Blog #70

today we experienced trickier road conditions. The good thing is, the snow is no longer powdery and perfect for making snowballs. When school was over, we had a huge snowball fight on the way home. In school, though, I got hang of my drums part for Jingle Bells jazz, and I realized that it wasn't hard at all, and the main reason for my poor performance last time was the last owner of the sheet music's confusing scribblings. the science class was really boring. It seems Ms Kot was struggling to find something for us to do. We just did some note-scribbling out of the textbook. the english period was a mess. In our play group, Obert went spasmodic for the entire period and disrupted our planning for the play.

Blog #69

Today, I observed icier conditions as I walked to school. I think that the school board is making a huge mistake. Now it is actually extremely dangerous. I witnessed a car stuck in snow again today. the sand on the icy surfaces helped my walk a bit. around the school, everything is going on as per usual. The snow started again in the afternoon. Now, a thin layer of powdery snow has covered the already slippery surfaces.
In the morning we handed in our SS projects. We have started prewriting on the advantages and disadvantages of armed rebellion and rebellion of thought.
then we got on to AS, during which I used the time to catch up with some of my assignments.
The math class comprises, as usual, mr. nakamoto's endless anecdotes.
Finally, we cheered for the grade 8's in the indoor track meets, although I was more willing to go outside into the snow.

Blog #68

Today we had band in the morning and I got a really hard drums part for a jazz christmas piece. The previous owner had many poor notes on the sheet music, and I couldn't understand a thing.
In French we had an extremely easy listening test, and then we worked on our presentations. The presentations are on French clothing. We are to do a fashion show.
In the afternoon, I found all the chemicals I needed for my Science Fair project, which is about how pesticides can cause genetic defects in plant cells.
Finally, in English, we started a productive rehearsal session on another play that we're going to do.

Blog #67

Today I was astounded to find out that school is still open despite so much snow and harsh traffic conditions. I remember in Grade 6 that they closed all the schools due to snow as well. And the snow then was almost the same, if not less, than this one. On my way to school ( I was late 10 minutes because I thought there wasn't going to be school) I noticed that there was snow everywhere covering the sidewalks and that a van had already gotten stuck in the snow.
The day was just another normal day 2. As we walked back home after school, we "snowfought" as we walked along, and my hands were numb when I came home.

Blog #66

WHEEE! it's snowing! It snowed 10-20 more centimeters today, and everything is coated by a thick layer of snow. Yesterday, I had to go to an away hockey game in Burnaby in the snow, and it was horrible. The game was a tie, and the car had a thick layer on top of it when we got back to the car after the game. We had to scrub it off using my hockey stick.
Today, I took a stroll to the churchill field in the snow, and found a vast plain of unspoiled snow. I took some pictures, and went back home, where I prepared for the next day's work.

Blog #65

Today I finished making my little science gadget. It is an articifial lung, and it demonstrates how air pressure forces air in and out of our lungs. It is a very good way to understand the intricacies of respiration. I made it using a plastic bottle, two balloons and a straw.
Then, as I walked home from my piano lesson, it started snowing very heavily. Lawns are covered with a thin blanket of snow. I still have a hockey game starting at 9:30 PM at Riley Rink today, and it looks like i'll have to leave very early today in expectation of the road conditions. I started watching Pride and Prejudice on DVD. It is an excellent and famous story.

Blog #64

Today, we had another work period in Socials on our map project. We've had so much time to work on it in class now, and it's no surprise that it is supposed to be due next week. In Mr. Olson's class, everyone kind of slacked off again. I took advantage of the time to earn some marks on the SS forum, since I did not have enough time to post on the Current Events.

In Math, we talked about solving Simultaneous equations, and much more. Mr. Nakamoto started telling us stories about his "good old days", and that took almost half a class. He always does this in class.

finally, our class had a basketball tournament against mr. McGillivray's team, and we defeated them overall by a score of 10 games to 6.

Blog #63

In the morning I spent 2 and a half hours writing a huge Canadian Open Math Contest. It is not just the average multiple choice contest. We have to show every step of our proofs, and even if we get the right answer, we can still lose part marks. I guess that's what the 2 and half hours were for. good thing is, lunch was right after the contest, so I got to recharge.
I watched a B&W movie of "To kill a mockingbird" right after I got home. It featured the excellent acting of Gregory Peck. I also watched the bonus feature disk which featured Gregory Peck and it explored his life, his family, and his films. I enjoyed it very much.

