1996-1997, i experienced what was to me, the worst bullying ever. The entire school decided to pick on me, including the teachers. No body wanted to help me, everyday I cam home crying with bruises on my legs saying "I was stupid". My parents immediately put me into a privet school  (Scholars' Hall) in which, the learning environment was more friendly and the teachers new how to stop bullying when it was happening and made sure it never happened again. But that was a long time ago, today, bullying has taken a new form. It is not just on the playground at school, it is now online, kids today think it is "funny" to pick on a certain person because of their race, their gender, and sexual orientation. My question to the bullies is, why? Why pick on them just because they are who they are? I understand that no one is perfect, but, when we all look at each other, we are not so different, we are humans, no body reigns superior over anyone, but kids today, do not know what comes out of their mouths and what they put online because, what they say to a person, stays online forever, it cannot be removed permanently. Kids have committed suicide because of kids that don't think before they type out what they say. The parents today have also changed dramatically. They just tell their kids "do whatever" and they sit there and do nothing, why? Because they are young and are inexperienced parents, but going to kids grandparents (the parents parents) and asking   for help can be so beneficial, but, I highly doubt that will happen anytime soon, I do remember my mom and dad asking for help when I was younger, and they have raised 4 amazing kids with so much respect to the community and to others. But kids today, they have NO respect towards anyone, just because they were raised that the world evolves around them. That is not true what so ever, and that is how bullying begins, one person see's another person that is "below" them, and the person and their friends begin to pick on the kid and his friends at school, in social areas, even online. Today, there is no escape from bullying today, that is why I tell people, I would be so scared to be a kid today because of the bullying online, I couldn't escape it. Bullying should be taken care of  by the law, bullies should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, no matter what their age is, if the person bullies another into committing suicide, that bully should be charged with murder, why? because that bully is tormenting and torturing their victims into believing that their  life is not worthy anymore and they should no longer exist. There is one thing that the bullies victim has over the bully. That thing is respect, there is a picture I have, and I will include it in this blog, it is two rival teams (NJ Devils and NY Rangers) goalies, the sentence in that picture is Respect out weighs Rivalry. That statement is so very true. The bully will never have any respect towards anyone, even if they claim they have respect, they have no respect what so ever, even in this society today, no body has respect towards anyone anymore. I know I am probably going to get into trouble for that last sentence but it is true, there are only a few people left that have respect towards anyone anymore, which is quite sad, but everyone has a rivalry with people, but remember this, respect out weighs rivalry, respect out weighs bullying.

Final Thought  
The one thing the bullies do not have is respect, but their victims have more respect than the bully. Bullies should also be charged with serious crimes because of their actions, what they say and post on the internet can be used against them in a court of law. No one and society should deal with bullying what so ever. No one reigns superior over anyone, everyone is equal because we are all humans.   

Entry #15: Public Transit Part 2

As mentioned in the first part of the blog, public transit is easy to use as long as you know the direction and the route name and destination you need. The public transit in the Region of Waterloo allows the customers to provide feedback for improvements. As a customer for Grand River Transit since 2007-2008, I have seen many changes, many improvements, they have helped shape and move people in the Region quickly and effectively.

Final Thought for the entire Blog Parts
As a customer service of public transit for many years, it has helped me get around the Region of Waterloo effectively, and safely. I do not see myself getting my drivers license because of Grand River Transit. I have been so impressed with their drivers and their customer service reps when I send an email. I do hope other people see what I see in public transit.    

Entry #14: Public Transit Part 1: Easy to Use

Good day fellow bloggers and internet surfers. Today I will be discussing the positives of using public transit and what the benefits are. There will  a time to ask me questions about the second part of this blog, which will be coming out this evening. Let us begin the look at public transit and the positives and the benefits of using public transit. To begin I will look at

