let's dominate

Heyyy how's your day going guys? Mine's going great. 

I just got back from another drive-in cinema event the class board organized. Last semester, that was the only event the board managed to organize so maybe they'll do more this semester. Anyhow, the movie was good. Old but good. It's from 1984 so the quality isn't amazing but it was probably magnificent back then.

At least I got to see everyone again, it sure has been a while. Sadly, I didn't really get to talk to too many people because everyone kind of just broke off into their own little circles and I couldn't just barge into one unannounced. This didn't really work out as a great bonding activity since no one really talks during movies so I'm wondering what the board will come up with next time. Dino is actually part of the council so we can get some extra info on stuff like that from him LOL. 

Oh you know what, all of us were thinking about running for a position next year. The whole gang. If we succeed, OOF!!! We'll DOMINATE the whole grade by taking complete control of the board. It'll be insane if it works.

Okay so, during the day, I did another AMC10 exam. This one didn't go as amazingly but, I still managed to get into the top 5% at the very least. The main part I'm lacking is Geometry so I'll need to hone in even more into that area. 

And the STEM class. Well. I found out today that it's NOT a class. What is it? It's basically where they have us go into competitions. Random worldwide competitions based on STEM. Today's session was mainly focused on researching three of these competitions that we want to compete in and get details on all the specifics like deadlines, location, areas of interest, etc. There were a few really cool ones but we weren't eligible because we were still too young. Only juniors and seniors were allowed in that one. 

Oh well, class starts again tomorrow which means bedtime is at 11. If I don't have school the next day, it's at 12 because I don't need to wake up as early. Okie, time to get ready to sleep. good night everyone and I hope you all had a great day too. Bye!!

 

what a scam

GOOD EVENING! How's it been, everyone? It was a nice day for me at least. 

You know I just learned that you say "good evening" from 6 PM after and "good afternoon" from noon to 6 PM. So good night is only said before you go to bed or as a way to say goodbye during the night. 

I helped make breakfast in the morning, then I went with Dad to bring mom to work. She told me she had great sales today later on in the evening. So after we brought mom to her store, we went over to a Wallgreens where we bought Dino a gift bag and a birthday card too. Although, I really think I got scammed for both of them. 

Who sells a paper bag for 5 dollars, and WHO SELLS A CARDBOARD CARD FOR 7 DOLLARS?? Yeah, I'm not buying a store made card ever again if it's going to be at this price. I can just make my own. Nevertheless, at the time, we got it. And that's that. 

So we get home and I get the gifts ready and put them into the bag. Then since I still had time before 5, which is when we wanted to leave the house, I decided to do a little Membean. Hmm, after that, I found this cool movie on Netflix that's in French and wanted to see what it was about. So I watched around 40 minutes of that and then played a bit with Psi before leaving for Dino's party. 

Honestly, I think today's party was better than Psi's. Not that his party wasn't good, I think I just prefer a smaller group. Last time, the conversation was kind of split in two since some people weren't as familiar with others as they were with Psi. Meanwhile, today, it is was just Dino, Psi, Toro, and I. Rama got held up and couldn't make it because they had guests over at their house. 

AND I LEFT EARLY. WHY? FOR THE ENGLISH LESSON OF COURSE. AND GUESS WHAT HAPPENED. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?!? THE KID DIDN'T EVEN SHOW UP!!! I mean COME ON, I left early JUST to give him his lesson, and this guy leaves me hanging? REALLY? What a scam. 

Anyway, I'm mad at the kid. I'm going to ask what went wrong next time I see him. But for now, good night guys. Hope you all had a fantastic day. cya!

great discussion

There isn't a more relaxing thought than the thought of Friday night. For me at least. I'm sure many may share this opinion since, after all, it's the night before a weekend. And tomorrow is going to be a super chill day. 

Dino organized a birthday dinner kind of thing that's similar to what Psi did except I think it's going to be on a smaller scale and in a different restaurant. He said the time range would be from 6-9 but since I have my tutoring session for English at 8:30 I would have to leave a little early at 8 o'clock. I'll see if they want to arrive a bit earlier too and maybe just talk or play cards. 

Let's get on with my day. Classes were nice today. English, in particular, was my favorite one out of the 3 for today. You might be surprised but, the reason was actually the breakout room interaction. Insane right? Well, today the discussion was awesome. Primarily initiated and led by yours truly of course but everyone was actually participating and the atmosphere was great. Basically, we all discussed what we thought and then I write it out. Yeah, I did all the writing but they tell me what to write about. I simply put it into nice words. 

Anyway, they were actively talking and inquired about my opinion too which is great. ANDDD that essentially lasted the entire period. Mhm, we held up the discussion for an entire hour. BOOM. 

Next in Spanish, the main thing we did was to write sentences with those vocab words of farmers in Puerto Rico that we gave presentations on in the prior class. You could choose any 5 out of the 15 to write sentences with but the teacher only asked each person to read one and graded based on that one. I'm not sure if that was to my disadvantage or not though. She hasn't put up the grades yet either. 

Finally, History. Rama, Pen, and I worked through all of the lunch to rehearse our lines and finalize the decoration of the PowerPoint. And as expected, SUCCESS! We volunteered to go first and it was awesome from the start. There was only one single place where we might get one point off for a detail that was a little flawed. Not completely, but it might hinder us from getting a perfect. 

That's it for classes today. I still need to finish wrapping Dino's present for tomorrow so cya!

super speed typing

Hellooo everyone! It's really really late anddd I'm going to super speed type out my blog. 

Usually, I take some time to think ahead about what I'm going to write about so that I can convey all the information to you effectively and in a nice logical order. However, I simply don't have the time tonight so I'm going to do it right here, right now, no backspacing except for typos LOL. 

So in the morning, we had Physics. First class of the day AND, there's a quiz. Of course. It was on soundwaves and the relationship between wavelength, frequency, and velocity. I got a 100% on it btw. Following that was a quick PowerPoint lecture on intensity in sound, which is measured in decibels. You know, I always thought it was written decibAls with an a, but apparently, I've been wrong all this time. Later, we had this classwork thing which was just on how the relationship between decibels how many times the loudness is. If you didn't know, 10 times the loudness is just +10 decibels, and 100 times the loudness is +20 decibels. It's basically in powers of 10. 

Oh and the music teacher had some problems today so he couldn't connect leaving me with a free block. 

NEXT, PE!  YAY. Everyone's favorite. We went over the homework/worksheet we had last time on the emotional balance video and we discussed it for around 20 minutes. THEN, we had a kahoot!! Easy 11/10 points in the bag btw, which means that I already have a grade above 100 in PE for this semester LOL. We finished class off with a workout obviously. 

Last but not least, MATHHHH. Today's class wasn't as boring mostly because we didn't have to do that many problems and instead, we had a nice little 3 question quiz for which he gave us 30 minutes. I finished in less than 10 minutes because I'm an absolute god. Oh but there was an extra credit question which by my standards, was the easiest one in the whole quiz. I double-checked all my answers too before submitting because I do NOT want to lose any points on some kind of dumb mistake. 

YUP, OH and I have a history presentation tomorrow on the African legacy so wish my luck on that. BYEEE!

119 new record

How is everyone doing today? 

So, I think I've just become a WHOLE lot better at typing since the last time I grinded on nitrotype. I finished a race just now with a speed of 119 WPM. My new highest record, the last one was 118 I think. 

