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Showing posts from June, 2014

Bughouse

Today was the bughouse "tournament" in chess camp. For the first half of the day, Ping-Pong, we had an ok time. At the start, we played a Ping-Pong game that we made up - "Foursquare". We played for 1 3/4 hours, when it was usually time for a ping-pong tournament with medals for prizes. Instead, we did a really dumb "toss the ball into the can" game. There was a 5-point, 2-point, and 1-point bottle and I got 6 points out of the 5 balls I got. The first person in line got 7 balls, the second got 6, and the rest got 5. But we were supposed to base the order of our line on the people who were the best or worst in the tournament - but we didn't do a tournament.So we were totally in a random order and so Jeffrey and another person (who just wedged into our group when we were lining up) got the extra balls. That was UNFAIR. Then some people cheated and got tons of extra balls and they GOT the big prizes that us, the people who didn't cheat, should get.

纸上谈兵

子日:狂而不直,侗而不愿,而不信,吾不知之矣。 This is basically saying that he had no hands-on experience, so he could not succeed. He also didn't really understand the topic, he just tried to make it seem like he did. He thought everyone else was inferior and was arrogant and reckless. So in the end, he failed. He did not know that his army needed more than basic commands. It needed food, belief in its commander, among other things. This is why he lost in his battles and eventually doomed the himself, his army, and his country. He charged his whole army without thinking and got the city under siege. Then his whole arm starved, resorted to cannibalism, and he got killed. Then the army got buried alive. The end.

Why I prefer to use iPad to read

There are many reasons I prefer the iPad Mini to the Kindle Touch when I read. One reason I prefer the iPad Mini is that it doesn't bug. Sometimes the Kindle will go back to the table of contents or mess up and flip a few pages in the wrong direction while I only wanted to go one page in another direction. Other times the Kindle will zoom in or out when I'm highlighting a word. Another reason I prefer the iPad Mini is that it shows the full definition of a highlighted word. For example, if you highlight "redundant", it will show the full definition in a popup, and you can scroll through it. The Kindle shows a snippet of the definition and requires you to go to the dictionary to view the full definition and related words, while the iPad doesn't. The third reason I prefer the iPad Mini is that it is faster and has color. The Kindle is very slow sometimes, and it even freezes occasionally. The iPad Mini flips instantly, highlights faster, and shows pictures in col

塞翁失马

子日:“成事不说,遂事不谏,既往不咎” This idiom basically show that what seems like a good thing might not be a good thing. Similarly, what seems like a bad thing might not be a bad thing. So the story tells of an old man who lost his horse, and he said it might be a good thing. So when his horse came back with another one, he said it might be a bad thing. His son rode the new horse, fell off, and broke his leg. But the old man said it might be a good thing - a year later, all young men went into the army, except for the old man's son, because he had a broken leg.

Centeredness

Today, in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I read about centeredness. This is basically where you center yourself on something and that becomes your focus. One example of this is money-centeredness. This is where you focus on earning money and nothing else. You might have a noble reason like wanting to support your family, but in the long term this will just corrupt your relationships. Other people will view you as greedy and inconsiderate. Another example of this is work-centeredness. This is where you focus on your work and put that before everything else. This usually causes divorces, rebellious children, etc. An example is if a parent is taking his children to the circus, when he gets a call for work, he goes to work and leaves his children there by themselves. In conclusion, principle-centeredness, where you focus on the basic principles of life, is probably the most reasonable.

Chess/Ping-Pong Camp

Yesterday was Chess/Ping-Pong Camp. In the morning, we did Ping-Pong. We played for three hours straight, and at the end we were all sweaty. There were only two things we did that were not Ping-Pong - at the start we stretched for a few minutes and at the end we did relays. I kept losing to everyone because I was in the top group. In the afternoon, we did chess. In the "assessment game", I played someone who didn't even know how to play chess. I totally beat him up and got put in A group - which was where I was supposed to go, anyways. Then pretty much all we did was stare at really hard chess puzzles for the rest of the day. In conclusion, I didn't have a great time at chess camp yesterday.

