One

The Native American's believed in a 'circle of life' (which is where the inspiration for Avatar came from) where everything was alive: the trees, the rocks, the water. They all depended on each other to live and prosper. They are all living and therefore all family.

Our somatic (body) cells obviously have 46 chromosomes and we share about 55% of these with a banana. I mean - a banana! It seems as if the Native Americans weren't far off saying we are all related. Life does depend on each other photosynthesis turns carbon dioxide into oxygen where as respiration turns oxygen into carbon dioxide. We depend on each other to survive.

Did you know that in 2009 of the top one hundred of the largest economic entities 44% of them were businesses? If you look at the top 150 this proportion rises to 59%. Why is this important? It is simple, you merely have to think about what a business does - it makes a profit.

Is that what we want from our world? A world built on making money? That doesn't mean we should go back to living in huts and caves but it does mean we need to think for ourselves. When I was in year seven at school I was in a production of We Will Rock You, which by the way is amazing to watch, and it foretold a future of corporate brainwashing by a company called Globalsoft. It's when people becomes so obsessed with the future that they forget about the present that we need to worry because without the present we will never reach the future.

The Earth will always survive we, however, will not.

Until the next time,

Kris

Salute

A Soldiers Poem

If I die in war zone
Box me up and send me home.
Put my medals on my chest,
Tell my mum I did my best.

Tell my dad not to bow,
He won't get tension from me now.
Tell my brother to study perfectly,
Keys of my bike will be his permanently.

Tell my sister not to be upset,

Her brother will not raise after sunset.

And tell my love not to cry,

Cause I'm a soldier and I was born to die.

Lest we forget

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I found that poem on one of my friends Facebook, I'm not sure if they wrote it or whether they found it but I thought I should share it regardless.

Now I am completely against war, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the sacrifices made not just by the men and women but by their families and friends who get left behind also. Also the animals: we don't think of them but they die for us too.

For many, today was a day of mourning and in the eyes of an eight year old, who may not even know why we do this, is a day of remembrance. You can see the people holding back tears from their eyes as they place a poppy on a piece of stone. Only a few will ever know their true story and yet a country will become almost silent to say thank you.

I've always found it remarkable: whilst you are thinking for two minutes in silence, so is everyone around you and the majority of the country. Sharing the same thoughts.

Nobody is born to die. This day isn't about one war or even two - it isn't even about a war as far as I'm concerned. It's about sacrifice for someone else, to put yourself in the line of fire to save a person you don't even know.

So for that, I am eternally grateful.

Until the next time,

Kris

Auditions

Hi everyone,

I have been quite busy this half term with homework, the bane of every teens life. So I haven't had time to post anything but after my exam tomorrow I will start working on some new stuff, however, I am organising for my Duke of Edinburgh project a group film project.

This project will consist of three trailers with the best idea being turned into a short film. As a consequence I need help! So if you are an aspiring writer, actor, musician, cameraman (or woman), or even a director and want to get involved I would love to hear from you.

My email address is kristurner1997 (at) gmail (dot) com or you can email me by clicking here which will open your preferred mailing software.

Until the next time,
Kris

Away with the relatives

Firstly I would just like to say sorry for not posting for the past two weeks - everything's been crazy! I've had work experience and Grease, practically everything imaginable! But I'm practically back to normal now so lets get on with the post.

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For those of you who don't know I happen to be staying in Manchester with my cousin and Josh, who is my second cousin. Long story short - it's been eventful.

We went out for a bike ride yesterday, which is the first one I have been on for absolutely ages, I'd borrowed my uncle's bike. So imagine this:  my cousin, in front, telling their dog to heel, my cousins husband behind me telling Josh (who is almost two years old now) to put his feet back on the bike whilst at the same time they were shouting directions at each other.

It was hilarious but I suppose its one of those had to be there moments. This morning I was woke up by Josh jumping on me and finding it so funny but to be honest it was.

We also went to MotherCare and that is now my new favourite shop - I mean they had  a winking tree lift thing in the middle of their shop! It was amazing I want one in my house when I'm older and if anyone tries to argue with me they're out!

So blog posts are back to normal soon  but me and Gemma will be writing a special set of HowTo guides for in September so if you have any ideas feel free to contact us.

SYS, See you soon.
Kris

PS: I promised I would do this for someone they need to get as many views as they can to win some competition so please just watch the video its only a couple seconds long thank you. I can tell you want to know what it is now. Once again thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGoNBdpC5ro&feature=youtu.be

Olympic Torch

A pointless event; that was the view of a some and I suppose it is just another flame, I can do it with a match. What makes it so special? Is it that the flame comes from Mount Olympus?

