152

Today the Storytelling session in English was somewhat productive, for we had come up with a list of themes. I chose the theme of how our secondary school got its name from Churchill.
In science, we continued our "research" on our group projects on one of the planets in our solar system. The mac computer was a nuisance in two ways: first, it wasn't really good with word processing, because the controls and formatting layouts are very hard to implement. Secondly, there are many other "features" of the mac that can be quite distracting. Our group got a reasonable bit done on the planet "Jupiter" (a nice 2001: A space odyssey theme in there).

151

Today we took an initial look at YPI. It turned out to be a much more complex project than I had expected, and I look forward to this experience.
We also had the socials test, which was a lot easier than I had expected. It merely tested our "knowledge" of the important concepts, not our "comprehension, extension, or evaluation" of these historical events. For example, we could all easily "memorize" in which year Napoleon was crowned emperor. But if we took a closer look at the basis Napoleon's conquests and diplomatic relations, it really turns out to be very interesting. We can therefore apply reason to figuring out what led to his downfall, etc. It would be nice if there were questions targeted toward that area, to encourage us to think just a bit over the textbook boundaries.

150

Today we finished the Cars movie in AS. We explored some themes presented in the movie such as the loss of the individual and the tendency of people to try to merge into collective groups. Similar phenomena as the one presented in the movie are occurring everywhere. This new trend of mankind can be explained by many factors. First of all, we are in the information age. This means we are inclined to organize things more, and coming together as a single global community. In the past, the world was a whole bunch of detached communities with no sense of globalization. Of course, the replacement of many community-based restaurants and other facilities by huge chains sporting the same kind of brand name and same kind of service means a lot of history about that community will be lost. As human beings, we are inclined to progress and advance. This means our social habits, opinions, moral values, and a lot of other important things will most likely change drastically. This is simply a trade-off, a decision that we all make collectively. We give up our rich past, which is embodied within those "old no-name gas stations" or "the seafood place down the street". In return, we are able to more efficiently pursue the goal of human beings: to progress.

149

Today I spent time working on my math homework and started working on my film studies project as well. I also made a to-do list for the rest of the spring break. It's not going to be much of a break, but I'll cope with it anyways.
I also made it a habit to watch some video podcasts from National Geographic every week. The podcasts are all on science and nature, which interest me a lot.

148

Today we got to watch another bit of the Lord of the Rings movie. It's really old, but still very enjoyable.
Then, I had a great time in Band, in which a substitute teacher gave me some tips on drumming techniques, etc.
Finally, it was report card time. This time, I finally got AAAAAAAAA, making my last term's B in socials my first and only B in high school so far. I feel quite capable of keeping this standard up now that I have more time to dedicate to school because my hockey season's over.

147

Today we were introduced to our new novel: Silas Marner. Ms. Densford talked passionately about the intricacies of the cottage industry: the period of time right before the industrial revolution. she talked about how a village and the barter system worked in that time. We acquired much new information regarding that time period, and look forward to reading the novel.
Then, in science, we basically took notes on space and light again. I wish we can have some activities to augment our learning experiences. Simply copying things from a 20 year-old textbook isn't helping much.

146

We watched Cars in Applied Skills today. I think that the movie was extremely well-made physically (PIXAR never fails to disappoint in the aspect of smooth graphics and animation). The plot was also somewhat original, tying in the themes of the advantages of the status quo (interstate) into the picture. Overall, I look forward to finishing the movie and see what might happen to McQueen.

145

We went to see a play at the Waterfront theatre on Granville island in the afternoon called the "Number 14". It was a hilarious play that attempted to tell some of the lost stories of the old bus line in exaggerated format. One of the actors even referenced Mrs. Densford in one of the plays, knowing that she is attending the play. I think that the play was great, and given that it has traveled around the world and had been given widespread acclaim. It is bringing the Vancouver community to the world.

144

Today, my dad caught my cold and became sick as well, so the home was quiet for the entire day. I finished my essay for science, and took medicines to relieve my sore throat. I also explored this awesome software called Joost which is coming out in the Summer. Joost is made by the makers of Kazaa and Skype, and boasts free live TV access for over 5000 channels. It promises crisp and smooth video quality, and simple controls. Right now, I am enjoying the products of the "Internet Revolution", led by Google, Youtube, and now Friis and Zennstrom (makers of Skype).

143

Today we had a great time in P.E. running all over the neighboring block for orienteering. Then we played ping-pong for rest of the class.
After that, in math, we took a look at many properties of circles.
We finished the movie in Applied Skills today. I thought that the movie was quite emotional in a sense, but all of the results were quite expected. The director obviously wanted things to end in the right way. But I thought many of the themes presented in the movie were cliches, like how best friends should stick together and help each other through tough times etc...

142

Today, we talked about our term 3 schedule in English, and then spent the rest of the time watching the first of the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings movies. It was still quite interesting to watch, simply because the film is so well made.
We watched the Inconvenient truth by Al Gore again in Science. We were supposed to write a detailed paper on it (well, five paragraphs is a lot). Re-watching this film has a lot of advantages. I was able to better grasp the concepts presented in the film, and saw much more intricate connections in the film: e.g. how Gore connects major events of his life with the possible effects of global warming.

141

Today I was coughing all day, and felt very tired. I am better than yesterday in condition, though. In AS we watched part of a movie called the sisterhood of the traveling pants. It presents many moral ideas through very commonplace examples. It doesn't have that much depth to it, but its simplicity in the portrayal of events is its hallmark in the entire film.

140

Today my cold was exacerbated by the shot I had today. Now I have a fever, and I'm often disoriented. To make it worse, I had to play drums with my weak arm today, and my left arm feels quite sore.

139

Well, today I spent half the day working on our socials movie project. Nigel, Jason and I are shooting a short movie that depicts the life of the person we're researching: Jacques Louis David. We made the entire movie from scratch, and spent 7 hours making it. We used an awesome software called Windows Movie Maker to put the audio, video, and still-image components together into one large product. The video effects were awesome, and I hope everyone can see it once it's fully uploaded onto YouTube. Yesterday and Today were extremely busy, and I got a mild cold from all that work.

138

Today I had a lot fun at the District Science Fair at VanTech. The judging process took almost three hours, and I had seven judge come by and discuss my project with me during this time. The name of the project is "A Comparison of the Genotoxicities of Various Household Products." Our judges were all PhD students at UBC and SFU, and most of them did not understand the background knowledge on my topic at all. I had to spend a couple of minutes just to get the basic concepts of genetic mutation and micronuclei across. I am really glad that my project has a lot of depth of research. I look forward to the Regional Fair in April.

137

Tomorrow I'm heading to VanTech for the District Science Fair. I've got it all planned out, and the oral presentation is going to be half impromptu. I chose to do it half-impromptu because, absurd as it may seem, I perform best orally when I'm unprepared.
After the science fair, I'm heading to Burnaby for my last hockey game of the season against a very tough team.