Christmas Parade 2013

So yesterday was a big day for me: it stressed me out entirely, for days, but it was wonderful and I'm going to tell you why.

The story goes like this: I've been dancing for years (note, I'm a hip hop dancer), and this year I'm an assistant teacher for essentially my dance idol's class. So, about two weeks ago, the assistant 'directrice' of the entire dance school came to see me before class and asked me if I was interested in taking part of the annual Christmas parade. She told me that there was a part that involved pairs, and one girl had dropped out last minute, leaving her partner alone. Essentially she was asking me to save this girl and be her partner. I agreed, partly because she said it would be easy to learn, partly because I felt bad for the girl and mostly because I've wanted to be in this parade since I was a kid.

When I was young, they only ever asked daughters of mothers who would be dancing in the show. As I grew older, they only asked elite ballet dancers, teachers or their assistants. I'd never fit that criteria, so that dream had essentially been shot in the leg and left to die by the side of the road.

Obviously, when she asked, I was thrilled. I knew I wasn't her first choice, but I was still so happy that I could be involved.

...then came the first practice. Oh boy. These girls had 8 years of ballet skills and an extra two weeks of practicing for this parade. Sure it wasn't "actual ballet" like the girls kept telling me, it was very basic stuff, but they still all had general grace to their movements that couldn't be learnt in two weeks, especially not to a hip hop dancer like me. It was a long choreography too, so I didn't really know it the day of the parade. To make matters worse, by the end of the dance I found myself at the very front, and I wouldn't be able to imitate the dancers in front of me.

Clearly, the day of the parade, I was not exactly stress free. I showed up to the meeting place, the hockey arena and changed into my costume, wearing my hoodie and joggers underneath my oversized costume. We were, after all, about to walk for over 2 hours outside in the cold. Pulling on my colored gloves, and my silly checkered hat, I lined up with the girls I hardly knew. This was the point they told me my partner would not be attending. Panicking and alone I revised and played with my younger students, dressed in their silly little soldier costume and then:

The parade started

Our act was cycling between four songs, one for each dance group. As such, we would only be dancing about every 12 minutes, allowing us time to wave and smile and high five by standers. There were a lot of them.  We walked for over two hours and it was amazing. We had a choir singing behind us, drumming clowns (Funky Karnaval) in front of us, that we got to meet and play with beforehand. I got to see Santa Claus, pet rudolph and high fived god knows how many little kids.

It was such a fun night and I'm so glad I could be a part of it. I had so much fun and guess who didn't mess up (that often).

-Kimzy

The Death Of The Penny - A Thesis

     Soon, I will be making a persuasive speech in my English class on a topic that has risen to more and more internet popularity over the past year: The question of whether or not Americans should eliminate the minting of the penny.

     Now, this is the thesis for my speech, so it's going to be structured as followed: A short introduction, my three main arguments, and a final conclusion.

     Money is a medium that facilitates the exchange for goods and services. To be sure you don't overpay, the money is divided, all the way down to a hundredth of a dollar: the penny. This penny used to have buying power, but, because of inflation, this is no longer the case... So why do we still keep them around? Honestly, there isn't much of a case for the penny. Against it however.....

• Argument #1: The penny costs more to make than it is worth.

     The penny costs 2.4 cents to make. 6'015'200'000 pennies were made in 2012. So, last year, American taxpayers payed 144'364'800$ to receive 60'152'000$ in pennies, effectively throwing away 84'212'800$. 

• Argument #2: Pennies require effort to spend.

     Payphones, vending machines, parking meters, don't accept pennies, as the opportunity cost (which I will get into later)lost spent counting, sorting, and transporting the coins far outweighs their worth. The only machine that takes the penny is coinstar, a machine that counts the amount of change you put into it, and takes 11.9% of it. Thus, the only way to rid ourselves of the coins is through exact change. This adds time to our purchases, and again makes us lose out on opportunity costs. Since spending it requires so much effort, pennies end up in jars, useless and failures at their jobs.

• Argument #3: Pennies create opportunities for Americans to lose money.

     The United States is home to 313 914 040 Americans. On average, an extra 2 seconds are added onto every cash transactions because of the fiddling with pennies. It has been calculated by Sebastian Mallaby of the Washington Post that if Americans makes, on average, one transaction per day, they waste approximately 730 seconds per year. Since the average salary is about 36,000$ a year, we can conclude that each American could have an extra 3.65$ in their pocket every year. It doesn't sound like much, but on the large scale, if every, single American could have that extra 3.65$, they would collectively make 1'145'786'246$. So Americans essentially pay, in taxes, 144'364'800$ to mint pennies so they can have the opportunity to lose over 1 billion dollars. 

