Disappearing before my Eyes!

The snow came and stayed at least a day. This may have been the only snow day that we will have for a while. In fact the snow has for the most part disappeared and turned into slush. The snow day wasn't that great anyways because we had to help out around the house and take care of swapping the parents and Zoe's rooms by the end of the day and we didn't even get the bed set up either. Besides I got my time outside and I got to see my friends so I am happy about the day just there some work in between our fun time and I kinda got confused on if it was the weekend or not.

Today I went to dad's job with him and got to have lunch at my favourite sushi restaurant, Juns.  At Juns we got to eat my favourite sushi roll which is called the oshinko roll which as far as I know is only served at Juns. The oshinko roll is a pickled radish roll. I know this sounds strange but it is extremely tasty and should not be turned down if offered as I have heard that it is one of the most labor intensive rolls out there.

This is my last post before winter break and it is not even required. For the most part I didn't have to type any of this up but I felt like I needed to type something because I didn't type anything up yesterday. I know family and some friends read this so to them I am sorry that I didn't post earlier. The good news is that this is my make up blog for apologies and something to wrap up my blog before second semester. I was originally going to post about how the sun makes you sneeze but I think this paragraph is much better.

Back Again!

Today Kristi has escaped her prison cell and made it back home. It has been good to see her again. I know that she disappears quite a lot so my guess is that she isn't sick it is just her getting her break from the family as she is always in a good mood when we see her. This is probably my theory that makes the most sense as I know plenty of people that would want to take a break from me and I want to take a break from my siblings plenty of times when I have to deal with them. Then there is the fact that she has a lot to do while she is here so I guess she can't do this that often.

Another thing that happened today is that all of us got to go to Kristi's house and help her move out some more. This wasn't that bad as we all got to eat at Minsky's for some pizza. For dinner I got to eat a Spicy Thai calzone which was not spicy but tasted really good. I can honestly say that today was relaxing and easy so I guess there is nothing much to type about today. Although there is one more thing about today that I will tell you about next.

There was supposed to be a nice snow storm tonight but the chances of that are actually quite slim. For example it shouldn't get below 30 degrees until 6:00 in the morning and then it is going to be sunny in the morning. Then tell me how a storm is going to come and last 2 hours and still be a storm that will actually affect anything. In fact it doesn't even stay below freezing into the next day, instead it goes back up to 40 degrees and then what? The day will go on as if it had never snowed.

Last foot of the year

There is only 12 more days until the end of the year. Within these last 12 days there will be one of the most sought after holidays out there, Christmas. I know that this going to be one of my normal Christmases but there is so much more then most. First of all this is going to be one of the last Christmases that Nate will be living with us to celebrate. And then Kristi will be with us to celebrate as our step mom more then our dads girlfriend. I know that this is going to be the same holiday that we celebrate every year but things are changing already and this might be one of the last Christmases that we can look at the same way.

There is the fact that this week is extremely easy as it really is just finish up any work that wasn't done and finish it now. In other words this entire week is just finishing up any books that are not complete yet. Other then the books there isn't very much else that I could do that would be possible without Kristi here with me at the house. In fact I enjoy having someone else here with me at the house instead of being home alone. Even my little sister Zoe makes me feel happy just because someone else is here.

I am looking forward to the end of the year as it is going to lead to another set of curriculum. Including learning the programming language known as Python which is really fun on Linux. Another fun little toy I got for my birthday which will also be going into my curriculum is a tiny computer known as the Raspberry Pi. This little toy will give me access to a load of fun little ideas and other computers that can be made that will be handy in the long run.

Tough time

Kristi has landed herself in the hospital again. I know it isn't her fault that she ended up in there again. In fact I am not judging her over anything as she has been working really hard lately. In fact that is probably why she has ended up in the hospital. She has been stressed out from helping with my birthday as well as dads and then right after my birthday she ended up working the entire weekend without much incentive and tons of stress so to the doctors who might end up reading this she didn't do anything wrong.

As I mentioned me, dad, and a couple of friends did end up having to help Kristi move. Of course what really did help is that we had incentive to finish which was a nice $50 bill for helping move. Now of course Kristi was only helping coordinate the move as the rest of us were there to do all of the heavy lifting that she cannot do. After all was said and done and we got all of the nuisance work out of the way we got home just to do more work when we got home which was unload all of the heavy, awkward stuff.

Funny fact I actually had a really good blog entry typed up today and I lost it all to the internet. What happened is that my entry was starting to glitch so I decided to save my entry and reopen it. Well, instead of reopening an actually good entry which was almost completely done I lost all of the data and had to retype the entire thing. I hope that my entry is still good because I am typing this and I am still really peeved while typing all of this so I don't want to sound to hostile, mean, or anything else that is frowned upon while typing this up.

School problems

Today there was a terrible shooting in one of the school districts which if I remember correctly was Connecticut. What makes it so sad is that people died and even worse is the fact that more people died then the Columbine shooting of 1999. I feel terrible but also relieved that no one that I knew myself was caught in the shooting and if someone was then I don't want to know because I probably havn't seen them in a long time and they wouldn't remember me. The problem that I have is that I am afraid that people are going to go to extremes and do something with the public schools to make them safer like they did with the Columbine shooting. Either way I am relieved that it is nowhere near me here in Missouri and that everyone that I know is alright and to the people who may be reading this right now that has lost someone dear to them this day we mourn your loss.

The Columbine shooting as I mentioned was in 1999. During the shooting 13 were killed and 20 more were injured. In this recent shooting around 27 were shot and killed and only 3 have made it to the hospital for treatment. Others have already died in the hospital. I don't know exact information about all of the situation as I heard the news when I had settled down to eat lunch and I had to turn it off to complete the rest of my work. I know that some of you are uninterested but I plan to dedicate this blog to this event and I can recommend that if you don't want to read this, don't.

I never got to see who died today. Neither did the people that may have lost someone as the information has not yet been released to any of the parents or the public yet. Either way today these people are the ones who read support and I know if they even are reading this they probably will not read this for another week or maybe tomorrow or even the most extreme a year, I don't know. To anyone that knows any of these people I would like for you to give some support to them as they are going to need it through these hard times.

