super short summary

Okay. Wednesday. The middle day, HUMP DAY. Usually, I would have class. But apparently, we're still in fully online mode for this week too. 

negotiation, Dino and Rama, quite successful

geometry with dad, auxiliary lines, medians and angle bisectors

42points class

annotations for history, finished

Excelente trabajo

So I missed yesterday's blog because I fell asleep... And I don't even remember how I fell asleep. But I did. So I woke up really early and took an early morning cold shower. Anyway, back to yesterday. 

English, Spanish, and History. Did I mention that I'm suddenly a lot more confident in my Spanish? Yeah, I guess it comes with the practice LOL. I really should do it more often. Any volunteers? 

So, in English, the whole class was working on the end-of-unit essay. I pretty much have the whole structure down and now I need to connect the dots. I should work on it outside of class a little bit in order to make sure it gets finished, next class. 

For Spanish, it was the presentation that I completed with Otter. Ours was definitely the longest and had the most information than any other presentation, and at the end, the teacher said ours was excellent! So I'm expecting an excellent grade too LOL. It'll really help raise it a lot. 

Finally, in History, we had a discussion about the notes we took on the sites for homework. We had to take notes on the discussion we had on the notes too LOL. It was fine though because it was pretty short. Then, she assigned more homework. Annotating a part of a chapter in the textbook. It's not too much so I should be able to finish it in around 20 minutes. 

I don't really remember the rest of yesterday...

antidote to dissatisfaction

Well, I only have 15 minutes today to write so I'll go super fast. HOWEVER, because I'll be going fast my blog structure might not be as organized as usual LOL. I guess there's only one way to find out if it's going to affect it. 

We start off in the morning. It's around 8:15 when our electricity goes out. It's not really all that rare here and I've kinda got used to it by now. Plus, my phone has data now so I can use its hotspot to connect to classes even if everything else stops working. So, a few minutes after the power went out, my dad went upstairs to start up the generator. I could hear the BRRR from downstairs but my monitor screen wasn't lighting up. 

We realized that although it sounded like the generator was running, the electricity wasn't flowing. Additionally, after pulling the string that started the generator a bit too hard, the string snapped and so now we can't start the generator anymore. It's broken so we'll have to go repair it. 

Anyway, with no generator, I was taking my classes using a hotspot and my laptop. I got through all the classes fine though, there wasn't any class today that I had to participate in a great deal luckily. The only one that would've required that might've been PE but today PE consisted mostly of us working on a PPT presentation about soccer and also watching another TED talk about SEL concepts. 

The concept today was gratitude. Now, as you know, I've been watching these cool youtube videos recently that talk all about gratitude, how to improve, motivation, and all that other stuff so this talk wasn't really anything new to me. It was still a good talk though even if it was a monotone without that many highlights. Oh, there's a Kurzegast video on Youtube that's pretty cool. I think it was called The Antidote to Dissatisfaction. Or something similar. In that video, they also cover gratitude and all the ways that you can learn to be more grateful and be happier overall with what you have. 

In Physics we're still in electricity. Today we talked about voltage and resistance. Ohm's law, current = voltage/resistance. And then we had a worksheet on the law. I finished before class ended so I was dismissed early. That was good since I needed to conserve my laptop's battery as much as possible for the rest of the classes in case the electricity didn't come back at all. 

Music was chill. And lastly, in Math today we just got introduced to logarithms. We're still in the very very introduction of it though. 

AH and after class, we went to Costco! I haven't visited Costco in quite some time so it was nice to go again. Every time we go to Costco, we usually buy enough so that we don't have to go for about another month or so. That's why it's a pretty big haul we bring back every time too LOL. 

I think that pretty much sums it up for today. Good night GUYS!!

the pardon from the king

Sunday is over. And back to Monday. An infinite cycle. 

I had my Chinese class with grandma in the morning. It was extended a little because I hadn't eaten breakfast so she gave me some time to eat before starting the class. Right now we're reading an Andersen story. It's the little match girl. It's a good story, well I mean it's a classic and all classics have to be good, or else they wouldn't even be able to stay around long enough to be considered a classic LOL. 