Blog #63

In the morning I spent 2 and a half hours writing a huge Canadian Open Math Contest. It is not just the average multiple choice contest. We have to show every step of our proofs, and even if we get the right answer, we can still lose part marks. I guess that's what the 2 and half hours were for. good thing is, lunch was right after the contest, so I got to recharge.
I watched a B&W movie of "To kill a mockingbird" right after I got home. It featured the excellent acting of Gregory Peck. I also watched the bonus feature disk which featured Gregory Peck and it explored his life, his family, and his films. I enjoyed it very much.

Blog #62

Today, we continued working on our SS projects in class, and Mr. Sale extended the due date to next week!
In AS, everyone slacked off again since there were no presentations.
In the afternoon, we had a math test, which was extremely hard and which I am confident I aced. finally in P.E., we played basketball for the entire class. It's one of those days that has nothing new or interesting.
I have to leave for my band performance soon.

Blog #61

Today I stayed in my hockey gear for the entire morning until 1 o'clock. I had to get up at 9 and get all dressed for my team photo shoot at Kitsilano rink. It was hectic there. I swear there was more the 300 people dodging around to find their teams. After that, I had a game at another rink, and I didn't bother to change because there was just 1 hour between the two events. Good thing is, our team won 7-1, and we are now on a 3-game win streak!

I got all my homework done this weekend, and it was really annoying to receive so many MSN messages from my classmates for help on virtually every subject. Some of them even got extreme and demanded that I do a certain portion of the English project for them!!! How worse can it get?

Blog #60

I had an extremely busy morning. We had band first and then French. We had to copy 4 pages of each other's work for "discussion". It was painstaking and dull work, and it took me til lunch.
Speaking of lunch, I never even had lunch. I had to take the SS test I missed last friday. But it was surprisingly easy, and I still got time to quickly finish my lunch.

Blog #59

Today we had a counsellor give a presentation about gambling. We learned some interesting facts about gambling in BC and we familiarized ourselves with the signs of problem gambling.
It was a very interesting presentation, and I felt more informed about gambling in BC.
In the afternoon, I found the presentations very informative. I was able to grasp the meanings of the concepts.

Blog #58

Today I finished editing my PowerPoint Presentation using the Bloom perspective. I also watched the movie version of Animal Farm by George Orwell. It accurately reflects the happenings in the book, and the animation is simply fantastic. It also adds more satire to the story.
I also received notice that my hockey team is heading to the Okanagan for a tournament in Spring Break. This is awesome news, because we get to stay at a nice hotel for 2 days and play hockey.

Blog #57

Today I headed to Port Coquitlam for a game with a Port Coquitlam team. Obviously, we traveled a long way there just to completely dominate. We were always in the lead, and I got numerous assists. We ended up thrashing them 8-2.

Blog #56

Today I watched an awesome movie called Death on the Nile. It was an entertaining detective story. In the end, the most unsuspected people were actually the murderers. The movie had an extremely well-developed plot, and the ending was fabulous with the revellations of what really happened.

Blog #55

Today I went to an inspiring Youth Leaders conference at VSB. We were trained in our leadership skills such as problem solving, public speaking, and speech writing. Our mentors were very enthusiastic, and they showed us pictures and videos of their work in Africa and other countries in abject proverty, helping to build schools and communities. We were very interested in the Build A Village project, and are planning to take this action plan to the school where it will be carried out. I had an awesome learning experience today.

Blog #54

Today we went to the IB conference in the morning. This conference served as a welcome for the IB World admins who are holding their meetings here. I found the skits and the speeches very interesting and well-planned. It is unfortunate some minor glitches occured, or else they would have been perfect.
My teeth hurt extremely badly today. All I could think about is the contant intense and numbing throbbing pain in my teeth. The next phase in my orthodontics procdedure had begun (which is basically shoving all the teeth together), and it involves moving the roots of the teeth horizontally to a more suitable postition. The pain, however intense, is still less than the excruciating pain I felt when my teeth were extracted in the first place.

