Snowman Record BROKE!

On February 1st, nearly 500 participants made Ottawa proud Sunday afternoon by narrowly breaking the world record for most snowmen built in an hour. The previous record was held by Salt Lake City, Utah set in 2011 when they built 1, 279 snowmen. The record was broken narrowly by 20 snowmen! A grand total of 1, 299 snowmen were built, within the hour. The only rule for this competition was that the snowmen had to be at least 3 feet! Kudos to those that took the time out of their days to help break this record.. there snow-one like you!

16 Days of Activism | #ORANGEURHOOD

"Sobering Numbers show that 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner; about 120 million girls have been forced into intercourse or other sexual acts at some point in their lives; and 133 million women adn girls have undergone female genital mutilation."
-  Statistics from unwomen.org

16 days of activism is straight forward; 16 days supporting 16 different aspects of injustice against women. It started NOvember 25th of this year and ends December 10th. People are encouraged to tweet, post photo's wearing orange with the hashtag #ORANGEURHOOD. More then that, we as a society are encouraged to educate ourselves about the purpose of this 16 day movement each year.

Examples of topics being disussed this year include;

Day 4 - Women and armed conflict : Sexual violence against women and girls is widespread in conflict and used as a war tactic http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/end-violence-against-women/conflict

Day 5 -  looks at Men and Boys in Action to #orangeurhood Check out the #HeforShe a movement for gender equality which not only a women’s issue. A shout out to all the men out there to commit to take action against all forms of violence and discrimination faced by women and girls. http://www.heforshe.org

Lets all try to support this cause and make sure we educate ourselves about the importance of gender equality! Dont forget to hashtag #ORANGEURHOOD !

Where Are Our Girls?! #BringBackOurGirlsNow

(photo courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/bringbackourgirls)

Since April 14th of this year, 230 School girls are still in captivity after being kidnapped from the Chibok Government Secondary School by Boko Haram Terrorists in Nigeria. Now this isnt just an article about "Where they are". It's a question. Why are they still in captivity? Why are we continuing to live as if this event isn’t even happening? (If you have no idea what #BringBackOurGirls ‘s is please click on the link below and then come back to this article.)

http://bringbackourgirls.us/

230 GIRLS!!  That is A LOT! These girls aren’t just being starved and kept in a room; they are facing situations beyond your imagination. This is happening because they want to go to school? Is that why? We should be focused less on what Nick Jonas is wearing (no offense) and more on spreading the value of education! The purpose of this post isn’t on repeating the information you’ve been continuously hearing for the last 6 months! I want to broadcast my voice, my thoughts. Not a day goes that I don’t think about these 230+ girls that suffer because they decided to go to school. I know I’m not alone in talking about this – I know that there’s hundreds of thousands of parents, girls, or just other people on Earth that are worried about the safety of the girls! Media should stay consistent; all the other countries should take more keen interest in this and most importantly, the people. We should do something as big as a rally or something as little as a tweet. We should make sure that these girls are brought back home.

But keep in mind that this issue doesn’t end here. Try talking to friends or family about it and educate them. You hold potential to end this conflict – don’t forget.

Well these are my 2 cents on #BringBackOurGirls  #BringBackOurGirlsNow

-till next week

Blue Whale's Bones End Up In Compost

              The Nationally renowned museum, the Ontario Museum is currently working on cleaning bones of two deceased blue whales, whose carcasses washed on shore out by Trout River and Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland. At first the workers must work on removing the dead flesh from the carcass. They hope to put the bones on display.One skeleton will end up back in NL in Newfoundland's Memorial University. Meanwhile the other one is be transported to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. If enough money can be raised, it's hoped both will be displayed in a few years. The cleaning of the carcasses is said to take a little over 1 year. 

(photo from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/blue-whale-bones-land-in-the-compost-1.2804044 )

Oscars 2014

Ellen DeGeneres •| Kevin Winter/Getty Images

On March 2nd 2014, the 86th Annual Oscar's also know as the Academy Awards were held in LA's Dolby Theatre  Hosted by the Queen cover girl herself, Ellen DeGeneres!  

The highlights of the night included

- Jennifer Lawrence Tripping on the red carpet! Again!! :) 

- Frozen bringing home some awards!

- Idina Menzel belted out on "Let it Go" and won an award for it shortly after her AMAZING performance.

Ellen orders pizza, dresses up like a fairy, and wins the selfie Olympics! Stay tuned while it continues :) 

Here are the awards handed out so far! 