Tons to Read

This entire week so far has all been about getting through my reading for the week and it is hard. For example today and the last few days I had to work through lunch fast to get in all of my reading. Even then I didn't get done with all of my reading until about 2:40 in the evening. Even with trying to get through lunch as fast as possible I ended up falling behind for the day and working up to about 3:00 but even then I am not done as now apart of my "Homework" I have to go back and review french even when the school day is done.

There is going to be very little amounts of school work to be done tomorrow as we are going to go run some errands. I know this sounds like it is a day to slack off but I believe that there is going to be quite a bit of work that is going to be required of me during these outings so I don't believe that there is going to be a break yet. Either way work or not it is better then sitting down in the chair upstairs all day and reading the entire day. By the way I have nothing against reading I just don't like sitting down that long.

I am feeling scared about continuing my French work when it is time to move on to lesson 3. The reason why is because since I fell behind I started to slip even farther the farther I got in and to this point I barely understand anything on lesson 2. I don't blame dad for making me review French but I really don't like review at all as I have never really felt that review ever truly helped me out before except for before a test but I know all of that is wrong.

The Circle of Time

Over time I get a new book upon finishing one book. This time after finishing the Trouble with Boys I got a new book called battle hymn of the Tiger Mother. This one is about what makes the Chinese kids so successful when it comes down to how smart they are. Well what I found out is that it is because of how strict the moms are and just to show that my mom is nothing in comparison to the Chinese moms who would of instead of demanding 1 hour of work on studying for a Chinese mom they would usually want at least 3 hours of studying. I believe that this book only heightens my knowledge of how lucky I am to have my family and how the world works around me.

Today is my dads birthday as I mentioned yesterday and I have nothing for him except the ability to help around the house and my hard work in school. There is of course the fact that I have accumulated $90 with all of the work that I have done recently but I think it would be lazy to hand someone money and tell him to go ahead and buy himself something. Besides he didn't request anything for his birthday from us neither did he drop any hints that I have heard from him so for the most part I think I'm safe.

The book Nurture Shock has given me a good look back at some of the predicaments that I have been in before. For example it talks about the flawed gifted programs in school and how they are testing kids in Kindergarten to see if they are gifted and then about 3/4ths of the kids end up being normal or even basic. Then this reminds me because I was tested several times and rejected to join the gifted program because it was full and I was put on the waiting list which is a great way of saying you are smart enough but we aren't letting you in.

Another Down!

Today I managed to finish the trouble with boys and the book might just haunt me for a little bit. Reading about how the school isn't geared for boys and then hearing about how most of this isn't being acknowledged is pretty scary. Then the fact that boys are being accepted into college with grades that are a C average is also a scary thought to me. What makes the boys being accepted scary is that it goes on to tell how little effort they actually apply to the school after being accepted.

I told everybody about the other book that I have been working on which is known as Nurture Shock. Today it tells about how much sleep patterns affect the kids. I thought this one was also just a little bit scary as it goes into the facts like one hour of sleep can decide how well kids do in school and how they take life. What makes this one even worse is that it then tells about the wary parents that are willing to help the kids and get them some more sleep to help them. For example the many schools that are reluctant to start school an hour later to help the students even after the research was proven to help and there was remarkable changes within the schools who did change their schedule.

Tomorrow is my dads birthday and I feel bad having another one of his birthdays and not having a good substantial gift. Dad has been there for us through all of the ups and downs and I can't help but feel we take all that he does for granted. He is the one that brings food into the house and not even to mention to keep the house that gives us shelter. I don't know what we would do without dad and his persistence to keep a job and to go through any trial thrown his way.

Almost There!

This week is going to be extremely hectic for 3 reasons. One is Kristi moving in this week. Second is my dads birthday on the 12th. Then third is the fact that my birthday is this Saturday or otherwise known as the 15th. The problem with my birthday being so soon is that I have yet to actually make a list of what I want for my birthday because there isn't much that I want. Music is pretty much out of the question because I can listen to any music free on the internet and since I have ad blocker there really isn't any wait time. Books are an OK bet but I read a book about once or twice a year so I feel it would be terrible to enjoy a book immensely then let it sit on a shelf for about a year before being picked up again. Finally I don't want to ask for anything to expensive because there is so much going on this month and it seems almost rude to ask for a $50 video game when we are already spending so much this month with Christmas and dads birthday not to mention any unexpected problems that might show up.

Today's work was fairly easy but did require some thinking. I had to read one book named Nurture Shock which was a nice little wake up call to the way the kid brain works. For example that praising the a person in general might not work the way you want. Research has shown that by praising a kid you might actually make them worse rather then helping them improve. For example during a test which consisted of 3 puzzles the kids who were praised for being smart but not for the actual effort decided to go for an easier puzzle the second time which they were then praised for this puzzle as well. Though when they were given the 3rd puzzle they did 20% worse on this puzzle which was actually the same as puzzle number one.

Then another book I read today was a book known as "Mr. President Mr. President!" which is about a journalists view of the white house with personal interviews with different presidents. For example she got to know Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as well. These are the two that I have gotten to but she gives her opinions of the two and what they had gone through for example Harry Truman was hated by many people while he was president but when others looked back at Truman they think that he was a wonderful president. Another one which was also with Truman was that when he had to decide to drop the bomb on Hiroshima or not he claimed to have slept like a baby after making the decision to drop the bomb without the help or support of anyone close.

Easy!

Today I have about 4 things to do so this is my third. I have done all of my reading now I'm doing my blog and then Finally I have to post something on Google + in French. Funny thing about the French project is that I have been allowed to use a translator. This may sound like cheating but considering the fact that I have been studying French but have fallen behind drastically makes this a life saver.

The funny thing about today is that I have the easiest day today. Everyone else except for Zoe has a pretty hard day. First off Nate is going to 2 places today just to return home get dressed and head out for the choir performance later tonight. Then there is Kristi who is driving Nate around and then she comes home to wait for dad for their night. My job is to babysit Zoe which really isn't that hard. In fact it will be pretty cool being able to sit around and relax most of the day and eat some ordered food for dinner.

