The HCOS WeeklyValentine's Special Edition

Happy Valentine's Day!Love, e HCOS Weekly Team

Heart Wreath

Cra! handpicked with LOVEby Megan Ferguson

1. Place a sheet of red construc-tion paper vertically on a table in front of you.

2. Fold the top of the paper down to meet the bottom of the paper. The paper should now be folded in half.

3. Use a ruler to measure half an inch. Starting at the top le! edge of the folded paper, make a mark on the paper with a pencil at every half inch mark until you reach the end of the paper.

4. Repeat this process with the bottom edge of the paper.

5. Now use the ruler to match up the first top mark with the first bottom mark.

6. Next use a pencil to draw a line along the ruler that connects each top and bottom mark.

7. Continue to make these lines across the rest of the page.

8. Next, use scissors to cut each penciled line. Make sure you cut the paper while it is still folded. Each of your paper strips should have a fold.

9. Make similar strips of folded paper from the white and pink sheets of construction paper.

10. Then choose the first color strip you want to turn into a heart.

11. Next grab both ends of the strip before folding them inward. If you do this right, you should see the shape of a heart form.

12. Hold onto your heart while you carefully staple the ends to-gether.

13. To create your chain, string the next strip of paper through the already stapled heart before sta-pling the ends together.

14. Repeat this process until all of your paper strips are used up. Once done, hang up your heart chain where everyone can enjoy it. Email us pictures of your finished cra! at hcosweekly@outlook.com and let us know if you want more!

Verse of the Week

By Megan Ferguson

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - John 13:34-35

With Valentine’s Day quickly ap-proaching, Hallmark and other commercial businesses are ramp-ing up their sales propaganda. With commercials and ads every-where about cards, jewelry and candy, it’s hard to stay focused on what Valentine’s Day is really all about. As for myself, I usually just roll my eyes at all the Valentine’s Day stuff, because I’m single and plan to stay that way for quite a while. But I suppose Valentine’s Day isn’t just about romantic love, it’s about showing your friends and family how much they mean to you. Jesus commands us to love

one another as He loved us. So this Valentine’s Day I challenge you to tell someone how much you love them and you know what? They probably love you too. <3

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By Genevieve Wardand Jennica Wlodarczyk

Happy Olympics everyone!

Remember that article series (if you can call it that) that I promised about 2.5 months ago? Yeah, I tried to forget about it too, but obvious-ly that didn’t work very well. Actu-ally, the truth is that I really wasn’t sure what to write about, plus I’ve been busy (as I’m sure everyone has been)…with school, and life, and all that fun stuff.

However, seeing the Olympic Games has inspired me to write up something again (I’m not entirely certain why watching sporting events has inspired me to write, but there you go). I was originally planning on doing a short little blurb on some of the youngest ath-letes competing in this year’s Win-ter Games, since I thought it was pretty cool that some of them are the same age/slightly older than us students. When I thought about it a little more, though, I decided

that seeing athletes who are my age or close to my age competing in the Olympics actually tends to discourage me rather than inspire me…I think it’s the fact that they’re world class athletes com-peting against other world class athletes in an event that is being televised worldwide, and I can’t even seem to hand in math assign-ments on time (okay my compar-isons probably don’t make that much sense, but y’know what I mean). Maybe I’m alone in these thoughts, but there’s also the slight chance that I’m not.

So, with all that said, I thought I’d instead search up some of the old-er athletes competing in the Games this year. Granted, they’ve probably all been training since be-fore they could walk at their indi-vidual sports, and this is unlikely their first Olympic Games, but hey, I’m trying. May this list inspire you all to remember that if you have a dream of competing in the Olympics in the biathlon, or cross country skiing, or hockey, or any

other number of sports, there is still hope for you (and probably a lot of training ahead).

(Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, since apparently whoever designs the CBC listings of athletes has not seen it neces-sary to create an option to search “by age”, for reasons beyond my understanding. I had to go through the list and, based on their profile pictures, decide who looked like they were older than 19. It was ac-tually kind of hard.)

In no particular order:

Name: Robert Fagan

Age: 37

Country: Canada

Sport: Snowboarding

Interesting info: According to a rather sketchy-looking Wikipedia article, he did first start snow-boarding at the age of three…but don’t let that get you down. As-suming you’re a high schooler and have never snowboarded before, you’re only 10 – 15 years behind!

