I should've posted this a lot earlier, but I had a few things to add to it :p It's gotten really long, so you can read one per day or something.

Microwaves Can Be Used for Anything
I've heard some rather strange things about microwaves lately. I remember hearing once that an old lady tried to dry off her wet cat by putting it in the microwave, so apparently now there are warnings telling people not to put animals in their microwaves (I have no idea if it's true, though). My mother seems to think it's okay to do that, though, at least with stuffed animals. I wanted to move my stuffed animals to my bed again, but they tend to collect dust and make me sneeze. So, of course, my mom had to say, "Well, we can microwave them. I heard that'll get rid of the dust." NO THANK YOU!

People Who Attend Barbecues Make Offensive Comments
For some weird reason, I've attend 4 barbecues in the last two weeks - one of them was hosted by a club at my school, since they were trying to attract members; another one was my mom's company's "family day"; and the other two were parties hosted by my family's friends.

It was at these BBQ's of friends of my parents that I was insulted. At one of these parties, when the host saw my dad and me, she immediately told me, "You look so much like your dad!" And when I laughed, she said that I even laughed like him. Word to the wise: Do not compare me to my dad. I have heard it so many times that if I hear it again, I will smile politely at whoever says it, and when he/she turns around I will stuff his/her head into the barbecue grill.

Yesterday, at another BBQ, my mother told one of the other guests that I was in 10th grade. The lady looked at me and smiled, saying in Chinese, "You're rather small, aren't you?" Well, excuse me. I never asked to be short, so people, please stop pointing it out. There is nothing I can do about it at this point besides, oh, I don't know, wearing 12-inch-tall high heels?!

The Sims is Annoying Yet Fascinating
Well, at least the Sims Wiki is. Sometimes when I'm bored I just go and browse its pages, and I come across some rather entertaining and interesting things. What intrigued me in particular was the page about Mrs. Crumplebottom. She's one of the NPCs (non-player characters) in the Sims 2. I remember seeing her on the community lots in the game, and whenever one of my Sims wanted to go swimming, she'd come over and lecture them for wearing swimsuits, which she considered to be indecent clothing (gosh, what else do you swim in besides a swimsuit?). I learned plenty more interesting things about the wicked old lady in the Wiki article:

- If two Sims have a public display of affection, she will scold them or beat them with her purse.
- There are two whole sections in the Wiki article dedicated to avoiding the wrath of Mrs. Crumplebottom. Apparently, if your Sims go to a bowling alley, a place with a poker table, or a bar, then she won't bother you because she'll be busy bowling, playing poker, or drinking.
- If you have the Bon Voyage expansion pack, then if the Unsavory Charlatan (another NPC; he is a scam artist who has a top hat and a monocle) is on the same lot as Mrs. Crumplebottom, he will try to serenade her. But supposedly she beats him up when he does that. (Now I want to play the Sims 2 again just to see that happen.)
- If you try to add her to a family or turn her into a vampire, werewolf, or witch, your game will be corrupted.
- Even when she is bitten by a vampire, unlike normal Sims, she won't turn into a vampire herself.

And speaking of the Unsavory Charlatan I mentioned above, his Wiki page says that if he steals your Sim's money, then you can attack him to try and get it back. For some reason the Unsavory Charlatan likes to attack the Tourist Guide...? He's a master poker player (always wins because he always gets a Royal Flush, I wish I had that ind of luck), and he also knows how to play mahjong. o_o;;

Besides the NPCs, there are plenty of rather interesting stories for playable Sims; the Sims 2, for example, includes two families, the Caps and Monties, which are kind of like modern versions of the Capulets and the Montagues from Romeo&Juliet. There are also Sims who have been abducted by aliens and who have died in all sorts of ways (electrocution, starvation, drowning in a swimming pool, etc.) I think I read on several Sims' Wiki pages that if Story Progression was left on (meaning that other Sims' lives continue - they get married, have children, get promotions, make friends, die, and so on), some Sims will cheat on their spouses...I actually saw this happen one time. One of my Sims went to another Sims' house, and while she was there, the husband of that household was flirting with some other woman. The wife came and slapped the husband and everyone seemed upset. Sometimes the game actually does reflect what would happen in real life. o_o;;

Constant Reminders of Fullmetal Alchemist
I just watched this recently and it is now pretty much my all-time favorite series. Imagine my surprise when, just a day after I watched last episode, I saw that one of the recent popular deviations on DeviantArt was a fanart of FMA! And when I went over to one of my friends' houses just the other day, I noticed that she had pictures of FMA on her wall. Now I feel like decorating my room too (I just swapped bedrooms with my parents and I want to add a personal touch - in other words, posters of anime, video games, and Vocaloids all over the place. But I have to either buy some posters or try to make my own...)

In fact, even the SAT seems to know that I am obsessed with FMA. I was doing some reading comprehension practice problems, and the passage I was supposed to read was about alchemy! It even mentioned transmutation and the Philosopher's Stone, both of which are commonly heard in the anime.

Japanese Will Take Over the World
I'm not sure about the country, but its language, at least in a lot of anime, seems to be predicting that Japanese will become the universal language. I've recently been watching Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, and although in the beginning of the episode there is a narrator speaking French (I always find it funny, but actually, French people would find me funnier because of my horrible accent when I speak French), during the anime itself, the French people speak Japanese. What's even funnier is that Claude, a french guy who is supposedly speaking French, is talking about Yune, a girl who came from Japan who is standing next to him, and Claude says - in JAPANESE - "She won't understand what I'm saying anyways." And I was just thinking, "DUH, she understands, because you're SPEAKING JAPANESE." Oh well. I guess they just can't find good French voice actors in Japan or something, and that's why they speak Japanese when they're supposed to be speaking French.

And I remember when I was watching Kuroshitsuji, where all the people were supposedly in England but spoke Japanese. Even the characters from China and India spoke Japanese. I still think it's hilarious.

Science Teachers are Insane
Mine certainly seems to be.
- She's a psychic; one night my mom was talking about how my dad had eaten a huge amount of pistachios. The next day, on my chemistry quiz, there was a question asking how many pistachios someone could eat at one time. (If I calculated it correctly, it was more than 4000 pistachios... o_o;; )
- She cares about us, particularly our eyes, though in a bit of an odd way. She makes students sing some song that goes along the tune of I'm A Little Teapot (except it's "I'm A Little Chemist" or something like that) when they don't wear their goggles, as a sort of warning to them. That in itself is not strange, but she has a really freaky poster on her wall. It has a picture of a blind woman who has a cane and a guide dog. The caption says:
"Carol never wore her goggles.
Now she doesn't need them."
- She has a family of pyromaniacs. For one thing, the first day of class, she set a gummy bear on fire. The next day she showed us another demonstration with fire. One of our first labs in the class involved a lot of matches being lighted. And she said that her son really likes fire too...

Vocaran Knows What I'm Doing
There's something called the Weekly Vocaloid Ranking, or Vocaran for short, which basically uses logarithms and other thing-a-ma-bobs (I'm not too clear how it works) to come up with the 30 most popular Vocaloid songs that week. The Vocaran also briefly shows the 5 most popular Vocaloid songs from approximately the same time of year last year. I was listening to a song called "The Madness of Duke Venomania" and then I decided to check out the Vocaran. It was pretty weird for me to see that the #1 from the year before was that song.

