Archive for May, 2009
When you were in school, how often did you miss classes? If you were anything like me, you would probably have had a couple of weeks or so missed every school year. But dig this, Stefanie Zaner is only 18 years old but she is going on her 2,340th straight day of public school!
This girl has been dubbed the Iron Kid as in her 13 years of going to school, she has never once been absent. She has not gone missing due to a cold, a fever, or any other ailment. Neither has she been absent for a vacation, a trip, or anything else! Well, she went on a school trip to Shanghai for her marching band but prior to that, she got a written letter from the principal that the trip would not be counted as an absence.
As you may already know, this is quite a feat for any student. Perfect attendance even for a single school year is not that easy to achieve, especially in these days when all sorts of viruses and illnesses abound.
So what factors contributed to Stefanie’s excellent performance? For one, she said that she never really intended on making this record. It just sort of happened. I guess she has Darnestown Elementary School principal, Larry Chep, to thank as he gave out awards to those who had perfect attendance for each school year. This got Stefanie started out.
And mind you, all these years, she was not only present in school but she has gotten straight As as well!
Even those who do not watch American Idol on purpose cannot help but know what’s going on in that show. We have to admit it, American Idol does have its allure and the publicity that it gets makes it just hard to ignore. So, this season is over, and it seems that the voting didn’t go as many expected.
In what many consider to be an upset, Kris Allen won over Adam Lambert. Lambert has often been described by the American Idol judges in superlatives: a real genius, an artist, on a league of his own, and so on. And yet when the final judgment came, it seems that he was not able to win majority of the voters of the show.
What happened? Theories and explanations abound, depending on who you ask. The people over at New York Times think that the choice “says something about the mood and mores of the country, that viewers are too conformist to anoint a sassy, androgynous individualist. Then again, maybe not: Mr. Allen’s victory may merely reflect the voters’ conventional taste in pop music.”
Personally, I do not think either idea is the cause. I think that people see the immense talent in Adam Lambert and they also see the well of niceness in Kris Allen. They saw the former as a sure win and the latter as an under dog. And I think that America’s heart was captured by the underdog. This is not to say that Kris does not have the talent – he does. But we all know that Adam will also go a long way even if he didn’t win the title. I guess it’s all fair in the end.
It was not long ago that we heard of the “best job in the world.” Sandy beaches –among the best in the world – free housing, blogging, fish feeding, and the works; these are the things that the winner will have to face for six months. No wonder that the server of the organizers got swamped and crashed in the days following the announcement!
This time, they have a different sort of announcement: the winner of the contest!
Ben Southall, 34, is the lucky guy who won. He is a British charity fundraiser who was part of the 16 finalists who entered video clips to get the chance to live in paradise for half a year. And how does the winner feel about this? He is quoted as saying:
To go away now as the island caretaker for Tourism Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef is an extreme honor. I hope I can fill the boots as much as everybody is expecting, my swimming hopefully is up to standard and I look forward to all of the new roles and the responsibilities that the task involves.
Starting July 1, Southall would have the chance to “fill the boots.” He will not be alone in the island, however, as his Canadian girlfriend has been allowed to join him. All I can say is that these two are perhaps the luckiest people in the world right now.
As for the tourism department of Queensland? They are hoping that this stunt will result in dollars – lots of it – spent in tourism in the area.
Are you one of the countless people wearing those facial masks when going out in public? If you work at an airport or a similar transportation hub, you just might be. Or maybe you live near the border with Mexico and you also feel the need to protect yourself.
Well, do it as much as you want to – it can only do you good anyway. However, if the World Health Organization is to be believed, the outbreak of swine flu, or H1N1 virus, may not be as serious as we all think it is. According to the Los Angeles Times, scientists are actually saying that this strain of the flu virus is actually mild; at least when compared to previous epidemics. This should be a good thing as a lot of people are panicking regarding the possibility of a widespread epidemic. After all, some people have died because of it already, so this is really understandable.
On another note, scientists are also saying that developing a swine flu vaccine could take some time. The Voice of America reports:
The World Health Organization says several laboratories around the world are developing a vaccination against swine influenza A-H1N1. The organization has raised its alert to level five, just below declaring the flu virus outbreak to be a pandemic. The process of vaccine development can take months.
By this time, this current strain could very well be gone and we might be facing a different strain in the future. In the meantime, we just need to be wary and try to keep healthy.
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