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Showing posts from May, 2013

Why Would You Want to Go to the Burke Museum?

           Imagine a museum filled with interesting artifacts, amazing exhibits, and lots and lots of new information. Is this real ?   you might ask. It is. There is a museum just like that, on the edge of the UW campus in Washington.            One reason you might like to visit the Burke is the PLASTICS Unwrapped exhibit which tells about how plastic is being wasted every day. There, you can try on a prosthetic leg. The experience is amazing - it feels strange, and you can understand how those disabled people out there have to walk each day. Also, you can observe a stand that shows how much trash was in an albatross's belly. Just from looking at the stand, I suddenly realized that humans are dumping a lot more trash into the ocean than I thought. I felt sorry for the animals. Another interesting part of the exhibit there shows a wall covered with shopping bags. It shows, I think, how many bags the U.S. throws away every day or so. There were a lot of shopping bags on that wall.

Math is Cool Masters

           Yesterday I participated in the Math is Cool Masters competition in Moses Lake. It was an invitational contest that only the people who won the Math is Cool Regional Championships could go to.            The first section of the contest consisted of paper-and-pencil contests like the Mental Math, Individual, and Team contests. These were fairly hard, they took some time to solve. I got lots of them wrong because I wasn't sure how to solve them or I made silly mistakes. Overall, though, we did pretty well on the paper-and-pencil parts of the test. I liked the fact that we did well.            The second part was the College Bowl. This was my favorite, even though it was very nerve-racking.  I like the fast-paced contest, where you had to give out the correct answer in the least possible time. I liked to win the contests, and was kind of sad when we lost once, won once, and tied once. Last time we won all three times.            To sum up, I enjoyed the Math is Cool Mas

Idlewood Park

           Today I played at Idlewood Park.             One thing I really enjoyed was the playground. The first thing I did at the playground was try to climb up the slide. The slide was pretty tall and long. But I got up quickly by grabbing the curved, hook-like sides. I made my way up really easily, and right through a spiderweb. After that, I just started swinging around on the trolley-rail thing. You grabbed the handle, pushed off, and jumped off at the other side. It was really enjoyable.            Another thing I did was explore the beach. First, I climbed onto a narrow branch overlooking the lake. I balanced my way to the edge. It was really scary, but exciting. I walked back to dry land, hopped off the branch, and ran through the mud to where my family was playing. I also enjoyed trying to hit the ducks with rocks. I skipped three rocks and a hunk of wood by accident.            To sum up, Idlewood Park was very enjoyable and I want to go again!

More Music at the Moore

Today I went to a concert called More Music at the Moore. One musician I liked was CDQ, a beatboxer who uses his mouth to make music. He could make all kinds of sounds, and he sounded like the drums. One really funny part was when he cocked his head to the side, and made clicking sounds while he was doing it. It sounded really cool. Another musician I liked was this 3-person band called "The Onlies". They sounded pretty good, better than most bands I've heard. I liked their music, too - not the lyrics, but the tune. The tune sounded great. Some of the music was too loud, though. To sum up, I liked the music at the Moore, but most of it was too loud for my taste - especially with people behind me screaming their heads off.

What My Ideal School Would Look Like

My ideal school would be very clean with high-quality food, great teachers. and air conditioners in all the classrooms. The land near my school would be forests and mountains, and there would be nature hikes very often. Specialized teachers would teach us about trees, animals, plants, and just nature. We would learn about rocks, minerals, wood, and a lot of other things too. Also, there would be teachers who teach more than just math, reading, PE, science, writing, music, and library. There would be computer science teachers, language teachers, art teachers, and many others. The teachers would be nice, but just strict enough so they don't let kids play all day or punish everyone every second of the day. The school building itself would also be a good one, too. It would be old-style, instead of those stark hallways that make people feel cold and unwelcome like they're in a laboratory. There would be a cafeteria with high-quality, healthy foods instead of small, pre-cooked pizz

The Creation of the Human Race - Chinese

我昨天读了一个叫“开天辟地”的故事。它讲了盘古的传说和我们真是从什么来的。传说中,宇宙里就是一团气。这团气中间就睡着盘古。他起来的时候,他用大斧把这团气劈开了。轻气往上浮,重气往下沉。他们变成了天和地。每天,地厚一丈,天高一丈。盘古也每天每天的长高一丈。盘古就是巨人,然他死的时候,他的各个身体部分变成了太阳,月亮,高山,等等。女娲飞到地球上,在一个水塘边开始捏起泥人。这些人都活了起来,然后围着女娲欢呼。随后,他们开始建立婚姻关系,一代代的繁衍下去。我喜欢这个传说。但是人们真是怎么出现的呢?很多科学家都觉得人是从古代的猿猴传来的。这些猴子发展沉了古代的猿人。他们要同野兽战斗,也要做自己的食物。他们会了做工具和团结的功能,然后他们就变成我们现在的样子了。我觉得这个文章很有意思。

Math Olympiad & Rattlesnake Mountain

Many events have happened during this weekend. For example, I went to the Math Olympiad yesterday. There, I participated in two sessions of math - the Long Questions and the Short Questions. The Long Questions involved a lot of thinking, and weren't very easy, so my team got an hour to work through all 12 tasks. My team got 100% correct! The Short Questions were simpler questions, like: "What is the probability Evan will roll two even numbers with two fair six-sided dice?" We got 20 minutes for 5 questions. We didn't get all of these right, tough, but we still got in the top 6. Today, I went to Rattlesnake Mountain and walked a trail along Rattlesnake Lake's edge, which was 3/4 mile long. The area was named after the Rattlesnake plants in the area, and the lake was created when the town of Moncton was flooded in 1915 - they had built a dam, and the water seeped through the glacial material in the mountain and into the town. The water is very clear and clean. It

Should You Trust Consumer Reviews?

           I think you should treat the consumer reviews on websites like jokes because most of them are  jokes.            For example, if you looked at a review that said: "For about 8 months now I have noticed that a huge ship has been stalking me…I was fearful because my parents were killed by a big ship when they went out one day 4 years ago to walk the dog, and I have nightmares about it to this day. I do have to deduct a star because this book did not come out in time to save my parents," you probably wouldn't believe it. The comment was on a book titled "How to Avoid Huge Ships," and you would probably think this was intended to be some kind of joke - and it is. A huge ship would not be able to stalk people the whole time - it would run out of gas, it would be scraping its hull against the ground for a long time, ruining it, and it wouldn't be able to move on land. So this is definitely a joke.            Another ridiculous comment: "I was thi