Anyway, today was a good day. In the morning I met up with Rama and Pen to work a little on our PR history project. It was mostly researching and I think we pretty much have all the information we need by now. All that's left is to compile it all together. 

Then, I did an AMC10 exam and I got top 5% again. I still need to review the problems for that exam so I'll have to do that tomorrow. 

Ah, I also got a haircut today. It's been a while since the last time I cut my hair so it was pretty long. Well, not anymore. LOL, the scissors showed no mercy. So, now it's short again. It'll probably grow back in another month or two. 

Hmm, oh yea, today was the day I wrote out a schedule for every day in the week. Schooldays and weekends were both included. That took quite a while but, I got it done, and if I go according to this schedule... I should have at least more than an hour of free time EVERY night. That's awesome ain't it? 

Okay, anyway, next I had a doctor's appointment. However, when we got there, there were like 5 people in front of us so we waited for nearly 2 hours. During that time though, we went out to eat lunch cuz we ate breakfast early and it was almost 5 already. The appointment went without a hitch, apparently, we have to go back in 6 weeks to do another check-up but that's all.

Oof, my time is almost up. Have a good one guys! good night!!

PSATs

Hello guys! SOOO, today school was kinda canceled. Actually, that shouldn't be the right word. We were excused from all of our classes because of PSATs. 

A PSAT is basically a practice SAT so I think it might be easier than the real thing. From what I saw today, the problems were all SUPER DUPER easy. At least the math sections. The English section, which involved the Reading Test and the Writing and Language Test, was the section that I believe to be the most difficult. I think that's because language requires me to think more and usually there isn't one DEFINITE answer like there is in math. 

Our PSAT today consisted of 4 different tests. The Reading Test, the Writing and Langauge Test, the Math without Calculator Test, and the Math with Calculator Test. I messed up on two questions in the Math with Calculator Test but besides that, I think I got everything else in both math tests right. Sadly, that means I won't be able to get the full score. Luckily, this is just a practice exam and not the actual thing so I can simply do more and more problems until I simply DON'T mess up anymore. 

If you're wondering what the structure is like, the tests are literally rapid-fire one after the other. Reading takes 1 hour, Writing and Language takes 35 min, Math no Calc is 25 min, and lastly, Math with Calc is 45 min. I finished early on the Writing one and Math with Calc. The Reading Test was the most intense for me because I filled in my last bubble at the final 40-second mark LOL. 

Okay, so after the PSAT I played a bunch of Minecraft with Rama, Dino, Psi, and Toro. We gathered materials, built some stuff, explored, and it was really fun. Oh, and I might get on for a little bit before bed today if I can finish everything fast enough LOL. 

Later on, I watched some YouTube videos on derivatives which is basic calculus. I learned two derivative rules, the power rule, and the product rule. OH and the quotient rule too which is pretty similar to the product rule basically. I still need to learn the chain rule and I don't know if there are others but, it's not looking so hard actually. Perhaps that's because I'm still working with basic problems though. My dad says that it'll get a lot more complicated after I get into complex problems. 

Anyway, that's my day in a nutshell. Hope you all had a cool day too! byeee

what are the odds...

hey happy birthday Dino! What a coincidence huh? Two of my closest friends with their birthdays one after the other. What are the odds of that? Actually, don't answer that. I've had my fill of math for the night already. 

The classes I had were pretty easy actually. In terms of material and what we did in class at least. 

For Physics, we talked more and more about waves. Mostly focusing on the speeds of sound waves and how different factors can affect them. There are certain things such as, what medium they travel through, what the temperature is, etc. Oh, and did you know Mach is the speed of sound in German? So basically, the speed of sound is 750 mph and that would be Mach 1. Mach 2, as you might've guessed, is 1500 mph or just 2 times 750 mph. There's also this equation for the speed of sound in dry air, v is approximately 331.4 + 0.60T where T is degrees in Celcius. The warmer the air, the quicker sound would travel through that medium. 

Music class was relaxing too. We practiced my pieces and set a metronome speed up for each one to make sure I get that consistent beat I need. 

PE, we did a whole bunch of exercises relating to balance, which is our skill-related fitness component for the week. And then following that, we got to see a short film on emotional balance and answer a few really weirdly written questions for it. Some of the questions were SUPER broad, such as, "What is the main theme of this film?". Well, I have no idea. There wasn't a clear theme. At least I didn't see one, and I had no idea how this is related to PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

And lastly, Math. Sigh, more practice problems on radical expressions. Great. LOL so I just busted through all of them in like 6 minutes and I didn't really have to do anything else for the class after that. Except for explaining to Dino if he had any doubts on anything since I'm super used to this stuff. 

Oh, and if you've ever heard of Minecraft. I installed it today. A few kids in my grade, including Dino, Psi, Rama, Toro, Beam, and Tom, are making a server thing in it. So we can play together in multiplayer and help each other out. Games are also a LOT more fun with friends. 

Okay then, my time is up for tonight. cya later everyone! 

 trudging through time

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PSIIII!! 

I sure hope you had an amazing day today. 15 years of age is a milestone that I have yet to overcome LOL but I'm sure that there will be many many more as we go on trudging through life. Whether sprinting or crawling or walking, I wish we can always keep on talking with each other and learning from each other. Growing with each other. 

Honestly, it hasn't been all that long since I've known you. Around 850 days ago, you arrived as a new kid in our school. Slowly, we began to talk more and hung out often. And then, as if time flashed by, I was sitting at a large table at Chilli's with Rama, Dino, Toro, Beam, and you. Celebrating your 15th birthday. How the months pass and although it may not seem like a lot of time, we've been through a lot throughout this period of time. 

You know, a person I always thought was super interesting, entrepreneur and humorist Mark Twain once said, "Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile." 

So, I dedicate this quote to you today. May you have a fantabulous 15th and live on to keep smiling and bringing kindness into everyone who's lucky enough to cross paths with you. Happy Birthday Psi. 

NOW, I don't have much time to write about my day so I'll quickly summarize. 

I completed one AMC10 exam today, I didn't do amazing but I'm staying at a pretty stable percentage I guess. If only I can get one or two more questions right at a consistent rate. Sigh, well, sometimes it's just that one point that loses your spot and grants it to the next one in line. That's why, you practice a ton, to make sure you gain every point possible. 

OH and I found a work I did once in my Social Studies class in 6th grade. I wrote like 10 paragraphs LOL so I'm going to transcribe that to my blog soon so stay tuned for that. Ah, and to typing speed, I raced Tom on nitrotype tonight. My best score tonight was 111 WPM which is CRAZY considering how I remember like once in my blog I was STRUGGLING SOOOOO much to reach 100. And now I can pretty much get 100 every SINGLE time. It's insane. 

Hmm, I also played a little pianoooo and did my chores for the weekend. ah yes, then I took the STEM class. There was also a webinar on epidemiology that they hosted which was pretty cool since, after all, we're all still quarantined at home right now. 

Yeah, after class I went directly to Psi's birthday and spent the rest of the night there. 

I'll be going to bed in the next 5 minutes so, have a fantastic night everyone. And I hope, you all smiled today too. cya!

Oil > U

Hey guys! haha today was an amazing free day. 

So basically, besides taking a math class and giving an English lesson... the rest of the time I just had fun.

The math class was for OMPR, we talked about homothety and proof for Euler's line. And btw, it's pronounced like Oiler, not Uler. It's Oil, followed by ler. The incorrect version would be U, like the letter, followed by ler.