And what's weirder is that around this time, I noticed that one of the Nico Nico singers, Panyo, had just sung a cover of "The Madness of Duke Venomania". o_o;;

Apparently even a Vocaloid producer knows me. Watch the first 20 seconds of this video. The video starts about with water, and then later on you see the song's name is "Kai Sou". Water is "mizu" in Japanese. Mizu...kaisou...Whose blog does this remind you of? :p

Labels: animals, anime, barbecue, family, fullmetal alchemist, height, japanese, microwave, mrs. crumplebottom, teacher, the madness of duke venomania, the sims, vocaloid, vocaran

I spend a lot of time on the Internet for two reasons in particular: To look at artwork, and to avoid thinking about important matters (namely, my homework). But, of course, it's only a temporary measure, and soon enough deadlines are bound to come calling. Many evenings I end up scrambling to do my homework, cursing myself for spending so much time on the Internet. (Seriously, though, it's so hard to keep track of time on the Internet. It really feels like no time has passed at all.)

And surprise, surprise! I was wandering around Flickr the other day when I Read more »

Labels: art, audacity, classes, coincidence, dream, flickr, french, friday, gender, internet, photography, procrastination, rebecca black, school, song, teacher

Today, the atmosphere at school was different from usual; it was more somber, to the point of being stifling.

A teacher has died.

He passed away on Friday of a heart attack, after a basketball game. I heard about it from my school's online news and from talk around campus - I wasn't there and I don't know the details. In one way, it's really jolting. He'd been plenty alive just a few months ago. I only remember one thing about him, and that was when we were taking a survey in the cafeteria. (Ha! The only time I get to sit in the cafeteria is during PE CLASS. I never actually eat in there. There are a few people who do, but most of us are outside, rain or shine.) He'd been barking at us, something about putting down the pens, or passing up the papers...I don't remember clearly.

I wish I had something else to remember about him. But I don't. And I never will.

It's startling in another way, too, to think that someone who was there one day would be gone, dead, so quickly. It wasn't like cancer or some slow terminal illness where you could see him weakening by the day. No, it was just like that. So fast. It takes so long for people to truly live, do more than just exist. Yet it can be taking away so quickly.

And at the same time, somehow I wasn't surprised. I almost feel as if I'd expected it to happen. I'd known since late 2010 that once my guidance counselor, who'd been on maternity leave, came back, then the lady substituting for my counselor would take over as a PE teacher (the teacher who died was only teaching for the first semester this year; I don't know why, maybe one of his students does), which was a little funny because the substitute counselor/new PE teacher is now pregnant herself. (And that was sudden too. I hadn't realized she was pregnant until she said so recently.) Not knowing why the teacher was not going to teach PE anymore, I wondered if perhaps he was planning to go away...But I didn't think that death would be his vehicle.

In fact, I HAVE seen a similar thing happen before, with my fourth grade teacher. I don't remember too much about her anymore, just that she had short blonde hair, was sometimes in a pretty bad mood, and had a jar of butterscotch candies to give out as a reward. She got injured a couple of times - one time I think a box fell onto her face and she wore sunglasses to cover up the bruise. The last time I saw her was on the day of our field trip to a museum. I thought she'd seemed fine.

After that, she was gone. And I later found out that she had died. The school never told us why exactly she died. Some students came up with all sorts of ideas. I recall that one classmate of mine said that perhaps her boyfriend had murdered her. I know nothing. Just that she is dead.

So the recent death of that teacher makes me feel queasy. I wonder a little if I might've caused in some way. A lot of things in my life have followed cycles. Is it an odd coincidence? Was it all predetermined? Have I, by speculating, actually set things in motion? Am I just reading into it too much? This isn't an anime. I'm not Haruhi Suzumiya.

Or am I?

Labels: cafeteria, cycle, death, deja vu, fate, health, heart attack, illness, memories, PE class, sick, survey, teacher, thoughts

Not men, sorry, and I haven't watched that show, but that's nothing new. I hear about many things, wonder if I ought to find out what they're about, and promptly forget about them. I've recently tried to get back into watching anime (which was a lot easier once I finished the second season of Kuroshitsuji...It was disappointed, I recommend you only watch the first season) and have been adding to my list of animes to watch. Hope I can actually get around to all of them. Considering that more animes keep coming out, though, that's hard to say. (By the way, is the plural of anime "animes" or just "anime"?)

Well, anyways, it's been an easy week back at school, even though I expected it would be difficult - particularly because my real language teacher has arrived. She was gone for the whole first semester taking care of her twin babies, and I had no idea what to expect. But she seems nice enough, so I think it'll be a good semester, as long as I pay attention in class and participate more. XD And in order to facilitate the adjustment back to school, there's been some little destress activities going on during lunchtime - which includes free food, much to my delight - and one of the things to do was paint your nails.

This is an activity I have not done since I was in elementary school, probably around third grade or so. I do like the sensation of painting, and how shiny nail polish is, but I always seemed to get bored of painting them. (Not to mention we only had one or two colors of nail polish, and I don't know if we even have those bottles anymore.) But I didn't really feel like working on homework, so I thought, "Why not?" Two friends of mine painting a nail each, and I started painting a third one after trying to fix the other two, but ran out of time. So I ended up with a reddish-pink thumb, a dark blue index finger, and a half-painted aqua middle finger (which I have scraped the nail polish off of, because it was gathering in a strange blob). It looks rather lumpy now that it's dried. Still, painting it was fun. And I don't mind the smell of it, even if it's rather artificial.

I've been thinking that I should use the New Year as an opportunity for change. It always seems like people make New Year's resolutions, try to follow them for about a week or two, and give up (kind of like what often happens if a child gets the dog she was begging for). But I have been wishing that I could change certain things about myself - how I treat other people, how I manage my time, perhaps also how I look - and I want to make 2011 a great year (and after that, 2012, 2013, 2014...the rest of my life). Easier said than done, and maybe I will be like most people, giving up after only a week or two. But it shall not be from never trying.

Labels: 2011, anime, attempt, behavior, change, colors, forget, forgetful, incomplete, kuroshitsuji, nail polish, nails, new year, resolution, school, teacher

I would have named this "The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku", except it isn't a Vocaloid disappearing. It's an actual person - to be more precise, my own piano teacher.

Last night, my mother received a call from the mother of a girl who has the same piano teacher as I do. She was wondering if we knew anything about where my piano teacher was and whether she was okay (at her age, it was not completely unreasonable to suspect that perhaps she'd had a stroke, or a heart attack, or some other terrible affliction). The woman's daughter was supposed to have a piano lesson, but she'd been unable to find the piano teacher.

My mother came over to me, rather unsettled, asking if my piano teacher had mentioned anything about there being no piano classes next week or anything along those lines. I was not particularly concerned. I'd wracked my brains and recalled that she'd said something about going to Shanghai, though I couldn't remember whether she was telling me or the student who had his piano lesson right before mine. I'd assumed it wasn't anything important. My teacher, in the past, had always made it clear when she would be gone. She would write that there was no class on such-and-such dates on the little notepad I keep for recording info from the piano classes, and she would say, directly to me, that she would be taking a trip. But not so this time.

I think that she probably thought that she had told the students when she really hadn't. According to my mother, who spoke with someone who is connected to the piano teacher, my teacher has been planning the trip to Shanghai for quite some time now. It wasn't just some spur-of-the-moment decision, a sudden desire to chase an until-now-forgotten childhood dream. But why hadn't she told her students that she wouldn't be here?

It was strange. Very strange. I don't think that my piano teacher is in any danger for her life, at least for the time being. But it seems that her age is starting to show. She is already more than middle-aged, if not quite an old lady. I wonder if maybe she can't remember what she's done and hasn't done anymore. That she's getting her thoughts and what has really happened mixed up. She's becoming like me.

I hope that this is just one incident, that this won't be happening again. I don't want to see someone losing his or herself. It's just too terrible to be alive in body, but to lose your mind, little by little.

Labels: classes, deteriorating, forgetful, losing, mind, missing, past, piano, shanghai, teacher, the disappearance of hatsune miku, trip

Is there such a phobia? Because I probably had it, not long ago.

