Other

               This week I got my report card! I am pretty satisfied with my grades.                One thing I am satisfied with is my writing grade. This year, I have put a lot more effort into my writing and I have looked over it more times. I am happy that my writing grade jumped a point from a 2.5 last year.                Another thing I am satisfied with is my reading grade, informal and fictional. My informal reading grade jumped a point from a 3 last year, which I am proud of. I think this happened because I paid a lot more attention to using as many relevant details as I could. For fictional reading, however, my grade only jumped half a point. I am still happy with it, though, because it shows how I have included a lot more details - 4s are almost impossible to get.                In conclusion, I think I have improved a lot this year!

今天是明明的第一个生日，他很高兴。但他吃完蛋糕，长大了。但有个东西很奇怪-他老长呀长，都要长到房子顶上了！他很害怕， 摔了一跤 ，还接着长！他把旁边的树林都推 扁 了，然后他的胳膊把房子戳破了！突然，他的脚掉进了大海！“冷啊！冷啊！冷啊！冷啊！”他尖叫。他到处跑，把大家都踩扁了。“哎呀！”他的妈妈爸爸叫。他们找到了一个儿童医生，医生吓得跑掉了。他们把他抓回来，这次他就马上准备药给明明。最后，他用针把要打到明明得生体里，他最后变回原样了！“耶！”大家喊。

              Today I went to skiing class. I think I improved a lot throughout the course of the last two weeks - even though they were icy.               One thing I learned was flexing and extending my legs to let me carve into the snow. I think I pretty much mastered it now, going up and down on turns. Carving has been a great help because it allows skis to dig into the snow instead of falling down the slope. This helps especially when it is icy, as I don't fall that easily.               I also learned to throw my hips out before the turn to allow me to carve into the snow even more. This makes my turn more stable, and I don't fall down that much. I can also travel at much faster speeds without falling, especially if I only use an edge of one ski at a time.               In conclusion, I learned a lot over the last two weeks from skiing class!

           Today at school I was playing with a deflated basketball at recess. The basketball is a bit deflated - to the state where you can push on opposite sides at the same time and they will go inwards around two centimeters each.            One thing we did with this basketball was head it. We tossed the ball up and then bounced it on our heads. The ball bounced higher that way than on the ground for some reason. Another way we headed the ball was smacking the ball on our forehead. It kept bouncing right off! Another thing we did was punt it. We tossed it up and swung our legs around towards the ball. When the foot connected with the ball, the ball just flew!            A funny thing that happened was Pranav Sheokand trying to kick the ball. He didn't believe the ball was that soft, and smacked it onto his head. His face showed surprise when he pretty much didn't feel it at all. Then he punted it and the ball flew around five feet high and seven feet forwards.        

               On Monday I participated in a USCF chess tournament.                Before lunch, I played two games. The first game was tough. I was playing someone who obviously was better at chess than me. But I still won him. I used a lot of tactics. I think I won because I looked into moves deeply. He also made some mistakes.                From this game, I learned to be patient. If I hadn't looked so deeply, I wouldn't have found such great moves. Originally, I had come up with acceptable moves, but I knew I had to find the best moves - so this game taught me to be patient - that was the way to find good moves.                 In conclusion, even though I only won one out of four games played that day, I learned to be patient and not to rush myself while looking for a good move.

              Today I went skiing at Stevens Pass again. Today Brandon didn't come because he was sick. Chris and I had skiing class.               The first half was pretty fun.Chris, our teacher, let us free ski on one condition - that we practice what he told us to practice. We took a few runs with great snow and there were a lot of jumps there. Later we did Borealis, which was icy but good for practice. I think I improved a lot there. I learned to flex and extend my legs. I almost fell!               The second half, the snow was getting stickier. It was harder to leave the snow on jumps and go faster. But I still did a great jump. On a 3-foot high jump, I jumped to around 5 feet and landed 15 feet in front of the jump. Then I hopped another jump and flew over a third. I can't believe it! I've never gotten that far before.               In conclusion, even though the weather today was not optimal, I still had a great day!

          Today I went to chess class. At the start of class, we played practice games.           I played Stefan, a player around 1400. My rating is 1375. He was in 7th grade, while I was in 5th.    He was white, I was black. I started out with an opening that I like - after d5, I play e4. I never got the pawn back, but I had a positional advantage. The play got intense when we moved our rooks in and  used our minors to scour the opponent's pieces.           But in the endgame, this is what it came down to: he was up two pawns. I prepared for an attack, but the attack was blocked. More stuff was traded off, and we both didn't have much to do. We checked and moved our kings around, and in the end we agreed to a draw.           This game was certainly wild in the start and calm in the end!

