Photo Credit: Alex Kamakaris

Self Portrait

Queen Street Grafitti

The Kiss 

1/3

2/3

3/3

Prom & My Main Man <3

TeaTopia!

Think About It!

Questions to make you think!

If you had a week to live, how would you live your life?

What about if you had a year to live?

The question I cannot seem to answer myself would be how I would live if I could live forever... 

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What is better to have in a serious relationship if you had to choose one: 
A: common values
B: other commonalities 

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Who are you?
Names, backgrounds, special qualities, age, physical features, views, and hobbies DO NOT COUNT. Now answer this, who are you really?

Pickering Neighbourhood Blog

PICKERING

Doug Dickerson, Ward 2, City Councillor of Pickering
Photo from contact website: http://www.dougdickerson.ca/

                      


"Everybody says my jobs is to serve the people and it's true in entirely." -Doug Dickerson

Doug Dickerson's father was in politics, Merle Dickerson, and that's why he got started in politics at the young age of 5. Since then there has not been any kind of election that he hasn’t been involved in. He grew up in North Bay, but moved to Pickering and in 1976 he first ran for councillor but was not successful. That did not discourage Dickerson because he came back in 1978 and was regional councillor. He now is part of the city of Pickering's council (ward 2) and proud. In the interview, Dickerson explains, "I have always taken my politics seriously and not take it personally and that has seemed to be a key hallmark and that's what can make you win or lose an election. Maybe it wasn’t me they disliked maybe it was my ideas or what I was promoting. I’m 65 now so that means I have had 60 years of political involvement that I had going at it and it has been 34 years since I was first elected, and if I say well they weren’t consecutive years up until now, they didn’t have to be because then again the chance to go back and change is extreme."

Dickerson is a very motivating man. He knows what he is doing and has immense determination with what he does. In a phone interview he tells me, in 1996, he persuaded the council to invest $100,000, while the highway was closed down, to build a bridge to go across the 401. There are always going to be people that you cannot please, and as he explains, there was one member of council that thought he was a bit off the wall. But for one reason, and a good one, look what it is today. Sixteen years later in Pickering, we now have a bridge up, we now have an office tower as a direct result in that and which also offers jobs in Pickering by a huge amount. Dickerson's thoughts about his accomplishments as he explains, "That to me is vision of what I saw back then about looking into the future of what could be, and you have to think outside the box, that’s what vision is." 

Vianney Nengue
Photo from Facebook photos

                             

                         

Vianney Nengue, 18 years old male, has lived in Pickering for almost 3 years now, yet he still seems to discover new and fascinating places all around Pickering! Nengue moved here from the economic capital Douala, Cameroon, which is a country on the West coast of Africa. He then he moved to the nations capital Yaounde, and then to Canada. He attended St. Mary Catholic Secondary School and graduated in June 2012. Some interesting things he has discovered in this small town of Pickering have been:

1 Comic book shop: which is by his house, which he never discovered up until a few months ago. The store is called Heroic Dreams and is located at 417 Kingston Road. There is also a website for you to check out for apparel, comics, toys, games, and events! http://www.heroic-dreams.com

2 Pickering Nuclear Power Plant: For most people who have lived in Pickering for most of their life find the Nuclear Power Plant almost like a naturally occurring phenomenon.
 Nengue on the other hand found it  intriguing and his thoughts about the Nuclear Power Plant are, “It’s place that has the capability of turning Pickering into a radioactive zone in no time, but yet we still just live around it. I just find it really unsettling that I live close to that, and if there were ever any mishap at the plant we would all be tomorrow's news”

3 Two sides of Pickering: Now about the two opposite sides of Pickering. For a small town, Pickering has 2 totally different sides which is the farmland side which is the North half of Pickering, and the urban area which is the South half towards Lake Ontario. Nengue’s explains, “I find it interesting that an individual can live his or her whole life in one of this areas without knowing about the existence of the other. This is because both sides do not interact very often. Those in the farmland region go about their business normally, and come into the urban area occasionally, and those who live in the urban area are completely oblivious to the farmland area. We interact more with downtown, than we do with the rural region. This just seems strange to me because, where I am from, the farmland region, and the urban region are almost inseparable, because they are so deeply intertwined.” 

4 Reputation: Last but not least, the small town of Pickering is very accepting and complex. Most commonly in teenagers, it is very important to be social and “liked”. There are only 3 High Schools in Pickering which are St. Mary, Dunbarton, and Pine Ridge. All the students hang out at the same parties, chill spots, and are most accepting to new people, like Nengue. He goes on about how it was a great place for him to move to from Cameroon saying, “I like the town, it’s really beautiful, and interesting. With its one McDonalds which serves as a hang out spot for most people, the skate park, the mall, and all the little things that make the town of Pickering beautiful. And lets not forget its amazing people, who are very, very welcoming.”

If you know Pickering well or would like to have a better picture in your head about the boundaries... Check this photo I edited on Google Maps! 

Also, take an adventure on Meograph! It will help you visually understand my story and the places it takes place in Pickering! http://www.meograph.com/twerkteam/9256/pickering-ontario

                               It sounds like a cliche, but it... you do sing about what you know about. 