Basically, the objective is to read it out loud and clearly with emotion and to also understand the story very well. That's why we had all these questions to chop up the story into little sections that we're able to comprehend quicker and with more ease. The task of piecing the little sections altogether is far less daunting than trying to do it s a whole. 

After the class, I did my Spanish project with Otter. It's a PowerPoint. The teacher split up the class into 7 groups and each group has to read a chapter of the historical book and explain to the class what happened in that chapter. 

In mine, it was a marriage proposal from two brothers of a noble family to El Cid's two daughters. Since El Cid was wrongfully expatriated from the kingdom, the king wanted to make it up to him by having his two daughters marry into a noble family and at the same time grant him "el perdon real" (there's an accent on the o). It's a pardon meaning he's no longer expatriated. 

Anyway, after that project I had to do my History notes. We have to take notes on 3 different websites for homework. She provided us which websites to use but most of them were in Spanish. Luckily, google has this feature where you can translate the whole website into English. That made it a lot easier for me, however, there were still some phrases that didn't quite make sense in English so I had to switch back in order to get it. Also, there were sites where the main points of information were in the text of pictures and the translate feature doesn't work on pictures, only text. 

In the end, I got it done though. Moving on to tomorrow. 

the third round

Ah, so today was the third round. I didn't do fantastically well, I think I got 2 wrong. Now, I sort of underestimated the difficulty. But to be fair, they DID up the difficulty a lot this year compared to past ones. It's at least two times harder if not three. So, if it was harder for me, it should be harder for the other kids too, right? 

Anyway, that means there's still a chance of getting a gold medal which is what I'm aiming for. Some kids in my google meet classroom submitted their tests with only two pages. That's not possible unless they either didn't write their process or they didn't solve all the problems. As for me, I had 11 pages. But I bet some had more. 

I could've solved the last one, but I didn't see how to do it during the test. It's a pity. However, what can we do? Moving forward seems to be the only option. Sigh, I have a ton of work to do tomorrow. I better go sleep soon. Sorry that the blogs these two days have been very short. Hope you'll excuse me for it. Good night dear readers. 

perfect only?

HEY. I'm a bit behind today so today's might not be as long as the previous two posts. 

There's a lot of work today that is due next week. One, for instance, appeared in my first class. English. In English, we're starting the end-of-unit essay. I would suppose that once we finish this, it'll basically be it for this year. We don't have many grades in English either and since this final end-of-unit is going to be worth 100 points... it's pretty much going to make up the bulk of my grade this year. I can't mess this one up. SO I have to dedicate time to this essay. 

For Spanish, we're doing a small project. We're divided into 7 small groups and assigned to read a chapter of the book. Then you make a short PPT presentation on what happened in that chapter and then tell it to the class. I'm partners with Otter on this one, and we're not done yet so I'll be working on this on Sunday with Otter although I'll do some on Saturday too. 

Finally, in History, we are taking notes on these sites with historical information on them. Mostly all of them are related to the English attack on San Juan in 1797 led by Ralph Abercromby. These are due before class next Tuesday. 

So, essentially, I have work to do from every single class today which is a bit stressful. But at the same time, I guess it helps me train my time management skills more. 

Also, big event tomorrow. It's the OMPR Third Phase. It's usually very easy and the problems are simple but you just can't get even ONE wrong. You need to get perfect here or else it'll be very tough for you. Wish me luck for tomorrow then. Good night!!

 

seductive and poignant

What's up, everyone! 

Today, the school's back in session. 4 classes. And tomorrow's Friday. 

Physics - a quick review of the quiz we took last class. I got one wrong, 22/24. The teacher did use my quiz to explain the answers though so I suppose that was the highest grade? Anyway, there's also this email that he sent out yesterday that talked a little about the final project we're going to be doing in Physics class. You work in pairs of 2 and are required to get a solar-powered car. You can either buy one that's ready or you can build it yourself. The funny thing is, the one that comes ready is only 1 dollar more expensive than the DIY one LOL. I'm going to be working with Fox, but we don't work on that project until the final week of school. 

