The "actual" Utah post!

Here it is: the big Utah post!

We did so much that I won't possibly be able to write as much about our trip as I would like to, but here goes! The first two days of our trip were mainly just driving. From where I live, to where we were going (Cedar City, UT) is about a 24 hr. drive so it can get loooong and boring. However, I was in the USA, a place I had never been before. How cool is that!
We passed through:↑Observe the snow in the background...This is June, remember!
And finally:
The first night, we stayed in Helena, Montana and drove past their State Capitol building, which was really neat. Here is a photo:↓
We arrived in Cedar City, and poked around there. It is a really neat city with lots of character. It is quite small, around 10,000 people.
My YFA began the next day. We had three book discussions, three excellent speakers and two simulations. Besides that, we had a formal dance (ball room dancing, not that random bobbing up and down that you find at most dances) and lots of quiet conversations. What was really awesome is that everybody there is really, really, really nice and is really trying to make a difference in the world, which is cool.

My YFA was just a tiny bit of what we did while we were in the States. The evening that I came back, we went to Kolob Canyon, which is quite close to CC. In the evening, the red rock there is very beautiful.↓

We went to Grand Canyon. Its HUGE!!!
↑We saw lots of these lizards at the Grand Canyon. I have to admit, I sort got obsessed with them, and my sister would groan when I zoomed off in search of them...


The next day we went to Bryce Canyon. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I am going to post lots of them.





Kathleen had her YFA then we went headed home! We stayed overnight in Salt Lake City. I am not Mormon, but is was really neat spending time there and learning more about LDS. Sunday morning we poked around on Temple Square and went to the dress rehearsal of "Music and the Spoken Word" and heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir live!↓




↑This is on the roof of the LDS conference center. In the background, dead center, is the Salt Lake Temple, of which there is photo (5 photos up) of it at night.

All in all, it was a great trip, and I learned loads.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Utah!

Hi all!

I am in Cedar City, Utah (using the library computer)! So far, our trip has been amazing. I have met some many wonderful people, made new friends and got to know other friends even better. Yesterday, we went into Arizona and went to the Grand Canyon! Its...really...BIG!!! The size of it, completely took my breath away. In the visitor center, they had a small scale model of it, which showed where we were in it. What we saw was a tiny part of the canyon. It made me feel very, very, small! In Utah and Arizona, they have all these cute little lizards. I am a avid nature person, so I spent a lot of my day trying to find lizards!

I would like to write about my conference, but to do that would take days. Suffice it to say that it was incredible and tons of fun. I made some really great friends and learned so much. My counselor was someone who I already knew, so I was thrilled to have him as a counselor. I plan to write a much longer entry when I get back to Canada, but until then, this will have to do.

Cheers!
Daniel

To Utah!

In two days, I will be leaving for Cedar City, Utah. I am attending a Youth Conference put on by George Wythe College. We will also do some touring around and make a bit of a "holiday" out of it. I am excited to learn about the history of the area. I will make a post about my trip when I get back!

World Day against Child Labour

The past few weeks, I have been researching the issue of child labour. Child labour is the employment of youth under the minimum age set by the government. They are usually made to do work that is dangerous and are paid very little. June 12th is the World Day against Child Labour and in honour of that, I would like encourage you to research child labour yourself and tell as many people about it as you can.

Some excellent resources:
Free the Children- Craig Kielburger(book)
Wikipedia's article on Child Labour
UNICEF article

Frogs and Mother's Day

Today, on Mother's day, we went for two lovely walks in the woods. Frogs are my favorite animals, so I was delighted to see some. On the first walk, I saw some adorable Boreal Chorus Frogs, about an inch long. I also saw this funky tree.

On the second, I saw a beautiful Boreal Toad. The picture quality is a bit poor, as I had to zoom in a bunch and it pixelated a bit.

And also this flower:

Happy Mother's Day!


-Daniel

HTML

Hello everybody,

I'm terribly sorry that I have not posted in almost a month. I have still to write a longer and more interesting post, but I would like to share something with you that I think is the coolest thing ever. Observe: THE BUTTON!

I am learning HTML right now and have learned how to make cool, professional-looking buttons!

