I've heard the saying, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." I'm not sure if the man here refers to humans in general or just men, but I have certainly been quite fond of food lately.

Ever since we got home from the cruise ship, I seem to be hungry at the oddest times of day. I would wake up, at, say, 1 or 2 in the morning, and would feel the urge to eat something. Last night it took me a while to get to sleep (in fact, I'm not quite certain that I slept), and woke up at around 5 in the morning. I was rather drowsy at first, but I actually don't feel that tired from waking up early. Perhaps I should make this a habit. (It's funny how after taking a nap you often feel more tired than you did before napping, for instance.)

Once it was around 11, I paid a visit to the library I usually visit before going to another town to visit the San Jose Library, West Valley branch. I've only been here once before (at least in my memory) but I liked it a lot, although I have trouble navigating it. It seems to be quite the bustling place. There were a bunch of kids, and I noticed that they had Nintendo DS. (What's the plural form for DS? Is it just DS or is it DSes, or is it DSs?) I discovered that there's this room called the Teen Space, and on the wall there's a poster of Haruhi Suzumiya, as well as some drawings from people who are apparently part of a manga and anime club. I thought to myself, "Hey, it might be interesting to join, and I can get my drawings put up on the wall..."

But anyways, since there were apparently ramen shops nearby, we went searching for one which an acquaintance of my dad had mentioned. We found that it was inside a Japanese supermarket. That ramen shop is part of a chain of stores, so we've actually eaten there before (in Japan). But instead of being a restaurant, here you place your order and wait for your number to be called so you can pick up trays with your food on them and find a seat amongst the various tables.

It was the supermarket which interested me in particular. There was an Andersen Bakery inside the supermarket. My mom used to buy me this bread that has custard on it. It's quite delicious. When I was looking around, I saw that there was melon-pan (melon bread) being sold! (It's a bit different from usual, it doesn't look like the usual melon bread. Instead it apparently has cookie dough on the top. But it's quite delicious nevertheless.

I was very excited getting to hear people speaking Japanese. (I should get used to it already, but I can't seem to help it.) I could hear people saying "Irrashaimase!", which means "Welcome", and "Okage desu ka?" (I think that's what I heard, but I don't remember clearly. I forget what it means.) And there was a girl sitting at a table eating her lunch, and she kept saying, "Okashi daiyo" which I believe means something like, "It's strange." But I have no idea what exactly was strange.

I sampled some dango and looked at the sushi and rice balls. It's really quite thrilling to see the foods that you've seen in anime or manga in real life. It's like confirmation that fiction really is based off actual things and happenings. I was on the cruise ship watching a comedy juggler perform and he pulled the tablecloth off a table in one swift motion. The plates and utensils on the table didn't fall off of it. I saw this same thing executed in the anime Kuroshitsuji. I'd like to try it too (although I don't want to risk breaking my plates).

Labels: andersen bakery, anime, bread, cruise ship, food, japanese, kuroshitsuji, library, manga, melon, pan, ramen, show, sleep, supermarket, trick

I was just reading the February 2010 edition of Reader's Digest magazine. (Apparently we only received this issue recently, which is odd. I mean, it's long past February now. I guess they forgot to send it to us before.) This time the magazine had a focus on ways to lose weight and the attitudes of people in various countries about being fat.

Regarding France, many families eat together every night, much more than the percentage in the USA out of people surveyed. And the meals in France are quite long. My French teacher told us that the lunchtime at French schools is about two hours long, so school ends late, like 5:00 pm or so. It's such a long lunch that you might even be able to go home and take a nap (just as long as you got up in time to return to school).

Actually, the longer the meal, the less you eat, given that you talk to someone while eating. If you're holding a conversation while eating, then you don't eat as quickly, compared to when you're focused on eating (as I tend to be). That pretty much explains why eating lunch or dinner seems to take so much longer when my parents are eating with their friends.

In this way, you end up not eating as much even though you supposedly would be spending more time talking. By talking, you have to slow down your eating (unless you eat and talk at the same time, which is disgusting and can also result in choking or food coming out). It's a good strategy, but it does take up time, which is a valuable resource that is impossible to replace.