Name: Jill Officer

Age: 38

Country: Canada

Sport: Curling

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Interesting info: She also writes for the Canadian Curling News (What can I say? There wasn’t a lot of information on her Wikipedia page. I bet you didn’t even know that there was a Canadian Curling News, though. That’s pretty cool.)

Name: Ole Einar Bjorndalen

Age: 40

Country: Norway

Sport: Biathlon

Interesting info: He first competed in the Olympics in the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, which I should mention is a really cool name. He also has a really cool name, so that’s two really cool names that you might not have

heard of before, depending on how well you know your geography. He’s also won an Olympic gold medal already this year, and he has at least one biathlon event le! to compete in in the Sochi Olympics, so now you know who to cheer for in the next biathlon event.

Name: Alla Tsuper

Age: 34

Country: Ukraine

Sport: Skiing

Interesting info: Okay fine I might have only included her because of her tsuper last name. Sorry, that was terrible (and I’m really hoping the “t” in her last name is silent, because otherwise that makes no sense whatsoever. Pronunciation isn’t one of my strong points).

Name: Sergei Dolidovich

Age: 40

Country: Belarus

Sport: Cross Country skiing

Interesting info: He’s Belarusian. No, I am not just picking these ath-letes based on their fabulous names and the names of their countries, contrary to what it might look like.

And now, just to be different, let’s put in some random facts about our own Canadian athletes.

· Canada has competed in 22 Olympic Winter Games, starting with the first one in 1924.

· In the first Winter Olympics, Cana-da had 12 athletes competing in total, we won one medal (gold), and we ranked 8th place out of all the participating countries.

· We have 220 athletes in total par-ticipating in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

· The lowest we’ve ever ranked in the Winter Olympics was 17th places in 1972.

· The highest we’ve ever ranked in the Winter Olympics was 1st place in 2010, during the Games that we hosted in Vancouver.

· The Canadian with the most num-ber of Winter Olympic gold medals is Cindy Klassen, with 6 gold medals.

So there you go – some inspiration for you all, some random facts about Canada in the Olympics, and

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"I'm very busy doing things I don't need to do in order to avoid doing anything I'm actually supposed to be doing." - Anon

some marvelous names which you should definitely try to remember because they are really cool. Hap-py Olympics, everyone!

Disease Goes Viral

By Jaleesa Taylor

Are you aware of the disorder that has plagued people of all ages - particularly teenagers and college students - for years? This national condition is treatable, however most people who have it don’t wish to be cured. “How is this so?” You may ask. “If I had a disease, I would most certainly want to be healed!” If you are thinking this, you will probably change your mind when you figure out what this particular disorder is.

Most of you - myself included, have received an assignment that we are not absolutely thrilled about. Whether it is that 5,000-word essay on a topic you’ve never even heard of, or a detailed model on Mount Random, you’re not exactly look-ing forward to completing the dreaded project. All right, that may be an understatement. You would probably prefer being dragged through the freezing cold lands of the Arctic, dumped in the Fire Swamp (yay for the Princess Bride), and sit through the longest opera ever invented. That pretty much sums it up-for me anyway! If you figured out that the disease is procrastination, you’re right.

In my experience, the homework assigned seems like such a huge undertaking, that I would rather ig-nore the binder prominently placed on my desk, and pretend it doesn’t exist. Mature, right? The longer I put off an assignment, the more it grows into this giant loom-

ing deadline, that makes me go into a panicking frenzy. What’s even better is pulling a stressful all-nighter to cram for a huge exam the next day.

Previously, I mentioned that pro-crastination is “treatable”, but this is only possible if you want to stop. Some steps towards a procrastina-tion-free life are to start on the project early and break it into smaller steps. This makes a world of difference! You are able to put so

much more time and thought into the assignment, and think clearly while completing it. Another thought is to make specific dead-lines, and be accountable to some-one, whether it’s a teacher, parent or friend. Be inspired! It is so hard to do something that you don’t want to do, so watch and learn from others who are productive with their time. Also, take a look at the environment you work in. Are you reclined on the couch, or are you sitting at a desk, ready to work? Different surroundings can cause different atmospheres and can prompt the urge to *ahem*, sleep.

Yes, procrastination is not some fa-tal, terminal disease as you may have first thought. However, it is definitely not beneficial. I would recommend that you will to get over it. You are going to have to complete it sometime, and you have to admit, most of us would rather do it sooner than later. But then again, that’s just most of us.