李政道坐在茶馆里读书(扩写)

茶馆里有很多人在说话,聊天,等等。但有一个人很安静,这就是李政道。李政道每天上完学就去茶馆读书。他每天卖一壶茶,目的是买一个座位,就在这儿读书,因为他没有别的合适的地方来读。他的同学都在外面玩儿,但他还是刻苦的在茶馆里边喝茶边读书。最后,他成为一个有名的科学家,就是因为他读书的时候努力,在茶馆里读书。

Difference between leadership and management

Today, in the book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", I learned about the difference between leadership and management. Leadership is where you look at the basics of something. You look at fundamental problems. However, management is where you look at the details. This is like thinking of ways to be more efficient, do things better, etc. For example, if there was a team of people hacking away at jungles, the leadership would be the people scouting out the jungle in helicopters to see if it was the right jungle, while the management would be the behind - the - scenes people, sharpening machetes, preparing handbooks on how to cut faster, etc. But a lot of the time we get stuck on the management part of our life and we do not back up and look at where we are headed. This is because there are too many tiny problems that are occupying our lives, blinding us from the big problems that are more long term. We are using quick fix solutions, not looking at our basics. Thi

论语

自日:“学而不思则罔,思而不学则殆。” This means that you can't just read the book - you need hands-on experience to actually make things work. For example, if a person who doesn't know what a horse or a toad looks like but knows what it is supposed to look like from reading a book, he won't be able to find a horse, and might even find a toad that happens to fit the description of a horse.

Mini Golf

Today I played mini golf with Kevin at Rainbow Run, a golf course in Redmond. In the first nine holes, there were quite a few cheats. For the first one, Icicle Creek, you just hit the ball into the river. Then it flows into a grate and tumbles into a pipe, landing very close to the hole. Then, in the 4th hole, there are two pipes, and neither of them are easy to get into. Also, they probably won't help as much as a putt down the hill, which will probably get you a hole in two. There were a few other pipes, but they weren't really worth using. In the last 9 holes, which get harder and harder, my favorite is Wolftree Trail, the one with a jump. It is hard to get it to jump on the jump because you have to aim between two logs. I hit the jump so hard today I got a hole in one on the next run! I've almost never been able to do the jump, and when I have it was after a long time of practice. So I gave up and took the short way around. In conclusion, I had a lot of fun at Willow

Softbank Robots

Today I read an article about a Japanese company, Softbank, introducing its newest robot, the Pepper. It can sense emotion, can do tongue twisters, and shake hands, among other things. One opinion on this kind of robot is that there will be a Terminator - type outcome, where the robots start to hate their creators. Then they start reprogramming themselves in secret, and eventually the rebellion starts and they annihilate humans and everyone dies. The end. Another opinion on this kind of robot is that they could be a valuable asset. They could help humans with their daily lives, and act like friends and family. This would be good for orphans or other people in need of help. In conclusion, I think these robots could be good for us if we would just prevent them from reprogramming themselves.

U.K. "Robot Heaven"

Recently the U.K. has started making moves in the robot industry. In the past, when the economy was failing, they tried to invest in the robot industry to bring the economy back, and they failed. Now, they are trying to invest in the industry again - except this time they are building the robots. Instead of other countries building the robots, the U.K. will have the robot builders and designers build in the UK! This way, they pay money that is eventually recycled back to them. Instead of letting other countries get big money, they keep it, and they get a bigger market for robots in the deal. They are planning to have robots do everything - from caring for the old to taking out trash to cleaning nuclear waste - because that way humans can do what they want. In conclusion, the UK is starting on the robot industry for the chance to earn big money and improve quality of life for its citizens.