Man, it's real close, isn't it? Just about a month and a half to go and we're done with freshmen year of high school. Honestly, I still vividly remember last summer. And yet, summer is almost upon us once again. I should start looking for online summer camps to enroll in soon. Like very soon. Maybe I can get some of my friends to enroll with me to make it more fun. OH, I'll talk more about this in another blog. 

After our quiz review, we had a PowerPoint lecture on electric fields, currents, voltage, electrical potential energy, and field forces. We then had worksheets based on the info given to us in the lecture to apply the concepts we just learned. It's mostly the calculator doing most of the work though. That's how it is with Physics class. You just need a few simple relationships and equations, plug in the values for the variables, and then have the calculator do the rest for you. 

Music - Kept working on PUC. If you listened to the song on youtube or someplace, there are basically two parts to the song. There's a light one, "seductive and poignant" is how they describe it. And then there's a triple forte part. The forte part is my favorite part LOL. It's very dramatic and it's fun to play. It's rich in sound and I just like it a lot. I pretty much have the whole song memorized, but I still need to work out a few details. And then comes the refining and polishing phase which I don't know whether to look forward to or not. 

PE - The workouts in PE are easier now. We're still in the soccer unit so it was mostly working with the ball and all sorts of drills. They aren't too high intensity though, just repetitive and it's more skill-based than force-based. Moving the ball back and forth with control is actually quite hard to do. Then, since we started SEL again in PE, we watched a TED talk on mindfulness and filled out a worksheet on that too. 

MATH - Algebra, we're finally done with trig. It took SOOO long and we're probably not going to be seeing those graphs in a while. We've now started radicals. I thought we had already covered it, but apparently, we never got this deep into it so we're doing it again. I felt like participating today, so with my help, the class moved along surprisingly fast today. I do realize that I might seem a bit obnoxious though. That one kid who always is the first to answer questions and seems to always get them right too LOL. 

But I mean, in my class, Rama and Beam and Wow (this friend I think I've probably named before but I completely forgot their codename...) The point is, these three are all into competition math and any one of us could easily do these problems without breaking a sweat. But I took the wheel today so I was just answering all of them LOL. 

That's it for school today. CYA!!

A barrage of info coming your way

Last time I had said that I was going to give you more information on Zeta. 

So, Zeta is a friend that I met from Bloom actually. In case you forgot, Bloom is the organization that I'm in as an English tutor for less fortunate kids in China. So, Zeta is another tutor at Bloom and as I mentioned, quite a while ago, (probably months ago LOL), we were instructed to choose clubs to join. Zeta and I are both in the public speaking club so BOOM, that's one similarity already. 

Moreover, Zeta's Chinese is exceptionally well, just like mine heheh, he's better than me though since he's lived in China for most of his life. He moved to the states during the pandemic and despite being in a completely foreign country, I think he's adapting fairly quickly to everything. That's awesome. OH and he plays the piano too! 5 years he said. Too bad I haven't gotten to hear him play yet but I'm sure I will soon. Ah and guess what, the guy is really interested in stocks and investing AS WELL!! What are the chances?? 

He has a real stock account and everything too but he's only been into it for less than a year. Plus, Zeta likes magic. WHATTT? IS HE MY COUNTERPART? I don't think I ever talked about this on my blog before, but there was a period of time where I was really into magic. I spent hours learning all sorts of tricks and stuff, I can't even remember the reason why I stopped... So maybe my encounter with Zeta will spark that interest once again. He showed me a couple tricks and the logic behind them. And yes, magic is more logical than you might think. Contrary to popular belief, there is more logic behind magic than the actual magical components. Yup. 

Oh, and we even read the same books. Remember that book by Dale Carnegie that I recommended all of you to read? How to Win Friends and Influence People? He's read it too. We had a great, lively discussion about it. 

I think one of the main differences between us is just that I have more competition math things, you know, the academic achievement side. And Zeta likes more practical day-to-day skills like socializing, learning how to communicate effectively, deduction, reading body language, etc... I've been trying to learn more about that side also. 

