pape2

Well I finally reached the last of my nine individual blogs for the quarter and I'm thrilled!

I decided to do this one on the upcoming vocal concert. The 9-12th grade Christmas vocal and band concert is Monday, December 17 at 7:30 in the high school gym. The freshman girls choir(9th treble cleff) will be performing 5 pieces. My personal favorite is titled Sing We Noel. It is sung a capella. That means the piano doesn't play with the singers.

Another group performing on the concert is The Eclectics. The Eclectics are the only auditioned choir in our school. They will be preforming two songs because they only practice twice a week. The songs are very challenging but sound amazing! My favorite of the two is called Deck the Halls.

After the freshman, the concert choir, and the eclectics have sung, the band will play its own set of Christmas songs. Harlan's band is really great so I'm sure all of their songs will be wonderful!

I hope to see you at the concert on Monday!

Every year I enjoy putting up the Christmas lights with my family. I'm usually the one who gets stuck untangling them and hold them as they are strung onto the tree. But will the tradition continue??

A recent study shows that christmas lights may have lead in them and that they are not safe to handle, espeically by children. It is suggested that a child is exposed to more that 15 micrograms of lead. The Christmas lights that were tested had up to 109 micrograms of lead in them! Scientists don't think this is safe and say they won't use them in their households. It's kind of ironic that this lead thing came up. China has been a littleout of control with their lead use in toys so I wonder if any of these lights were made in China. I don't think the tradition of putting up lights will change in our home  but I hope this lead isn't too damaging.

Technology is getting pretty crazy these days. There is a new device out there that lets you watch videos...on a tombstone! Now that's just crazy talk! This new invention is called The Vidstone or The Serenity Panel. They aren't all too popular yet but you never know when they'll be the new thing in the monuement industry!

One reason they may not be so popular is because they cost around $2,000. That's about a third of what tombstones cost. They are weather proof and solar powered so they would last for about fifteen years. Too bad that doesn't prtect them from other damages such as vandelism.

I think it will take people a while to get used to the idea before they stary buying these video displays. It's kind of an out there idea so people who want a traditional tombstone won't go for it.

I saw a video on CNN about two twins that had been separated at birth for an experiment. This story caught my attention because, well, it's just weird.

The twins had been chosen for the experiment because they were in an adoption agency when researchers wanted to begin a study.  Five sets of twins were chosen and were adopted by different families all over the world. One of the twins in the story ended up in Paris. The two sisters were reunited when they were 35 years old. I think it would be crazy to find out you have a twin after that long.

The video didn't say much about how the study turned out but the twins said they were a lot a like. They had both done the same things in their high schools and went to college for the same things. Crazy! Just by watching the video, the sisters seemed a lot alike. The sisters were a little mad to find out scientists had separated them at birth. I would be sort of mad too. If I had a twin, I'd want to know about her.

The twins also wrote a book about their odd story titled "Identical Strangers". I think it would be interesting to read.

       This weekend I went to see the movie "The Golden Compass". I didn't know it until the day I went to it, but this is a controversial movie. Some people say it encourages atheism. A friend of mine couldn't go to see it with me for that reason. The movie was based on a book written by an atheist author and there are a lot of people who think the movie somehow bashes Christianity. I don't think it did.

       If I could describe the movie in one word, it would be confusing. The plot was all over the place. I didn't see any hints towards atheism in it at all. The movie even had a form of a church in it. I didn't really like the movie but I haven't read the book. Hadfield7, who has read the book, said the movie was nothing like it. So although the movie isn't the greatest, the book may be fantastic.