     In the end the penny is a pointless investment, with no benefit for the taxpayers that pay for them. I think we should remove them from circulation and reep the benefits. 

A very passionate rant/essay from me,
~Kimzy

Why We Should Reduce Our Meat Consumption -An Essay

     Soon, I will be making a persuasive speech in my English class on a topic that has risen to more and more importance in my mind: The reason why the world's population should reduce their meat consumption.

     Now, this is the thesis for my speech, so it's going to be structured as followed: A short introduction, my three main arguments, and a final conclusion.

Introduction

     Meat is defined as the flesh of an animal as food. Put that way, it doesn't seem to be the most appetising thing, but many people support that it is a delicacy. It has gained popularity as more and more have money to pay for it, notably in China where the meat eating comunity has doubled in size in almost twenty years. There are however some people on this planet who are against the eating of meat, otherwise known as vegetarians. Many vegetarians support that eating of animals is inhumane. Vegetarianism is a difficult life choice, but one that does have many benefits. 

      Today, once I explain to you how illogical eating meat is, I'm sure you'll agree that we must reduce our meat consumption. 

Indivual Health

     People who eat only plant-based foods — aka vegetarians — generally eat fewer calories and less fat, weigh less, and have a lower risk of heart disease than nonvegetarians do.

     A study, done by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2012, show that every extra daily serving of unprocessed red meat increased the risk of dying prematurely by 13%. Processed red meat (hot dogs, sausage, bacon, and the like) upped the risk by 20%.

      It is interesting to note that everyday, on average, we eat nearly double the amount of meat we should otherwise be eating. 

Environmental Issues

     The cultivating of meat is a horrible hit to the environment.

     A simple aid to the environment would be a meal of meatlessness per week. For your average household, that would result in a saved amount of greenhouse gases equivalent to 1160 miles driven in a car. Since this is not the case, here is how our average meat eating is affecting the environment:

     A study done in 2012 showed that livestock is accountable for up to one third of all human caused greehouse gas emmissions, a study done by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

    We all know that water is a rapidly diminishing natural resource, but did you know that it takes around 100 times more water to produce a pound of beef, than it does to produce a pound of grain. And to raise that a kilogram of beef, it requires 8 kilograms of corn.

Global Issue

      On this planet, we have 7 billion people. It's been projected that we'll have over 9 billion by 2050 so it raises the question: How will we feed them? Now, at 7 billion, we are unable to feed about a billion people.

     Well a study done in 2009, led by McGill University's Navin Ramankutt, shows that we could double the global output of food if we turned the agricultural land that is dedicated to raising and feeding animals into land to grow crops.

      On current trends, by 2050 about 1.45 billion tonnes of cereals a year will be used for animal feed - enough to meet the calorie needs of about 4.5 billion people, estimated  UN special rapporteur on the right to food Oliver De Schutter.

Conclusion

     I believe that if we can feed a billion hungry people by reducing our meat intake, we should do it. I believe that if we can cut reduce our carbon footprint, we should. I believe that if, doing both of those things can help us help ourselves survive, then we should do it.
 
     Reducing the amount of meat we eat isn't a hard task, just a rational one.

Just another essay from me,
-Kimzy

Links:
http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS09-05.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/13/too-much-protein-diets-_n_1772987.html

Meatless March

     Starting March 1st, I've decided to not eat meat for a month (hence the title). There's a couple reasons for this decision, most've which are pretty well explained in this video by the wonderful Hank Green.

     I also like the idea that I'll be able to learn more about self control and increase my will power. Refusing myself a single indulgence is going to force me to become more creative in the things I eat, and start to try new things. As well, it'll force me to eat healthier, because I'll be more aware of my diet.

     I think my biggest challenge with this project will be eating certain foods while I watch my family -who is definitely not going vegetarian along with me- eat the meat. As well, in my family, there are a lot of birthdays in March and I don't want to be rude and reject the food they prepare for their parties or be a nuisance by needing something different. This is not even to mention that I'm Italian: we eat meat with everything. My friend put it quite well: "[He's] Italian: Our sauce has meat in it and we put our sauce on our meat."

     Ultimately, I won't really change much, but I like that I'll have at least tried this, and made an extra effort to help our planet. I'll be blogging throughout the month and I encourage anyone reading this who's been wanting to challenge themselves to join me for this crazy ride.

Hoping for the best
-Kimzy