On the other hand I have pretty much nothing to do today upon finishing my work. Honestly I was afraid it was going to be worse today then it really is. Only because I feel that I was going to be done in the morning and have just read and sat around the house all day until I got some more work. Though overall I am quite relieved for a good fashioned break. I will get plenty of time later today to just mess around and hang out with my friends so I really feel like I got lucky.

Feedback

Today I thought it would be an alright idea to talk about in some more detail on yesterday. For example I am going into more depth about what I think about SOPA and PIPA and how last night ended with the Christmas special. For this paragraph I am going to tell you about my strange day. What made this day so strange is I woke up at 8:00 today and I usually wake up at 10:00. I was baffled but I managed to get in an extra hour of electronics time. Then I there is the fact that I was going through work so fast that I am already done with chores and I am very close to finishing my school work for the day and for the week! The reason for this is because I have worked hard this entire week and tomorrow was supposed to be a make up day.

The SOPA and PIPA bills really made me want to slap someone. The way the bill was worded is so the government could shut any website down and if they were wrong about there being some way of supporting a illegal site they could simply say it was an assumption and couldn't get sued. This could process of shutting down websites would lead to a internet where no one person could be safe. YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, and even Google could be shut down in a heartbeat for doing nothing bad at all.

Finally there was last nights Duck Dynasty Christmas Special that we got to stay up for. We all got together with some snacks and nommed away as we laughed at the mistakes of one of the employees. What happened is that the owners wife volunteered him to play Santa at a church and when the original employee they had planned for backed out the one person that wanted to go was a lazy worker and brought "toys"  that he gathered from around the office. When I say toys I mean a tape gun, coffee cups, and a dustpan are just a few of the things he brought.

Loving the work

I was always tolk that it was important for a person to love their work. Well I have to agree with that the more I get these forms of curriculum I like. The first few were Freakonomics, the diary of Adrian Mole, and Anthem. Now I am enjoying The Trouble With Boys quite immensely. For example the recent chapter I read was about how the form of boys writing is really excepted in school. I know this pretty well because it talks about how the other boys like writing with sarcasm, humor, and purely for the other boys in the class to enjoy. I love this book because most of the things that they talk about is usually quit true and noticeable within the average public school. Of course most of the kids ignore this stuff going on around them taking it for granted.

Today's work is getting really easy with no math or french to take up all of my time. Though the hard part is that Kristi knows this and is willing to use the extra time. Today I had a Khan Academy video that is 25 minutes long. That would be five minutes less my average french lesson. Then before that I had a 12 minute Khan Academy lesson on SOPA and PIPA. I do enjoy Khan Academy and his use of the tablet to spell out and show people things while he explains them. I also love the ability to ask a question on the comments and get about 20 different answers from different people.

The family has got one of the first TV shows that we watch as a family since the Big Bang Theory which we have not yet abandoned. This new show is Duck Dynasty and it is almost just as funny. Tonight is the Christmas special and Zoe is being allowed to stay up another 30 minutes to watch it with us! The show is about a family of rednecks and their business of making duck calls. Of course it wouldn't be reality TV if something didn't happen and there is plenty of humor to go around. I can't wait for tonight as we get a nice meal and the Duck Dynasty Christmas special!

Khan wins!

Today I had my first science video on Khan academy. I believe this gives Khan another point in the great war of the curriculum being in so far three different college level main curriculum. The three I've gone into so far are math, social studies, and science in that order. I can congratulate the owner which if I remember correctly is Sal Khan. I hereby congratulate him with grabbing my attention along with all of the other people who have gone to his website and followed along.

I am done with editing my 2nd draft for Freakonomics. The problem with this is the fact that I now have to edit a second time. I do want this to be a good essay but I just don't want to edit a second draft again I want to move onto the third draft and edit that. I can't really complain with results much as this is probably the best essay I have seen yet considering the fact that every other essay before this ended very badly with no real writing behind them.

On a much brighter note I have finished my French for this semester. I may not be doing so well in french since lesson 18 in section 1 I made it through and for that I am proud. Funny though I may not be to good at actually speaking the french I can still read french pretty well even when I failed at reading glace properly when Alex, Kristi, dad, and I went after helping Kristi move stuff through her house. I don't have a need to speak French right now but if I have plans of ever traveling I better start learning some French. Besides I like the language quite a bit I just missed one word in lesson 18 and it set me completely off.

Full speed ahead

Today we have been working hard on catching me up on my Freakonomics paper. This work includes spending a good hour making the changes necessary to the paper. I loved seeing my paper evolve but I really did hate actually working on all of it. I was never a huge fan of sitting there and demolishing what I've created except for when I build it specifically to be destroyed. This is hard work criticizing my own work and making the necessary changes.

I also got to watch a movie today known as "Outfoxed." It is all about the right winged fox news network. I found it really funny when they were covering president Bush how they would cut people off who were raising to good of a point against them or even telling the people that were guests on fox to shut up. I don't watch fox news but I started getting really annoyed that this kind of network would even be allowed to be run at all making things that were terrible seem really good to make the president look that much better.

I was reading the Trouble with boys this morning I was staring at the book dumbfounded. I was reading the 9 things that would usually label a kid with ADHD and to my surprise almost everything listed I saw in pretty much every boy I knew. This list Included staring into space, not remembering what you were talking about a few seconds ago, and even not paying attention. almost every boy I know stares into space with nothing in particular in mind but manage to end up diagnosed.

books are good

I mentioned the book "The trouble with boy's yesterday." Well all of what I said was true I just thought it would be kinda fun to go even deeper into to what I said about it yesterday. Not only are girls leading in all four main subjects lately but in the lower grades boys are not fairing any better. The book mentions that there was a point in history where adults believed that after the age of 3 it was extremely hard to learn anything while at the age of 3 and younger you could learn almost anything. This was proven wrong but then there was this faze with adults signing up kids into preschool hoping for them to learn everything there. The problem here is that even a good chunk of preschools are not made for boys. In fact the book gives examples of 2 boys getting into a fight because they waited in line to long for recess.