I, however, have a different theory. The torch is special because its about being part of something; the olympics started in Greece 8000BC before restarting in 1894 and for every person standing in the pouring rain to see a flame travel past you know you've just become a part of history.

Quite proud of this photo I had to contend with giants to take it!

Through all the rubbish in the world, the crisis in the Euro zone, global warming, wars and yet millions of people are turning out to see a torch? No, they're coming in millions to see hope. You will be able to see that you saw the torch in person, but one thing did annoy me with the ceremony the carriers were supposed to be inspiration people and I know inspiration people but some of the people just aren't. 

Then afterwards it was the Carnival, now if you don't know this year I'm in the school show and for some unknown reason they managed to get us a float at the carnival and lets just say I know why the Queen doesn't ever wave properly. After two house of waving my hand was about to drop off! It was still amazing with everyone on the float even if we were about to have a breakdown from singing 'We Go Together'!

But just because you didn't carry the torch don't feel like you've never done anything important because what's the point of running with a torch if no one's there?

I'm on my work experience next week so I may not be able to get to a computer but I'll try and write in advance.

See you soon,
Kris

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Also because we feel that not everyone deserved to be awarded was rewarded for their inspirational behaviour A New Perspectives will be running its own competition to find the most inspirational person in our school. So get your top three nominations in soon with a the reason why you think they should; you will remain anonymous if you wish.

Hurry up and give someone the credit they deserve. In order to nominate someone click here and thank you.

Anonymous

Freedom group or Terrorist organisation? That is what I asked the Internet hacking group Anonymous during my several online interviews to different 'members' of their collective. I say the word members lightly because Anonymous has no social structure; it has no manager or no members, they work on their own but towards one central objective.

They take their name obviously from the adjective Anonymous; to be without a name. During my interview I spoke with a member of Anonymous since 2004 however what I did notice is that they speak in a way which attempts to confuse people using terms such as IRC (Internet Relay Chat) but I managed to keep up.

She sent me a copy of a Cyber-report published by the American Homeland Security which related to an attack on a Chinese University in which she had participated known as Team Ghost Shell. When I questioned the structure of Anonymous she responded with "Anonymous is kind of like a state or country... all different individuals with different ideas, sometimes they come together and mesh, sometimes they clash." She continued describing how sometimes it was beautiful and yet other times it was chaotic.


She also said that she was being watched by several agencies including FBI and some Chinese agents however the most concerning thing would be is that she had access to government mailing lists so I think perhaps the FBI need to pull their socks up a bit or be at risk of losing a lot of credibility.

She finished talking to me by telling me how if you don't have someone question you may begin to run riot so she still does has the seem opinions as me.

Don't let yourself be fooled by the editing of the video. They are just sitting in front of a green screen with the computer talking for them; anyone could do it.

However the second member I interviewed seemed to get quite angry with me and we managed to start to argue (for which I am renowned for doing) and when I asked him what

Kris: what makes you different to terrorists organisations such as Al Qaeda who also do things in ‘protest'?
Anon: We practise nonviolence
Anon: Although some would consider disrupting a server violent-
Kris: Yet the definition of a terrorist is not necessarily linked to violence but rather the practise of causing terror
Anon: Meh
Kris: Is that a no comment?

Right then I'm off to go and eat porridge I haven't eaten since 5 o'clock this morning and then I need to read Pride and Prejudice.

So its up to you: terrorists or rebels? An even scarier idea, however, is that they are both. Is that how humans gain freedom in the 21st century: through terrorism?

Until the next time,
Kris

KONY 2012

This is frankly an emergency broadcast which I feel cannot wait until Saturday because for every second we wait another invisible child is silenced.

I am of course talking about the horrific events caused by Joseph Kony - the leader of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) which is, lets be blunt, a terrorist organisation. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court and yet most the world don't know who he is. It is my hope and my dream as well as being the dream of millions of people.

Why do we wish that? He needs to be famous to be stopped, but one person could never do that?

"Who are you to end a war, but today I say who are you not to?" 

For many years to come human history will be blighted by events such as the holocaust or the Rwandan genocide and even though people knew it was going on - no one knew what we should do about it, but now we do.