AH and he recommended me a TON of youtube channels for improvement. I'll give one to you guys that I've been personally watching myself in the past two days. It's called Improvement Pill. I also gave it to Fid earlier today when we were talking. I really think it helps you with all kinds of problems, and even if you don't have any problems... it helps you improve either way. 

Wow. I wrote all that and I just remembered that I forgot one crucial thing that happened yesterday. So after history class, I actually had Science bowl practice for an hour. It went great actually. I guessed right more than half the time LOL. But what I really wanted to focus on was what came AFTER science bowl practice. The orientation for student council!! YEAAA!

Ngl, the presentation itself, was kind of a letdown. Why do I say this? Before the actual orientation, they had already sent out an email with a pdf of everything they were going to be talking about. I thought they were just going to use it as a guide and that the orientation itself would've been more interesting. But they just read off of the pdf. I mean, cmon, I had already done that myself. So I sat through 11 pages of a pdf that I had already read through, TWICE I might add, just for the part that I was waiting for most. Q&A time. 

I had a ton of questions, and frankly, I thought others did too. But then Q&A time came along and when they asked if anyone had questions, the zoom meeting was silent. The silence was so deafening, that I puffed out my chest and decided to go first. After I started, there was kind of a snowball effect where some other students also started asking questions. It didn't last long though before the silence came back. So I said my second question. And then my third. And then my fourth. Woah, you have no idea but it felt great to talk in front of 60 people and all of them are silent, listening, and expectant. Boy oh boy, I think I'm going to have a lot of fun if I get elected. So basically, besides a friend of mine who asked 2 questions, every other kid either asked 1 or none. LOL. 

Ah, today's blog was mostly about yesterday LOL. I'll go for a quick recap of today then. In the morning, my mom suddenly saw that her employee wasn't coming and so she was going to be alone handling the store today. So she asked me to come with her and I agreed. My dad also tagged along. However, when at the store, it was mostly the two of them in the back of the store going through the merchandise that just arrived today while I was alone in the front dealing with all the customers and sales. Yeah I know, I'm such a god. 

 

Oh, and I also did a few geometry problems while I was being a god too. Yeah, I'm just too cool. We had pizza for dinner. GOOD NIGHT!!

Ah novelty

Hello! Today was a cool day. 

Woke up in the morning feeling great. In English, we were working on reading and question discussions of the book we're reading. We're not reading the entire book though, only a few chapters. This way we go deeper into each section, each passage, and even down to every sentence. What tone is it trying to convey? What's the central idea of this passage? What is the author trying to tell the readers through this interaction? These are questions that I usually don't ask myself when I'm just reading for pleasure so it's nice to have a change like that. 

After all, humans are addicted and constantly seeking novelty. It's part of human nature, and it's deeply embedded inside us. It's what allowed us to survive back in historical eras. Finding new food, new medicine, new ways of life, etc. Never before have we ever lived in a world so suited to our needs. And this is a result of our constant craving for novelty. If you didn't know the meaning of novelty, (ngl I searched it up just today too), it's the quality of being new, original, or unusual. Basically, newness but it sounds cooler and more professional LOL. 

OKAY, so I kinda got off topic there. I was just watching a youtube video on it LOL. So English was fun, I participated quite a few times and it was coolio. At the start of the class, my microphone wasn't functioning properly so I couldn't salute the teacher like I usually do when I join the class. And my teacher is used to my morning greetings because I'm always the first one there and we occasionally have some small talk before starting class. This morning, when my mic apparently wasn't receiving any input despite the fact that I was talking very loudly... the teacher kept on having me try different ways to get it to work because she said, and I quote, "A class where I can't hear Jerry isn't a class." Oh my, I felt very appreciated and it was a glorious feeling might I add. 

For Spanish, it was a more intense version of how English class went. We practically did the same thing though. We're also reading a passage from a book and answering questions along the way. Of course, the books are different in both classes and to me, they are remotely distinct and not alike at all. 