But the opposite - that less is more - is also true, when it comes to swimming pools. Blackberry Farm, a place of recreation in my town, has its pool open during the warmer months. There's a discount on Sunday evenings (after 5:00 pm), I believe, so my mother and I went to the pool.

My mom had thought it wouldn't be crowded because she figured not many people would know about the pool, but she turned out to be wrong. It was quite crowded. Still, we figured that since we bothered to come we should go and swim. I suppose that less money needed to go swimming means more people flock to the pool.

The deepest section, 6 feet deep, was the one with the least amount of people. (This is an instance of "more is less" - the deeper the water, the smaller the amount of people in it.) The shallower sections were mostly occupied by parents teaching their children to swim.

It brought back my memories of the time when I was still struggling with swimming. My mom and I would go to the YMCA pool because we used to have a membership there. My mom would tell me to do four paces of Freestyle or something like that. It had been difficult for me then. Sometimes I choked on water and became very upset. I used to resent swimming. I feared water. Even showering was something I disliked because I might get water in my eyes. Now I don't fear the pool anymore. I guess the toils and trouble turned out to be worth it.

Labels: conversation, deep, fear, fight, france, lunch, magazine, meal, pool, readers digest, shower, struggle, swimming, time, trick, water, weight, YMCA

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

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

Yes, you heard me right. Magic is based on math! So says my math teacher.

I know this is the third post in a row mentioning him, but there's always something or other happening in his class. xD Today we were having short class periods at school because we had an assembly. There's been a lot of anti-bullying activities going on at my school these days, and so we had an assembly. I believe I have been to them in the previous two years I've been at this school, too. This year the theme was Balance of Power. It was talking about how people pushed others down so they would tip the balance to their side, but in this way, the other person loses... And stuff like that.

I'd say the most meaningful part of that assembly (which was basically two woman coming and playing a premade video on a huge screen formed by three separate screens) was near the end, when a man who had no legs and arms was in the video. Even though he has no limbs, he can still do things like surf and play golf and he travels around and speaks to people. I thought it was amazing that you can do so much with yourself even with such difficulties as that. And there was something that he said...Not sure exactly, but I think it was something like this. "There's no point in being complete on the outside if you're broken on the inside." (I really wish I had clearly remembered his name so I could attribute it to him...All I remember is that it was Nick something... o_O;; )

Anyways, though, let me get back to the whole point of this post. Since the classes were so short, we didn't learn the next lesson in geometry today, but instead the teacher showed us a card trick which he was practicing for his next class. He would pick a card from his deck. Let me explain...If he got an 8, he would put two more cards on top of it. Then he'd make a second pile. Maybe if he picked a 3, he would put seven more on top. (If he picked a King, Jack, or Queen, then he'd just put it back or put it aside) He'd make, say, eight piles like that. Then he would take away five of the piles. And he would flip over the top card of two of the three remaining piles. If he got a 4 and a 9, then he would take 13 cards from the five piles that he'd take away. And then... Ack! I forget the rest! Now all I remember is that he flips over the the first card of the only pile he has not turned over the first card of, and he would get a number that he had already expected to get.

My teacher says that this works because of algebra, so if we want to figure it out, we can give it a try at home. He showed the trick twice, so it's not luck, anyhow.

Before I forget, I heard some good news on the announcements at school today. One of the counselors, Mrs. Brown, said that they had decided to make an exception and allow us to wear masks. (See previous post, about the guardian angel and such, for more info) Just so as long as I don't wear it in class - it might creep the teacher out - it's fine to bring it. Mrs. Brown also talked about some events going on tomorrow in celebration of Halloween. (In fact, the long run that was planned in PE class was moved to Monday so we can wear our costumes. They want to encourage school spirit, and all) She said to watch out for her husband, Mr. Brown, because he was good at bobbing for apples. Hmm. I've never actually bobbed for apples. I've only read about it in kids' books and stuff.

Labels: assembly, balance of power, bobbing for apples, bullying, card, classes, complete, good news, halloween, handicap, magic, mask, quote, school events, trick, useful, video, week

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