We Shall Keep the Faith

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led;

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies,

But lends a lustre to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead

In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields.

This poem was written in 1918 by Moina Michael as a response to John McCrae's legendary poem "In Flander's Fields".

Please remember to take a moment of silence and thanks for those who have given their lives for freedom.

Only sky above us

Recently, in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, schools across Hamilton had been planning to release balloons into the sky. While the discovery of insulin is certainly a noble cause and worthy of celebration, doing so through the release of latex balloons into the atmosphere is not an environmentally conscious way of doing so.

Fortunately, in part due to a petition that I helped create, of the 200 schools who had planned on releasing the balloons, all have been told to not do so. Victory!

Toulouse win Fourth European Cup

French rugby club Toulouse took home their fourth European Cup saturday as they edged out Biarritz in a 21 to 18 win. Outside Half David Skrela was instrumental in the victory, slotting three penalties and two drop goals.

While the match started off with a near score, the fast pace was not to last, and turned into a slugfest between the forwards and equally determined defence.

Artist of the Week: Flatfoot 56

Christian Celtic Punk legend Flatfoot 56 recently announced that they will be releasing a new album in 2012 with Paper and Plastick records. Flatfoot 56 is considered one of the best Celtic punk artists, alongside such legends as The Pogues, Flogging Molly, and Drupkick Murphy's, and as anyone who has attended one of their live shows will attest to, they are an exhilarating band to experience.

If interested, Paper and Plastick is offering a free download of an exclusive preview cover of an old hymn "I'll Fly Away" at http://www.flatfoot56.com/home/

New Zealand are the World Champions

The final match of the rugby world cup has been played, and the champions are New Zealand. The All Blacks faced an inspired French team who played a match worthy of the world cup final. It was clear that the game would be no blowout from the very beginning, as France slowly advanced as a team towards the All Blacks while New Zealand was performing the traditional war dance, the Haka.

The final score was just 7 -8 for New Zealand; the lowest scoring final in World Cup history. This ends the 24 year drought and doubt over the All Blacks capabilities, while the French once again play second fiddle.

Unfortunately, the world cup is over. But fortunately, the European Club Rugby will be starting in the beginning of November, so only a few weeks of patience are required before the thirst for good rugby may be sated.

Australia take the Bronze

In a tense and extremely physical match, Australia beat out Wales for third place in the rugby world cup the other night. Multiple injuries on both sides saw many key players leave the field, and their was no shortage of blood being spilled. Brutal tackles made the game an interesting spectacle to behold, although many of the tacklee's likely did not find it as entertaining.

Australian fly half Quade Cooper, who has gathered a number of grudges against him by the New Zealand supporters after his quarrels with New Zealand captain Richie McGraw, was among those to get carried off the field, much to the pleasure of many of the fans present. Cooper was later shown with a full leg brace, indicating that his injury was pretty serious.

With no time left on the clock, Wales managed to end the game on a high note with a converted try by Leigh Halfpenny, but it was too little too late for the Dragons.

Tonight New Zealand face France to determine the winner. All bets are being placed on New Zealand to win the tournament, but then again, the French have made themselves the bane of the All Blacks in the past, so the French could have a chance, assuming they clean up their act from last week's match against Wales.

New Zealand Defeat Australia!

In a brutal match last night, New Zealand obliterated Australia 20 to 6. Australia failed to get any tries, as the hammered away in futile against an iron strong New Zealand defensive side. New Zealand will now have the opportunity to recreate the 1987 world cup final against France next weekend in what is sure to be a great game. However, considering the fact that New Zealand has the advantage of being on home soil, there seems little doubt who will win the final... assuming that the All Blacks don't choke as they have in the past and lose to the French.

Who will take home the Webb Ellis cup? The New Zealand All Blacks, or the Fleur de Francais? find out next weekend on the 23rd at 4 am.

France Upset Wales

In the semi final game on Friday night, France narrowly defeated Wales 9 to 8, following a suspension of the Wales captain for a tackle that many are saying was only deserving of a yellow card. It is a testament to the Wales side's determination that they were able to keep the game so close despite only having 14 players on the field. The French are grateful for their now guaranteed spot in the final match for first place, but many French fans acknowledge that had it not been for the early suspension, Wales would have undoubtedly taken the match, as they were were simply playing a better game. France will have to greatly clean up their act if they have any hope of taking on the yet to be decided southern hemisphere team for first place.

Speaking of which, New Zealand and Australia face off tonight to decide who will face off against France next weekend. Given the home field advantage, it would be a huge upset if New Zealand were to lose against their long standing rivals. Even assuming New Zealand does win, they have had a very spotty record against France in the past.

The FINAL match of the rugby world cup will take place October 23 at 4:00 am (Eastern Standard Time) between France and either New Zealand or Australia.

Rugby; not dead yet!

Following school tomorrow there will be a pick up rugby game for anyone interested at the St. Mary's football field. The season may be over, and winter may be coming, but that doesn't change the fact that the people who play rugby are complete fanatics generally. I'm looking forward to get back on the field ever since the Hornet's season finished.

Band of the Week: Kye Kye

Hailing from the north-eastern European nation of Estonia, Kye Kye is a band that boasts a melodically beautiful sound that can be decribed as ambient. They draw heavily upon scripture for inspiration (or plagiarism, if you will) for their lyrics, which gives them a uniquely mysterious but intimate sound that can only be heard first person. Be sure to check out their cover of the U2 hit "With or Without You", the inspiring "My Sight", and my personal favourite "Broke", off of their album "Young Love".