The one we're reading in English is about a 13-year-old boy who likes writing poems and is troubled in many ways. He has a speech impediment, isn't very confident, and is worried about everyone else's opinions about him. I suppose the teacher thinks we can relate to this story as we're also kids and some of us are similar to the protagonist in some form or way. 

And as for Spanish, it's more historical and non-fiction. It's about war and conflict in Spain, the protagonist is a war hero who is expatriated by the king because of false rumors that were brought to the king's ears. However, the war hero didn't give up and kept on winning battles for the king to hopefully win back his trust with actions and victories. 

Lastly, in History, we took a quiz. WHICH I ACED. 10 multiple choice questions followed by one paragraph response question. Each multiple-choice was worth 1 point while the paragraph was worth 10. So that makes 20 in total. Basically, the only part that I could've messed up on is the multiple-choice because, well, paragraph and long writing responses are my forte. Plus, the teacher doesn't have sky-high expectations for our paragraphs to start with. 

I suppose she just wanted a 5 sentence paragraph with a few supporting details and a conclusion sentence. I, on the other hand, wrote 15 sentences LOL (courtesy to Psi for counting them for me). It's pretty crazy now that I think about it because we had a pretty short time restriction to complete the quiz. I think I spent 15 minutes writing the essay, I mean paragraph, so that would average up to 1 sentence a minute? Is that a lot? It depends on how rich the sentence is I guess. 

LOL to be perfectly honest, there might've been some fluff and bluff and boloney in there... but hey, 15 sentences should've covered more than enough despite it. I didn't really try to use many Membean words when writing, but I bet I could've enhanced the word quality to some extent. Anyway, after talking with a cool new friend of mine, and yes, I MADE A NEW FRIEND! I think I should tweak my rough draft of the speech a little. Btw, I think I'll name my new friend. Zeta. Zeta sounds fitting. Zeta actually is super similar to me, it's kinda scary LOL. You know what, I'll talk about him more in my next blog. 

ouch...

Okay. We're on our way to Tuesday. 

Let's go right to the place where it hurts. Assessments aren't going great. Well, it's just that there haven't been many of those recently and so if do not-so-well on one of them, then it affects your overall grade more than it would if there were more assessments. Why? Because if there were more grades, it would average out and one not-so-good grade wouldn't drag down the grade as there would be many better grades bringing the average up. I have two perfect examples. 

In Physics, I got a 91% on a quiz today, one missed question, and my grade only dropped by less than 0.5% since I have a whole truckload of grades in Physics with most of them being 100%. However, in Math class, two quizzes, I missed one question on one and 2 on the other, and I end up with my average dropping to 94% from a 97&. We only have around 5 grades in Math and like 30 grades in Physics. So that's where the difference is from. 

In Music, I kept working on Por Una Cabeza, you know what, I'm going to refer to it as PUC from now on. Although it doesn't quite have the same ring to it, it saves me some time typing it LOL. Anyway, the part that I hadn't memorized yet is getting better the more I practice it so I think I might have it down by the end of the week. Oh and since the recordings we did last time had bad audio quality because of the background noise........ oh... I forgot that I didn't write about that yet. 

BASICALLY, I went to school one day, in person, and we recorded me playing at school. We recorded Elegy, Autumn Leaves, and Castle in the Sky. I even changed into a suit and everything. But since we weren't experienced and used a computer to record instead of a phone (so the camera wouldn't move), the audio quality was terrible. Therefore, I'll have to redo the whole thing and he wants it done preferably by the end of this week. It's going to have to be in my own room. Hmm, let's see how that goes. 

PE was pretty good. We did some computer work, watching videos on self-care because we're doing SEL again. And then we did a worksheet on it. We also entered the soccer unit. I used a volleyball but she was fine with any ball that could bounce. But it had to be decently large, not like a tennis ball, COUGH RAMA COUGH. OH and I found a cool word today. Neophyte means novice. They're synonyms. 

That's all for tonight. CYA!

musical loophole?

Hey there. Tomorrow is Monday again.

