I'll be going to Nashville tomorrow morning until Sunday, so when I get back expect a couple blogs about my first trip outside of Ontario! 

This "year" in Zugzwang we have done our House of Commons, our Trading Season, our Town Hall, and our Court.

All of these may not have run very smooth because it's our first "year" of being a new country and we haven't done any of this before.

I think next year we'll have much better luck and fewer problems because we will already know what we are doing and we can set our priorities.

Last Saturday I was watching The Hunger Games again. While I was watching it, I noticed something new. In the scene where Katniss volunteers for tribute in place of her sister and while she's struggling with the Peacekeepers, there's an editing mistake.

I hadn't noticed this the first two times seeing the movie, but now it's all I can see.  One moment she is leaning over trying to push through the guards, and the next moment it skips and she's upright.

I must have re-watched those few seconds at least 5 times, making sure I truly saw what I thought I did.

Now I want to know how this mistake was missed during the movie editing?

What does coming home mean to me? I believe that home is a place you can go where you feel safe. A place where the people that matter most to you are. It's where you live with your family.

Whether your family is made up of friends, or they're your parents, they are family to you.

Home is the place you can't wait to go to after school and after work. It's a reason to stay in one place.

Perfect?

How
                do you define a word without
                concrete meaning? To each
                his own, the saying goes, so
why
                push to attain an ideal
                state of being that no two
                random people will agree is
where
                you want to be? Faultless.
                Finished. Incomparable. People
                can never be these, and anyway,
when
                did creating a flawless facade
                become a more vital goal
                than learning to love the person
who
                lives inside your skin?
                The outside belongs to others.
                Only you should decide for you -
what
                is perfect.

I thought I should also post this from the book too....

This book is dedicated to every person who has ever looked into a mirror and thought, "I'm not good enough."

Is it weird I'd rather spend my weekends watching movies and reading books? Is it weird I don't have a desire to drink until I pass out? Am I weird for not wanting to go to parties because that means I have to socialize?

I'm not weird because I like to be alone. What is weird is the looks I get from strangers. I am by no means saying that everyone I've ever passed in the street gives me a look of disgust, but countless people have looked at me that way as I pass by. I am a pretty friendly person, although I'm very shy and have awful stage fright, nine times out of ten I will smile at a stranger as we walk passed each other on the side walk. I'm a fairly innocent looking girl, the only time I've looked "intimidating" is about a year ago when I had bright red hair. Even then I looked harmless.

I wish people would stop judging me because I'm a teenager. Please don't clutch your purse tightly to your side when I come near. Please don't stare at me that way. Please don't whisper about me when you think I'm not listening. Please don't assume I'm a reckless hooligan who parties 24/7 and drinks and does drugs.

So please don't look at me like I'm weird when I pull out my book and start reading on the bus. It's not weird.

I'm a little bias because I'm a huge book nerd, but I believe that everyone who can, should read. A lot of people ask me why I read as much as I do, but what they don't understand is that reading is like an escape. Book world is a place where anything can happen, everything is possible. Reading a book is like watching a movie, but it has all the details, it has all the characters thoughts, and my favourite part, it's cast by me.

One time I was talking books with my friend and she said something that I won't ever forget. She said "Books always leave a little something with me, but I also leave a little bit of myself with them."

I thought what she said was awesome because of how true it is. That the ideas and messages in books will always be with us, but also we leave a small part of ourselves with the books when we finish them because everyone interprets books differently. Everyone makes the thoughts of the book their own and the characters always look different within different peoples minds.

Next time someone asks me "Why do you like reading?" my answer will forever be "Why wouldn't I?".

So something I'd like to bring to attention is people who don't know how to ride the bus. Let me start this out with a story. Once upon a time a girl named Laurel was riding the bus, she was just sitting there minding her own business and someone decided they wanted to lean on her arm and push her. Now this bus was pretty crowded so she brushed it off, but this girl insisted on leaning her full weight on Laurel everytime the bus stopped, hitting her in the face with her backpack. At one point the made a harsh stop and she practiacally fell onto Laurel. "Oh my god, I'm falling all over this girl. Sorry." she laughed to her friends. Laurel wasn't really in a good mood and wasn't going to lie and say Oh yeah, it's okay! Because it wasn't. She was wearing one head phone so she assumed if she just ignored the girl then she wouldn't bother her anymore. Nope. "What the f**k is wrong with this girl! I apologized and she's giving me a dirty look!" Laurel hadn't even looked at her, let alone given her a dirty look. The girl continued to talk about Laurel while she was beside her. "Excuse me," Laurel said, "you know I'm sitting right here?!" This time the girl gave Laurel a dirty glare! The End.
Now let's talk about this. Why do people insist on treating other people like they don't matter? Yes this story is about me and it is absolutely true! People need to be more aware of everyone around them. You can't go through life being oblivious to everyone else, and you definately need to not be rude to strangers. For all you know, they could be a murderer one insult away from snapping...

Okay, so for my first actual blog post I want to talk about something real. What's your thoughts about abortion? Do you think abortions should be illegal? Personally I think they should be the choice of the mother. I'm not just saying that because I'm a girl, or maybe that's exactly why I'm saying it. I believe that abortions should be a choice because you don't know why she's having the abortion. She could have been raped and doesn't want a constant reminder of that horrible thing that happened to her, or maybe she wants to keep the child because she doesn't want too punish them just because of how awful their father is. Or maybe she's addicted to drugs and it'd be better for her not to try and bring the baby to term because that's putting the child at risk for the rest of their lives. Maybe she's just not ready and adoption isn't an option for her. Or maybe she has serious health diffuculties and trying to bring a baby to term could kill both her and the child. My point is, who's to tell a woman she isn't allowed to terminate her pregnancy! It's her pregnancy. Whatever reason she has for not having the child is her choice, and no one has the right to take that away from her. I know that people could argue that it's "hurting the child", but it's not. You can only have an abortion before a certain amount of time, before they develop enough to even have thoughts, let alone feel. So again, what are your thoughts? I'd love to know and maybe discuss.