I am currently done with my research work on the social injustice project. The overall work took about an hour every day to get the work done but I am not done with the project quite yet. I still have to Make a map of the actual injustice going on in the world. This is going to be a pretty fun project but also quite the eye opener. For example one of the things that I found today was a map that showed the overall poverty of the lee summit area. What's scary about this is that almost all of the lee summit area is deep in poverty except a small pocket which is nowhere near poverty. Another example is the homeless problem within the same area. I didn't just show problems within missouri either I got problems from all over the world and I plan on taking a picture of this map when it is made and posting it.

Today I should finish up my 2nd draft on my Freakonomics essay! It shouldn't be that hard as I have been working on it slowly during the editing process. The cool part is that it will be near done after this editing. Hopefully all that will be left is the pretty presentation pieces including double spacing and titles and whatever they want me to do.

back to normal

Recently I have been reading a book known as "The Trouble With Boys." I found out that this is part of the reason why I am in home school right now and not in the public school district. This book is all about the extending gap between boys and girls in the school districts within the united states. The problem is that that gap with the girls leading is only getting bigger leaving us boys in the dust in the subjects we used to be extremely good in. In fact we used to excel in Math and Science while girls ruled in writing and reading. Sadly now the girls lead in all four of these.

One of my side work assignments within my home school is Social injustices. I am researching acts of social injustice around the world then me and Kristi are going to fill in a map with the locations of social injustice. The hard part about this is finding recent articles that actually help with the assignment as I found some articles from 2005 and even 2003  in my search so far and I am not allowed to use them. I find this assignment quite difficult but eye opening all at the same time.

Work is coming along nicely. I hope to have my Freakonomics paper readable by the end of December minimum. I know that it will not take that long to finish but there is still a chance of it being dragged out way to long. In fact I'm guessing is that if it goes out to long then the adults are going to set a deadline on the assignment. The paper is doing fine for now but there is still room to improve. I will also have to go back and double space and all the other fancy paper things necessary.

Back to the Grind

While yesterday I was going to write a blog entry the internet was being weird after unplugging everything in the house. We did manage to get everything to a manageable household again. The reason for all of the disorder in our house is because we had an extermination. Sadly things are rough in the house due to the fact that we are on a 2 week incubation period. I cannot help but be annoyed as now all of my routine was screwed up and this is the first normal day we have had in quite a while.

Yesterday me and Kristi had to leave the house so that the exterminators could do their job. So Kristi had it set up so that we could go and eat lunch and see a movie. The lunch was alright but nothing to amazing. It was just a cheeseburger and fries on my side but that wasn't what made the day amazing. I got to see the movie I've been wanting to see for quite a while now. The movie was Wreck it Ralph which despite looking like a kid's movie I found that many people could easily enjoy this movie without any explaining or coaxing to see the movie.

Wreck it Ralph did actually have a deeper meaning then what we see. I believe that this movie actually has at least 2 hidden meanings. One is that all things in life would be easier with one event or item. In life this one item could be money or the event could be saving a person from a burning building. The other meaning is that we judge people due to one problem that they have and they can never seem to be able to escape this problem. There is a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that goes like this. “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” I believe this to mean that we should not tell man with nothing to pick himself up and move on with life. This can pertain to the movie just as easily as the meanings. Because there is Ralph who has no boots but is told to get over his position of being the bad guy.

Finally!

I am glad to have something to do with some actual purpose. This entire break we have been working on the garage. Not the storage but instead we were working on the house and then the garage. I was not really that relaxed this break except for yesterday. Yesterday for our hard work we got to go to the movies and eat dinner with dad. For dinner we got to eat some Mr. Goodcents subs before the movie. We all went to watch Rise of the Guardians as I was trumped on the decision between Rise of the Guardians and Wreck it Ralph.

I have to say I am sorry about no post on Thanksgiving I was sitting about and I completely forgot about my blog this weekend. As I mentioned I was busy this weekend and I was thinking a bit harder on the work I was needing to do after Thanksgiving. Honestly I can't help but feel that there wasn't that much to write about on Thanksgiving. We all got together this Thanksgiving, we ate some good food, messed around, talked a lot, and really didn't do much else.

Although I didn't feel like there was much of a break there is still some fun things that happened this break that can't be ignored. First of all there was Thanksgiving which I really cannot at all say that it was boring or just another average day. Then there was the finger food night at Kristi's sister's house. At finger food night I got to see Kristi's sister and parents, then I got to see the 4 other kids that were over there. Finally I got to go to the movie with dad, Nate, and Zoe.

Breaks!

The remainder of this week will be a break but don't worry about having no posts. I plan on stopping my posts until Thanksgiving then I will post on my holiday then continue posts on next Monday. I hope that everyone understands as there will be nothing to post about when tomorrow comes or on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I will make sure to make a good post on Thanksgiving if I can remember to do so as it is not a requirement.

So for today my big problem was with my editing. I know this is kinda sad since I have been editing for pretty much the last 2 months but let me explain. I am just now getting started with editing backwards and I am having a hard time coping with it. I am being told that I need to start getting into the habit of editing backwards. Yes I know that it will help but I can't help but not like it over the original form of editing.

On another note I will be getting a free day on next Monday. This is because I have finished all of this weeks work. Then of course I will still have to do things like my flashcards over the break and French. I really can't argue with the overall work that I have done this week much like other weeks this one has gone wonderfully.

Head First!

Thanksgiving is coming up really fast and we are all starting to prep for the oncoming storm of friends and family. This includes deep cleans within all of the rooms and some reorganizing. I also am going to be doing a super deep vacuuming today which includes moving things around the whole living room. Then this visit is a great excuse for us to go even deeper then appearance. This means that I will be cleaning underneath my bed and closet.