The LRA kidnaps and abducts children, both male and female, in the night to force them to fight for a cause for which they do not believe. They are forced to mutilate other people including even their families.  We have to stop this, it is our duty, that is what we are meant to do. The video below is admittedly long and some people even claim that the video lies or tries to mislead you however it is my view that these interpretations are based on the assumptions of uneducated people without actual factual knowledge.

So recently I contacted my school regarding this issue and whether there is anything we can do to help which is the point where some people call me stupid or naive because I want to do something to stop this and that there's no point because one fourteen year old can't make a difference but it is my job today to tell you that I can and you can.

But what people forget is that the usage of the Internet in Europe since 2001 has grown by over 376.4% with over 2,267,233,742 people world using the Internet on December 31st 2011 and you can't say that is nothing.

We are at a major point in human history: will we let our mistakes repeat themselves once again - I won't, but what about you?

So today I ask and beg of you to pass on this message to your friends, to your family, to your school, to your colleges, to all you see. Share this post, this video.

Stand with me today, stand with me tomorrow, stand for those whose society has made invisible.

Kris Turner 

PS: For those who think that the LRA are no longer a threat I have two crucial pieces of evidence that prove you to be wrong.

1. The ICC still lists Joseph Kony as wanted. The International Criminal Court is the court that is responsible for bringing criminals of war to justice. (http://www.hrw.org/topic/international-justice/joseph-kony-lra)
2. You can track the attacks using the LRA Crisis Tracker which uses the EWRN (Early Warning Radio Network) (http://www.lracrisistracker.com)http://www.lracrisistracker.com/

1000 Views

Hi guys Kris here,

You may already know but I am nearly at 1000 views. So if the 1000th viewer takes a screenshot so I know they are the 1000th viewer I'll include you in my next post.

Send me the photo on my Facebook or email me at kristurner1997 (at) gmail.com don't forget to change the bit in brackets for the symbol it stops spam bots.

Thank you for getting me here,
Kris
PS: This my 50th ever blog post!

Homophobia in Russia

If someone says bullying this is probably what you think of, but that's not what I am writing about today.

In Russia at the moment there is a big argument in Russia second biggest city - Saint Petersburg. This following story has been going on for a while now. The equality group AllOut has recently released this letter from a man called Sergie who has recently been arrested in the city.

My name is Sergey and I'm an attorney in Russia. I'm straight - happily married for 16 years - and until last week I would not have been called an "activist".   But in just five days I will got to court, fined and maybe even thrown in jail because I held up a banner in Saint Petersburg and told the truth: “A dear family friend is lesbian. My wife and I love and respect her … and her family is just as equal as ours." 

I was among the first to be arrested, but thousands more could follow.  As I write this, Russian officials are fast tracking a plan to extend Saint Petersburg's "gay propaganda" law to the entire country.
I believe that it should never be illegal to defend the dignity of friends and family. 

(Watch this video to the end, there is a purpose to it)

This law is trying to make speaking about lesbian, gay, bi and transgender (LGBT) illegal in the city.  Now that lawmakers in the Duma (the federal legislature) are debating a version of the law, this despicable law could go national - unless we fight it now. They are making words illegal. I personally have words to describe how messed up this law is but...

Did you know that 76 countries still criminalize being gay, 10 countries make being LGBT punishable by death or life imprisonment. But you can stop this, sign the petition at AllOut. Would you want someone to be silenced because you didn't speak up?

Kris

PS: Send this post to everyone, you don't have to be LGBT to stand up for what's right.
PSS: All the videos in this post can be found on my YouTube channel here.

Wouldn't miss it for the world

This weekend I had my Duke of Edinburgh practise expedition, for anyone who doesn't know what D Of E is all about, its an award that is about being able to survive by yourself in the country. Two days, full of rain, followed by cows, sore shoulders, cold mornings and stared at by horses. But I wouldn't of missed it for the world!

That's what so great about camping, the experience. Its the sitting in a tent playing cards or talking to random people whilst doing the washing up. It's shouting at a man who has just splashed water over you and calling after a cyclist who decided to try and run you over with his bike. It's that impossible hill that you think you'll never make. It's the singing at the top of your voice whilst walking through a field.

It's a lot, so even though my shoulders are as sore as anything, they'll get better. Even though I was as cold as anything I got in the bath and got warm. But that camp, I won't forget it. But do you want to know the best bit... we have to do it all again.

(Click here for full gallery)

Kris.

Excuse Me! What!

I'm sorry but I'm confused. Why would you continue to run an event where the same bad thing happened every year. The Grand National in my opinion should be cancelled permanently.