Best picture

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

Philomena

WINNER 12 Years A Slave

The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Supporting Actress

Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine

Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

WINNER Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave

Julia Roberts, August: Osage County

June Squibb, Nebraska

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips

Bradley Cooper, American Hustle

Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave

Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street

WINNER: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Best lead actress

Amy Adams, American Hustle

WINNER Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock, Gravity

Judi Dench, Philomena

Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Best lead actor

Christian Bale, American Hustle

Bruce Dern, Nebraska

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave

WINNER Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Best director

David O. Russell, American Hustle

WINNER Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Alexander Payne, Nebraska

Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave

Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best animated feature film of the year

The Croods

Despicable Me 2

Ernest & Celestine

WINNER Frozen

The Wind Rises

Achievement in cinematography

The Grandmaster, Philippe Le Sourd

WINNER Gravity, Emmanuel Lubezki

Inside Llewyn Davis, Bruno Delbonnel

Nebraska, Phedon Papamichael

Prisoners, Roger A. Deakins

Achievement in costume design

American Hustle, Michael Wilkinson

The Grandmaster, William Chang Suk Ping

WINNER The Great Gatsby, Catherine Martin

The Invisible Woman, Michael O’Connor

12 Years a Slave, Patricia Norris

Best documentary feature

The Act of Killing

Cutie and the Boxer

Dirty Wars

The Square

WINNER20 Feet from Stardom

Best documentary short subject

CaveDigger

Facing Fear

Karama Has No Walls

WINNER The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life

Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

Achievement in film editing

American Hustle, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten

Captain Phillips, Christopher Rouse

Dallas Buyers Club, John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa

WINNER Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger

12 Years a Slave, Joe Walker

Best foreign language film of the year

The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium

WINNER The Great Beauty, Italy

The Hunt, Denmark

The Missing Picture, Cambodia

Omar, Palestine

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

WINNER Dallas Buyers Club, Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Stephen Prouty

The Lone Ranger, Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

The Book Thief, John Williams

WINNER Gravity, Steven Price

Her, William Butler and Owen Pallett

Philomena, Alexandre Desplat

Saving Mr. Banks, Thomas Newman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

Alone Yet Not Alone from Alone Yet Not Alone

Happy from Despicable Me 2

WINNER Let It Go from Frozen

The Moon Song from Her

Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Achievement in production design

American Hustle, Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler

Gravity, Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard

WINNER The Great Gatsby, Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn

Her, Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena

12 Years a Slave, Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker

Best animated short film

Feral

Get a Horse!

WINNER Mr. Hublot

Possessions

Room on the Broom

Best live action short film

Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)

Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)

WINNER Helium

Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)

The Voorman Problem

Achievement in sound editing

All Is Lost, Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns

Captain Phillips, Oliver Tarney

WINNER Gravity, Glenn Freemantle

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Brent Burge

Lone Survivor, Wylie Stateman

Achievement in sound mixing

Captain Phillips, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro

WINNER Gravity, Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson

Inside Llewyn Davis, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Lone Survivor, Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Achievement in visual effects

WINNER Gravity, Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds

Iron Man 3, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick

The Lone Ranger, Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier

Star Trek Into Darkness, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

Adapted screenplay

Before Midnight, written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke

Captain Phillips, screenplay by Billy Ray

Philomena, screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope

WINNER 12 Years a Slave, screenplay by John Ridley

The Wolf of Wall Street, screenplay by Terence Winter

Original screenplay

American Hustle, Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell

Blue Jasmine, Written by Woody Allen

Dallas Buyers Club, Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack

WINNER Her, Written by Spike Jonze

Nebraska Written by Bob Nelson

Posted in: Arts Tags: Movies, Oscars 2014

The fault in our stars

The movie trailer that had got everyone talking about is,"The Fault in Out Stars, by John Green. 

The story is about, 16th year old cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster who is pressure to take a support group from her parents, where she subsequently meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old Augustus Waters, who is an amputee and former basketball player. 

The movie trailer for this book came out on January 29 2014 and has left everyone raving about it! 

Here is my opinion about the movie trailer compared to the book. 

The actress that plays Hazel, fits the role almost perfectly, loving her acting! Augustus is really cheerful, too cheerful? The actor that plays Augustus is very ambitious and outgoing and I think that, that's the perfect aspect to have in life in general; care-free, ambitious and outgoing. "Oblivion is unevetable" which is said by Augustus, and it's really powerful how he will fight for what he loves, and as an actor it's important to potray the character in the book in an important light. My thought is that the movie will be successful from what I'm seeing in the trailer!

Idina Menzel to Sing at Oscars 2014

On March 2 2014, The 2014 Oscars are set to take place. Idina Menzel also known as Elsa from Disney's Frozen is expected to sing "Let it go" from the hit track.The  42 year old singer/actress is nominated in the Original Song category for the song as well. As well, Tony winner Idina Menzel is finding the meteoric success of the hit movie Frozen, which is a huge hit to audiences of all ages (especially the kids at our school).

If you haven't seen Frozen...

The film tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on an epic journey alongside a rugged, thrill-seeking mountain man, his loyal pet reindeer, and a hapless snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

The 86th Academy Awards, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, airs Sunday, March 2 at 8:30 p.m. ET/ 5:30 p.m. PT on ABC.