Kitchener-Waterloo Routes

Introduction
In the Waterloo Region, which is comprised of Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo and the townships. In Kitchener-Waterloo there is one source of transportation that helps many people, that is the Grand River Transit, or GRT for short. GRT has been in operation since 2000 and has continued to impress myself and others within the region. Kitchener-Waterloo has routes from the numbers 1-32 and 6 express routes, 3 being Conestoga College express routes. First I will look at the non-express routes like for example route 25 Queen South (to Forest Heights via Queen Street). These routes are very easy to board and the cost is cheap as well. Unlike the express routes, these routes stop at every stop to make sure that the person or people get to their destination safely, they also can help in making connections with the express routes at certain stops. For example, route 1 Stanley Park to Downtown (via River Rd. or Lorraine Ave.) will arrive at the major downtown transit terminal to help with making connections with the iXpress to Conestoga Mall in Waterloo or to Ainslie St. Terminal in Cambridge. The iXpress routes (200, 201, 202 and coming soon 203) have limited stops along the specific corridors they travel. For example, route 201 Fischer-Hallman iXpress travels from Conestoga Mall transit terminal to Forest Glen transit terminal in Kitchener via Columbia St. and Fischer-Hallman Rd. The iXpress routes are very quick and they also help with connections at certain stops which overlap with another route or at a major transit terminal. The stops are convenient and easy to spot. The destination sign for each of the routes will be different, for example if a person wants to get to Fairview from Charles St. terminal, they can take either the 7 to Fairview via Cannaught, via Weber, or via Wilson or the 8 Fairview via Franklin or 8 Fairview via Courtland or the 200 iXpress to Ainslie St. Transit terminal. 

Rush Hour Routes 
There are also industrial routes that operate to and from a certain terminal out to an industrial park in Waterloo and in Kitchener, those routes are, for Waterloo route 14 Bathurst (to Wayman and Colby) from Conestoga Mall transit terminal, route 32 to Kumpf (to Kumpf Dr. and Weber and Northfield) then returning to Conestoga Mall via Northfield Dr. and Conestogo Rd. but these services operate during the peak periods (during Rush-Hour) there are also peak period routes as well, for example route 19 Victoria South operates to and from Highland Hills transit terminal to Charles St. transit terminal in downtown Kitchener along the Victoria Street corridor (via Highland Rd., Eastforest Tr. Bankside Dr., Westforest Tr., Victoria St. S., Hazelglen Dr., Westmount Rd., King St. E, and Guakel St.) but this is a rush hour service, an alternative would be route 20 Victoria Hills, which follows the same routing except it goes into the Victoria Hills neighbourhood and down Fischer-Hallman Rd. to Highland Hills terminal. Route 33 Huron travels from Forest Glen terminal in Kitchener to the Huron industrial park (Trillium Dr.) to the Huron villiage (Parkvale Dr., Woodbine Ave. and Huron Rd.). This route has 3 different options, in the AM peak periods, it travels to the Huron village via Trillium Drive then returning to Forest Glen terminal via Strasburg Rd. From 2:15pm to 3:00pm, route 33 travels via Trillium to Groff Pl. then returning to Forest Glen. From 3:15-6:15pm it travels to Huron village via Strasburg Rd. then return to Forest Glen via Trillium Dr. Routes 9 Lakeshore and 31 Columbia  are  alternatives for routes 14 Bathurst and 32 Kumpf as route 16  Forest Glen is an alternative to route 33 Huron. Route 23 Idlewood during the AM and PM peak periods operates to Fairview Park Mall transit terminal and Charles St. terminal via Idlewood. There are 2 alternatives to this route, the routes are route 17 Heritage Park (to Victoria St and Lackner Blvd) and route 27 Chicopee (Quinte Cr at Morrison Rd).

Mainline Routes
There are 5 mainline routes in Kitchener, Waterloo and they are route 7 Mainline, route 8 University-Fairview Park, 200 iXpress Conestoga Mall-Ainslie St. Terminal, 201 iXpress Conestoga Mall-Forest Glen, and the 202 iXpress the Boardwalk-Conestoga Mall. These routes cover the majority of Kitchener and Waterloo, for instance, route 7 Covers all of King St from Fairview Park to Conestoga mall, but there are also the 7's which operate to the University of Waterloo (7D UW via University Ave. and 7E UW via Columbia). What I really like about the 7 is that they are easy to understand and what changes into what. Example 7F Fairview Park via Wilson arrives at Fairview and changes into the 7D UW via University. 7C Conestoga Mall becomes the 7B Fairview Park via Weber (from 9am-5:15pm Monday to Friday) during the Peak Periods the 7C becomes the 7A Fairview via Cannaught at 10 and 40 am and the 7F at 25 and 55 am. The 8's are the same way, what comes up University via Weber will go back as Franklin and visversa. the 201 and 202 interline at Conestoga Mall transit terminal.

iXpress
Since 2006, GRT has implemented 3 express routes that have helped move a lot of  people. These express routes are very handy and coming from a person that uses GRT on a daily basis, I really enjoy the scenery, espcially on the iXpress routes. the i in the iXpress stands for intelleigence, in which there is a little bar in front of the bus and it announces the next stop. In 2012-2013, all the routes have the stop announcers and it announces the stop, the date and time. Which is quite handy for the passengers.

