❂ Fun Footy ❂

❂ Fun Footy ❂

Hey guys,

So here's a really quick update about how my football endeavors are going... pretty good. And that's it.

Jokes, no, that's not it. I actually have some videos of how we play, not amazing or particularly exciting videos but just what I could get Mikka to film for me. Video credit skills goes to Mikka the awesome :)

Can you see all that exciting teamwork in that video? It's actually pretty cool because you can see how the entire team moves towards the goal and our keeper when the ball comes in so that some epic teamwork and collaboration right there. It's actually really important for us to know where our teammates are and how we're going to play the ball or we'll be fighting each  other for it haha.

And in this video I obviously leave the ball alone (right hand side) because I know that personally if I'd gone for the ball I wouldn't have been able to successfully pas it off to my teammates. This helps to identify areas of weakness that I can build on.

So yeah, that's just a really quick update because for the most part we've been playing games and I really don't want to bore you with any more videos. 

Stay cool my little cupcakes and rock on \m/

Also, go listen to Ozzie Ozburn's 'I Just Want You' because wowowow it's amaze :D

♣ O . M . G ... I Forgot! (a.k.a the Alzheimer's Post) ♣

What is Alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's Disease is a neurological disease that causes brain matter to shrink. This shrinkage of tissue causes people to lose their memory and be unable to carry out simple tasks and can often lead to Dementia. It's a progressive disease that gets worse as it progresses, causing more and more of the brain matter begins to shrink and lose mass.

(Image comparing a brain with advanced Alzheimer's disease and without as seen by the shrinkage of mass and large areas of empty space. (The Star))

How bad is it?

Well, the thing is that Alzheimer's is a global disease, it's an issue of global importance, so there is no way to 'escape' it or stay safe from it. It's also a disease that has no known cure as of now which makes it impossible to combat. As well as this, although Alzheimer's isn't a primary cause death, it can be a secondary cause given that people with Alzheimer's eventually become unable to respond to their surroundings. 

(Global Alzheimer's death rate per 100,000 people (WHO 2011))

How do we cure it?

As noted before, there is no cure for Alzheimer's. The only thing we can do for it now is take care of the people that have it and try to make them feel less alone and less scared in their situation. It's a matter of ethical implications; choosing to help those who are not as fortunate as you without pitying them, simply lending an ear so that they can talk to you and feel connected, relevant, to the world. Caring for patients include tasks as menial as playing board game or singing songs to helping the with daily activities like eating or walking. Things we take for granted such as counting, using the bathroom, talking, are all tasks that Alzheimer's patients struggle with and need help doing. 

Alzheimer's as CAS in OSC

Alzheimer's in OSC is a student run, student led group that works with the Alzheimer's Association in Sri Lanka to try and help Alzheimer's patients in the country. As part of our group, co-led by me and Anjleen, we visit the Alzheimer's center once a month in order to spend time talking to and helping the patients that visit the center. This year, it is opened up to Grade 6 students and above should anyone feel like joining us on a Wednesday morning on a trip to the Alzheimer's Association. 

Some of the activities we carried out last year was making cookies and baking, having 'Just Dance' sessions, playing board games and talking and having an end of the year tea party. They were all activities that the patients enjoyed as they were unusual and a break from the norm. All the patients are really quite fun to interact with and enjoy having us there.

(Making cookie dough at the Alzheimer's Association (Photo credit:Anjleen))

I'd have to admit that Alzheimer's Service is an incredibly rewarding service group to be a part of. Often times I've been told that a patient won't remember me after we visit them and often times, they haven't/ Occasionally though, there are patients that do remember and are overjoyed to see you come back to talk to them again and the feeling of knowing that someone who has a loss of memory can indeed remember your name. As I am the only student in the group that speaks Sinhala, I have the unique opportunity of helping the Sinhala speaking patients, translating conversations and for the most part, giving them my one on one attention.

For me, the service is really quite personal as I have a grand-uncle on my father's side who is diagnosed with Alzhiemer's. Every time I help a patient in service, I remember my uncle and it makes me feel good that I'm helping out people that really do need help and it makes me feel warm inside.

(Last year's Alzheimer's Service group 2013-2014)

☆ Second Week of CAS ☆

Hey guys,

Just in case you’re wondering, I’m listening to some really good music right now so if you’re interested you should definitely check out some of The XX or Dire Straits. They both make some really good music so have a listen and let me know what you think. Oh and also, Maroon 5 has this new album out called ‘V’. You should definitely go check out the song ‘Unkiss Me’ from them, it’s awesome.