Mhm, so that class was a bit confusing because I never really learned much about homothety so I'll probably have to look into that later. Oh and I practiced a little piano today too for around an hour. 

After class, it was just FREEEEE timeee. I played some games with Psi and then later with Rama, Dino, and Toro together we played the volleyball game on Roblox again. LOL the teams were kinda unfair, it was Dino and me vs. Rama, Psi, and Toro. 2v3. And guess who won? JERRYYYY! But that was TOOOOTALLY expected since Jerry is an absolute god after all. 

Hmm, oh and I was also in a call with Dino for a while to finish up our STEM homework and just talked a bit while he finished something. 

Ah, moving on to the English lesson. Today my grandma wanted to listen in so I set up a zoom meeting and shared my screen with her while I gave the class. The content of today's class was on greetings and the most basic of conversations. 

Hello, how are you? 

I'm good, thank you. How about you?

I'm good, thank you. 

Yeah, it may seem like a breeze to you but it took him a while since he didn't know the meaning of almost every single one of these words. We also reviewed the numbers and the alphabet that I taught him in the previous lessons. That's it for my free day. Have a great night everyone!!

bad pawn

 Heya guys how's it going! Sigh, I'm tired for some reason but I can't quite put my finger on it. I just keep yawning. Today's classes weren't too special either.

In English, we first discussed all the reading and discussion questions we did last time in groups - which took up like 2/3 of the class. We also talked about what's going to happen to our class next Tuesday, because, the school is giving us a PSAT. For practice purposes. However, apparently, the exam is scheduled to start at 10 and since English ends at 9:50 we should be able to finish the class completely. 

Next is Spanish. Now, this wasn't very fun at all. It was the presentations on the jibaro vocabulary that I mentioned a few days ago. Sigh, I messed up on one of the definitions. The word was peon, with the accent on the o. It means a pawn. So when I wrote the definition, I put: The piece that has the least value in chess. Usually used for sacrifices or bait for a larger scheme. The average chess player does not care too much about them. 

HOWEVER, the definition the teacher wanted, was a person who is being used. Like as a metaphor kind of. Therefore, although the definition I gave wasn't incorrect, it wasn't the particular one she wanted. Oh and in some of our other words, the example sentence we gave wasn't elaborate enough to inform the reader what the word actually meant. And that's how we ended up losing FIVE points. On a 30 points project. Sigh, that like an 83%. And in just the second week of the semester. This isn't looking good. 

Finally, there's history. We finished up on taking notes and also combining the notes of the other members in our group with our own. Then, the teacher had explained a new project we're going to be starting on the African Legacy in Puerto Rico. Ostensibly, this presentation is supposed to be mainly VISUAL so we need to put as little writing as possible and just spam pictures. My group is still the same as the note-taking one so, Rama and Pen. I sure hope this one fares better than Spanish sigh. 

Oh, and I finished reviewing that AMC10 exam that I did the other day. Okay then, tired Jerry has to go prepare for bed now. Goodbye!

anonymous meeting

Oh hello. I'm in a bit of a rush rn but I'll write as much as I can. 

Physics was pretty flat today. We took a quiz for 20 points on waves and then did a long lab on them too. The quiz he already graded, easy 20/20, but the lab he hasn't yet. It's for forty points, one of the first grades of the semester so it's pretty important. 

In Music, I talked for quite a bit with the teacher and I learned that he once went to Carnegie Hall for a competition with a whole band to perform. It was a really large band too with like over 50 musicians he said. I want to go visit someday too, after all, a lot of super famous composers had performed there like Tchaivosky for example. 

And sigh, PE was probably the worst class today. Not in terms of like, teacher, or anything. But, we had to do a lot of exercises so it was tiring. Oh not to mention I got a cramp later on in the day cuz the teacher didn't give us time to do a warm-up before the workout.

Moving on, MATH. Sigh, we are now in... RADICALSSS. yay. I really don't know how this became an honors class. The class moves SOOOO slowly and we cover material like a turtle that sleeps. So we essentially spent the entire class on 12 problems. Twelve problems that could've EASILY been done in less than 5 minutes. Anyway, that's it for school. 

You know, I did do something out of the ordinary today though. I joined a random zoom meeting. Well, not RANDOM random. The guy gave me the code and the password but I didn't know him all that well. 

Scratch that, I barely knew him at all. Just a guy from ninja that I played a few rounds with. I decided to just go in the room with my camera and mic off, just to see what was up. And then, I ended up talking with them for quite a while and I played some piano for them too LOL. 

It was actually really fun talking to people that I've never seen or known before. Refreshing, in some manner. Knowing that, if I mess up a part in my playing it doesn't matter because I don't know them and they don't know me. Yeah, and I'm usually not exactly a social butterfly either but it was cool to just anonymously talk to others. 

Oh yea, and the water isn't working right now at our apartment. Soooo I can't shower tonight. Let's just hope for the best that tomorrow the water comes back. cya! 

 congrats Biden

Hello! So as you know, today is Biden's first day as president. I thought the market would rise a little because of the occasion but apparently not as much as I had hoped LOL. I'm still glad it didn't go DOWN though. 

Anyway, in the morning of today, I took an AMC10 practice exam again, but I did terribly. Well not TERRIBLY, but not amazing either. I still got into the top 10% though which is good heh. I haven't reviewed the questions yet though. 

Soon after that, I went out to take my piano lesson at my piano teacher's house. I was there for about 2 hours and a half LOL. My mom loves talking to her so that took up quite some time too. And her house is really old plus it's got all these super cool and antique furniture and decorations. A literal museum in there. She used to travel a lot too so she has stuff from all over the world. 

Anyway, in class, I was told that I needed to work on my rhythm which is the part that I need to improve on the most. Consistent beat basically. In Autumn Leaves it serves as a challenge for me since the beats are a bit abnormal in comparison to the usual classical pieces I'm used to. 

On the way back home, we stopped at an oriental market to buy some vegetables and stock up on some stuff. LOL, we bought some ramen too and vinegar cuz we were running low. 

And then, at night, I took my 42points class. It was on the Cauchy-Shwartz inequality and how to apply it. He also talked a bit on vectors and how it relates to this particular inequality since you can have two really large lists of numbers and it could still work. 

Oh, I have class tomorrow LOL and I almost forgot. That means bedtime is at 11 so I should get going. Good night everyone!

 educational social activities?

Welcome back, everyone. It was a nice day today wasn't it? Not too much action at school but the classes were almost all social activities. 

What do I mean by this? Let's start from the top. 

English: We were divided into new reading and discussion groups because the teacher couldn't find the old list LOL. Psi got real lucky, Beam got divided into his group this time whereas I, my group, is me and four girls that I don't talk to all that often. But no matter, it's teamwork, right? We have work to do. 

It's not like the groups are for socializing anyway, but it would've been nice to have at least one person that I communicated with frequently just to keep the flow of the discussion going. The thing was that when I first saw my group, I thought that the girls were just going to start talking about the latest fashion trends and all that while not doing any work. Also leaving me out of the discussion. That wasn't the case though. 

When I went into the breakout room, it was dead silent. I looked around to realize, none of these four girls are in the same friend group! WOAH, how rare is that? Anyway, the silence was deafening so I just started to talk and lead the discussion a little. But since I didn't start doing that from the very beginning, it was hard to get an AMAZING discussion just cuz no one else was participating. Sigh, I still need to work on the bringing other people into the discussion part. I'll focus on that next time. 