A week from now, on Monday, I will officially make the move from middle school to high school. It's a change that I have been feeling uncertain about. It seems like the clock will really be ticking once I enter high school. My mother is now pressuring me to take classes and study for the SATs and attend seminars. And now I'm being urged to...

- Talk to my teachers (which is a bit hard for me, since I'm not that outgoing as of the past few years and I feel like it's really shallow to befriend your teachers just to get a good recommendation letter for college)

- Make a "professional" email (I don't want to have to check three different emails. I already hardly check one of them - and besides, I figure I'll get spam mail if my real name is in the email's name. And I would really be angry if people were judging me by my email. I know, in this world, first impressions can mean everything, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.)

- Attend extra classes outside of school (my mother insists that a lot of other people are taking them and I have to in order to keep up. But I don't like the idea of that either, because it feels like I'm using money in order to get ahead in school. Just because other people are doing it doesn't mean it's right. Well, I suppose I may be the only one who has such warped and illogical morals.)

- Stop wasting time on the Internet (that's something I intend to work on myself. For instance, I am planning to quit Crunchyroll. Maybe not completely. I might come back once in a while, but I will probably stop visiting on a regular basis. I've already started to think of my "farewell" message. It's painful for me to leave something behind, but not as much as I would have thought a few months ago. It's time to move on. I no longer want to be chained to it.)

And I don't really know what to expect of life in high school. Back when school was still in session, all of us 8th graders went over to the high school campus (it's pretty much across the street, so it's nearby) and listened to some people talk about various parts of the school. They encouraged us to join clubs and participate in leadership activities and whatnot. Near the beginning of the session, the students said, "Well, I bet you think from what your siblings and friends have told you that it's all about studying." Then they paused, and added, "Well, it is sort of like that..."

I certainly hope not. In this country, what with some of the best universities being located here (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT, UC Berkeley, UC LA, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Pomona, Northwestern...), the competition gets too fierce. If you ask me, it's like in middle school they're preparing you for high school, and then in high school they're preparing you for college, and then in college you're being prepared for...Your job? The rest of your life? I'm not really sure. (As for when you've got yourself a steady job, I think you're just waiting for retirement. XD) I have heard that some of my fellow students have been taking classes during the summer, such as Geometry, so that perhaps they can move up a level in math and will not have to take Geometry in high school. (I don't see the need to rush. Why not take it easy? You should be able to take Calculus by your senior year if you just go the grade level route.)

Well, I'm sure there's a lot more to high school than just studying for tests all the time. (It's not like I study as much as I should anyways, since I often think to myself, "Eh, I'll probably end up studying something that isn't on the test. I'll be wasting my time.") But I have no idea what everything else is like either. I've looked at the school lunch menu and read the policy, but what does that really tell me about the people there? How can I know what I've read in novels really reflects the high school I'll be attending? Will it be similar to middle school or a whole different universe? I guess the only thing that can be done is to experience it for myself. I am no longer afraid, or at least less so than before. But I'm not completely looking forward to it, either.

Labels: change, classes, college, crunchyroll, email, expectations, fear, first impression, future, high school, internet, judge, life, moral, preparation, quit, SAT, studying, teacher, uncertain

Earlier this month, there were flag football tournaments going on at lunchtime. Some of the students had been participating at the games. Apparently one of the PE teachers made the students stay late to clean up after the games (at least, they claim that, I wasn't there).

Well, I was sitting in my math classroom and the bell rang. A few students ended up being late. The first said, "Flag football," the second said the same, and so on...Until there was only one person left to come to class. As he was approaching the classroom, our teacher said, "Let's see what his excuse is."

To our surprise, when the boy came in, he said, quite simply, "I was late." My teacher was impressed by this, saying that the boy had taken responsibility instead of shifting the blame to the flag football games and PE teacher.

And then, during another math class, we were reading out the answers. It's usually like this: The first person in a row reads an answer from their homework, and then the person behind them reads the next answer, and so on. Well, it got to one boy and he couldn't read the answer because he didn't have his homework. "Do you have your homework?" asked the teacher. The boy fumbled for a response, but finally he had to say no.

My dad asked me later on if students ever claim that their dog ate their homework when they don't have it. I guess it's not really an excuse that's used nowadays. I mean, it wouldn't be a credible excuse unless someone had a dog in the first place.

Well, anyhow, I was reading a book called When Heaven Fell by Carolyn Marsden. It's about a girl living in Vietnam, named Binh. Her aunt moved to America when she was very young because it was rough in Vietnam at the time. Now that she is 35, she has rediscovered her family and traveled to Vietnam to visit them. But there's a lot of culture shock on both sides. The relatives living in Vietnam expect Di Thao, the aunt who lives in America, to be rich because she is American. And Di Thao has trouble getting used to the lifestyle in Vietnam.

For one thing, a relative asked Di Thao what her age was. Di Thao had said that in America, women didn't reveal their ages, before finally saying she was 35. Binh didn't understand why her aunt was uncomfortable because apparently, it's important to know someone's age so you know how to address them in Vietnamese.

And then the relatives asked Di Thao what she did for a living. She said she was a teacher. "What do you teach? Mathematics? Economics?" asked the relatives. Di Thao replied that she taught art. The relatives were confused about this. "People go to school to learn art? Why?"

The relatives also thought it was shocking that Di Thao was 35 but had no husband or children. As for Di Thao, she was surprised by the toilet, which you have to squat to use (Bleh! Horrible! I saw those kinds of toilets in China. I wouldn't go to the bathroom when there weren't the kinds of toilets that you can sit on).

I've been thinking that I really am very used to the American lifestyle myself. I love spaghetti (but when Binh ate it, she thought it was strange, especially the cheese taste). Our house isn't big, but it isn't so small that we all sleep side by side on the floor. (I think houses are pretty big in the USA compared to other countries. In Europe, things are more petite too) And we are accustomed to not wearing uniforms to school. When Binh saw a photo of an American school, and saw that the students wore plain clothing, she wondered if they were too poor to afford uniforms...In the USA it's usually just the private school kids who wear uniforms. I would like to be able to live in another country - not just visit it - because simply seeing a place for a week or two is not enough to really get a feel for what life is like there.

Labels: america, book, class, culture, different, dog, excuse, flag football, geometry, late, lunch, math, scapegoat, school, shock, sports, teacher, uniform, vietnam, when heaven fell

My language arts teacher recently decided that we had to give short speeches about our World War Two books, so she's been going over what we should and shouldn't do when speaking in class.

To try and show us what we ought to do when we're speaking, she showed us a promotional video for her friend who is a motivational speaker. It was pretty funny towards the beginning of the video.

He was saying, "What we played with the guys was sophisticated. We had TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES! What can be cooler than that? You had a turtle who was a ninja that you could take to school with you and you could decapitate a Barbie's head with it!"

Then my history teacher decided to talk about a very important thing when you're giving a speech. You have to have a message, something that you want your audience to remember even if they don't really pay attention to the rest.

His example was when we were doing our presentations about historical figures we had researched. One girl (let's call her A) went first. My teacher says that while she was presenting we were all thinking to themselves, "I'm not ready to present. I'm not ready to present. I'm not ready to present...Oh, wait, what was the name? I'll have to ask later. I'm not ready to present. I'm not ready to present..." and so on. And then when the next person goes, the people who haven't gone are thinking the same as before while A, who had just gone, is thinking, "I'm so glad it's over with. I'm so glad it's over with. Oops, I missed the name. I'm so glad it's over with. I'm so glad it's over with." Since everyone's kind of distracted by their own thoughts, you can't necessarily expect your audience to understand everything you said...So you have to make sure they at least get the important parts.