I am sorry if I have bored you terribly..:)

-Daniel

Vimy Ridge/ World War I

As many of you know, last Monday (April 9) marked the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, in which the Canadians took the ridge where many other armies failed. I realized how little I really knew about Vimy and WWI and after watching a documentary that was shown on CBC Television, my interest was piqued! The next time I was at our local library, I got a bunch of books out about WWI. One particular book, which I am currently reading, is Vimy by Pierre Berton. It is an excellent book, and although I am not done it yet, I would already recommend it! Anyway, looking back, I am disappointed with myself about how little I knew about a battle that changed our nation. I am happy to say that I know considerably more now, and if you don't know much about Vimy, I suggest that you read up on it!

Signing off...

Determination

I recently read a book called Between a rock and a hard place by Aron Ralston. It is a very good book and I highly recommend it. The author was rock climbing in Blue John Canyon when a rock shifted, trapping his arm between the rock wall and the boulder. He eventually escapes by snapping his arm and amputating it with his pocket knife. Isn't it amazing what humans will do to survive? Isn't it amazing what people can do with a bit of determination?

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."~Napoleon Hill

Writing a Personal Mission Statement

Having a personal mission Statement can help you make difficult decisions and give you a solid grounding to base your actions on. It forces you to define what is important to you and write them down on paper. How you write your mission statement is entirely up to you but here are some suggestions on how to begin.

• Just write freely about what inspires you and what sort of standards you want to set for yourself. Dont worry about editing, just write.
• Make a collection of your favorite qoutes, songs and poems and use them.
• Jot down in point form the most important elements of your life.
• An assortment of all of the above.

Remember, it can be as long or as short as you want it to be and you can always change it later. It's YOUR Mission Statment, so make it yours!

-Daniel

Happy April Fool's!

Happy April Fool's day.

Check out this article.

Writer's Block

Hmm, I seem to be experiencing some writer's block...Any suggestions? What do you do when you don't know what write? Do you write about something really random(like a CD player) and hope that something profound will come out of it? Do you wait around for days waiting for a stroke of inspiration to hit you like a bolt of lightning?

Well, no stroke of inspiration coming towards me... :(

I could just write about writer's block. When does writer's block come about? Is it when our lives are at their most uneventful peak? I don't think so. Nobody's life is all that boring that there should be nothing to write about! What is it then? Is it a lack of having something profound happen in our days? Not enough that seems important enough to share with others? Then I think we must find things important enough to share. When we have done that, we will perhaps be finding the good in tiny things, rejoicing in the little subtleties of life.

Thanks for reading,
-Dan

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day (a day late)!

I am sorry that I have not posted for quite awhile. *sheepish grin* I am an Irish Dancer, so during the St. Patrick's Day "season" I am quite busy dancing with my troupe's performance routine at schools, seniors homes and various other functions. I do have a longer blog entry in the writing at the moment, so I should have that up soon.

Cheers!
-Dan

Ahh!!!

Ahh! Its a new colour scheme!

Yes, yes, I know. I think it is rather nice actually.

Fallen Firefighters

Recently, I visited a memorial in a neighboring city. It is called The Fallen Firefighters Memorial. It remembers fire fighters that died doing their duties at a fire. (Pictures below of the memorial.)
This entry is not really a "musing" but more of a thank you, a thank you to not only to fallen fire fighters, but a thank-you to all fire fighters, police and paramedics both past and present. What ever would we do with out you all? Thank you!

Little Britches and Gratitude

Sorry I haven't posted in over a week...Either way, here is something for you to read.

This week I re-read one of my favorite books of all-time; Little Britches, by Ralph Moody. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend reading it.

This time, when I read it, what really stuck out at me was gratitude. Let me share with you this quote from the book:

"He didn't answer me for a few minutes, then he told me we hadn't stopped to realize how well off we were to have enough to eat every day, and to have a good home and clothes enough to keep us warm, when people were actually starving."

You, my reader, by reading this are showing that you own(or at least have access to) a computer. What a marvelous tool! How fortunate we are to live in an age where technology is so easy to access. However, I am positive that you agree with me when I say that gratitude is poorly measured by being thankful about having access to a computer! We are lucky to be alive. What a great thing it is to live in such a wonderful world. No matter what happens in life, we need to be grateful. If your ever feeling down, look around you and say I am lucky to be alive. Things could be so much worse. I can't possibly say what I want to say as well as Bob Thiele and David Weiss said it in their song What a wonderful world. So, I am just going to post the song and you can enjoy!

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.