And I grew up in a small town, and I grew up in a place 

where your whole world revolved around friends, family, 

school, and church, and sports.                                              

                                                    - Kenny Chesney

Eighteen Forever

Dedicated to Olivia Thurston, belting Metro Station on our car rides

When you’re eighteen there’s not much of a care for the world. It’s pretty much you, your boyfriend, best friends, part-time job, and family. You drink. You smoke. You do things that you think about afterwards and don’t know what to say about it. Here and there, you say to yourself, “I’ll remember this for.. forever.” It’s the age you hopefully learn from your mistakes and try and feel more important in the world than you actually are. Because you really are only eighteen and have not much say in the world. The truth is, that turning eighteen is a stupid way to tease the fuck out of you. “I’m finally an adult and shit!” No. like what is so “cool” about it, your parents wake up one morning and decide that they can ask you for rent, and money for your phone bill, and groceries, and shit. Yay, I can buy porn. Well that sucks because I don’t waste my time with that shit anyways! And what, I can buy a rinkydink scratch ticket? I never won with one of those anyways! Nope, your cannot go to the Casino because they serve alcohol. But you can gamble, elsewhere. Thanks. All this bullshit gives me a thousand more reasons to go crazy when I’m nineteen because I won’t be 18 forever. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QciWF7Vjk3Q

Ariel 

Le App (Apple)

Apple has gone to the next generation, like all the way through the safari and back. How many times have you been in a situation and someone says, “There’s an App for that!” All the time right? Have you ever loved an App and used it all the time? Now, if I could invent an App that has already been created I would definitely choose Instagram. It’s by far my favorite. But just imagine inventing an app completely of your own. Everything from the codes, cheats, music, style, icon, even profit.

Leave your comments!

Purple Skies

Purple Skies

A boy once said, “What are you gonna do...? just never let anyone in and be alone forever?” Looking back now, I should have just said yes without any doubt in the world...

She wanted to try something new. Beginning. It was as if she got swept her off her feet. She knew if she didn’t take the opportunity she would never get it again. “You know that feeling in your stomach, that one you get when you get officially get asked out for the first time by the boy of your dreams. The one you picture you could never be with.” Reality. But facing reality means you can't live in your fantasy world and you then realize that same boy in a few years has changed and the only things you could ever wish for is for him to be that stupid boy you initially fell for. Hope. Even when you think about it though, if it doesn’t end after those few years, it will before you are his wife, or better yet you’ll get a divorce, or even die without him. Devastation. “Devastation brings people together though. Doesn’t it?” Hoax. She always had something to say but never thought highly of herself. She didn’t want to seem arrogant. She took that chance and fell for that boy, hard. Harder than she ever hoped for. She thought she knew what love was before, still to this day she doesn’t. She said to him, “You won’t ever really know what love is until you die. I’sn’t that true? Aren’t you willing to fall in love with me?” 

Social Media & Charity

                                                                        (1) 

The Effects on Charity Awareness with Social Media and Networking 

By: Alex Kamakaris 

                                                                      

                                                                                                                                              (2)

This Blog is about CHARITY and how is uses social networking to benefit the awarenesses it all about. More and more people go on the internet, checks there phones, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, newspapers, etc. The charities in our society now-a-days have to think about the supporters and how they can get the message they want them to hear across. By using the powerful media you can do many things to support charity, examples found online were persuasion, experiments, competitions, powerful facts, emotions, operations, and popularity. Each of those made people feel the need to follow along and help a variety of charities, with the help of the media.

The article Charity Challenge is about having a concept of the charity and how it is doing in the eyes of the public, objectives, and among other things, timing is essential. This is a good example of how charities have to look at the dollar, they do not just make a charity and not have any worry about their success in wages. Charities and organizations need to be realistic with their goals. This article shows many examples on how they can avoid to be unsuccessful. 
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CA284928786&v=2.1&u=ko_acd_cec&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w&authCount=1 (3)

This article is about taxes on charities that they have to pay when they have certain federal laws. It lays out the steps in order from planning, policy, reviews, program information, assessments, charities directorate, to Canada revenue agency. Canada revenue agency is an agency that is run by the federal law and it basically takes their percent of the wages from the profit for taxes, and other things. This article used social networking to show how these systems may not be perfect but charities that are real are beneficial and better in some places then others.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ocls/docDetail.action?docID=10350454 (4)

                                                                                                           (5)
Twitter is the most commonly used social network out their today. It used to be Facebook, and before that it was Myspace. Twitter is a great tool used by many people to get a short message across instantaneously. In this photo, It shows Kevin Paul, a tattoo artist, tweeting about a tattoo sketch he has draw up for a charity with Ed Sheeran. This Tweet caused instant awareness to the public via Twitter because Kevin Paul tagged Ed Sheeran. After 20 retweets and 53 favourites, this tweet became well known and people afterwards had questions to ask Kevin Paul directly on Twitter.


In conclusion, watch this video below on Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWANFEa8p-k (6).It is about charities and social media and strategies that can help people with their own charities. It helps you by saying you have to constintly update your social networks and media because people have updated news stories within minutes online now with the new technology we have. Aside from this video, there will always be a new thing to use or add an account to, but it depends on how we use it and for what reasons. The media and social networking helps charities so much now with all the access we have to it. 

1 http://www.sxc.hu/photo/587215
2 http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?        
   imageId=1347768&searchId=7f90df6477bdb81ce131fe37eeeb1f01&npos=264
3 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CA284928786&v=2.1&u=ko_a
   cd_cec&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w&authCount=1
4 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ocls/docDetail.action?docID=10350454
5 https://twitter.com/kevinp666/status/260439070348546048/photo/1
6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWANFEa8p-k