But the secret to a good presentation is something we learned in geometry class, pretty much by accident. A few days ago we were being taught about the areas of prisms and whatnot. While he was talking the teacher walked around holding up a translucent cylinder (I think it was glass or plastic, I couldn't really tell) and we were transfixed by it. He had the notes for the lesson projected, and every time the cylinder was over the projected screen, it looked strange. All beautiful and shiny-like. We were so captivated by it that my teacher said he was heart-broken. He had been teaching for 15 minutes and we were quiet because we were bored and uninterested. But as soon as that amazing cylinder was held up, we became very excited.

So, if you want your audience to pay attention, project something and then wave a magical prism in front of it. It's sure-fire.

Labels: attention, audience, geometry, interesting, mesmerizing, motivational, presentation, prism, projector, public speaking, screen, speech, teacher, teenage mutant ninja turtles, thoughts, trick

Do not be alarmed. The sky is not falling. Your hair is not on fire. Your family and friends are all alive and well. The world is not ending.

The running that I am referring to here is not running for survival, but as part of a chosen lifestyle.

Judging from what I am hearing and seeing at my school, being a teacher can be a really great job. Sure, you might catch colds from the kids, have to deal with rude and overly talkative children, and complain about not being paid as much as you deserve, but teaching has its perks, too. You receive pension when you're retired, and you can go to school with your kids, if you're like my math teacher (his kids are in middle school right now, so he gets to go to school and leave school with them!). You also get to watch kids grow up and have a hand in how they turn out. It must be really cool seeing your students come back many years later, mature and successful.

The PE teachers have a nice time. They can be outside in the fresh air and have less grading to do than other teachers, but they are paid the same. They can exercise if they feel like it or they can just stand and order the kids to do something. And I don't think you would normally have to work overtime. (My parents still do work at home after they get back at work. I think it's more lax if you're a PE teacher.)

I heard that one of the PE teachers injured his Achilles tendon and it was driving him crazy because he couldn't run. I'm very fearful of getting my Achilles tendon hurt because of how important it is - you could be out for a year, depending on how bad the injury is. It's pretty important in walking and running. It was already bad enough those times I sprained my ankle and kept getting left behind when I tried to run in PE.

I just really wish I could live the active lifestyle. Even the non PE teachers have the chance to pursue athletic hobbies. One time, during PE class, I saw my history teacher jogging on the track. Maybe it was his prep period and he didn't have anything to do so he decided to enjoy the nice weather. I wish I could be as lucky as him, doing a job that I like and also doing one of my hobbies at work.

I am sad about going to high school because I don't think I'll be able to take PE every year. I know I will take it for at least two years, one time in 9th grade, and the other not determined yet. I really want to take PE every year because I fear I will not exercise enough without it. But I don't know if I can. We can only take a certain amount of classes. And it really saddens me.

Labels: achilles tendon, classes, family, health, high school, hobbies, injury, jealousy, job, life, lifestyle, mature, overtime, PE class, pros and cons, running, school, teacher, time, wish

It's a book by Katherine Paterson, which I read a long time ago, sometime back in elementary school. I don't think I fully understood what I was reading. But I doubt I'll be rereading the book to get another look at it (there are so many good books in the world out there that I haven't read, and I'd like to get to those first).

Well, I am not a fan of Jacob Black from Twilight (or, more specifically, the actor for him in the movies, Taylor Lautner) but I ended up with him on April Fool's Day. On DeviantArt, every user's avatar was replaced with a joke avatar. The possibilities were Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Team Seeker, or Lady Gaga...It was so hard to tell who was who. It goes to show how I rely on pictures to recognize things. It's hard for me to remember so many names.

This week is my spring break. I'll be staying home for the break. Seeing as I had a trip to the Grand Canyon/Las Vegas in February, and a Yosemite trip in March, I think I've had enough of the excitement of traveling. (And it is costly, so I was hoping to save up more money for my retirement by not spending it on travel costs now.) Also, I do have some homework which I need to work on. I'm rather reluctant to do research for an upcoming project because this is supposed to be my time off, but I guess it can't be helped. Work must be done, and someone's gotta do it.

Unfortunately, I had the misfortune of catching a cold, presumably from a student at my school (due to frequent changes in weather, some students have fallen ill). I really hate having to spend my time off sick. Still, it's better than being sick during the school days, since then you either have to miss school and make it up, or you have to go to school and be miserable all day long. Indeed, my history teacher has gotten sick several times this school year and he was always having to spit in the trash can. (Not pleasant to watch. But he said it was either that or he "literally stopped breathing". Actually, I think a few students didn't think it was such a bad idea.)

I was meaning to write more, but it seems like all of a sudden my ideas have dried up, like an old well. I only hope that if I keep typing, my ideas will return to me, and this will not be a waste of your time. (Time is money, and time is what we want most but use worst. So of course you must understand its value.)

Recently, I finished watching an anime called R.O.D. the TV. The ROD part stands for Read or Die (sounds rather disturbing at first, and it is related to the storyline, but it's not horror). I had been reluctant to watch it at first, it being a fairly old anime from 2003-2004. However, I started watching it one time when my mom's friends were over (they had two children) and found it to be more enjoyable than I expected. Sometimes I don't think an anime will be good, but I decide to give it a chance and watch it, and then it turns out to be better than I expected. So you should always try something out before you dismiss it completely since you could later regret not doing it.

Just to give you a bit of an idea, R.O.D. the TV is about three sisters who are paper masters that can control paper. The sisters are supposed to be "bodyguards" for an author, and end up involved in the plans of Mr. Joker and many others, who are trying to revive a great man named Mr. Gentlemen. When I was younger (and I still do this sometimes) I'd often imagine myself with some kind of special power. It's too bad that it never does happen in real life that way. What we think of as magical is often Mother Nature at work. But at the same time we can never let go of any fanciful dreams. (Just look at all the science fiction and fantasy books that are published to this day. In fact, fantasy is a pretty popular genre of books.)

Labels: anime, april fool's day, book, break, deviantart, expectations, fantasy, homework, jacob black, read or die, rod the tv, sick, spit, surprise, teacher, time, travel, trip, twilight, value

Due to an astronomy lab we've been doing in my science class, I go outside at night to look at the moon and record the phase and location. In the beginning, the skies were clear, and it was easy to see the moon. But then clouds moved in and I couldn't see it for a while. When the sky cleared up again, I still couldn't find the moon. It was a strange experience. The stars were still there, but the moon was nowhere to be seen. I thought perhaps it was blocked by a building or a tree, but no matter where I walked I couldn't see it.

In the morning, though, I saw the moon. It's just so strange, seeing it up there in that vast expanse of blue sky, instead of in the mist of a black blanket dotted with stars, the way it is at nighttime. I was rather annoyed at the moon, because I am only supposed to record when I see it at a certain time (the teacher wants us to try to view the moon at the same time each night that we go out). It showed up in the morning but refused to come out at nighttime.

In class today, one of my fellow students told the teacher that she had gone out at night and was also unable to see the moon. My teacher then got the attention of the class to explain this phenomenon.

My teacher said, "I have told the moon to go away for a while. Us science teachers are very powerful, so I have made it disappear. Look carefully every night and eventually I might let it come back out again." Another one of my classmates remarked, "I looked in the morning and I saw the moon." My teacher's reply was, "Ah! You cheated! Well, the moon is naughty and it tries to come out before it's supposed to."

So there you have it. A highly scientific explanation for why the moon is not visible sometimes, even without any clouds covering it. (If you want to know the real reason, you had better look it up since I only have a theory about it and it would be unwise to take that as fact.)

