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.

Gentlemen...

Hi!

Just some "musings"... :)

The other day I was taking the elevator up to our local library. There was one other person on it, an elderly lady. When we got to the top, I stepped back to let her off first. As we were walking toward the library door, she turned to me and said "I can see that you have been brought up to be a gentleman, there are not many of them around these days".

"...there are not many of them around these days.."

It really made me think. Are there not many gentlemen around these days? I'm not sure that I think that is true, but is it something that people really think about? People are getting to be so obsessed with careers, looks and fitting in with culture, they forget what really matters, which is to become a better person, whichever way that is, to you.

Another thing that I was thinking about... In TJEd, of the main themes is to build statesmen, "Men and women of virtue, wisdom, diplomacy, and courage who inspire greatness in others and move the cause of liberty." How does a statesman compare to a gentleman? Certainly I think all statesman should be gentlemen, but is this always the case?

Just something for you to ponder...
-Daniel

TJEd

I am a fourteen year-old boy who wants to learn about EVERYTHING and get an awesome education. I do Thomas Jefferson Education. You can read more about TJEd on my sisters blog which is here

Howdy!

Daniel is starting a blog! I will post ideas and epiphanies that I have come across on my quest for a great education along with some other random tidbits about my hobbies, interests, great movies, books etc...You get the picture. :)