Spanish: A new project! On how the native farmers in Puerto Rico talk. They're unique grammatical defects and pronunciation, and some vocabulary special to them. And guess what, it's in groups. We got to choose though so my group is, Rama, Fox, and Dex. It's going to be a PowerPoint presentation at the end. For now, we need to find the definitions of the vocabulary words that our group was assigned and also the special grammatical defect that we were given by the teacher. As you could tell, it's not a very large-scale project. My guess? We'll finish it by the next class. 

History: Final class. And we're taking notes on a chapter in the textbook. And yup, you guessed it. IN GROUPS! The teacher gave us the choice to choose again so this time I'm with Pen and Rama. Dino and Fox are working together too in another group. It's just note-taking so I was able to finish my part before the class ended, although I'm pretty sure the teacher is still going to give us a little time next class to finish up if we didn't. 

Yeah, that's it for my classes today and now I gtg exercise. cya!

 

thanks Dr. King

ANDDD the long weekend is over. Thank you a lot Dr. King for giving us this one extra holiday every single year. 

So I wake up. Stop my alarm and unplug my phone from its charging wire. It's at 80%. wait a second. 80%??? Shouldn't it be full after a whole night of charging? That's when I realized, the power is out. OnCe AgAiN. My mom was going to her store again and there was electricity there so I thought, why not just go along with mom again? 

And that's how I spent another day of my long weekend at mom's store. At the store, I did another exam of AMC10 cuz, why not? However, you know, with the noisy background and people constantly walking in, the testing environment didn't exactly perfect conditions for best performance. I didn't do all that bad though. I still got in the top 10% for that year which is what I wanted to ensure. 

There weren't all that many people today anyway though. I guess partly because it's a holiday, but there are also some holidays that make everyone take to the streets like Halloween and Black Friday. 

Yup, my day wasn't too eventful but it was a nice way to end this long weekend and get back into school mode. Okay, I have to go get ready for bed now. I wish you guys all had a fantastic weekend too! 

coincidence? no way

Hello! Once again. I am here to write my blog. 

I'll just keep it short today. Dino was reading it out loud to me and I think he was starting to get a sore throat because of how long I made it LOL. So, the main thing today was that I did another AMC10 exam and then I also signed up for a STEM program kind of thing. 

As for the STEM program, Rama was the one who recommended it to us. Apparently, he was going to be participating and asked us if we were interested in it. Since it's STEM and all, my parents were fine with me going so we signed up. In reality, there were a lot fewer people than I thought it was going to be. Only 10 I think. And the thing is, I know 5 of them. AND THEY'RE ALL FROM MY SCHOOL. Coincidence? Nope. I mean, we did get Dino to come. Plus me and Rama, that's 3 already. The other two are also friends of the program organizer so they knew about it as well. The other people I don't recognize. 

The teacher we had today for our two-hour class is a researcher in something related to cancer I think. He's talked at a Ted Talk before. I haven't had the time to listen to it yet though so I'll put that on my to-do list for tomorrow. 

As to what we actually did in the class... not much. For today at least. It was mostly introductions to what STEM is and then a few exercises. They also divided us into groups of 3 to work in teams. The funny thing is, Rama, Dino, and I got to be together. Now, is THAT a coincidence? No way. It's gotta be rigged somehow. Not that I'm complaining but, I just don't know how they even knew we were friends.

Overall, the class was okay though. Oh and in the AMC exam I got my highest score yet. Putting me in the top 4 percent. YAY. 

Okay, I have to go now. bye-bye guys!

a little impromptu

Hey guys, today went great. 

That was really vague, wasn't it. Yet, sometimes that feels like the most appropriate answer to when someone asks, "How are you?". Everyone expects you to answer good, or great, and that's it. It's a simple formality rather than an actual question. Simply put, it's something we do to greet someone politely and not a question to which we actually expect a person to elaborate on. 

I'm aware that many of you perhaps have not thought of this formality in this manner, so I've brought it out here today to shed some light on it. What does the question "How are you?" actually mean? What do people want it to mean? What do people use it for? What do people usually answer for it? These are just some things to keep in mind the next time someone asks you this (which I'm sure will be very soon). 

Now, that was just some impromptu writing. Technically, I write every single blog on a whim. I don't really plan beforehand. I simply open up my blog - and write. However, I think an impromptu speech is quite different. Because you see, in impromptu writing, you still have the capability of going back to edit. On the contrary, when you're talking or say, giving a speech. What's said is said. There is no backspace, no undo, so I myself think, giving an impromptu speech, is really more difficult than impromptu writing. 

By this time, you might be wondering, "Hey Jerry, why are you talking about speeches all of the sudden?". I just attended a meeting tonight. It was a club fair of sorts organized by the BOP. If you do not remember what the BOP is, it is an acronym for Bloom Outreach Program. My English teaching organization basically. I do believe I mentioned this last time, but I'll say it again. 

Late last year, the organization announced that they were going to be establishing Bloom Youth Community, or BYC for short. Now, this community is meant for us, tutors, from all over the world to bond together. Or at least that's what I think its purpose is. Anyway, the club fair that was held today had each BYC member/tutor pick one club to join. I'm pretty sure it's mandatory too. I was kinda in between Music and Public Speaking, however, in the end, I went with Public Speaking. I think I have more to improve there. 

We only met up with the club for around 15 minutes so I'm still not too sure about the specifics. I will get to know more in-depth about it in the first club meeting though. By then, I'll tell you more about it. 

Besides the meeting, I spent my whole day at my mom's store. I helped around a lot because my mom's arm was a bit hurt so she had trouble moving stuff around and just lifting it requires an effort. 

And if you haven't noticed, I haven't written uh, um, oh, ah, in today's blog because they said in Public Speaking these are called filler words and are essentially useless. I mean, you could still use them in everyday speech. But on a special occasion, such language would make you seem unprofessional. Therefore, I am trying to make today's post my first attempt at not using any filler words at all. 

That concludes my blog for the day. Good night my friends! 

quarantine = vacation?

Wow, and the first week back, is over. Jeez, that went by rather quickly wouldn't you agree? Well, it certainly did for me. 

You see, I inquired my English teacher about vaccinations today and she mentioned that she was getting hers at the end of the month. Some of my other teachers have already taken it. This leads me to think this worldwide threat is going to be neutralized soon. Hope has already presented itself before us, so I think it's about time we come out of our shells too. You know, I think one day, I'll look back on the time we spent seemingly "stranded" in our homes and think, wow, what a very long vacation I had LOL. 

I mean, if I'm being frank, online school and virtual classes are not even half as tiring as real ones. Just take my math class as an example, it's literally a free period for me. Except for quizzes and assessments, that is. Other than that, the stuff he talks about is too easy for me when I'm at this level. And, I really don't mean to say this in an arrogant manner, but I think I'm capable of acing this class without even going to the actual classes. If we're talking honestly here though, what's the point of the teacher going over the basics with us? Rama, Beam, and some other kids too have already surpassed this level of difficulty a long time ago. So as of the moment, there is no challenge to face. Nothing to overcome. Nowhere to grow. 

I might talk to the teacher about this some time but I doubt he'll change his whole lesson plan for just a few of us. After all, there are still lots of kids in the class who actually ARE struggling with the course, so he can't just up the level for all of us without taking into consideration the thoughts of those students. However, I also don't think it's fair that we all have to keep on being kept at the same level. We come to school to learn, right? What's the point in coming if we know everything? 

