CTY

Just like any other summer camp, CTY has its own traditions...not just nerdiness. And by the way, this year wasn't all that nerdy. The majority of what we learned was all covered in 7th grade science, which I find very sad. The only things we did actually LEARN were about cancer, the lymphatic system, and the ear. The lectures were immensely boring (most of them) and I found myself struggling to stay awake during many of them, which included literally holding my eyes open.

One of the major traditions of CTY is Blammo. Blammo is a game where each person is assigned another person to stalk (as in the word "stalker"). Everyone gets a spoon, and you have to always be holding on to that spoon with a conscious muscle: either holding it in your mouth, elbow, hand, armpit, knee, toe, or other conscious muscle. The goal of the game is to go up to the person you are stalking and tap them with your spoon. So, if I were stalking Jill, then my goal would to find her without her spoon in one of the conscious muscles and tap her with my own spoon. When I do so, I must yell Blammo!, at which time she loses the game and must tell me who she is stalking, and I am now stalking them.

Whoops! I lost the game. The game is another tradition. If you think about the game, you loose and must shout "I lost the game!". Since I mentioned it in the above paragraph (I bolded it), I thought about it, so I lost the game. Since I shouted it, everyone around me will hear it and start thinking about it, so now they have to shout that. It was funny in CTY because people would say "I lost the game" in the middle of class.

Just dance, gonna be okay! Ever heard that song? This isn't a tradition, but something that happened during one of the many dissections we did in my class (this one was a dissection of a chicken leg). I had a piece of the leg on the end of my tweezers, and my partner for that particular dissection starts singing "Just eat it, gonna be okay"! I was ready to gag him and fall off my chair laughing at the same time.

Some other dissections we did were: Cow's eye (AGAIN!!!!!!!!:X), sheep heart, sheep brain, and the fetal pig (dun dun dun...)
The fetal pig was disgusting because it was so adorable. It looked like it was sleeping, and next thing you know, we were cutting it open and looking at its intestines. How inhumane. Not to mention its nose was bleeding...
But at least our pig wasn't in the middle of excreting its metabolic waste (that means exactly what you think it means). The group next to ours could push certain places on their pig and certain green, gooey liquids would come out. It was...gross.

Boom-boom-pow was one of the most popular songs at CTY. I need to finish my Honors Biology randomness so g2g.

Back From China

Hey world!

Ok, so most of the people who used to view this blog knew that I was going to china

Well, I'm back!

China was cool, and hot at the same time! SUPER HUMID, although someone in Taiwan wants to argue that point, and said that Taiwan is HOTTER than Shanghai. But whatever, I'm glad to be home, where it is much quieter and cooler and more spacious. The dust at home feels more familiar than the dust at the hotel in Shanghai. I called Jenny, who's back from China if you didn't know already. I called Archana, but she thought I was a stalker. I added onto that chainmail that i started, and announced that I was back. It was good to be home, but I had jet lag, partly because I slept for about 30 minutes on the whole 13 hour airplane trip, so I got home, slept at 12 o'clock midnight (naturally, aren't I so smart?) and woke up at 6 but fell asleep again and woke up again at 10. Sorry to Jon and Lulu about waking up so late, but what can a person do when they are tired?

Anyway, some things that I will be sorry to leave behind my friends and family in Shanghai (yes, all of them live in Shanghai, not scattered around China). I texted for the very first time with my cousin, Wen Wen. I went to a lot of parties (lunch and dinner) with either friends or family, and stuffed myself. And now that I'm home, I can't do that anymore. But, as I said before, it's better to be home than in China.   

ANNNNNND, I told Priscilla who told Alina who told EVERYONE that I BROUGHT SMILEY BREADS!!!!!! Who wants one?

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of life? Has it ever occured to you that you may not have had a purpose, or you are just here because you are your parents' child, your siblings' sibling, or your friends' friend? All of these questions had never occurred to Jeremy Fink, a city born almost teenager. But, as soon as a mysterious box, said to contain the meaning of life (supposedly made by his dead father), is delivered to him on the first day of summer vacation, this question is circling his head. It is to be opened on Jeremy's thirteenth birthday. There is only one problem: the previous owner of the box had misplaced the keys. So, Jeremy and his friend, Lizzy, must search all of New York to find the keys, but when they're last attempt draws them into community service, Jeremy thinks he'll never find them.
This is a great book, and every chapter will leave you wanting for more! It's a great summer read, and you'll never put the book down-- until you truly find the meaning of life.

World Language

Most people think that taking a second language is going to be useful; I'm not disagreeing with this, because I find understanding spanish useful. The thing that I don't understand is, why do we have to learn spanish starting in 1st grade? We don't even learn anything, and there's no homework, meaning they just waste 45 minutes of the day; I'm not saying that I WANT homework (I'd have to be crazy first), but I wonder why we start in 1st grade. Out of the 6 years I've taken spanish, I only learned how to conjugate verbs and useful sentence structure stuff in 7th grade, and all the rest of the 6 years are wasted. I mean, learning out to say 'horse' and 'apple' is ok, but it's not exactly useful. I think that people should only start taking a second language in 7th grade, or not take it so early in life and not that long of a period of time when you DO take it in 1st grade.
"The time could be spent for more important things; such as math." -my dad.