I was just looking at a picture of an exploding alarm clock on a magazine cover (Discover magazine March 2010 issue, if you want to know) and I was reminded of what of my "experiences" at Yosemite. It was difficult to get to sleep on the first night. Some kids had not gone to bed and were making a racket outside, or were giggling in their cabins. The heater in our cabin kept making some sort of rattling and banging noises. I kept sweating from the heater since I wasn't used to having it that warm. And then there were the two alarm clocks I had brought. They kept on ticking...My clock at home ticks too, but I never really noticed it. At Yosemite it seemed they were quite loud. One of my cabinmates said she wasn't used to it since she has a digital clock, which doesn't tick. After the first night, though, we become more accustomed to the loud nights and were able to get to sleep more easily. (And anyways, we were tired out from the strenuous daily hikes, or something.)

I have been rather concerned about my ability to remember to do my homework recently, especially the French homework. I forgot to do my French homework and remembered it during the night once, so I got up earlier in the morning to do it. And then today I was supposed to bring sunglasses because we were discussing summer/seaside activities in French class, but I forgot to bring those as well. (Then again, I'm not exactly sure where the sunglasses are, I will have to find them. I don't like to wear sunglasses. Although I like the cool way that they look, they always seem to slip down my face or otherwise get in my way. And I don't like how everything seems so dark or is tinted a weird color.) I wonder if my memory is getting bad or if I'm getting too careless. Both options are rather unpleasant.

Labels: astronomy, careless, clock, digital, distraction, forgetful, french, homework, magazine, magic, moon, powers, science, sky, sleep, sounds, teacher, ticking, trip, yosemite

If you translated this from French to English, you would get "April fish" or "fish of April". That was what the French class at my school did on April Fool's Day (not sure whether the Spanish classes participated). We cut some fish out of paper and put tape on them, sticking the fish on the backs of unsuspecting students. My teacher even suggested that we try to get teachers, but only the ones that could take a joke.

It is harder to do than it seems. A classmate sitting behind me tried to stick his fish on me several times, but I felt it and pulled it off my back. My classmate attempted on the person sitting next to me, but she thought something was amiss and discovered the fish too. When the teacher came near, one student asked, "Hey, would it be okay to, just hypothetically, stick a fish on your back?" She said yes rather sarcastically before saying no. Then she looked at the person sitting behind me, since he was holding a fish, and said, "Oh no, I'm in the danger zone."

I tried to stick a fish on the back one of my friends, but she noticed, too. It really does take slyness to put a fish on someone's back. (Or you at least need to pick a target that is not particularly observant.) I gave one of the fish to another friend, who then proceeded to stick it in my hair and on my back while I was eating. (Ah, well. No harm done.)

I only made three fish in total, so I had only one left. I wanted to make sure that it would definitely end up on someone's back. At first I tried to stick it on the back of a boy passing by, but then someone came up behind him and looked at me suspiciously, so that was unsuccessful. I decided to try on a classmate this time. He did not notice the fish, so I felt like saying, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" (Excepted in a weird accent like Fox McCloud does in Super Smash Brothers Melee. You gotta hear it someday.)

But then I started to worry. What if he never did notice the fish? What if it ended up in his washing machine? I have no idea what the tape would do to a washing machine. I hope he or his mother noticed it eventually or at least that the fish fell off somewhere. (But it would be a shame if the fish got lost. Ah, well, it's not hard to make anyways, just doodle on a piece of paper and cut it out with scissors.)

My mother says she doesn't understand the point of April Fool's. Sometimes people are made uncomfortable or are even hurt by tricks that were played on them on April Fool's Day. (Personally I've never really had anything bad happen to me, which is a relief.) But it's also a day where we can be mischievous to a certain degree and not get in too much trouble for it. I'd like to play a prank, actually, but it'd probably be too risky, like if I did the old banana peel thing (what if a person broke their tail bone or hit their head and got a concussion? Yikes). But it might be okay to draw on someone's face or something. I actually saw that happen at a place I went to in the summer... I did hear from someone that putting ink on your skin shortens your life by a little every time, though. I wouldn't want to be taking away a person's life. D: Already my life is probably short since I have a long pencil in my pencil pouch and it keeps sticking out of the side and poking me. Not very pleasant.

Labels: april fool's day, danger, drawing, fish, fox mccloud, french, friends, fun, injury, ink, lifespan, mischief, pencil, prank, sneaky, super smash bros melee, tactics, tape, teacher, trick

Have you ever heard of that TV show called Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? I think I've watched it once or twice, not very much, but enough to get the gist of it. It's a game show, where a person tries to answer questions to win money. Sometimes the contestant asks for help from one of the fifth graders present. I used to be shocked by how little the contestants seemed to know. Like how they didn't know the epidermis was the outermost layer of skin.

But then again, I, having been quite a bit younger than those adults at the time, had learned the facts more recently, and since they were still fresh on my mind, I could recall them easily. Adults cannot remember all that much of what they learned when they were younger, except maybe the subject they teach if they are a teacher. My parents weren't even taught that much biology (there was more focus on physics and chemistry). And it's hard for me to talk to them about science because they learned the terms for things in Chinese, whereas I only know the English words. Well, anyways, there's no guarantee that they remember any history they learned. They still know how to do math, but they use it in their jobs (and in daily life - there is always that stress on "Math is important!") and I make them help me with hard homework problems, which are probably the main reasons for that.

I wonder if all these years of going to school are really worthwhile, then. If we don't remember much of it later on, what use is it to us? Knowledge is power, but if we lose that knowledge, has it not gone to waste? Or is it worth it to go school for other things, like the memories and friends we make? And yet at the same time it can be painful, when friends drift apart or fight and never make up, when friends move away, when you have difficulties in academics or in PE that you can't seem to overcome. When you have a teacher who seems to have a personal grudge against you. (Some of these have not happened to me. But I have drifted apart from friends. And many of my friends have moved away. I am lucky in being able to maintain contact with some of them. But I fear I might never see others ever again, except by some chance encounter. And what if I didn't recognize them? Because we had changed so much in our time apart?)

We still go to school anyways. (It is required by law, so I suppose it isn't much of a choice, but nevertheless...) We still take the good together with the bad. A few people do lose faith, lose hope, want to give up, try to end their lives so they can find an end to it all, have a chance at a fresh start. But as I heard in a school performance about puberty, "Suicide is a permanent solution to what may be only a temporary problem." And I suppose we all still have to keep struggling, keep living, reach out for the things we want, despite all those things that stand in the way, make you experience all the emotions you wished you would never feel again. I think it's something amazing, how there are still little things - and big things - that make it all worth it, that we can all bear our burdens for the sake of something precious.

I am getting awfully sidetracked. But then, that's not necessarily a bad thing. My history teacher was rambling about something that wasn't necessarily related to history, and then a student raised his hand to ask a question. The teacher said with a humph, "Great. You shouldn't interrupt me when I go off on a tangent. Now I feel like teaching again." At this point, we all groaned, since we preferred hearing interesting stories to getting an education. (I mean, hearing stories is a kind of education too, an education in life instead of just in academics.)

We didn't have much to do in science class at the end of the day, so a student said, "Hey, do you want to play Stump the Science Teacher"? The teacher asked how it was played. The student said that it was his goal to ask a question about any kind of science that the teacher would be unable to answer. He asked, "What is cement made up of?" The teacher said, "Well...What kind of cement are you talking about? Different grades of cement are used depending on the purpose. Do you mean our modern cement, or the kind that was made a long time ago in England?" and so on. I think it was more like the teacher stumped the student than the other way around.

Labels: are you smarter than a 5th grader, cement, change, daily, distraction, education, friends, game, life, loss, math, memory, pain, school, science, show, story, teacher, television, waste

The Call of the Wild is a book by Jack London that features a dog called Buck. I can't remember clearly whether I've read the book or not, but I think I might have. It was mentioned in the book Nothing But the Truth by Avi.