Sigh, okay, school wasn't too interesting today. I didn't exactly do anything to stand out either though. I guess, it was just one of those days where you're there, but it's like you're not. I should talk more. Mhm, yea that would be nice wouldn't it? I'll have to improve on that aspect then. 

Oh my time is up. Have a great weekend guys! 

always triple-check

okay, I'm short on time. I just had an AoPS class that ended at 10 but since it was the final class some of us stayed behind to chat a little and bid each other farewell. 

Sigh, I wonder how long I'll be able to write today's blog because of that though. Right now, it's 10:40. If I write as much as I can and finish in 10 minutes, that leaves 10 minutes for showering and preparing for bed. Hmm, I might just be able to do it. 

OK, let's commence. We have physics first class as always. We had to finish the worksheet we started last class on waves and then we had another PPT presentation on um, actually there wasn't a specific name for the topic but a whole assortment of info. There were formulas for calculating the period of a pendulum and a spring, what interferences are and the different kinds of interferences, the superposition principle, standing waves... Yeah, so it was a pretty long presentation. 

After that, we had a short assignment on a website where we had some practice problems that counted for points. You do get as many tries as it takes though so I'm sure basically everyone got a 100%. Oh, but he also gives bonuses on these so in my case I got a 20/15 which I believe is the highest score. 

In Music, we just had our usual discussion on how to improve and then I was also given the task of learning what's the difference between playing a song straight and playing it swing. Mhm, he said that by knowing this knowledge, I would be able to fine-tune my piece even more. I'll look into it more over the weekend. 

Next in PE, we finished that big worksheet we were given on Monday, and that basically took up the whole class. Really, I had to apply my insane writing skills a lot in today's class because there was a writing part. Yes, writing in PE. When did PE become a writing class? I have no idea. Nevertheless, I think I did pretty well regardless of it being related to fitness or not, my writing skills are through the roof. And my self-confidence is also quite high as of this moment if you couldn't already tell by my previous self-flattery LOL. 

Finally, in Algebra we reviewed adding and subtracting rational expressions and we had a quiz. The "quiz" was two problems only but one of them was actually a bit tricky. I mean, not TRICKY but a bit time consuming and you could mess up easily if you weren't careful. I think some kids fell into that trap of not double-checking their answers. Meanwhile, I triple-checked my answers because I had a suspicion that a two-question quiz couldn't possibly be as simple as it looked like. Therefore, I redid the problem 3 times until I got the same answer all three times. Only then did I submit my answer. The second question was easy though. So, all in all, I think I got another 100% on this quiz too. 

Right after math class, I had science bowl practice. 3:20 - 4:20 PM to be precise. In these practices, it's usually just the members of the club divided into two teams and competing against each other with the teacher reading the questions to us. We don't count points though, albeit if we were back in school I think we would have. Oh, look, the time I set up for myself is almost up. 

I guess I wrap it up here then. Hope you all had a marvelous day and have a fantastic night as well. Boa noite!

my little kingdom

Well, I'm sure my post from earlier today was really long so I'll just make this one a summary of today. 

So, in the morning, I did another AMC10 exam. I tried using a new strategy. And I actually got pretty lucky because the new strat worked. That's also a major factor in how I was able to get into the top 5 percentile this time. That's my aim for this exam, but top 10 I need to ensure. So the goal is, at least the top 10% and try to get to 5%. Yup. 

Anyway, after my exam I played some pianoooo and then ah yea, I started listing out the awards I've gotten over the years. Mhm, oh and while I was going thru a box of my old works and certificates, I found some interesting drawings along with some things that I had written. Those you could find in the blog entry below this one. Oh yes, my mom also helped me put some of these on my wall. My own artwork decorating my own room. It's quite a view. Makes my room more colorful as well. I love my room honestly. It's my own little kingdom. 

Let's see, I also finished looking at the solutions for all the ones I couldn't solve. Believe it or not, that actually takes longer than the exam itself because you need to learn all the methods to solving it and there's more than one usually. 

Oh, and in ninja.io, I am now the top 5 player in the entire world. HA! Really, and I don't even play that much LOL. The way the new skill rankings work really benefits me a ton because your kill to death ratio actually matters, unlike the old version where as long as you killed it didn't matter how many times you had to die to do it. 

Ah, tomorrow there's classes so I have to get going now. Good night guys! BYE!

 Looking Back

I went through some of my past stuff today and I found a few things I wrote so here I am, typing it all out. 

Here we go:

Time: 10:51 AM

Location: University in Mayaguez 

I already finished my test hours ago. Well, maybe not hours ago, but a long period of time ago. Now, I'm just waiting for 11:00 AM to come. That's when I'm free to go. The test wasn't hard. There was just one question I'm doubting, but it's not my fault they didn't explain the question carefully enough. Anyhow, logic helped me out, although it might be wrong. But, according to my past experiences, ALL the answers they put in should've been correct. So, I'm betting on this one. People say I have a gambling problem, but I bet that's not true. Okay, with all the time it took me to write this, there are only 2 minutes left till freedom. By the way, I already triple checked my answers. 

LOL, I'm pretty sure that was an OMPR test. Probably phase 2 or something. OK then, onto the next one. 

Puerto Rico, 2017. Maria

    We were at Costco when I first heard about what was coming. It all started when I took notice that about a hundred people were in line, but for what? Water. There's only one reason for that. Another hurricane. We just recovered electricity from Hurricane Irma, the category five hurricane that passed over our heads. I proceeded to ask a woman about it. She was of average height, brown hair, looked around 45, and slightly overweight. But that's not the point. She told me that this incoming hurricane was called Maria, it was a category 4 hurricane and Puerto Rico is directly in its collision course. We were going to have a direct hit with it. By the way, I just translated all that from Spanish. Due to my investigation, Mom won't buy me ice cream. 

    While we drove home, I couldn't help but think about this novel I read in fourth grade. It's about this girl that lives in New Orleans and what she went through when facing Hurricane Katrina. The scenes they described in the book were absolutely devastating, like water rising all the way up to the roofs of their houses. That's the only comparison I have to estimate the amount of damage Martia is going to bring to our island. 

    Just so you know, we live in an apartment next to a lagoon that's right next to the airport. We have the penthouse in our three-story apartment so we have a terrace which will probably be a problem when Maria comes and blesses us with our own little swimming pool along with some leaves, dirt, and maybe even some glass. Broken glass, that is. 

    So, fast-forwarding to the night just before Maria is expected to hit. We've done some grocery shopping and some preparations like taping up all the windows and the glass doors that lead to the balcony. We've also tied up all the chairs together just in case the glass doors shatter. And just so you know, we don't have any shutters,. My bed is going to be used for housing all electronic equipment like our TV and computers. I'm going to sleep on a sofa that can be a bed. 

Yup, that's it for that one. Next, I have one that I wrote AFTER the hurricane but this one is a lot shorter. 

Hurricane Season 2017

Chapter 1: News

    It's 2:30 in the afternoon and I was in science class. The teacher was explaining to us how dangerous a hurricane can be and how to prepare for everything. Then, she showed us a video of how powerful a hurricane could be. We were also notified that there might be no school tomorrow because of Hurricane Irma which is going to affect most of our island. 