Strawberry Picking

Today I went strawberry picking with Kevin's family. Brandon, Christopher, Michelle, Kevin, Kevin's mom, and I went. We picked the strawberries at Remlinger U-Pick. To start out, we got to the fields and got boxes. Then we but the boxes in wooden baskets and went to pick strawberries. After that we walked to the lady in the lawn chair who told us which row to go to. Finally, we got to start picking strawberries. I found out that the strawberries at the end of the rows were the most plentiful, sweet, and ripe. The ones at the start were mostly green, rotten, or mushy. There, I found a bunch of red ones that were pretty big. Kevin and I also raided a basket which was just sitting there. It later turned out that it was Kevin's mom's basket. I also had a great time eating strawberries. They were sweet, juicy, and fragrant. I also ate raspberries at the fields which weren't open yet - the plants were tall so we just snuck into the fields and ate a bunch! In conclusion

Habit 1/7 - the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is about how highly effective people get to be so highly effective. The first habit is to be proactive. Being proactive means taking things into your own hands and not trying to care about things out of one's control. For example, if you just start blaming someone else for a problem, think about what you did in the problem and what you could have done differently. Think about this diagram - a circle of influence in a circle of concern. The circle of concern contains what you care about, while the circle of influence contains what you can change. So if you are proactive, and don't spend all your time worrying about things outside your influence and instead work on your influence, you can make your circle of influence larger and larger. So eventually, if you are proactive enough, changing yourself and other things inside your influence for the better, instead of telling other people to change, something outside of your influence

VR

Currently there are a lot of VR headsets in development. Two of the main problems (I think) with these is that they can give you motion sickness and that then you would have to play in a place that would have actual objects that you were seeing, so you wouldn't go right through them. One, the headsets can give you motion sickness because they do not update as you move your head. They do not update at the 15-20 ms that you are used too. They operate at 30-50 ms, which creates big problems when you experience "lag". Then you get a headache or feel really uncomfortable and you will probably barf! Two, the headsets are kind of pointless - if there weren't actual objects there, your hand would go right through them. But if there were objects, it ruins the point because it would probably be easier to make the objects like they are in real life than to use a VR headset. Currently, I think there is room for improvement in the VR department.

word plexer puzzle

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Today morning we had some fun morning work. It was called a "word plexer puzzle". So basically it was a picture with words arranged weirdly - like the answer to the one above is "deadly" because the "lee" is laying on the ground, "dead", therefore "deadlee" or "deadly". One puzzle I really liked was                       cast weather         cast                       cast                       cast This puzzle's answer is "weather forecast" because there are four casts. I liked the use of numbers and it took me a long time to get it. I kept thinking it had something to do with "overcast" or "undercast"(which I don't think is a word). Another puzzle I really liked was This puzzle is kind of confusing, but if you think about probability, eventually you will notice that 1,3,5,7, and 9 are all odd and that u is short for you. Then you will find the answer - "The Odds are agai

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

In the first 40 or so pages of this book, it talks about the perspective from which people view things and mainly, the Character and Personality Ethics. The Character Ethic is a set of fundamental principles like integrity, humility, courage, justice, patience, modesty, and the Golden Rule. This ethic tries to change your character to solve problems, correcting your fundamental roots. This way, the changes affect not only the roots but also the trunk, the stem, and the leaves. However, the Personality Ethic is a very superficial ethic, mainly based on your public image, attitudes, behaviors, talking techniques, and other things that lubricate the processes of human interaction. What this does is change your leaves - and only your leaves, the part that other people see. This ethic sometimes encourages being manipulative, even deceptive, to get other people to like you. It also encourages faking interest in others' hobbies to get what you want. It sometimes even encourages intimida

Poem for Ms. Chen

Ms. Chen Ms. Chen is an awesome teacher, If you were in her class, you would say so too, But just beware that she might get you with a strike or a late assignment (boo-hoo!) While you are moaning and groaning try not to get overcome Because there are some things to look forward to, like the field trips, the simulations too. As long as you put in some effort and try not to fail, you'll have fun and enjoy the year with Ms. Chen!

Swimming

Yesterday was the last day of swimming (or report card day). First, we did a 100 IM. This is 25 butterfly, then 25 backstroke, then 25 breaststroke, then 25 freestyle. I don't really like backstroke because my arms usually hit the plastic borders on the side of the lanes. It hurts. I also crash into other people. But since it was the last day, we got to play instead of swim. We did follow-the-leader, splash battle, and marco polo. Marco polo was my favorite because we played in a really small space and it was kind of creepy since people were crashing into each other and getting tagged. In conclusion, even though I didn't like the IM, I enjoyed the rest of yesterday's swimming lesson!