In the UK as well as many other countries blood sports are illegal and they should be but yet last year two horses at the Grand National, the world renown horse racing competition held annually, had to be eutanized (which in plain terms means killed) because of injuries.

Yet this year two more horses had to be killed because of idiots such as J.P. McManus. J.P. McManus was the owner of one of the horses which had to be put down, Syncronised. Syncronised had been the winner of the Cheltnam Gold Cup last month. The RSPCA described the deaths as "totally unacceptable" and called for "an urgent examination" of the race.

Syncronised is the horse on the left who has just collapsed.

Look at how the horse has fallen. Then tell me that horse racing is right. The start was delayed when Synchronised unseated jockey Tony McCoy, but race organizers said the horse was "thoroughly checked" by a veterinarian and allowed to line up in the 40-horse field.


If I ever meet someone responsible for something as cruel as this trust me I'm going to punch them in the face. So next year I ask you just not to support the race, don't bet, don't watch and definitely don't enter into it. If you want to bet go to a casino and ruin your own life not a horses.


Kris
PS: What are your views? Post them in the comments below.

Loose Tooth

Oh yeah - actually this is a serious post. I have a loose tooth at the moment and it is so annoying but one of my friends at school decided that when she had a loose tooth she stapled it - a bit of advice don't and in films where they tie a string to a toaster and throw it down the stairs it hurts so don't.

So the moral of the story is it will happen when its ready and that's the same for everything else in life so just be patient.

There was a salesman called Ramesh in Kerala, a state in the southern part of India. He was honest, polite and hard working. It was the month of June (start of monsoon in Kerala) when he got his first assignment in his new office. He was given the a list of people whom he has to approach and sell the product.
Surprisingly he realized that the list is full of local Kerelean laundry owners. He got scared and thought he won’t be able to achieve the desired target.

He approached his senior, Monty, but got no much help. So the next day he started approaching the laundry owners and within 15 days he got some really nice response. Almost 80% of them purchased his product but on loan and everyone promised to pay him off within the next 15 days. He was very happy as he knew that his job is almost done! But he didn’t knew that the next one month was going to be tougher than what he was thinking of.

On the last week of June amidst heavy showers he started visiting the laundry owner’s place to collect money. Upon visiting half of them he realized he had not collected a single penny. And the same trend continued for the next 7 days. He was frustrated, demoralized, impatient and so was his senior Monty.


Ramesh explained everything to Monty including peculiar behavior he noted amongst the laundry owners – whenever he knocked the owners, they used to look at the sky before asking him to come the next day.

Listening this his senior smiled once and said that he is ‘on track’ and will soon get some good results. He never realized for once what his payment has to do with the sky! After almost 14 days, on a bright sunny monday morning he started visiting the laundry owners once again.

Though it was the monsoon season it didn’t rain heavily for the last three days. Suddenly by noon Ramesh realized that he has collected the payments from almost 50% of the owners which was almost unbelievable.
He worked hard through out the day and by the day end he had completed 90% of his target for June and July. He was very happy and so was his senior.

Yet he wondered what the sky has to do with the payment. Why the laundry owners used to look at the sky and tell him to come the next day? To solve this mystery he went to a laundry owner and asked the same question. The owner laughed at him and said “Son this is the month of monsoon and we have to wash the clothes, dry them off, iron them before handing them off to the customers. Now if the sun doesn’t shine how can we dry our clothes, earn money to pay you?”.

Ramesh recollected his memories and smiled at the owner and realized that it was his patience and endurance that kept him going and ultimately helped him achieve the pinnacle of success.


Kris

The Ice & I

It's been almost two years since I started skating at Telford. I'd won a free skate at Telford Ice Rink and I was hooked. It took almost another year before I started professionally with my coach Sarah and now today I have an ice skating competition.


I learnt how to go forward, go backwards, to stop, to spin, to spin on one foot, to spiral, to jump and its all my training has come towards this one minute of skating


But just my luck though my leg hurts. But I'm still going to do this competition and I'm either going to win or I'm going to get one step closer to winning.When I go out on the ice today: It will be just me & the ice.


I'll tell you what happens.


Kris

Journey

Life is just one big, long journey - almost like a road, but we have smaller journey's such as your GCSE or your Ice Skating, or in my dogs case how she escaped from a Welsh puppy farm.