The Thanksgiving bash that I have always ends really well. I can't really argue with seeing all of the close family and friends. I get to see Grandma Kathy who is probably reading this blog as well as Kristi's parents then there is all of the people that might  show up other then us that are throwing the bash. I hope to see all of them at the feast as it is never the same without everybody there.

I am currently done with working at dad's job for a while so you will not have to hear about my dislike of the M2727 printer for a while. That is I don't know when I will go back or what I will do when I go to BE Tek. I don't think I will be going back anytime soon as I still have schoolwork to do so I don't believe that they would constantly pull me out of school to help them with inventory. That is as far as I know. I did have fun over there seeing people and I got to learn some stuff that I never learned before. Even better is the part about being paid for all of my work.

Day two: Massive pain

So to start off my blog I have to explain that soon after getting home yesterday I then went to Tae Kwon Do. I then found out that we were going to be doing a really extensive workout that day. After doing the workout I was in extreme pain, weak legs, and dizzy. I then continued with the idea to go to dads job today. The work was actually a lot harder then yesterday as it consisted of replacing optical drives, lifting and testing printers, and lunch.

I officially have worked with 3 printers enough to have a favorite. I like the HP 3390, the HP 3380 is alright and the HP m2727 sucks terribly. Only 2 of the m2727's worked out of the 5 I tested. Even worse is that they weren't even good for spare parts afterwards. The funny part is that there is one thing that I hate about printers that all HP printers share. Scanner Error 5 is extremely evil as it took many a good printer to the back of the store where they would then be thrown away. Of course it was still extremely fun working around BE TEK while it lasted.

The end of the week has come and I made through all of the week. I feel that the money I will be getting for my work at BE TEK will be hard earned and should not be wasted in one place. It shouldn't be wasted at all. So I will gladly agree with dad to open up a bank account and place my earned money inside so that I will not be to willing to spend it all right out the gate. I hope that this money can be properly invested somewhere in my future. If I can not find a decent investment then I will find something else to do with it later in my life.

industry and Teknology

Today I had agreed to go to work with dad to help him out with a huge load of equipment. So i went ahead and went with dad to work and saw a wall of work I was doing. The work really isn't that bad really. The first half of my day is just testing out monitors while the other half of my day is testing printers. I have so far only tested 44 monitors and 8 printers. 31 monitors were good while the remaining 13 monitors were bad. While for printers only 1 was completely shot and wasn't even worth putting up for sale.

In the middle of the day for lunch dad and I had some "Planet Sub" subsammiches. Now this was my first time having one so I went for one of the weirdest named sammiches on the menu. Its name was the Green Turkey. They tricked me with this sammich as I asked for no tomatoes but then I realized that there was tomatoes in the salsa that was on the sammich. Honestly I got ripped off because I was new to the menu.

Other then all of the work done here at BE TEK I had a really good day. I did have to walk back and forth for the entire day and it may have been repetitive and annoying, but it was all worth it because now dad can get home and have a much more enjoyable day. Every Thursday he has really long days until 7:00 but today he gets off at 5:00 and I did the part that he doesn't like. No matter how annoying the work was I am truly happy I did the work as it leads to a much happier dad and I would gladly make dad happy any day I can

Early to rise Early to end

Today I managed to wake up at 9:30 and get straight to work. This is actually quite interesting considering the fact that I have lately been sleeping in towards 10:00 and do not start until about 10:30 after Good Eats with Alton Brown. Either way I have finished all of my work and it is only about 1:15. Of course so the only way to keep up with my schedule is to do some work for tomorrow or to finish work that I haven't gotten done. I only have one assignment that I haven't finished so I guess I'll do that and it should help me wrap up for the day.

My work on the Freakonomics paper has drastically changed how I look at my blog. Now I go back over my blog and see what words can be eliminated and what sentences can be changed to make things much better. I will tell you after home school I will never look at writing the same way ever again. I am actually quite happy with my change in opinion over writing because within the public school district I despised writing class as I never had a decent subject to write about and they never really taught me how to properly edit my paper.

I am still concerned what will happen after Cindy leaves as a lot will change starting with her. Then after Cindy leaves the last thing to happen will be Nate leaving and I quite like Nate as he has been their for all of my life and Summer next year he will leave. I know there is a while to go before he leaves but I want to spend as much time with him as I can before he leaves for job core. I know that the Nate I see everyday is a different Nate then the brother I once saw everyday of my life. Now he is focused and dedicated to his work. I fell proud to see Nate's turn around with all of his school career.

2nd draft

Today I started off my editing with my second draft of my Freakonomics essay. It is coming along quite nicely and I am waiting for the final draft to be ready to be posted. I have waited so long for this piece of work to be done so I can show off all of the final draft. Of course this will still take much more time as I still have three pages to edit about 2 more times before I can finally say that it is my final draft.

From today it is official one week away from Thanksgiving break. Another break right around the corner doesn't sound to bad and I really can't argue with the holiday to come with it. I think I don't need to go into to much detail over Thanksgiving as anyone that reads this blog would know how strongly I feel about it. The break will be much obliged after going through all of the work I have coming.

Things around the house are going quite well. Sadly though Kristi is outside the house for most of the week. The only time she is going to be here is tomorrow for her checkup at the doctor and of course she will also return some time on Friday. I know she pretty much will only be gone a full day on Thursday but either way she will be gone and it will be just a little bit harder to work through the day without my teacher downstairs waiting for me. I can still do my work it will just be that little bit harder as I am a bit iffy on calling people at all unless I know their schedule.

Speeding up

Today's work was extremely easy. Didn't really require more work then to be able to read, pay attention, and to be able to fill out some problems. Of course there is a lot of work to come this week but I made it through today and am pleased with my work I have done. I am already getting questions about my birthday which is December 15th and I am almost speechless about what I really want. The first thing I wanted was Jalfrezi which is like an Indian chicken stew. But then I decided that there was one leftover that I would eat two bowls of and I can never get enough of is Clam chowder or a well made Potato soup. Of course I then trumped Jalfrezi instantly but I'm still thinking on which one and I then have to think about what kind of dessert I want with my dinner.