I haven't read much of Nothing But the Truth yet. What I do know is that the main character is a boy named Philip Malloy who is not very interested in language arts, and is rather disdainful towards The Call of the Wild. Indeed, he wrote something rather interesting as an answer to a test question. Here's a part from the book.

Question four: What is the significance of Jack London's choice in making Buck, the dog in The Call of the Wild, the focus of his novel? Is the dog meant to be symbolic? Explain your answer. Can people learn from this portrayal of a dog? Expand on these ideas.

Philip's answer: The significance of Buck in Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild is that Buck is symbolic of a cat. You might think that cats have nothing to do with the book, but that is the point. Dogs are willing to sit around and have writers write about them, which, in my personal opinion, makes them dumb. I think cats are smart. Cats don't like cold. A book that takes up so much time about a dog is pretty dumb. The book itself is a dog. That is what people can learn from Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild.

Although I find his response to the question amusing, it does show that he wasn't so serious about the book, and his teacher didn't find it funny at all. If I were to become a teacher, I suppose I might end up having to deal with students like him. I wonder, how would I grade students, if I were a teacher? Would I grade them strictly by set standards, or would I give them points for making me laugh?

Well, speaking of "What if", my teacher asked us an interesting question today. Here is the scenario.

- You are stranded in the desert with a total stranger. (You have never met them, you know nothing about them.)
- You have only enough water to keep one person alive (never mind how long for).
Your choice: Do you drink the water and save yourself, give it to the stranger and save him/her, or do you share the water and BOTH of you die?

Perhaps a person's answer to this question reflects their own values and personality.

I said that I would give all the water to the stranger. I have already seen many beautiful things, for I have traveled far and wide - I was even able to see the city of Sydney, my namesake. And I have seen small but beautiful things in my own hometown. I have also gotten to make friends (even if many of them have moved away, and it is hard to keep in contact, I still have memories, and I will cherish them). I have been able to learn to play instruments and learn to read and write and learn to laugh. I have already made some of my dreams reality. I still have goals I have not achieved, but I have already had so much. And I believe it is more than some people will ever get. If I give them the chance to live, perhaps then they can go on to do those things, to have some happiness.

One of my classmates said, "Well, what if the stranger is a criminal? Then would you want to save them?" I may be flattering myself by saying this, but I think perhaps if I gave them the water, then he/she would be touched by noble sacrifice, and would want to be a better person. He/she could go on to make changes in the world. I want to be able to inspire someone. (Though dying isn't the most ideal way of doing so, it is still a way.) And I can die knowing that I saved someone's life, protected the miracle that is the beating of our hearts.

Labels: avi, book, cat, choice, death, dog, dreams, hypothetical, inspire, laugh, life, memories, nothing but the truth, opinion, question, sacrifice, scenario, teacher, the call of the wild, water

A while back, my science teacher started us on an Astronomy Observation Lab. We were to go outside ten times to look at the moon and draw it. We were given a month to do a project. Spring break overlapped with the time given to do the lab.

My teacher said that if you were going on vacation during the spring break, you could just reorient your map while you were there so you could still do your homework. She said that one student had gone to Chicago and came back saying "I couldn't see the moon." But my teacher says that she's been to Chicago, and the moon is still there. "The moon is a big dude," said my teacher.

I wonder what makes people decide the genders of things. The Earth is called Mother Earth, and nature is called Mother Nature. But people say The Man in the Moon. Whose decision is it to determine the genders of things? I mean, all objects have a gender in French, and I'm curious about that too. There is kind of a way to say "it" in French, but mostly you would refer to "he" or "she". But in English we just refer to things as "it" so frequently. I suppose this is a trait that sets English apart?

One of my classmates mentioned something interesting to me. She says that when she reads Chinese, she just thinks of the Chinese words in her head, but when she reads French, she translates it to English in her mind. My mom says that when you practice a lot, you end up understanding automatically and don't need to translate to English. (When my mom was first learning English, she says she would translate it to Chinese in her head first, but now she can just think of the English words) But I, despite being so unskilled in Chinese, do this too. When I see the Chinese word for the number one (one of the only characters I can read! Yeah!) I think of the Chinese word for it, not "one". So is Chinese just different? Are languages spelled with symbols like this in comparison to languages with the same alphabet in English? That means the languages with English letters make me feel smarter, because I can translate it to English automatically in my head. XD

I was told a rather unsettling thing by someone. On my school trip to Yosemite National Park, we stopped at a town called Los Banos. I was told that it actually means something like "The Bathrooms". Imagine if you were saying that you ate in Los Banos and someone who understood Spanish walked by...

In history class, I and some other students had a presentation about Mormons, irrigation, and Mexican food. One of my group's members said the names of various foods in Spanish. The teacher later said that she pronounced them quite well and asked if she spoke Spanish. The girl said, "No." A classmate said, "But don't you take Spanish? So wouldn't you be able to speak it?" And the teacher said, "Taking Spanish class and being able to speak it are different matters."

I think that is true. People may be learning a language in school, but can they really speak it? I have noticed that sometimes students have trouble actually putting words together even if they know what the words mean, and that speaking the language out loud seems harder than writing it. I heard that you could really learn the language faster if you actually lived in the country of the language you wanted to learn. (My French teacher says we could learn a lot more in just a few months in France than what she could teach in a year because we would be "forced" to adapt to the country and learn French) I'd like to move to another country, experience something different, but I don't know when it will happen. (My mom has suggested having me move to France for a while and live with my aunt's family, but I feel it would be rather stressful with her rambunctious children)

Labels: bathroom, chicago, chinese, country, english, experience, foreign, french, gender, language, learning, los banos, moon, school, science, spanish, speaking, symbol, teacher, translation

I saw my mom reading a Chinese newspaper, a common activity of hers. There was a page featuring, France, Paris in particular, and I saw a picture of a food dish with the words "Au Chien Qui Fume" under it. I said, "Oh, it must be something like a dog who smokes." My mom read the Chinese translation and said I was right about that. She seemed a little surprised. Well, I guess learning French is doing some good at last. (I mean, I really can't read Chinese...)

Au Chien Qui Fume is the name of a restaurant in the Paris. See if you can understand anything on their website. XD I can vaguely read it...And considering that whoever is reading this right now understands English, you could probably guess at some of the words.

I recently heard that there was some regulation being passed in France saying that you couldn't smoke in restaurants anymore, I believe it was Paris in particular... So then people went outside to smoke. However, some restaurants are open late at night (bars too, I guess?) and so the smokers outside make noise. People who live upstairs above the restaurants get annoyed by it and have complained so restaurants/bars had to close at an earlier time. This made people upset, saying something along the lines of, "It's Paris! The city of lights! And now you're taking this away from us!"

You know, I've always wondered why countries where people smoke seem to have such long average lifespans. France and Japan are both countries where there are quite a few smokers and yet the average life expectancy is quite high in both countries. Perhaps other factors like diet end up outweighing it? (My parents actually question whether smoking is bad, but I don't think that is debatable. I mean, if nothing else, it makes your breath smell bad.)

Friday, being the closest day to Valentine's that we were in school (next week is a week off!), was the day Singing Valentines were going on. Just to get you up to speed if you don't have that at your school, a Singing Valentine is something that you can buy for a few dollars from the school for a friend or significant other. The recipient will be sung to by students from the school choir, as well as a card from the sender and a piece of candy. I didn't send any this year, because I really wasn't thinking about it at all, but one of my friends did send me one.