           Recently I have visited nest Labs' website, and seen two interesting products - Nest Protect and Nest Thermostat. K            Nest Protect is a smoke alarm. It senses CO (Carbon Monoxide) and smoke. This product is special because it connects with your smartphone, tells you if batteries are low when you go to sleep so it doesn't annoy you, and has three different states. Every night when you turn out the lights, the alarm blinks yellow to tell you it will run out soon. The alarm will blink green if the batteries are still good. If there is smoke or CO, the alarm will turn yellow and give a heads-up through boice. If it is an emergency, it will sound an alarm and say that it is an emergency and what to do. The alarm syncs with the other Nest Protects, telling them to sound the alarm at the same time - it even works without Wi-fi. It can turn off Nest Thermostats if there is CO - because CO is usually the result of a malfunctioning furnace.            Nest Thermosta

           I recently read an article called "Safety From Sweden: An Inflatable Bike Helmet". The article said a Swedish company had come up with a solution to cool and ungainly bike helmets.            The helmet comes in the form of a scarf. It is made to look good as well as keep people safe. Many people think bike helmets are ugly and don't want to wear them, so this scarf would be a reprieve for them. The nylon scarf is battery-powered and has a gyroscope and an accelerometer inside. The gyroscope tracks angular shifts, while the accelerometer notes sudden changes in the biker's speed. These two factors tell the scarf if the rider will fall or not. If the sensors think the rider will fall, the helmet inflates with helium in a fraction of a second and save the rider. I think it is very reliable - so far, all the users of the helmet have not reported any malfunctions.            I think it is very costly, at $546 for one one-use scarf, because the product is rela

                Today I went on a field trip to the Paramount Theatre. I was there to see the Silent Movie and Mighty Wurlitzer matinee. The matinee was an old silent movie accompanied by a 1928 organ - or the one-man orchestra - and special sound effect creator.                 The first silent movie was one starring Charlie Chaplin. Charlie was selling a clock when he noticed there was something wrong with it. He took out a stethoscope and banged on it. Then he started taking it apart, starting by opening the back with a can opener. He found a mouse inside and squirted it with machine grease, stopping it. Then he tried to put everything back together - and failed. He jammed some things into the clock. Then he took the customer's hat and put the rest of the stuff and the messed-up clock inside the hat. I think this short was really funny.                 Another interesting part happened because this year is the 100th anniversary of Charlie's famous character, the Little Tra

          有个国王头上长了山羊耳朵，和他不想要别的人知道。给他理发的人都会被杀了。有一天，轮到一个理师给国王理发了，理师就派他的徒弟去了。因为它说国王头上没有东西，它没被杀，反而变成国王的理发师了。过了很长时间，他病了。这是因为它把这个秘密忍得都忍不住了。她最后挖了一个坑，在里面叫了几声“国王长着山羊耳朵！”后来，一个芦苇长在那儿了。如果你吹芦苇的叶子，他会唱“国王长着山羊耳朵！”后来，大家都知道了国王的秘密了。国王抓住了徒弟，要杀他。但徒弟以给她讲明白，给他吹芦苇叶子，国王把他放了，明白了：天下没有什么事能骗得了人的。他专心治理国家，再也不怕别的人说他的山羊耳朵了。

           Today I had an interview at Lakeside Middle School. I actually had a lot of fun. The future sixth-graders were split into groups of 6, but we only had 4 in our group. Each group was led by a teacher in her own classroom.            The interview started with an icebreaker. Our group was given two minutes to come up with four things we had in common. We came up with the facts that we are all not blond, we all like pizza, we are all humans, we are all the oldest sibling, and we all have siblings. We finished very quickly. I think the most efficient way to solve this is to give information about one subject and ask others for information about that subject.            After that, we started on the activities. The first activity was the stranded island activity. We had to plan how to survive on a deserted island. I think the best way to solve this is to think of the essential needs of a human and then work from there, imagining what to do to acquire those needs. The second act

Currently there is a Consumer Electronics Show, from January 7 - 10. There are many interesting projects going on here, for example Razer's Project Christine. This is basically a computer you can construct. It consists of a big bar with a bunch of ports on it. In a future store, you could buy parts like speakers and graphics parts and add them to your "computer". The whole thing will be cooled with mineral oil, running through its own two ports. Also interesting was Samsung's Life Space UX vision of the future. There were wall mounted touch screens, a laser projector that projected 4000 pixels, and an interactive worktable. The projector is coming out this year - for $30,000 to $40,000. But the other parts will have to wait. In conclusion, there were a lot of interesting things at CES! Razer's Project Christine

I never knew games could teach so much. Apparently games can teach acting, vocabulary, calmness, guessing, critical thinking, and lots of others. I think it is right to play mercilessly. Otherwise how will kids learn the way the world is? I think we should play more games at home, including those great imaginative computer games. :) http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303453004579290342281387758

              Today I went skiing again.               In the morning, I learned a few interesting things. Chris, my instructor for this year and my instructor from last year, told our class that the year had been so dry that the major ski resorts had all closed up - Snoqualmie and  Crystal Mountains had no snow - the snow line was at 3,500 feet, a good 600 feet above Snoqualmie. So everyone crowded into Steven's Pass. The line at Hogsback express chair was actually 300 feet behind the markers marking where each group should go (quad-, double-, and single- person groups)!!! That's to the tree with the lift signs. That's a lot of people, even at Steven's "rush hours". I almost didn't believe him.               Another interesting thing that happened was me flying off a jump. I was in a terrain park full of them, and I did quite a few successfully. The last one, though, was too high. I was also going too fast. I shot off the top and landed about six or sev

          On Tuesday I went ice skating.           At first I was inhibited. I thought I would fall. But it turns out skating isn't that hard. I think my mom's advice was very good. She told me to step away from the wall and pick up my feet as high as I could like I was walking. Eventually, I got more confident. I started to actually skate! I went faster and faster. I think my mom's method was great because it was easy to do but effective.           Then I saw the unused walkers! They were like this: I though they had a lot of potential, so I grabbed one and started skating around. It was fun, sure, but I wanted to make it better! I got Brandon to sit on the walker and we alternated riding and sitting!           In conclusion, I had a great time skating!