Chapter 2: Not so bad

    So after we knew what was coming, my family went to the supermarket and bought some water, food, and a few basic tools for cooking and all that stuff. Before night, it came, Irma the category 5 beast. Although it just scraped us, it still left us without electricity. The damage wasn't too much, just a few fallen trees. Little did we know, the next one means business. This was the first hurricane I had ever experienced. 

Chapter 3: Experience

Today, everybody is talking about how another hurricane is on its way and that it's going to be a direct hit, straight through the middle of Puerto Rico. When I got home, we started preparing right away. We prepared for a potential massive flood to happen right in our home, so we made sure we covered up everything that was vulnerable to water. Now, we wait. 

Chapter 4: Maria

    I remember hearing the voices of my parents as I just woke up. Big winds outside, I think Maria is here. My parents tell me to go into the bathroom to hide as it was the safest room in the house, without any windows. 

    Even within that tiny enclosed space, I could hear the deafening winds outside which gave me the feeling that I was trapped with no way out. We hid in the bathroom for around half an hour until our neighbors downstairs asked us to go down to their house since they had shutters installed. We had our breakfast there too and we stayed put. 

    A couple hours passed by and suddenly we heard water dripping from above at the stairway. Our home! We were extremely worried that one of the windows had shattered, but as we rushed inside we were relieved to find that that wasn't the case. Our balcony, however, was flooded, and the water drainage pipe outside was blocked by the leaves and dirt that Maria has swept up from below. 

    From there, the water started coming in from the bottom of our door and eventually made its way downstairs. So, we started sweeping the water outside and almost everyone started coming out to help. By that time, the main part of the hurricane had already passed. 

    This hurricane brought us great fear and damage, as well as an experience. We now had no electricity and no signal at all. When we went out of our community in our car, we could really see all the damage Maria had inflicted upon our island. Electricity wires, glass, even concrete, were broken and laying on the ground. We really shouldn't underestimate its power. 

Chapter 5: See you later

    After sweeping out all that water and a good night's sleep, we were still stunned by all the destruction Maria had left behind. Trees, fences, wires, road signs, and glass were everywhere on the ground. We shall forever remember this in our hearts. Bye-bye!!

And that's the end to my book comprised of 5 miniature chapters LOL. Ah, I believe I still have two more to show. 

April 27, 2018

One day at home, I was without parents or any kind of connection with society. All I had was my to-do list - and myself. Now, this may not sound like a lot, but before all the advanced technology, everything was handmade. I mean, the tech we have today was invented by someone, and that someone didn't have YouTube to teach him/her how to invent it. See what I mean? I have the materials I need to think up a new idea, even though I have to start from scratch, from the very beginning. Today, however, my main goal was to complete my to-do list before today, or April 27, 2018, ends eternally, never to come back again.  Now, when you finish everything on your list, which can be difficult depending on your tasks, you're done for the day. However, tasks can come in large varieties. Some you may like or maybe even love, while some you may not like or perhaps even hate. But, no matter what kind of task you have, sooner or later, you'll have to do it, so it's better to just get it over with. 

Okay, the final one. 

May 11, 2018

    Today, I'm forced to stay at home without any screens or the Internet because I woke up late on a not-school day. However, I feel like there are lots to be learned from this experience, as it allows me to keep away from all links of the world outside my apartment. 

    Although this may or may not sound boring to some people, it actually enables people to do what they're supposed to do instead of busting all of their free time on games and sometimes spending money on them too. This way, people finally get work done due to the fact that there's nothing to distract them from properly doing it. 

    As an example, today, I played an hour & ten minutes of piano, read an entire chapter book, and also developed a formula that targets a whole type of math problem. 

    However, some work does require the Internet, like researching a certain topic so that you can gain the most needed information for your presentation. 

    Therefore, I've decided that besides the fact that sometimes technology can indeed create diversions from our work, self-control is indispensable, and cannot be lost. Otherwise, nothing can restrain you from doing things you aren't supposed to do. 

    Of course, the solution I've discussed here today does indeed work. At least, according to the very person it's being used on. 

    Looking at the bigger picture, self-control over yourself is still the most important component in any plan. 

Wow, that's a massive amount of words I just typed in. But, you know me, I type at light speed so it really doesn't bother me LOL. Okie then, I'll see you in tonight's blog entry then. BYE!

interactivity

It feels like just a moment ago I was worried about what the first day back in school was going to be like. And now look, tomorrow is my day off. Wednesday. Has it really been two days already? It almost seems like a blur. But I guess, that's what makes my blog entries so precious. It records what happens and what I'm thinking about every day. I'm sure, these will end up being priceless. 

Okay, so onto my classes for the day. We start out with English where we read this text. It was a letter from one poet to another. Saying how words of criticism are something that impacts a work of art the least and that the poet should delve deeper within themselves to find out where their urge to write comes from. I think that sort of advice is a real jewel, "a jewel beyond all price" as the letter said. 

Oh and then the teacher also picked out groups for reading and discussion questions we're going to be doing soon. I got some decent people so it's great but Psi wasn't as lucky LOL. It's not that the people in his group as bad or anything, they just don't contribute and participate as much. I like lively people. They really bring up the whole team morale, and although, to some people, morale may seem unimportant. But to me, I still value morale and that healthy team atmosphere. 

In Spanish, we talked about the theatre. Dramas, Tragedies, and Comedies in specific. Also, the different parts that make up a play. Acts, scenes, external structure, etc. Ah, and following that, answered 10 questions based on the information we had just learned. Wasn't a very relaxing class but quite productive I must say. 

Lastly, we have History. Now, during lunch, I had met up with my group once already to rehearse once and just add finishing touches if we needed any. But then in class, the teacher gave another 15 minutes so that was great. When it was finally our turn to present, it was pretty awesome. There weren't any mistakes, no errors, almost everything went according to plan. So for us, it was a success. However, in the long run, there were still some details we could've improved. For example, I think we could've spoken slower, maybe explain in even more detail, and also by making the presentation interactive with the audience. You want the spectator to also feel involved in this presentation, that way, it can shine even brighter than it already is. 

Okay, I should go off to sleep now. Tomorrow is Wednesday and I have no classes so I get to sleep at 12. That's why I'm here at 11 instead of 10. Nevertheless, it's time now. cya!

waves

You know what, the first day back wasn't as brutal as I was bracing myself for. 

The schedule for class days stayed the same, except that now we have Wednesdays off. As for today, it was my regular 4-period day. We start off with Physics. I joined the class first, as I usually do because apparently, no one likes to go in first. Everyone just piles in after the first person. I don't really mind though so that's why I'm generally the first one there. 

So as for content, we covered a whole lot. Mostly on waves and vibrations. There were 4 different types of waves we talked about, mechanical, electromagnetic, transverse, and longitudinal. They all have distinct properties that set them apart. For instance, mechanical waves need a physical medium to travel through, like water for example. We also talked about frequency, period, and velocity when it comes to these waves. The formula was f*lambda = v. Lambda is the wavelength. A wavelength is a distance there is between one crest the next one. A crest is the top point of a wave. 

This is actually a great picture. Yup, so that picture visually explains all the parts of a wave. After the explanation, we did some problems and I busted through them quite quickly with just that one formula. Wait, is that formula or simply an equation? I don't know anymore. 

Okay, and then as for Music. The guy before me didn't come AGAIN and so I got a 45-minute class instead of my usual 30 min one. He told me that my jazz piece should have more swing to it and also to focus on bringing out the right hand which is the main melody. 