You might now my dog, Roxi, she's a rescue dog and a German Shepard. We adopted Roxi four years in October when she was rescued, by an organisation, we were called by German Shepard rescue and we were looking for a new dog after Sadie, again another German Shepard rescue dog, had died at 14. Yet Roxi was in a lot worse condition: she had constantly been bred and left to lie in her own waste.

She was afraid of everything: cars, people, prams literally everything and she never barked. We later found out that her voice box was damaged from being kick and is developing catorax. But she's happy, happily walks by cars and she has now barked twice at my neighbour whilst he was mowing the lawn. She still freaks out with strangers in unknown places but otherwise she is a completely new dog.

So that was her journey... so far.

Kris

Protest

In the UK we as minors, declared by the convention of children's rights (here) article 13, have the right to express ourselves and when someone tries to prevent us from our rights it annoys me.

At the moment our school is trying to make decisions about our school without any opinions of the pupils and their reasons because people (not even from our school) have complained that we are a fame academy. We are being forced to conform to what others want and in doing so they are ignoring the people that make up the school, us.

Woman offers a flower to police at Anti-Vietnam War protest

When we complained we were told they didn't care and that we don't have the right to protest: well actually we do. Some others have also said that they won't listen so there is no point but did that stop Gandi, did that stop Martin Luther King Jr; no it didn't.

Kris

Get Stoned

Hi people of Kris' blog, as some of you may or may not know I'm from Scotland and a keen guitarist and pianist, yeah strange mix.

Yet I think both of these wonderful instruments have a great amount of uses for powerful emotional messages that artists can use to help raise awareness on subjects, a song I'm going choose for this post is a wonderful song called "Get Stoned" by a wonderful band called Hinder.

Now, I'm very much against the use of drugs, and this song really doesn't promote drug taking much at all but what I love about this song is it has such a good rhyme to it, a 'partyish' feel, and a feeling that no matter what you just gotta go on and have fun with life.

 Life is a strange thing, you can spent years trying to guess what the meaning is and not come any closer, for the truth is no one really knows, whether you believe in god created it, or an evolutionist, no one really knows why life formed. Or if there truly is a meaning or not.

What I love about this song is it really can just pick you up even when life just isn't going your way. I often listen to this song and it's just one of those.songs that you can sing along with, it draws you in, offers you a glance of brilliance, of happiness, of just feeling good, that's what I believe songs are about.

It doesn't matter what songs you like, whether it's metal, pop, or even classical, if it even draws you in for a moment, if it inspires you to do great things, or just even make you feel good then the song has done its purpose.

Often, when I need a hit of inspiration, for ether school work, making a new song, or just when I feel low, a great song is all it takes to lift me up most of the time, music is just a wonderful tool.

Now this is me signing off, but I'd like to leave you a awesome quote:

"Life is like a coin, you can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once. Make sure you don't regret what you brought"

John Stowe

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Haha, it was a great post even if I did spend about 30minutes checking your grammar and CAPITAL LETTERS!

I would like to inform everyone that vote lines are now open click here to find out how.

Kris

No Regrets

Hey guys! I want you to think as good old incy wincy spider as your inspiration in life. As weird as it may seem he has a good story. The poor 'fellah' keeps trying to climb up that water spout but then comes the rain and washes him out.

But does he give up?

NO! 'Cuz out comes the sunshine and dries up all the rain and incy wincy spider climbs the spout again. Incy never gives up and keeps fighting forward not thinking about the past but setting his own goals and heights. You never know maybe incy wincy will get to the top one day. But he has no regrets and will always keep climbing.

"Don't tell me that the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon."

Live life to the full, live it to the last breath and you won't have any regrets.

Love Gemma. X

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I met a spider called Wilbert before he was sweet. I'm sure you will agree with me that was an amazing post and there is still more to come!

Kris

A Month of Music

Hey everybody,

Today was the last day of January and so tomorrow, February A New Perspectives month of music begins.

In this time I will be joined by four special guest writers who will be writing inspirational posts based on a song of their choice, I have read some of the drafts of these posts and they are really good so I wouldn't want to miss out if I was you. Remember the links below won't become active until the 12:00 on the day of the post.


Schedule for February
 4th February - No Regrets
 11th February - Speak Now
 18th February - Unwritten
 25th February - Coming Soon

I will finish the month with a post, that will be kept secret from the public until the 29th February, that will hopefully sum up every single post with one word. Yeah you'd better be excited.

Kris
PS: Once all the posts have been published vote for your favourite post. The winner will receive a prize.