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I.M.O. With Grace:The Creation Debate

By Grace Kelly

People, hi. So I had a completely different rant written and ready to go before yesterday. And in fact it was a great rant, but this subject is better. I know most of you tuned in to watch the recent debate be-tween Bill Nye and Ken Ham about evolution/creationism on Tuesday. It was a great debate. It was lots of fun to watch and talk about, but it just proved to me again how futile debates will always be. I have a couple points that I’m going to cover in this rant (I can’t seem to shake this essay style of writing. Oh well.) So… weee. Okay.

1. What in the Name of Sanity was Ken Ham Wearing That Oversized Jacket For?

If this debate could have been ‘won’ simply by out-fabbing your opponent, Bill Nye would’ve won in the first three seconds. I haven’t seen a bowtie worn better since the Doctor Who Christmas Special

this year (How are we going to sur-vive without our Raggedy Doctor? *tears* *composing myself be-cause I’m in the middle of writing about fashion, not pouring out my heartache and anger at Steven Moffat over Tumblr*). And while I’ll be the first to admit that fashion wasn’t an overwhelmingly impor-tant component in this debate, there were apparently over 760,000 people watching this, live. Mr. Ham could’ve used to get some kind of advice on the clothing he was wearing. Don’t get me wrong, I love his work and he’s a brilliant man, but he does need to find a blazer about two sizes smaller…and while blue may be his favorite color, according to observational science, he should never wear it. Ever.

(I will acquiesce though, a!er about two minutes into his open-ing presentation any fashion mishaps could be forgiven him on merit of his great accent.)

2. Debating Is Futile

While watching the debate on Tuesday, I had my Twitter open on another computer and was follow-ing the current trends. There were about 5 different trending topics worldwide that had to do with the debate while it was going on, and there were thousands upon thou-sands of people tweeting about it. Within the first ten minutes of the debate I came across at least a hundred different arguments hav-ing to do with science and religion

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2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, eggs and oil until well blended. Fold in the chocolate chips. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Serve and Enjoy!!!

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(which are not separate things at all, I mean you can be religious and be a scientist.) Anyways, while I watched all the religious people and the atheists duel over subjects stemming from the age of the earth, I realized that this debate was going to change nothing. All debating ever does is entrench you in your original opinion. There was not a single person that I read had changed their theory about evolu-tion/creationism and I seriously doubt it even slightly moved any-one to think differently. You know when you got into a fight with your brother or sister as a kid and when your mom got mad you kept trying to explain why the other person was to blame, while they were try-ing to explain why you were to blame? Well debates are like the sassy, moderated adult version of that. Except instead of arguing over who really broke the down-stairs window, you’re arguing over politics, science or religion. In the end, no one wins and you have to either learn how to get along to-gether, or disagree with each other for the rest of your lives.

3. Everything Wrong With That Debate

Since there is so much I want to cover about this, I can’t just make a new point and talk about every-thing I want to individually and in detail because it would be about 5 pages long. Actually, I just typed it all out and it was 5 pages. So here are little bullet points instead:

-The sass – hilarious, but kind of like elementary school girls argu-ing over who likes a boy more

-The name-dropping from Ham. If it’s really necessary to validate your theories by the acknowledg-ment that another person believes

the same way as you, you’re doing something wrong.

-Why did Nye spend most of his first five minutes talking about how his dad first got his bowtie tied? Cool story, but why is evolu-tion a valid theory again?

-The constant ‘you weren’t there’ reminders from Ham. You weren’t there either, so shh.

-The annoying ‘if you don’t believe in evolution our countr y is doomed’ spiel from Nye.

-No one needed to bring up any of the following subjects: why fish procreate, gay marriage, abortion, Darwin’s racism, or MRI scanning.

4. Everything Right With The De-bate

-Nye is a Seahawks fan.

-Several great points were laid out by both parties, of course neither were enough to change anyone’s mind, but it’s great to be reminded of what we believe in and why.

-I really appreciate the fact that Nye was okay with coming to the Creation Science Museum to do a debate about evolution where 95% of the 900 people in the crowd were Creationists. Kind of like a suicide mission that you survive, but it had to be the most terrifying thing ever.