Blog #53

Today we got to see the transit of Mercury in front of the sun. Personally, I think these astronomical milestones and cycles must be observed because they are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the sight of it is just so grand and beautiful.
The presentations today are of much better quality than the ones before. They involved some higher levels of Bloom thinking.

Blog #52

my hockey game yesterday was one of the poorest ones yet in the season. poorest as in poor refereeing: the refs called about 5 unjust penalties, and ruled out more goals.

Ms. Densford told us of an IB World administrative meeting that's going to take place in the auditorium in churchill on thursday. Usually, the meeting takes place at some fancy building in Geneva, Switzerland, but this year is an exception in that it takes place in a high school. The reason the meeting is being held here is because Churchill is one of the best IB World Schools. I am excited about going to this meeting.

Blog #51

Today, we watched the first set of presentations on physics. I learned about Gravity, the Doppler Effect, and the theory of relativity. The presenters failed to have me understand some of the more complicated concepts, which were the core of their presentation. I am not surprised, though, because many of the topics are extremely complex and abstract, and some are taught at university-level courses.

Blog #50

Today I did some math homework in the morning, and then headed to my practice in the afternoon. It was very tiring, because we had to do about 30 slapshots against the boards for practice
I also finished reading (in one day) an excellent short novel called Animal Farm by George Orwell. First I thought it was for preschool kids. Then, as I read on, I realized the many many examples of stinging satire aimed at governments and politics and beyond. The story was set in a farm, and many of its characters were farm animals who could talk and think at a very profound level. At first, the animals, full of hatred toward their farm owner, rebelled. They succeeded in driving out Mr. Jones, the farmer, and took over the farm themselves. However, one of their leaders, a pig named Napoleon slowly took over and changed the farm into a totalitarian regime (not surprising, since Orwell wrote the book when the memories of world war II were still fresh).

Blog #49

Today, I made a list of all the things I HAVE to get done before Monday. I find that creating checklists is a good way to keep me on task. I made my list as detailed as possible (e.g. do research on robert cecil for english project, minimum 2 pages).

Blog #48

Today, I went to the dissection club meeting the morning. After having dissected an earthworm last week, we started on a squid this time. It was really interesting to see how simple the insides of a squid was. I got permission to keep the "ink pen" of the squid, which was a transparent piece of cartilage that resembled a quill. It was where the squid stored its black ink.
The other highlight of the day was getting a online database research session with Ms. Shipley in English. I got to use the many databases that the school paid for, and found them tons more helpful than Google. When I go on google, I feel a certain degree of suspiscion towards many articles. The ones in the database are all published and approved, and all that can be inaccurate is bias. I will utilize the databases first thing whenever I have a project.

Blog #47

So many good news today. First of all, my dad's employer, after seeing my excellent service on the Take Our Kids to Work day, invited me to join the company part-time in the summer. My dad said that the salary is going to be at least $12 an hour for my kind of job (minimum for co-op). I'll have to start learning accounting basics and how to use many kinds of programs. If I do earn that kind of money, I plan to donate them to our school band.
Then, tonight's hockey game: our team owned the opponent. We were never behind, and the final score was 8-1 for us. This is my best game of the season so far. I picked up two assists and kept our team on the offensive.

Blog #46

I had a fun day at my dad's workplace today. After having a cup of Seattle's Best coffee from the coffee machine, I faxed hundreds of invoices to client companies located across the states. I hope I punched in all the fax numbers correctly, but if I made a mistake, it's no surprise, because hundreds of faxes (it is true that there were hundreds, but due to the confidential nature of the exact number, I will not disclose) is a lot. I also managed statements of the company's transactions with airlines. I found out that there many agents travelling across the states trying to make deals with other companies. Naturally, there would a long list of transaction for their flight tickets. I had to create a spreadsheet that recorded everything from the flight number to the GST, and that took a long time. I was all tired after that.
My dad's colleagues were very grateful for my help, saying that they wouldn't have finished it without me. They even wanted me to have a part-time job there to help out during the busy summer months. (My dad later told me that the task I was assigned to was due today and they would have had to work a couple hours overtime to get it done was it not for me).

It was a very tiring day, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.