Final Thought
I have been a customer of Grand River Transit since I was in high school (back in 2006-2007) and I have been very very impressed with the drivers and the routes. As a current Conestoga College student, I really like the 110 Fairview Express, but the 203 can help the 110 if it does begin at Fairview Park mall because the 110, everyone wants to take because it is the only express to Fairview, the alternative is the 10 (which takes 20 min, which is pretty good). I am always going to be using Grand River Transit, I personally know 1 driver, I have known her since she was driving school buses (yeah I was 10 yrs old) I do hope to see her driving the 1, 23, 10, or 110.

Entry #13 The Past Part 2

Today, we will analyze the final film in the two-part blog about the past. In this final blog about the past, the film that is going to analyzed is Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End. In this film, Jack Sparrow's friends try to rescue him from Davy Jones locker and try to end Cutler Becket and the East India Trading Company's control of the sea.

Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End: How to Over come the Past

This film has many themes, one of the major themes is betrayal. A person's past can cause the friends and loved ones of that person to question their friend. The film's first feature of betrayal is Willam Turner Jr. and Sao Feng in Singapore. Will wants the Black Pearl to free his father from the miserable life aboard the Flying Dutchman, Sao Feng just wants to join the "winning" side. Feng decides to betray his fellow pirates and go straight to Becket and tell him valuable information. But after that Jack's friends they just want him back in the world because he is the one person that will be facing his past: Davy Jones and Cutler Becket. But first Jack's friends must get him out of Davy Jones Locker and bring him back to the world of the living.  To find Davy Jones locker you have to be lost in order to find it, other wise everyone would know where it is. This is very important, in order to find some happiness in your past, you have to be lost in order to find it. In this case, that happiness for the past in the film is Captain Jack Sparrow. After they get into Davy Jones locker (over a waterfall) because Davy Jones never gave up what he lost. So they find Jack, but there is one problem, how to get out of Davy Jones locker? It is very simple, Up is Down. This does sound very unhelpful but keep this in mind, when the sun sets in Davy Jones locker, it will rise in the land of the living. So what Jack comes up with is to flip the Black Pearl upside down and it will rise up from the depths to the land of the living. So The Pearl does rise up after Jack and his friends flip it upside down. Captain Jack is back to face his past, but he is very hesitant to face it, but there is an organization that will help Jack, and that organization is the Brethen Court. This is where all the pirate Lords from the different edges of the world meet. Jack and Barbossa are a few of them, they do have one person on their side, they have Calypso, who is, Davy Jones's love in which he cut out his heart for her. They gather the nine peices of eight and release Calypso, she mocks them then returns to the sea. At that moment, the enemy (Becket and Jones) got ready for the battle. Jack is traded to Jones and locked in the bridge aboard the Flying Dutchman, so he breaks out to face his past. He faces Jones, they duel swards on one of the masts on the Dutchman, Jack seems he will win, but there is a tragic loss, Davy Jones stabs Will Turner Jr. in the heart, so Jack does the noble action, he places Davy Jones's heart beside Will, and with Will's last action, he stabs the heart. Jones is defeated and has been released of his duty as Captain. As Jack escapes with Will's wife, Elizabeth, they watch as the Dutchman goes down. Becket see's the Pearl as a sitting duck, no guns are out, no nothing. He gets his ship ready to eliminate Jack and the following quote is said "It's nothing personal Jack, it's just good business" at that moment, the Dutchman has returned, but it is not on Becket's side, it is on the pirates side and Jacks side, because, Will stabbed the heart of Davy Jones, thus, Will Turner Jr is the new captain of the Flying Dutchman, then Jack gives the order to load the cannons. The Dutchman and the Pearl corner Becket and blow it to Davy Jones Locker.

Final Thought
You cannot face your past by yourself, you need help if it comes with back up. You do not need an entire army, and what not to take it down, your past is your past, only you can look it in the eye and make sure it goes back down and never comes up again, like Becket and Davy Jones. Then you are "free" from your past, because you faced it, looked it in the eye and said I am not scared of you, I know what will happen, you cannot take be back with you, I have moved on and have begun to improve myself and my life.

That is my look on the past by film analysis by looking at Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.