Something amazing is happening much earlier then we had expected. My Grandma Cindy should be moving out by the end of the week! I know it sounds mean that I'm so excited but I've been looking forward for things to start changing for the better. So it appears that Zoe will be getting her own room first as she'll be moving into dads room while Kristi and dad will move up into Cindy and Zoe's old room. I find that things are changing fast and for the better. Even as I type I think of how things will end after everything is done.

 I can't wait for Thanksgiving to come. I watch Food Network with dad and Kristi together because it is one of the only forms of media that support Thanksgiving right now instead of Christmas. I have no problems with Christmas it's just that it's not Christmas anymore it's a day for raking in the dough for all of those rich investors. We have to face that fact that Christmas has just gotten extremely commercialized and there isn't much that can save it. Of course we could always start with bombing hallmark, but that might be a little extreme. I can see it now Bomb Hallmark save Christmas.

Pay Attention

I surely made a fool of myself yesterday. I thought that I was falling behind this week while in reality All I was falling behind in was science and one specific blog entry for Tuesday. So today I am going to be catching up in both of these subjects. The next two paragraphs are going to be based around my projects. One project was meant for today while the other is meant for Tuesday. Both are around government and questions that I was presented.

Starting with Tuesdays questions number 1 was "Do you agree with the idea of extending public financing of election campaigns to include congressional campaigns?"  Well I do agree with the public financing of the election campaigns. The reason why is because if you don't have very much money you will have to fund all of your own campaign. I don't think that every president was rich enough to fund all of the expenses. Question 2 was "Television can convey some - but not all - of a presidents personal and political qualities to an audience. What important presidential qualities do you feel cannot be transmitted by a television. How else do can a candidate for presidency can communicate these qualities?" Well first things first what qualities can't be shown on TV? I believe first off that the main quality that can't be shown on TV is how important this person will actually be to America. How do you get around this? well you can't exactly change what people think of you unless you lie quite a bit and that will lose you voters if anyone finds out. Finally question 3 was "The 26th amendment enabled 18-year olds to vote. In terms of percentage, however, far fewer members of this age bracket actually exercise their right to vote than is the case with any other age group. How can this be explained?" Well how else do you explain this without going for a basic truth. Most kids at the age of 18 are not interested in voting. I want to make it clear that I said most as there is some kids at the age of 18 who do vote but most kids at 18 are more interested in friends, girls, and stunts that would make them look cooler. What goes on in those brains of theirs varies by person and is quite hard to explain if you are not 18.

So second up is opinion writing about an article called the love business. A very interesting article about marriage in china. Explaining how competition in China is very hard as over in China you can only have one child and people then decided to do sex selective abortion. Most people didn't want girls as they don't help with continuing the family legacy. So there is a low demand for men and a very high demand for women. Since no one wants to have a girl it makes finding a wife for men an extremely hard task. Gong Haiyan decided to open up one of the first dating websites in china. All of a sudden it is a huge boom in the dating society as then it became easy for people to meet their soul mate instead off believing destiny to help them as in the article it states that many people do believe in destiny to help them. Quickly Gong became a millionaire with her extremely successful business.

Falling behind

I'm getting really scared due to the fact that I am falling behind in my work. Despite my work that I did yesterday I am simply falling behind. No matter how hard I work it seems that I can't keep up with the amount of work presented this week. Even worse is that there is no make up day this week. I am simply freaking out over the fact that I may be working on the weekend to finish everything. Just like everyone else I also try to relax on the weekend and having a load of work to do will not help.

I have been working really hard on doing the harder sources of work. For example I was working on editing my essay for everyone to view. I went from 4 to 3 pages and I am only half way through my essay. I think that it is coming along nicely but I think that I so far to go as I am only editing first draft right now. After finishing first draft I then have to work on editing the 2nd draft. Sadly that will not be much easier as there will definitely flaws but they will less prevalent.

Other then my work I have some other problems. That would be problems with something else that is coming around the corner fast. This dilemma would be Thanksgiving. I have absolutely no complaints about Thanksgiving. The problem would be the fact that the media treats this holiday as if it dosn't exist. One of the only American holidays that we have that people are always willing to celebrate and ignored by almost everybody. I love Thanksgiving as much as the average person if not more. The fact that friends and family no matter what will sit down and talk and eat and laugh all together is an amazing holiday. I wish that this holiday could be recognized as important in all of America.

Overtime

So today I have been working a little bit over my average time. With all of the work I did today which wasn't much sadly enough, I worked about 5 hours today. That is the original amount required of me everyday before my one less hour. At the rate that I worked today I could have another 20 hour free day in another 2 weeks. Half a month of work for one free day sounds pretty easy to obtain to me.Of course this would require working everyday from 9:00 in the morning to 2:00 or 10:00 to 3:00. Not that hard to obtain as this is something that I used to do every day.

Today's work was easy except for the heartfelt disappointment with my essays many flaws. There was so many flaws that I wouldn't even dare count the number that Kristi and I found while checking the paper. Even worse would be putting the number on my blog to show the world all of the flaws found. Of course I have gotten about half way through the editing before just stopping for the day at the end of the day.

While the work was a pretty easy other then the fact that I was getting spinny. The good part is that Grandma Kathy came into town and we got to go out for lunch. We all went up to Zara sushi and right now I still remember the beautiful platter that I had for lunch. I had an avacado and peanut roll as well as a spicy, crunchy, tuna roll. For a side I had a spring ginger salad that was to die for. Overall the entire day was extremely fun.

Voting Day!

So today everybody is finally voting. I think that it is about time. I mean seriously I have been getting tired of answering the phone and getting all of these political questions. Did you know that Mitt Romney did ( fill in the blank ) and you shouldn't vote for Obama. I really don't care at all. In fact this is pretty much been an entire day about the government. I started the day watching Rachel Ray ( not very political ), then I read Economics for Dummies, went on to learn about voting on Khan Academy, then spent the rest of the day reading out of a large social studies textbook. Pretty annoying day and I am going to become a very mean person if I have to hear one more word about Election other then it is finally over.