Math Level Separation

Do you think that separating people into different math levels is a good thing? Are you one of the people who think, "Yeah, it's great, being in an honors algebra class. I don't have any immature people who slow me and my teacher down in teaching us. Everyone is so serious, yet algebra is probably the best subject within our 8 periods of school, besides lunch." or do you say, "I think it's great! Being in a lower level math means that i can get really high grades without even trying! When I get that paper back, I always know it's above a 90!". Or, do you think negatively about this system? "I wish that math class wasn't so hard. And i wish that Mrs. Chemris wouldn't give so much homework, or grade us harshly on tests."

For me, I personally love the separation in math classes. Though sometimes Mrs. Speelman does grade us harshly, and our homework must be flawless in order to recieve full credit, I am glad that I learn something new everyday, rather than the same thing over a period of days.

Calvin and Hobbes

Here are a few of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.

The one above is called 'Megalomania' (from 'The Essential Calvin and Hobbes")

'The Alpha and the Omega' (from 'The Essential Calvin and Hobbes') 

'Selfishness' (from 'The Essential Calvin and Hobbes')

'Cupidity' (from Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons)

I'd really rather not say what this one is called... (from The Days are just packed)

'Silly Things' from 'The Essential Calvin and Hobbes'

So, I hoped that you enjoyed these fun comics!

Comic Strips from http://calvinethobbes.free.fr/english/c_defauts.html

Mag-Lev

I've seen many parts of China, especially Shanghai, where we go every other year for summer vacation. If I were to pick one word to describe it, then that word would be: crowded. Almost everywhere we went, there were at least five people unintentionally surrounding one person.
But here, at the tracks of the Mag-Lev, were about ten to fifteen people, all spread apart. It was like 15 people at the tracks of a train. I wondered why that was so. "This is called a Mag Lev," stated my Dad, "It's extremely expensive; not too many people are lucky enough to use it because it's a business class of transportation."
That would explain the men in suits and holding briefcases. I felt like the oddball with my t-shirt and shorts, and the only kid standing at the tracks of the train. 

At least the train would reach the airport quicker. It's a good thing that we can reach the airport quicker to pick up my mom and sister, Alex. Since my mom got the plane tickets, I had to go with my Dad, and Alex with my Mom. I left a day earlier, and they did so a day late. Today, they're arriving.
My dad continued his lecture, saying that the Mag Lev stood for "magnetic levitation", meaning that the train was about an inch off the tracks, levitation using a magnetic force. This is how the train goes so fast; because it's not rubbing against the tracks, so it has no friction.
When the train came, I looked carefully at the bottom it.  It doesn't look like it is levitating, I thought to myself, I hope they didn't rip us off. This train is about thrice as expensive as a regular one. 

Though it was a long train, few people got out. But then again, only a few people got on. 

I walked through the indigo carpet covered floors. Finding a good seat was easy; the blue seats were all spread apart, almost looking like an airplane, but everything all spacious. I'd bet that there were several carts with no one it it. I took my seat as the train started to move. 

At the end of every cart, there is a space where a wide door would have been, and at the top, there was an electric sign with many red pixels to form words, and the speed of how fast the train was going. Since I was in China, I wasn't accustomed to using kilometers instead of miles.

At first, the sign read from 1 to 32 km, but only in minutes, it had reached 100 km. 200. 300. 400. 

By the time it reached 410 km, the scene outside was a blurred vision, and my Dad said, "I think that this is the fastest the train is going to get. Go stand under that sign, and I'll take a picture of you."

I stood unwillingly, and walked under the sign. If there weren't  other people in the cart, I would  have done so enthusiastically. But I smiled anyways. Not many would pay 30 yuan to ride an extremely fast train, so I was lucky. 

He took out my favorite black Nikon as I flashed a small smile, and I pointed to the sign above me, which said "410 kilometers". Somewhere in the back of the cart, a person laughed and I flushed in embarrassment, and as myself, I'm usually good at covering my embarrassment. That person took out his own camera and started to take pictures. But I looked at my dad instead, trying to forget about the other irritating dude.

Once he was done taking my picture, my dad put away his Nikon as I took my seat. The train started to slow, and the outside scene became clearer. Soon, it was only 30 km. And slowly... slowly... the train stopped.

The doors slid open quickly, almost unnaturally, and I started to stand up. Quickly walking down the aisle, out the door, and through the small group of people waiting to board the latest form of transportation.

I know that this story seems a little random, but I figured, it's not something everyone experiences, and it's been a while since we published stuff on this blog.