One of my teachers was sick of all the Singing Valentines. At first I was shocked by his attitude since the singers had probably practiced their songs and choreography, and anyways it's easy for me to respect those better than myself at something, but then my teacher said that during third period, there were 9 Singing Valentines. That's a lot of singing. In my period, one student got 2 Singing Valentines.

There were various groups of students, like a group of people wearing white shirts, ties, and red hats, a group of people with pink outfits and fairy wings, a group of people with plaid shirts, and a group of pizza deliverers. I liked the pizza group the best because I liked their songs. (And they were unique since they had two guys in the group...I bet those were the only two guys in the school choir. It's kind of sad how there's such a huge difference between the number of girls and guys. I wonder if it's any different in high school.)

Speaking of high school, it is really starting to loom near for me. On Thursday, I went to the high school that I will most likely be attending to listen to presentations about science, math, and language arts (since history isn't offered for freshmen, there was no presentation for that) and to get information about the electives offered at the school. My dad says the teachers there are pretty cool, like college professors. I am not sure what to think of this because I'm not that sure about what college professors are "supposed" to be like.

Anyways, the school newspaper looked pretty cool. It was pretty different from my school's newspaper, that's for sure. Does four years really make that much difference? My school's newspaper was fairly amusing - the bad advice column was great - but now it's not even there anymore because Journalism was cut from the electives (Not enough money! Not enough students! UGH!). The articles in my school's newspaper weren't all that long most of the time and some of them were just kind of unexciting, corny descriptions of school dances and rallies. But the high school's newspaper talked about actual issues, and showed the car accidents that have happened. There were also pictures of the crossing guards, which I thought was nice - they should be recognized for their work.

I wonder if I should take Journalism when I reach 11th or 12th grade? I've always worried that it would be really hard work, having to stay after school and interview people and slave away typing articles on laptops. I guess I'm just really lazy and fearful of hard work. I can't always stay this way... (As much as I'd like to retire, it's simply not that likely to happen in the near future. I'll have to get used to studying or working for long hours and dealing with more burdens over time)

Labels: au chien qui fume, chinese, choir, french, gender, group, hard work, high school, journalism, lifespan, newspaper, paris, restaurant, singing, smoking, teacher, valentines, website

My mother has it. It's because she dyes her hair. She is not pleased with the grey hairs that keep showing up, so she dyes them once in a while. I have told her not to dye it anymore. I think it would be beautiful if her hair became completely silver and if she grew it out long, like my science teacher (well, not that my science teacher is beautiful, no offense intended to her...But who knows how she looked in her youth?).

Hair dye reminds me of the Studio Ghibli movie, Howl's Moving Castle, one of my all-time favorite movies of time. You know, I'd like to say that even if a movie is animated, it doesn't mean it's not worth watching. (I liked the movie Up, too, and Finding Nemo as well. All those movies have some hidden messages in them, be sure to pay attention to that too)

There's a scene where Howl, a magician who lives in a big, mechanical, moving structure powered a by a demon (the demon's name is Calcifer, and he appears to be a fire), was taking a bath when his hair changed colors. It was because Sophie, a main character of the movie (she was a girl, but a witch cast a spell on her that made her become an old lady) was cleaning the bathroom and probably mixed up the chemicals. Howl's hair turned red, which devastated him, as he had previously had a nice blond shade of hair. He started to moan about how life wasn't worth living if he wasn't beautiful. Then Sophie got upset and said, "I've never been beautiful!" and stormed out. Later on, Howl's hair darkened to black.

I often wonder during the film if Sophie has low self esteem or something. She always seems to think she is ugly even though she isn't. SPOILER! Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want it to be spoiled for those of you who haven't watched the movie. But there is one scene where Howl tells Sophie her hair looks like starlight, which I think is a very nice simile. Sophie seemed to appreciate the compliment, unlike a different time. There was one scene where Howl gave Sophie a gift, beautiful meadows and water. It was a place where he had spent his childhood. Sophie was pleased at first, but soon became saddened, saying she thought this meant Howl was going to leave. She said she wanted to help him, even though she was only good at cleaning. Howl tried to tell her that she was beautiful, but she didn't accept it. She just said, "The good thing about being old is that you don't have anything to lose." But I wonder if that is really true.

Well, anyhow, though many of the Studio Ghibli films are quite nice, I still like Howl's Moving Castle the best. It was based off a book, but I haven't read the book. I actually checked out the book from the library once. However, since I always read books (and eat food, too) in the order of least favorite to most favorite, I didn't get around to it, and unfortunately had to return it. Perhaps I should request it from the library. (But I would like to get one of the newer copies that has the Howl's Moving Castle movie picture on it...)

So I've been wondering, has anyone read the Howl's Moving Castle book? If so, is it similar to the movie? Or is it a lot different? If the book is really good, I would like to read it. (Usually I either read the book/manga for something or watch the movie/anime for it, and occasionally both. But I'd rather spend my time reading books/manga that don't have movies, and watch movies that don't have books or anime)

It amazes me that I haven't really talked much about Howl's Moving Castle before in my blog. Perhaps it was because I watched it in the theaters, back in fourth grade or so, and it became far from my memory because I was distracted by other things. I'm glad I found it again, though. I never get tired of watching good movies and anime. Do you have a movie or show that you love so much you don't get bored of it?

Labels: animated film, anime, beauty, books, boredom, calcifer, cleaning, colors, grey, hair dye, hayao miyazaki, howl, howl's moving castle, movie, old, sophie, studio ghibli, teacher

My dad recently decided to remind me of what he wanted on his gravestone when he died. He said, "A gardener, a wife, and a father."
"Huh? A wife?" I asked, bemused.
"No! I meant a husband!" (Forgetting his gender, perhaps? Or just not paying enough attention to what he's saying?)

I think he is becoming old and forgetful. He nearly lost his wallet today, but luckily was able to retrieve it. I thought it had probably gotten stolen, but luckily that wasn't the case. Imagine how dangerous it would've been if credit cards, driver's license, and money had all been stolen. -_-;;

Recently I got a new camera, except this was a Canon one. I couldn't understand why the image looked fuzzy in the image window and I was pretty confused about how to use it. Then my dad told me to read an instruction manual which he had opened up on the computer. He was all pleased with himself, saying, "I never read the instructions, but I read them this time. If you had read the manual in the first place, you would've had known how to use the camera."

I'd like to remind you all how important it is to read instructions. Sometimes I slip up on test questions or homework just because I didn't pay careful attention to the instructions. (I'm usually too impatient to bother reading thoroughly, so if I'm reading the instructions for something, like a game, I often just skim through it)

I was looking at the TV screen and there was some commercial for Etrade. There were some babies talking, except with voices that were like adult voices, not baby voices (a dub, I suppose). I didn't really understand the commercial. Nowadays I really don't understand most television commercials. A lot of money is spent on advertising, so...Doesn't it go to waste if the people watching television don't even understand what the commercials are trying to say?

But I feel like money is often squandered nowadays in general. A lot of teachers at my school have document cameras. my science teacher's document camera didn't seem to be working properly last time she tried to use it. Isn't it a waste of money, then?

And earlier today, my parents and I walked to the campus a local high school, which I will probably be attending when I move up to high school. Some gates were locked, but we did find a way into the school. (Isn't it pointless to lock some parts of the school and not the others? I know they wanted to leave doors open so the people who play sports on the weekend can get in, but if they're going to do that, why not leave all the gates open? It is considered to be an "open campus", after all (so students can even leave the school to have lunch elsewhere).

My mom wanted to get a feel for the campus, so we walked around peering in the windows. The main office looked pretty nice. It seemed spacious, the chairs looked cool, and there were fancy nameplates... And yet the brick walls of the school look like they aren't in such good condition. (But the school is forty years old, so I suppose I should expect it) And the desks seemed kind of small. I wonder how the money is being spent.