I was told for my blog to comment on a quote from John Wesley. The quote was
"I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And, 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.
I believe that all of this quote is pretty easy to translate, but this is all about opinion here.

So lets begin with 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy. Pretty much it is do not vote for money for the person you chose. I didn't even know that people voted if bribed but it must have been there at one point or another. Either way this is pretty important to remember that we are voting for our new leader not for money. Maybe by voting for one person you can save yourself money in some way but still this might be the one thing that he was warning about.

Next up is number 2.To speak no evil of the person they voted against. I like this guy the more I read. I agree with this guy all the way with this one. Just because you voted for one person does not mean that you should start hating on the other person. All electable individuals may have done well. Maybe the person that you didn't vote for would have done better. There is more as Conflict from hating talking badly about the other candidates .

Finally number 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side. This was exactly what I was talking about in the last paragraph. Do not start disliking another person because he or she voted for a different person. If we all went after each other over opinion where would we be now. If dad and Kristi wanted to vote for Obama and their parents wanted to vote for Romney this does not mean that they should start quarreling because they disagree. In fact the world we live in thrives on opinion and without it our world would be dull and boring. All of this election stuff is important but it requires opinions from everybody.

I hope that everyone enjoyed another lecture from me and all of my different opinions as I know I do this entire buisness with myself everyday. Fighting with myself over my own opinions can be kinda fun sometimes. This may sound wierd but it is hard to find someone else my age to discuss politics with as no one is really concerned about the world at this age. I guess things will just get easier as I move on in life but I still have a long way to go.

Surprise!

So I got a really interesting surprise sprung on me this morning. I was getting a day off today! The parents were expecting me to use my 20 extra hours earlier rather then later so I got this little surprise this morning as I was not informed last night and I woke up like every other morning. Of course I still have to do my blog every day to inform exactly how I am doing for multiple purposes. So todays project was to take millions of pictures around my neighborhood. Why? Well I am to be creative with all of these pictures which out of about 50 I chose 5. So lets go over these

Opening up is a picture of my favorite place in the entire complex. Even though I love my small house I have one spot outside that I just love. It is a small weeping willow behind an abandoned house. I used to come to the house with my friends and we would hang out around this tree. Up next is me as I noticed that I have not really had an accurate picture of me on this blog yet. I may have a creepy smile and some really annoying hair but I think that this is one of my best pictures that I took today. how could I ever hate myself? So up next are just some interesting places and some pictures. Up next is our next door neighbors arrangement of pumpkins. I have not really met a person that doesn't like a jack-o-lantern. This was just clever and cute so I had to add this little picture. I also took a picture of one of the strangest colored houses I have seen that I had access to taking a picture of. I have seen weirder then this K state colored house but I thought that since I see it almost every day I might as well take a picture. Other then these few pictures I have one more that intrigued me. The picture is focused on the one tree that should have lost its leaves by now but still has all of them. Either way it is still a pretty good picture

Relief!

So I have made an agreement with dad and Kristi! I am allowed to do things that are much easier then cleaning the garage for electronic time. For example helping Kristi bring boxes up to her apartment this weekend will earn me one extra hour of electronics. Another example is that if I ride my bike for 30 minutes I get 30 minutes more on the electronics. I can also make an agreement with the parents for extra chores which can each earn me a different amount time depending on the difficulty of the chore. I think this is going to be a great compromise between us as they want me to get some sort of workout while I get more electronic time!

I also finished all of my work this week! The thought is that I have worked my butt off today to finish all of my math work but that was done and now I am finishing up the day with my blog. I won't have anything to worry about this weekend as today is just a day to relax and enjoy myself. Nate is going to be gone this weekend for this weekend to go see his friends so the computer upstairs is open if Zoe isn't on it. So I can play some games with my friend right in my house. I can't wait for my actual weekend to begin!

Things have really been looking up to me this week. The compromise with the parents, all of my work finished against the odds, and Kristi isn't in the hospital again! There really wasn't a chance of Kristi in the hospital this weekend but either way there was the possibility. Either way this week has been great. The best part of it all is the fact that I haven't burned down our house yet!

Friday = Make Up Work

So I didn't get all of my work done so far but I am actually pretty happy with this. This will give me something to work with when I wake up tomorrow. All the work I haven't finished is simply the math work. Now I know it is kinda sad how I don't have this work done yet but it was going to happen with form of work or another. You all know how everybody has that one subject that they aren't that great at. Well for me that would be math and I knew people that would struggle with English, Science, Or Social studies. We have all been there at one point or another.

Kristi still hasn't made it back from Made To Serve yet but I am waiting for her so that we can edit my first draft of my paper. I think that she might be a little bit surprised that when they wiped my computer that we had forgotten to hook up my computer to the printer again. So I can't print the papers myself so I will have to send the paper to Kristi and have here print it. So as long as my computer doesn't crash I should be able to get this done by the end of the day.

My main struggle other then school is finding out how to get all of my electronics time in without cheating. For example using my time without going over the time that all electronics are supposed to go off. Or another example is getting on early and constantly lying about how long I have been on. Besides that last idea never works because Kristi and dad always know when I am on. Mainly because Kristi will count and check how long we have been on from when we start. I was thinking about working for extra time but then I would have to work into my schedule how much work will I need to do to balance the rest of the day. And the work will not be easy at all. For example one of the jobs might be help clean up the garage. I don't want to really help with that when I could be upstairs in my bed. So I think that would be a no.

Freakonomics!

I hope that I can show you all my essay at a point where it is presentable. I mentioned my essay that I am working on is about Freakonomics. Well I finished my first draft and it is ready for the editing. I wish I could show it to everyone but I feel that I'm going to wait until its final draft and it is much easier to enjoy then the constant imperfections that you might run across. So I look forward to posting the essay after is done with the editing stage and finally suitable for everyone to read.