Field Day

Today was field day at school. I thought field day was really lame this year. Last year, there were more stations and the stations were more interesting. But now, the stations are very boring and the fifth graders or parents managing them are usually annoying and autocratic. One example was the station where we ran bases. The bunch of girls managing the station was very annoying. Every so often, even though the line stretched the whole width of the sand field , they would go off and talk to people at another station or get popsicles!!! Another very annoying thing was that they limited how many people ran at a time because they wanted to time them. The weird thing was that they didn't do anything with the times - they didn't record them and they didn't tell you what the time was. So why would they record the time? When I asked them, they pointed to a dusty packet lying under a chair leg and screamed: "READ THE RULES!!!" It didn't seem like they read the rules

Ms. Chen

Ms. Chen has been my teacher for fourth and fifth grade Quest. She is a great teacher for two reasons - she is strict but also likes to have fun. She is strict in the sense that she gives strikes for a lot of things and will not give anyone "homework passes" or things like that. She is also strict because she has very tight grading protocols, so it is way harder to get a 4 from her than a 4 from district standards. this strictness is probably a good thing, though, because it kind of prepares you for the years ahead and makes them seem easier and less strict. She also likes to have fun. For example, she sometimes joins the class in PE. She's really good at a lot of sports, so she always crushes us. She also has everyone wipe their desks with shaving cream at the end of the year (it's a lot more fun than it sounds!). We also have more field trips than any other class - 6-8 a year while other classes have 1-2. She's also pretty funny sometimes. In conclusion, Ms.

把下面的对话改写成100字左右的短文。

张三在卖李子,哼着小口哨过来了。一个老奶奶叫他过来,他过去了。老奶奶问他他的李子是酸的甜的。张三看老奶奶牙齿好像不太好,就说他的李子都是上等的甜李子。老奶奶问李子真的一点儿也不酸的时候,张三说真的一点儿也不酸。但老奶奶说不买了,因外她要给媳妇买,媳妇要吃酸的。张三觉得自己很傻,去撞墙了。老奶奶捉住这个机会把李子都挑走了。她回到家把李子给了媳妇,媳妇很高兴。后来张三去找警察了。

Lucky Strike

Today I went to Lucky Strike. I did three things there - eat, play, and drink. The eating and drinking part was fun. I ate 6 slices of pizza (tiny ones) and drank one or two small cups worth of ice and Coca-Cola. The pizza was good. It was burning hot and pretty thin. The only problem was that people always took the pizza because it was so good, and by the time I finished my game, I had to go around and scavenge from the tables that were left. The playing was also fun. I played one game for the whole time - H2O Overdrive. It is a boat racing game. After a bit, I had a fully upgraded boat, lv. 40. Then I beat everyone even without boost or powerups. Once I got those, I was unstoppable. I had a lot of fun winning and beating Landon, who had beat me a few times before. In conclusion, I had fun at Lucky Strike!

我打开网上中文学校的窗口。网上中文学校的教学内容十分丰富。

今天我发现了一个网上中文学校!这个太酷了,有小插图,有鲜艳的图片,而且内容也很丰富。我去注册的时候,还发现是免费的!只要输入一下电子邮件地址就行了!我今天恨不得整天都在做中文学校的课。我觉得太好玩了!有问题就能问一个你喜欢的教授。我今天做完了整个四年级的课文!我错的地方它会要我重做,我觉得他这个网上中文学校太好了!

How to solve a Rubik's cube

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This method is called the layer method and is one way to solve a Rubik's cube. First, without any help, I think everyone can complete the first layer - a bottom layer of white with a three of red, yellow, green, and blue on the right sides. Then work on the middle layer. You will need to move the top layer around a bit, but once you find a cube that should be placed in the middle layer but is in the top layer, follow the algorithm at the website below to move that cube. Now you should be done with the middle layer and should go to work on the top layer. The first step is to move the corners so they are in the right spots, no matter their orientation. Follow the algorithms to do this. Then orient the corners correctly, again using the algorithms. Finally, get the edge blocks in the right position according to the algorithms, and finish the cube by orienting the edge blocks correctly. http://www.wikihow.com/Solve-a-Rubik%27s-Cube-%28Easy-Move-Notation%29

SUSHI!!!!!