5. Last Thing I Want to Say

Faith and fact are very different things. Faith is believing some-thing that you can’t see but know is true, and fact is seeing some-thing, knowing it is true and then believing in it. They’re things that every human practices, but I don’t

think that they belong in the same discussion because they are op-posing ideas. That’s the difficult thing about Christianity, we be-lieve without seeing. We don’t have the facts, but we have the faith and slowly, over time our faith becomes a fact. It’s the most difficult and the most mind-bend-ing thing about our religion. It’s not logical at all, but it’s the truth. I think that this debate should’ve been focused on either fact or faith; the two shouldn’t have been mixed. Fact generally makes faith look ineffectual and weak when in reality they are just ideas that don’t mingle together well. Like apples and yogurt. My overall opin-ion is that this was a fun debate to watch and that both men are in-credibly smart and great at putting together slideshows. And that’s all I’m going to say on the matter be-fore I say way too much. Okay, done.

-Grace

You can find me on the internets if you want me to talk about some-thing in particular, otherwise you can continue to read my ill-shaped and very biased opinions on things that never have and probably nev-er will matter to you. Either or. Cheerio and have a good day! :)

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Fixing our Eyes on JesusBy Jesse Ongkili

Jan 2014

It was the week before my family and I flew off to Malaysia on the 21st of January. I had been want-ing to go to another one of Jean’s art classes over the course of the several months we had been back in Canada, however had not been able to make it due to our busy schedule. As usual, I finally man-aged to fit one of the classes into my schedule just before we le! the country. It had been at least six months since I had last been to one of Jean’s classes, and was looking forward to seeing what God had in store for me that day.

A!er settling in, Jean asked me if God had been speaking anything to me as of the late. The previous week, my entire family had at sep-arate times felt led to commit to living by Hebrews 12:2 over the course of the new year. In Hebrews 12:2 it says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”

I told her I’d had a vision while meditating on what God wanted me to paint – I had seen a person, standing with arms open wide, staring into the heavens while fo-cusing their eyes on Jesus. My teacher smiled at me before telling me she had received a song that day before I’d arrived concerning my painting. The song was “Be Thou my Vision”. We immediately got to work, knowing that time was short and my paintings o!en exceptionally long. A!er several

hours of painting fervently, I’d completed the vision God had shown to me earlier.The solid ground the man in the

picture is standing on represents building our foundation on God the Rock. When the fears, the anxi-eties and the confusions of life (the

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ocean) sweep in around us, those whose foundation is built in Him will remain untouched. What’s more important is that God’s love and grace exceeds the ocean of troubles that surrounds us. All the while, we must remember to con-tinually fix our eyes on Jesus as He continues to lead us along His path for our lives.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

Hymn by Helen H. Lemmel 1922

Cool Facts

For Your WarehouseOf Useless KnowledgeVALENTINE'S EDITION

by Jubilee Chiu

- In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear this name pinned onto their sleeves for one week for everyone to see. This was the origin of the expression "to wear your heart on your sleeve."

- In 1537, England's King Henry VII officially declared Feb. 14 the holi-day of St. Valentine's Day.

- Richard Cadbury produced the f i rs t b ox o f c h o co l a te s fo r Valentine's Day in the late 1800s.

- More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.

- Over $1 billion worth of chocolate is purchased for Valentine's Day in the U.S.

- 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27% are women. 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.

- California produces 60 percent of American roses, but the greater number sold on Valentine's Day in the U.S. are imported, mostly from South America.

- Approximately 110 million roses, mostly red, will be sold and deliv-ered within the three-day Valen-tine's Day time period.

- Approximately 145 million valen-tines are sent in the U.S. each year according to estimates by the U.S. Greeting Card Association. That's second only to Christmas with 1.6 billion units, and is followed by Mother's Day with 133 million units.

- In addition to the U.S., Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexi-co, United Kingdom, France, Aus-tralia, Denmark and Italy.

- In the 1800s doctors commonly advised their heartbroken patients to eat chocolate, claiming it would sooth their pain.

- Every Valentine's Day, the Italian c i t y o f V e r o n a , w h e r e Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet.

- About 3 percent of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gi!s to their pets.

- 220,000 is the average number of wedding proposals on Valentine's Day each year.

- Chocolate is 50% off on February 15th. GO GET YOUR CHOCOLATE, KIDS!!

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Valentine's LOL Weekly LOL

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Screenshotted Memories - by Joshua Wlodarczyk (Originally published in 10th Edition)

Sherlockian Hiatus - by Joshua Wlodarczyk

Special Edition BonusSUPER COMICS

Editor's Favorite & Exclusive Screenshot!

SUPER COMICS

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