Other than that, in the world of CAS, we had the first week of activities so I’m pretty excited to talk about everything that happened. So, let us start with…

Creativity

So ummm yeah. Let’s be real here, there’s little to no chance that my artwork is going to be politically oriented, that was completely and utterly whack so let’s ignore that I ever said that. Sound good? ‘Kay, great then. I actually came up with a better plan for what I’d like to do during drawing club; I’ll work on making a full cyber-punk cosplay outfit for Halloween! 

If you don't know what Cosplay is, here's a link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay. And FYI, cyberpunk is a futuristic movement that focuses on "a genre of science fiction set in a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology" or in other words is part of a lawless, dehumanized society where everyone is oppressed by their higher ups or the ultimate power. The costumes are very Judge Dredd reminiscent.

Anyways, I’m hoping that it’ll work since I’ve already got a lot of the gear I need to pull it off, I just need to adjust them. For example, I have some plastic weaponry that I need to papier-mâché into shape and paint which should be pretty easy. I’m hoping to get that done quickly because it’s something I’m good at, I should be able to finish it quickly and further myself in areas of strengths whilst working on it. As for the actual costume, I need to make a lot of armour which means that I need to find my old knee and arm guards and papier-mâché those into something useful, a more realistic shape for the costume I’m going for. This should help me develop areas of weakness in my cosplay endeavors. I also have the chaps and boots needed to make some proper cyber-gear but I’ll need to get some help to make them into footwear that looks like it’s made up of buckles and strips of cloth. 

 These are the short sword and staff that I've already made, mostly out of paper-mache and cardboard and a bit of painting.

 My next piece of work will have to be the actual sword seen here. I need to add some details to this, change the shape a  bit and make it look more futuristic.

 And of course the ciggy. 

(Not real of course, just rolled up paper and tape.)

Somewhat related to actual art, I’ve been looking at ways to paint my face into a cyber-punk design which means a lot of kohl in very intricate designs. I have yet to find a style I like so I’ll try a few and then put up pics, especially of the one I chose in the end. The cyber-punk look also entails a lot of funky coloured hair. I’m working on making coloured gel and in case that doesn’t work there is an alternative chalk colouring method I can use. Hopefully I’ll be able to get that done quickly as seen from the tutorial here : http://www.wikihow.com/Chalk-Dye-Your-Hair There’s also this other tutorial where they also show you how to do chalk dye here: http://www.littlepinkmonster.com/2012/03/20/how-to-dye-hair-with-chalk-pastels/ . The hair deal is actually something that is completely new to me so I fear I’ll be out of my depth but oh well, I will survive. After all, I’m learning a new skill and it’ll be something I can use in the future!

I’ve already made myself a fake cigarette as well to go along with the costume so now I’m getting really excited that it’s coming together. Here’s the picture of the cig and this is a staff I’ve already made (from a cosplay the previous year). I still need to change the stem colour to black though and I’m going to try and do some special goggles if I can so yayayayay I’m really excited if you can’ already tell XD

Ehem. Anyway, I need to discuss Action now so…

               

Action

So I’m doing fun footy which is, as its name suggests, much fun! I realized though, how bad I’ve gotten since I haven’t played for over a year now. That’s really sad but I’m getting back into the groove of things and hopefully by the next few sessions I should be able to get back on track. It’s also so strange playing on a team again. I find myself forgetting that I have team mates that are helping me play defense and it’s just a strange feeling. I have to keep in mind that the point of the team is to collaborate with others, something I tend to forget. 

You know how when you haven’t done something in a while and you have the opportunity to do it but because you haven’t done it in a while you feel really sluggish and unsure about what you’re doing? Yeah, that was my second session playing. I have to admit I thought about not playing after the second session because I felt utterly useless since I’d forgotten how to even trap a ball and I started panicking when I couldn’t pass the ball to my teammate. But then of course I had to consider that this was a minor setback, I simply had to persevere and stay committed and my skills will come back eventually.

It was really scary though, forgetting the basics, so I’m just going to keep at it till I get somewhere and re-remember how to play my game.

Talking about memory and remembering, I should talk about my service activity….

Service

I’m going to do a solely Service based post later but for now I thought it’d be nice for you guys to know what we’ve been doing. We only had two sessions so far and the first session was dedicated to planning for the year ahead. Since we don’t have a permanent supervisor, we have to plan everything ourselves so we decided to get the younger grades involved in our Alzheimer’s service. We figured we could get the Grade 6 kids to come along for our visits to the Alzheimer’s Society and help us out.

Along those lines, this Thursday we went and spoke to the Grade 6’s about memory and had them make some posters about an episode in their lives that they were forgetting. I was surprised by some of their comments, how when we asked them why memories are selective they said that ‘it’s because only the important things are remembered’. I was also speaking to the kids individually and they seemed fairly interested in service but we couldn’t really talk specifically about Alzheimers. 

Here are some of the posters they made though.

Welp, I’ve gotta go; work to do, places to be. Catch you guys next time J