There isn't much to talk about in PE. She gave us this worksheet that we're supposed to complete next class and it's about agility which is one of the 6 skill-related fitness components. Let me remember what the others were... ah yea, balance, coordination, speed, power, and reaction time. So ostensibly, we're going to go through one component each week, starting with agility. The exercise we did was dribbling a ball around a "track" that is formed by two plastic cups laying on the ground. Yeah, and then we had to time it too. I'm pretty sure we're going to do kinda the same thing next time as well so not too looking forward to that. 

Finally, in Math, we did nothing. yup. NOTHING. Okay, well the teacher was explaining some rational expression addition and subtraction of fractions, but it was so so simple. The exercises in the book were super easy too. I don't really understand how this is an Honors class. Isn't honors supposed to be harder? Or at least learning more advanced stuff? Sigh, but it's already the second semester so I just gotta stick with this until it ends. Ah, my time is up. Good night folks!

too sour

Ahaha, break's over ladies and gentlemen. Now, we're about to head back into school. 

Dino mentioned that he was nervous about starting school again because he wants to aim for all A+ in this semester. As for me, I'm a bit nervous as well, although, I don't think I should be. After all, we've already been through one semester. The second one should be pretty much similar, right? 

But then again, just the thought of having your work being judged and graded by others could leave a person unsettled. Sigh, I'm waking up early tomorrow for school too which means I'll be heading to sleep earlier too. 11 PM is my deadline for school nights. Ah, it's almost 10. 

In the morning, my Chinese lesson started a bit later than usual because breakfast took longer than we thought it would. In class, grandma taught me about the different ways to say 啊 when there are distinct words before it. 啊 is classified as a 轻声词 which means you don't label a tone to it. There were like 6 variations on how to say it but it's hard to explain sooooo I'll just leave it here. Anyway, the class ended at 11:30 since we started a little later.  

Oh and then I met up with Fox and Dino again as I said yesterday to finalize the PPT. It's done now, and I wanted to rehearse but Fox wanted to just improve and said that it would turn out better. Tbh it most likely would indeed be more natural rather than being all scripted out so we agreed on doing a short simulation of the presentation tomorrow after class. 

Ah, I also made the main dish at dinner tonight. It was fried fish with this sauce that we make. It took me a long time to get the sauce proportions right because my mom wouldn't help me at all as it was my "test" of making this dish. In the end, it turned all turned out okay. It was a bit too sour though, my fault for adding too much lemon to the sauce. Aside from that, the rest was fine. Could still be better though, so I'll try to help out more around the kitchen. 

Yes, so I'll finish up my blog for today here. Bonne nuit!

battle of the lenguajes

Ah, and just like that, my final free day is over. The day after tomorrow and school shall commence once more. I wonder what the first day back will be like. Probably they'll go easy on us at first. Let us ease into the environment once again. Although it is still going to be virtual, apparently someone said the school was planning on trying hybrid towards the end. 

Oh also, I need to sleep at 11:30 today instead of 12 because of my Chinese lesson tomorrow in the morning at 9:30. Yup yup, btw, Chinese lessons for me really aren't that bad. Frankly, I like them better than my regular Spanish classes at school. Well, a part of that may be influenced by the fact that I'm more adept in it than Spanish... but just judging on the class structure, I'd say the Chinese lessons win this one.

Hmm, as for today, I really took a nice break. OH yeah, I DID meet with my History group today to work on the PowerPoint. It's pretty much finished, all the info is there, now the organization is all that's missing. We said we'd deal with that part tomorrow though since Dino had to leave early. 

Fox makes the slides a bit too cluttered but it has a good amount of solid info in it too so all I need to do is pare it down to the most important stuff. Then, I just stuff his original script into the "Notes" section of the slide which means he can still read it later when we're undergoing the actual presentation. 

hmm, then I continuously practiced my jazz piece, OVER and OVER again. It's simple to do so, thanks to its ABA structure. I can just go looping ABABABABABABABABA... to my heart's content. I'm sure, after enough tries, it'll sound very natural. 

Okay then, my time is running out. cya later guys!

pizza tastes great

Hello! Once again. Hehhh, yes, I really need some better openings. 

OKAY, so yesterday night's plan was a success! I slept on time and everything was great. SO, I'm going to do the same today. Thus, I'm here, writing my blog at 10:30. You know, just in case something pops up that wasn't in the plan. 

So for today, most of it was spent at my mom's store. I completed an AMC10 exam there too, but since the surroundings were loud and a bit distracting when compared to a usual testing venue, I didn't perform as great. That's okay though, I'll try to perform just as well under different circumstances too later on. Anyway, as I said, I solved around 2 problems less than the last few times so I'll have to go over them soon. Hmm, then, the city building simulator helped me pass some time while there wasn't anyone in the store.

Oh, btw, technically it's illegal for me to workkk, but, since it's my mom's store, and I'm pretty tall for my age... no one cares. I believe I've mentioned this once before, but my mom has a lot of new merchandise that I haven't seen before, so I have a little trouble inserting them into the system when someone comes up to the cashier with a new item. 

With that being said, my mom left the store at one point to go pick up something, and then suddenly, like 8 people came into the store and started going on a shopping spree. They literally scooped up a bunch of products and just plopped them onto the counter to buy. I guess they must've been really desperate for last-minute souvenir gifts LOL. 

Although I was a bit nervous I would get something wrong, in the end, it turns out that I didn't really make any mistakes. That was awesome because otherwise I probably would've had to pay for it. 

OH and we ordered some pizza for dinner. Sure tastes great after a day of hard work LOLLL. Anyway, the time I set for writing my blog is almost up so I'll say bye-bye now. Have a fantastic night everybody!

Tesla with that juicy 9%

Heh heh, wow, a FANTASTIC day in the market. Absolutely terrific I say. For Tesla at least, LOL. A whopping 9% last I checked. Not to mention that Microsoft also went up around 3 percent hehe. The point is, I made a whole lot today LOL. 

Oh, and you remember that worksheet full of math problems that were due on the 10th? Well, I managed to finish all of the remaining problems today and also sent them in for grading. Now, all I can do is hope for the best. It should be a-okay though since I checked all of my work beforehand more than once. Albeit there's still a tiny chance that I overlooked some minor details, otherwise I'm quite confident. 

Aha, and my jazz piece is just sounding better and better. It's still a bit unclear in some places, but more and more practice will do the trick. Other than that, I'm also trying to compose something on my MIDI keyboard but writing a song is really a lot harder than I thought it would be. Especially the inspiration part. That's most likely the hardest part of composing music. 

Hmm, oh yeah, my friends are also really into this city building game recently. You can gather up resources, build up a sustainable city, trade with other cities, and it's all online so you can play with each other. Yeah, I think we have about 7 friends playing it altogether. There are other people too though, but you know what they say, the more the merrier. 

Ah yeah, my Chinese class in the morning also went really smoothly. The presentation was nearly flawless thanks to my amazing execution, and my grandma helped out too on some parts where I wasn't too clear about LOL. I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime actually. 

OH, yes, time is running short. Yesterday my phone got taken away because I slept past my bedtime so I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen today by going to prepare... RIGHT NOW. Good night!

 am I mad?

Hey guys, how's it going. It's already Wednesday, just 4 more days, and boom, break's over. 