The campus was pretty big, though, bigger than expected. I think my mom thought there were too many classrooms. I was looking at the names of the teachers. I thought they were pretty interesting names. I saw "Birdsong" on one classroom and "Goldenkranz" on another.

I was considering becoming a teacher. I think elementary school might be good, but not kindergarten or first grade (a little too young). Perhaps third grade or fifth grade? By then people are pretty aware of things, and still pretty innocent, untouched by the worries of the world. But if I were to teach high school or college, a lot of students would be taller than I was, which would be pretty intimidating. (I know I shouldn't let size put me off, but it is inconvenient being short. You have to be careful to make sure drivers see you or they'll run you over.)

Labels: camera, canon, commercial, condition, document camera, forgetful, gravestone, instructions, locked, money, name, office, open campus, school, short, teacher, television, wallet

Last week, in math class, we watched a video called Donald in Mathmagic Land. It's an old Disney movie featuring Donald Duck which shows how math shows up in our lives.

The movie showed how music is actually based off of math. I believe it was Pythagoras, whom the Pythagorean Theorem is named after. He found out that to go an octave higher, you simply divide the length of a string in half. Different lengths of string would create different sounds/notes (C, D, E, F, and also the sharps and flats) Pythagoras's discovery then became the basis for the instrument we know as the harp.

Also, the film showed how math is used in nature. Many flowers had five petals, designed to look like a star, or a pentagon. And snails and other animals with shells had a spiraling shape, which is also mathematical.

Even people who play pool (otherwise known as billiards) use math. There are little markings all along the perimeter of the pool table. Some experts use those markings to decide how to shoot, and it also helps them to see where the ball will go.

It's a little hard to explain it in words. If you're bored one day and have a half hour of time, I suggest you go on Youtube and search for "Donald in Mathmagic Land". It seems that the movie can be watched on Youtube. It's pretty good considering that the movie was from 1959 or so.

Enough about mathematics itself...And on to math class. My teacher said that this morning he walked by and saw some students doing PE. They were having their pull-up tests on the metal bars we have at my school. He said that at our age, we're supposed to be at our athletic prime, and so he found it funny watching people who look buff struggling and struggling to do a single pull-up. They would strain and kick their legs but they wouldn't go up. But at least there were some people who could do lots of pull-ups, which sort of made up for it. Apparently, one guy said, "I'm so proud that I have a ripped friend," since one of his friends could do 15 pull-ups.

Lately, my dad has been really busy at work. He's practically working two jobs since he's still doing his old job and kind of doing another job too. He doesn't want to be a manager anymore. I was outraged because I think that being a manager is a good job. Before, my dad didn't seem to work much and he was being paid a reasonable amount. But my dad says that now his company is really getting their money's worth out of him since he's really working hard. I'm kind of worried because he looks tired. That's why I think he should go back to being a manager, just that, like the old days, so he can be relaxed.

My mother is also having troubles with work, but a different kind. She was moved downstairs (her cubicle used to be on the second floor of her office building). Now she's right near the door, which is both convenient (shorter walk to and from her car) and also annoying. There is a vent or something above her cubicle which has air coming out of it. My mom complained about it but it still seems to be blowing (she hung up something and it moves because of the breeze). She says she can't concentrate at work because of the breeze. Unfortunately, she hasn't been successful in getting to move to a different location yet.

The last time I visited my mother's office, we were going back to the building after lunch when we saw a person smoking. It was pretty close to the door. Ironically, there was a sign on the door that said "No Smoking within 20 feet of the building" or something like that. But the person was not that far from the building. I hope the smoke from his cigarette is not blowing into the building when the door opens... After all, it's bad enough to smoke, but it's much, much worse if you smoke in a place with other people. If you made a bad decision and start smoking, it becomes your loss, but if you smoke around other people then they could get lung cancer when they've never given into peer pressure or somehow or other picked up a cigarette.

I am still finding cigarettes around the school. It's probably not from the teachers because one of my old teachers says that if you smoke, you've pretty much ruined your chances of becoming a teacher...At least at elementary school, and perhaps also middle school. Where did the cigarettes come from, then? Is it from those people who come here on the weekends? (I didn't know those older boys who play basketball smoked, but you never know. We find old Gatorade bottles and gum stuck to benches...) I find it unlikely that middle school students would be smoking, but there are always snakes in the grass...

Labels: air, billiards, building, cigarette, disney, donald in mathmagic land, job, manager, middle school, movie, music, pool, pull-ups, pythagoras, school, smoking, strength, teacher, work, youtube

It's supposed to be a play on the title of a movie, No Country for Old Men. Not sure if you caught the reference, though. (I haven't seen the movie either.)

The old man in particular is my father. (No offense intended to him, but he is getting on in his age.) My math teacher sends newsletters to the parents of his students about what he's been teaching, and lets them know about upcoming tests. My dad had stopped receiving the newsletters, so I brought a piece of paper to the teacher with the information needed for him to resume sending emails.

My father's memory and concentration seems to be off, because he didn't write his email address properly (missed three letters of it) and the teacher told me, "This email doesn't work." It's kind of sad that my dad doesn't even know his own email. (It's true that I sometimes forget my passwords, but that's because I keep so many of them.)

I wonder if anyone really writes letters anymore. I mean, my parents said they used to send Christmas cards, years back, but they don't any longer. (In fact, they don't really send Christmas e-cards either, which could mean they are losing their holiday spirit or are just getting lazy.) I remember when I was younger sometimes we would have a pen pal activity - each person would write a short letter to a person in another school that they were paired up with. I remember that it was a lot of fun...But we usually only exchanged one or two letters, and that's about it. It'd be much better if we could send them actively all year long. It might help improve our letter writing skills and it would be fun.

Today, my history teacher started talking about how us students aren't taking the opportunities that are given to us to sharpen our skills. He said that many kids are members of social networking sites and use instant messengers, but often they use chatspeak and don't bother to capitalize or punctuate properly. When they do add punctuation, it's probably a bunch of exclamation points. My teacher said that he had practiced typing and gotten really fast at it. But here we have plenty of chances to practice what with the time we spend on the computer, and yet we don't take it. (Reminds of this quote: "Opportunity comes knocking more than once. You just have to ready for it." I think it was in an old school planner)

I spent time in two different history teachers' classrooms recently - my regular history teacher, and another one who I've never had before. The reason is the rain...My PE teacher decided he would teach us about the cons of smoking, alcohol, and drugs while the weather was bad. We would go to that teacher's room (let's call him Mr. T) since it was his prep period (each teacher has one period where they don't teach, but are supposed to be making preparations for class or grading tests). Mr. T seemed to eat a lot of the kind of food called Cup Noodles.

Today my PE teacher left two minutes early, leaving us in the "care" of Mr. T, because he needed to go to the classroom for the next PE class (he uses a different classroom each period since the teachers have different prep periods). Mr. T decided to ask us what we had learned during our time of having PE inside.

Student: I learned that D talks a lot. (D stands for a different student's name)
Mr. T: You didn't know that before?
You know what's really amazing? D talks so much, but none of what comes out of his mouth has any meaning. The ratio of how much he speaks to how much of it is important is staggering.

Mr. T had brought in some food today, as well, in Whole Foods bags. Someone said they had seen cake and pizza. "What happened to your diet, Mr. T?" piped up D. (I did hear that Mr. T wanted to lose weight...) Mr. T said, "Hey, I'm fairly skinny, right?" (Well, I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But he ought not to have that attitude. Otherwise, the pounds will pile up again.)

Labels: christmas card, cup noodles, diet, email, father, letter, memory, newsletter, no country for old men, opportunity, password, PE class, pen pal, practice, skills, talkative, teacher, typing, weight

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