So, you may not know that because Covid cases are on the rise over here, our school is going full virtual once again. At least for this next week. That means no more in-person Tuesdays and Thursdays AND since we're going back to our full online schedule... Wednesdays are free again. That'll probably change after this week but for now, this is going to be how it's gonna be. 

Anyway, the student council thing, there's an orientation on it this Tuesday. Oh, and I have to go because they take attendance and if you're running it's mandatory that you attended that orientation. Sigh. Still can't believe they made the restriction of 120 seconds. I think 5 minutes should've been set as the max and 2 minutes as the minimum. But I guess, from their perspective, they want it to be short and sweet so it doesn't take so long. Fair enough. 

However, they also made more restrictions. THEY SAID NO PROPS. No props? Seriously? and then they say, no background music, no blah blah blah, ... basically they're saying no fun. And at the end of the requirements of the speech, they add in: Original in content and presentation. BRO. That means, playing piano while talking is off the table, making cool card throwing trick shots is no longer an option... I'll have to resort to my writing talent then. Oh yea, then about the presentation, I was thinking of wearing something special but I don't know whether to go formal suit, school uniform, or something else. Any suggestions? 

Besides that, everything's going fine. I have practically half of my new piano piece memorized too. WAIT. They said no BACKGROUND music. But what if I just start playing? That's not really background music because it's not in the background. It's the whole thing. Do you get me? AHH I'll ask them during the orientation on Tues. 

As for school recently, it's been fine. In Physics we've been learning about electricity... OH SHOOT I THINK I HAVE A QUIZ TOMORROW. Oh noes. I don't think I studied. I hope I know everything. Well, I guess I'm going to sleep now then. BYEEE

We're back in business

So as you know, I stopped writing my blog. And I think it's been about 3-4 weeks now. I want to pick it back up now. 

During this time, some interesting things have happened. I'll just mention a few of them. 

A tuner came over and tuned my piano. We finally returned back to normal school, although only for 2 days a week. It was my mom's birthday! We finished spring break. My group did a pretty good presentation in History (before spring break) and I absolutely nailed the recap of the whole thing after the break too. The grade has still yet to come out though. So, anyway, that's about all I can think up on the spot for this past period of time. OH WAIT, I'm learning a cool new piece on piano! It's called Por Un Cabeza and it's a tango. It's great, you should search it up sometime. 

OH SHOOT, a HUGE thing is actually happening too. This school year is ending soon right? May 28th for me I think, and at the end of every year, we have elections for the student council of the following year. You know, I've never tried running for student council before so you may ask, "Why would you start now?" And my honest reply to that would be: "I'm not entirely sure." However, what I AM sure about is, I want to stand out, and I want to make my whole grade stand out in the process. What better way of starting that dream than to be in a position that leads the whole grade? And yes, you've probably deduced by now that I'm planning on running for President. Bingo! Right on. 

So I've been planning things or events we might be able to achieve if I win. And you know, I think I might put that off for just a bit until I actually win this thing. I don't want to get too ahead of myself and miss out on what's right in front of me. After all, elections this year won't be in person. They'll be conducted online and the speech that's supposed to convince people to vote for me will be a video. But, I'm not sure whether it'll be a disadvantage or an advantage. Maybe I'll figure that out later. 

Now, about the speech. I already have a rough draft. There's just a slight problem. I went over the time limit with this speech. They set a 120-second restriction which is extremely short for a GOOD speech. I mean, sure, I could just cut right to the point and tell them to vote for me, state out a few reasons, list out a few things I'm planning to do, but no one wants to hear that. Because that's what everyone else does. And I'm not everyone else. If I'm everyone else then why would they vote me over everyone else? Exactly. 

Well I mean, yes, they might know that I'm outstanding in academics, have lots of other stuff going for me, but do they want me to lead them? That's what I'm going to try to put in their minds. Not only am I great at doing my job, but I can also make ALL of us look great in the process. Boom. 

SO, I hope you enjoyed this first blog back. And I assure you that you can tune in for tomorrow and find another one too.