Also, check out the bands interview with Relevant Magazine here.

New Zealand and Australia to face off for the spot in the finals

More intense rugby going on on New Zealand! Argentina lost to a well supported New Zealand side with a final score of 10 to 33. New Zealand will be facing Australia in the semi finals, who edged out a win over a difficult South African side 12 to 9. Rivalries between the Wallabies and the All Blacks have always been high, and considering the location, I have little doubt that New Zealand will come out on top. The question is, who will they face in the finals; Wales or France?

Wales and France move on to semi finals

In a great match against Ireland, Wales secured a victory, and for the first time since 1987 have the opportunity to go into the Semi Finals. They will be facing France, who upset one-time world champions England last night. The two will face each other in the upcoming days to determine who shall face the southern hemisphere finalist, who will also be determined tonight.

Quarter Finals

The quarter finals of the rugby world cup are fast approaching. On October 10th, Ireland will face wales in what is sure to be a heated battle between two experienced nations. Their game will then be followed by England and France. The following day we get to see the southern hemisphere in action as South Africa face off against Australia, and New Zealand take on the south american representatives Argentina. It's going to be a north versus south final.... who shall emerge the victor? Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks.

Sad Departures in New Zealand

As the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup approach, many teams will be packing it up and heading home. Scotland, after losing to Argentina, will be missing out on the quarter finals, as will Canada, who lost their last game against the All Blacks 79 points to 15. Since this places them at fourth in the pool, Canada has lost the automatic qualification for the next world cup. It is a crushing defeat; one that will require a lot of hard work to get back into in the upcoming qualifying matches for 2015.

It's Friday! (almost)

Its only a few hours away from Friday! What, you may ask, is the significance of this? Well, not much really, other than the fact that it will be the weekend. Yay! Thats about it.... welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. Here are some words of wisdom: Beware of computer programmers who carry screwdrivers.

New Switchfoot and Manic Drive Albums

The Christian music scene got a real treat this past week. The up and coming Toronto based band Manic Drive released their new album Epic this past Tuesday, and are following in the footsteps of other Canadian christian Bands such as Manafest and Thousand Foot Krutch, showing once again that Canada has stuff to offer to the Christian music market. The new album sounds much more "pop" than their previous albums, showing the band's constant evolution.

Manic Drive turned out to only a piece of what was happening Tuesday though, as something much bigger was in store. The San Diego based band Switchfoot, one of the most successful Christian bands to date, came out with their newest album Vice Verses at the same time. The new album has been met with mixed reception, however. Switchfoot is certainly moving forward with songs like Vice Verses, The War Inside, and Selling The News, but falls somewhat short of "revolutionary" in songs such as Dark Horses. Regardless, it has been a busy week, and its a real treat to get so much new music from such awesome bands.

South Africa Crush Fiji

In a recent pool D match, South Africa obliterated their Fijian opponents in a spectacular battle, winning 49 to 3. They maintained excellent discipline and structure; qualities which the Fijians quite simply lacked. Not once did South Africa, the defending World Champions, allow the highly physical Fijian team to get a try. The only points that Fiji managed to put on the board came from a penalty kick early in the game. The outcome was of course inevitable, but despite this Fiji supporters in the stands dominated the stadium, being very vocal about their support for Fiji. Fiji will play a more evenly matched game against their arch-rivals Samoa on Sunday, while South Africa can rest for the moment, after sending a very powerful message to all the other teams.

Rugby Around the World

With the rugby world cup under full swing, let's take a look at rugby around the globe. I came across the graphic here from the website Rugbydump.com. It shows the number of registered rugby players in each of the world cup participant countries, and give an insightful look into the state of the sports popularity.

Canada sits at an unfortunately small 23 thousand.... far lower than our ironically lower ranked neighbors to the south, who sit at 88 thousand registered players. Evidently, number of registered players has little or no bearing on rank; in fact, I would be inclined to say that rank has a larger influence on registrants. But even New Zealand and South Africa, both rugby superpowers, are dwarfed by a Jupiter-sized England, who sit at just fourth place overall.

So, if anything, this chart reminds of one thing: Its not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

The Rugby World Cup has begun!

The first game between New Zealand and Tonga turned out to be a hard fought game, which the All Blacks (New Zealand) eventually took 41 to 10. The match began with both teams performing their traditional War Dances; New Zealand with the Ka Mate Haka, and Tonga with the Sipi Tau. The respective Haka's set the tone for what turned out to be a great first game to the tournament.

The match was a highly physical contest which saw spirited defenses on both sides. New Zealand continually attacked the Tongan defense, but for the better part of the match were kept at bay. In the second half, however, New Zealand pulled away in terms of points, but in terms of territory, possession, and fierceness, the match should have been Tonga's.

Many more great games to come!

First Post!

Welcome to my Blog!

This is my new blog for my Grade 12 Computer Science course. I actually wasn't aware that this was going to be an E-Learning course.... I knew that there was an option to take it as an E-Learning course, but that that was the only option, I had no idea. So yeah....

Anyways, as of the moment I am writing this, there are 2 days, 6 hours, and 44 minutes until the start of the Rugby World Cup, so I'm pretty pumped for that. I predict that New Zealand is going to take it this year, due mostly to the fact that they are on home soil, and they have a lot of high expectations. Their performance over the past few world cups has been spotty compared to the 2 other Tri-nations (Australia and South Africa). However, since 2007, the All Blacks have greatly restored their image, and they still hold their first in the world ranking.