Sigh, seems to fly by doesn't it. I guess maybe that's partly because I had my stuff to do every single day, so I was never entirely bored and looking to pass time. I believe that's also what drives people mad in prisons. There's nothing to do. Luckily, that's not the case for me and thus, as far as I know, I'm not mad. LOL

Let's get on with today's blog now. Hmm, I still need to exercise after this so I won't make it too detailed. We start off in the morning with some nice fried rice using corned beef LOL. And then, I made a PowerPoint in preparation for my presentation tomorrow with my cousin in Chinese class. I'm supposed to tell a story about where the world came from, so I got all kinds of photos from Google and put them all in an orderly fashion in accord with the story. 

Later on, I took another practice AMC10 exam. However, our printer ran out of ink, unfortunately, so I only got to do part of the problems. Oh, I still got within the top 10 percentile though, great stuff isn't it. Anyways, from here on out, printing the problems are going to be harder because we'll have to print it at my mom's store and then bring it back home from there. Ah, I also reviewed most of the problems that I got wrong along with the ones I wasn't able to solve as well. 

Mhm, oh yes, I am now able to fully memorize Autumn Leaves now too. Without even peeking at the score I can play it completely. It's starting to really sound good now, can't wait for it to be fully finished. 

As for stocks, I sold off all of Palantir and bought in more Microsoft. It wasn't a particularly good day for Microsoft though, but Tesla did great. That's helping me keep it balanced LOL. 

Okay, I guess I'll put an end to it here then. Good night everyone!

the grind never stops

Bonjour. Je suis content aujourd'hui. Why? I hear you ask, well, because I finished all the work I set out to accomplish today. 

Let's see, for starters, 3 hours of math. In the bag. BOOM, hmm I finished reviewing all the solutions to the problems in the AMC exam that I couldn't do, and then I learned a bit of trigonometry as well. That took up quite a large chunk of my day. 

Then, oh yea, we hit a new record high on our stock account. Thanks to the amazing Tesla stock of course. "The grind never stops", as my friend Rama likes to say. Hmm, anyway, I didn't do sufficient research on Palantir and now it's coming back to haunt me, so I sold off most of my shares between yesterday and today. Ah yes, I bought in a little Microsoft today too since it's a pretty stable stock. It doesn't rise super quickly like some others, but it's not volatile and it's a blue-chip for a reason. 

Oh, I also did my share of chores today and the apartment is cleaner than ever. OH yes, I had my free time to play with Psi, Rama, and Dino too. We played quite a variety of games today actually. 3 to be exact. It's great to interact more with them because otherwise, it gets a bit boring when you have too much free time and no one to spend it with. 

Yup, coolio day overall. Hopefully, tomorrow will be even better LOL. OKAY THEN, my internet is about to go out in... 1 minute. SO GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE!!

top 6%

HEYYY it's Monday! One last week before school starts back up again. Canary's school already begun today too. Anyway, the main event today was taking an AMC10 practice exam and then going over some of the problems afterward. 

I did rather well today, beat my previous records, and I would've placed into the top 6 percentile in the US for that practice exam. What I'm aiming for is the top 10% on the actual exam so being able to reach that already, although on a past exam that doesn't count for anything, at least soothes the heart. 

However, I did make one silly mistake on a geometry problem that I otherwise would've gotten correct and that prevented me from breaking into the top 5 percentile. But no matter, stuff like that can happen on the real test too so it's best to be prepared for the worst. 

Hmm, oh yes, practice for the jazz piece is going smoother as well. I'd say two more days and I should be able to memorize it completely. I played quite a bit of piano today but mostly centered around that one single piece so I wasn't able to practice much of Turkish March and the Elegy. 

Ah, I reviewed for an hour on Physics too. On when and how to apply four distinct kinematic equations in real-world problems. Oh, a bit on graphs as well. 

Yes, I think today was a pretty good day. Great, in fact. And I hope all of you had an amazing day too! cya!

drifting is EASYYY

HELLO!! And here we are, my freeeeeeee day!

Ahem, so early in the morning, I took my Chinese lesson. The good thing is, grandma didn't make me actually memorize those 7 tongue-twisters. Instead, I got to learn some idioms I hadn't heard before and a short story that had all those idioms applied within it. 

Mhm, oh right, she also gave me another story to read. This one is about a folktale that talks about the origin of the world. Grandma wants me to read it and then explain it to my cousin later in the week since my cousin's Chinese level isn't high enough to understand it all herself. Additionally, it'll also be good training for my skills as a tutor. So, it's a win-win situation. Why not go through with it?

Yeah, after class, I took a break for a while, and then we left the house. So, we went to the University of Puerto Rico. My dad works there so we're allowed in. Inside, all the students have already left and the teachers work from home so, it's pretty much empty.  

Yup. So, my parents let me practice a little bit of driving. Just some basic steering and parking. You know, none of that high-speed drifting stuff. jk LOLLLL

The driving was probably the highlight of today. And you know what, it's not as difficult as I thought it would be. Sure, it's not easy, but I think I'll be able to drive with ease after a few more tries. 

Speaking of which, my mom says that if I don't get my phone taken away for a whole month then she'll let me drive again. THEREFORE, I must go. Before the clock hits 12 and my phone goes poof. GOOD NIGHT my friends. BYEEE

almost down

Hope you all had a great day today! Hmm, I had a relatively relaxing day. 

Late in the morning, I read a little of my online book. Watched YouTube for a bit. 

Usually, Saturday would've been my free day. However, since my mother doesn't have to go to her store tomorrow but she did have to go today, so they decided that we'd have a family day tomorrow. Mhm, and because it'll probably take up most of the day and we wouldn't have much time to learn/study... I did some work today instead of it being a full free day. 

Just a few problems from a worksheet. I believe I'm only two problems away from completion. Out of the problems that are left, one of them seems simple but apparently is actually rather complex upon closer inspection. That one I've been stuck on for a day now. Maybe an idea will pop into my head sometime. 

OH right, piano-wise, I tried finishing the Autumn Leaves piece. I can play it all now, but, it's not memorized yet. Memorization is the result of countless runs of the same passage though, so after a few days, I should have it down. 

Ah, you might be wondering, hey Jerry, aren't you supposed to be teaching that second grader English on Saturdays? Well, under normal circumstances you'd be correct, but this week is "special" in a way since these are the first days of the year. The organization sent out a group notice informing us about the cancellation of this week's lessons for all tutors and students due to this reason. 

Yup, that pretty much wraps up today. I'm kind of excited for tomorrow actually. GOOD NIGHT!!

First day of the year

Hello! The first day in the new year. How refreshing isn't it? 

Well, the day started off great. A nice delectable breakfast, followed up by our car trip to my mom's store. At one point, there were these scooters just laying around on the streets. They're issued by this company called Bird and they're all electrical scooters. 

Ahem, if you didn't know, my balance isn't really the best. So, my mom had me try riding one of these. And then, it was going ok at the start, but then I lost control of it, and it kind of cut into my skin. Yeah, luckily it's not too deep so it's all good. I'm sure it'll heal in due time. 

After that, the day at the store went by pretty fast. I read some more of my book too! Hmm, oh right I also watched a comedy movie. Yeahhhh, a couple sales went by... and boom, it was already time to go. 

OH SOME GOOD NEWS! I got a gold medal in a math olympiad where 10 countries participated in! Well, I think Latin American countries more. There was Bolivia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Uruguay, Portugal, Venezuela, and us. 

YUP, so yay yay to me! 

GOOD NIGHT!!