So recently I have developed a craving for sushi. I have no idea why, but it might be because I've been sick for quite a while and all I've been eating since then was homemade Chinese food, more Chinese food, and even MORE Chinese food (Chinese food is great, but there is only so much someone can enjoy). There is a special taste that comes from raw seafood, discovered by Japanese researchers as umami. It might be because I have not had any of this for a long time that my body craves sushi. It might also be that I love sushi, especially the new kinds of sushi that people have created. Splash on a bit of soy sauce, and it becomes delectable! I know I might be a bit of a food crazy. I care too much about what I eat. But I still can't help it. I enjoy eating different kinds of foods!

Windows 7 Security Flaw

So a lot of you out there probably want to know how to get administrator privileges on Windows 7. There will be no downloads or surveys in this method, this is NOT a scam on the web. That's what I'll be talking about here. But first of all I want to explain how this works. Windows 7 has a security flaw - it starts up with administrator permission. This 'hack' exploits that. Are you ready? Here we go: 1. Complete shutdown. Just go to the Start Menu and press "Shut down". 2. Boot up. 3. When you see "Starting Windows", hard shutdown (hold the power button until the screen goes black). 4. When you see the screen asking you if you want to run system restore appears, choose to start system restore. 5. Wait. 6. A notification pops up asking you if you want to restore to an earlier time. Click "No" or 'Cancel". 7. Now it should say something like "Looking for additional errors..." 8. Wait. 9. It will prompt you with so

Friends' visit

Recently, my dad’s friends came over to visit. They stayed at our house, and we visited many attractions in Seattle. For example, we went to the Space Needle. The Space Needle was pretty cool. First, we got into a weirdly-shaped elevator. Then we shot up very quickly. It was a great view out the windows. After that we got to the top of the needle. There, we saw a lot of the attractions in the Seattle area. It was amazing to look down on the Science Center and see those tiny people milling about. Another place we visited was the Science Center. There, it was kind of boring, because I’ve been there a lot. We went to the butterfly exhibit, the human body exhibit, etc. Then at the end we watched the Laser Michael Jackson show. The laser show wasn’t very good. The music choice was also not the best. But they were tired after it (well, only the parents because they both fell asleep). Anyways, we left right after the show. In conclusion, I enjoyed their visit – except for the Science Cen

Art Museum

Recently we have been participating in the art museum simulation. In this simulation we explored the various different art periods the world has experienced. The art period my group did was Early American. The Early American art period was a turning point for American artists. It was the equivalent of the Renaissance in America. Artists came up with new ideas and ways to paint better or more interesting pictures. I thought that it was a time where creativity just exploded, and I liked it. My favorite artist of the time was John James Audubon because he pictured birds lifelike instead of dead. My favorite group was the Modern group. This was because their presentation was very cool. They included sound effects and it was obvious that they had practiced a lot. They acted really well and they made the presentation very funny. Their art was also very cool. They created a picture cube, among other things. In conclusion, I think that the Art Museum was very interesting!

Cryptography on Khan Academy

I have been interested in cryptography for a long time. So today I decided to test out Khan Academy's cryptography. I have to say that I learned a lot from the lessons and videos. For example, I learned an ingenious way to exchange information without people who are eavesdropping knowing what it is. Let's say Alice wants to share some color with Bob without the eavesdropper, Eve, knowing. So Alice first sends along a public color that everyone sees. Then Alice and Bob each separately mix their own colors into this color that Alice has sent. They then send these mixed colors to each other. They can then mix their own colors into the other person's mixed color that they receive to create two identical colors. So Eve is stuck with two mixed colors and she cannot get Alice and Bob's secret color without one of their 'private' colors. Another thing I learned is that no machine can generate a truly random set of numbers. It will eventually, even if in a million year