Other then that bit of work I finished Nothing to Envy. It ends with everyone that the book follows ending up in South Korea and living a new life. Though not everyone had the best of life as some of the people that made had trouble with debts and bad starts. Including one girl who put herself in debt and then decided that she still needed to bring her mom over to South Korea. While this all worked out alright the problem was that she still was deep in debt by the end of the book. Now of course they are still alive and living their lives. The hard part is that we know none of their names

Today is Halloween and I almost feel like it is still the same day that was yesterday or the day before. I wish it was simple enough to say that this wasn't ever actually a holiday but there is still so many people that celebrate the holiday that makes that impossible. But in honor of a holiday I was asked to give a history lesson on the origins of Halloween. So how about we begin.

The holiday Halloween is supposedly started from Samhain a Celtic Holiday where the people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming spirits. Then during the 8th century Pope Gregory III set November 1st as all Saints day to honor all saints and Martyrs. This holiday held tradition carried from Samhain. The day before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows Eve and later known as Halloween which eventually developed into a community based child friendly day. Activities included things like Trick-or-Treating. But was still supposed to celebrate the coming Winter season with gatherings,candy,and costumes

Doing my Homework

So I was extremely depressed when my computer got wiped to help with my curriculum but I have been working on getting the things I wanted back. Of course I can't get everything back but I can get my old games, some programs to make things work, and the programs to help with curriculum. I am approaching fast on where I was originally at but it will be a while before getting everything I want back. Either way no matter how long it takes I will get everything I lost back and continue with my work on making every game I get a hold of better and much more fun.

So I have been allowed to sleep in one extra hour then usual. I thought this was awesome considering the whole zombie feeling that I was having every morning. But unlike last time I mentioned this I am being allowed to sleep in until 9:00 or 10:00 for a normal time until my schedule straitens out. You see I am already 1/3 of the way through the school year already and am ahead of most people my age so as a way to help with this I got to choose between sleeping in an extra hour or getting every other Friday off. I honestly think that an extra hour of sleep every morning is much more then one extra day every other week in the ways of usefulness. Considering the fact that I will wake up on my own at about 9:30 AM every morning if allowed to sleep in. I don't think that one extra day off will help half as much as that one hour every day.

So my work lately has been a bit slow and I managed to get all of the work I needed to do over again done. Sadly though now I am continuing on the part that I don't understand and my dad wasn't much help with this when I told him that I would need more help in this area of work. This is the actual graphing of the inequalities. I really am not good at this if the equation isn't already written out for me to follow and graph. I don't think that dad was really listening to me as it was late last night and he seemed tired. I hope that he will be more help later tonight.

Extreme Makeover Weekend Edition.

So this weekend was seriously crazy for me. I got limited on all of my electronics for the weekend. This got me to the point that was just awful. I went on several walks to stay calm and not rush downstairs and snap to get mad at Kristi and dad. I know that they were just trying to help but this seriously messed up my weekend for me as I usually hop on the computer and relax for the weekend. Don't forget sleeping in until about 12:00 to keep myself somewhat awake. For most of the weekend we have leftovers. I can stand this most of the time as we usually eat pretty well but I just didn't care this weekend. I wasn't caring that it was the weekend as it also felt like a school day much like my last Thursday but either way I couldn't sit in my house and relax but I know that my brother Nate was feeling much worse then me as his weekends are set around Facebook.

Although at the home I was really enjoying myself I did get to go trunk or treating with Dad, Kristi, and Zoe. Of course this was after all of the amazing family photos. I don't think I mentioned this on my blog yet but Dad and Kristi are getting married. So as a way of getting things ready we got our family pictures taken. It was me, dad, Kristi, Nate, Zoe, Cindy, and Chewy the dog of our family. We got some really good pictures taken by one of my dads good friends Craig. After all of the pictures were taken all over  the place we headed out for the Trunk or Treat event being held at Kristi's church.

I can't stress how much I was out of place with no costume other then my normal winter hat and trunk or treating. I even took a hay ride mainly because I got to sit down. The day was still fun as I was supposed to take a little girl around to all of the cars but she didn't want to leave her moms side so I went getting some candy for myself expecting to go back and watch the moms car but she found someone else and I just got a whole load of candy of my own. Now I can't argue about the candy as I love snickers as much as the next person its just that the day didn't go as I expected.

Stepping up

Yesterday I finally got my white belt! So I waited the entire day for the time to finally arive where I could go and get my belt. Now in class I am not the best student. Nor did I ever believe that I would be the best, but when I got that belt I felt amazing and better then everyone in that room. I felt like I could take on the world and then some. That night I was so proud and now I can show you some of my greatest shots in this fine hour. I know that I have much more to go in the world of martial arts but I am proud of the work that I have accomplished. Even better is that I have 3 stripes and am ready to take my test to get my next belt.

So on another note I got to go on the next field work Friday! This one as I said in another post was to the Kansas City federal money reserve. The place was able to show me many things that I never thought about. I never knew that there was even a place that regulated all of the money in the first place as I never really gave it any thought. So I decide to go in and I had to walk through the metal detector. It went off and I had to walk back through and empty my pockets. Man I REALLY need to empty my pockets. I pulled out several useless objects and some usefull objects before I could walk through. After I got inside I got to look around and see all the different places in the country that have a federal reserve. See the different kind of mint that was used during certain points in time, See how to identify counterfeit money, and got to watch how the job was done by a movie that was constantly being played.

After my field trip to the Federal reserve Zoe and I had to wait in the dentists office as Kristi had a checkup. I was very proud of how we did at the office. We were complimented by the dentists for how mature we were without being watched by anyone. Kristi was able to tell how well we were doing by how quiet we were being in the waiting room with no one there. I couldn't help but feel proud as I read on in Nothing to Envy. Which despite how depressing the book was couldn't dampen my pride in what we had accomplished.

Not a day off.

So I thought that today was going to be a day off because I had to watch Zoe and I was told that when another kid was home I wouldn't have school. Well I don't really agree with that today. I worked most of today on doing my math and coping with the fact that my math work today is the same work I did yesterday and I didn't really understand it then. I really had to use a lot of hints just to get through any problems. So instead of relaxing or worrying about Zoe I was sitting in front of the computer doing my work or trying to cope with the work load.

So I finished what I could of my work but didn't get it all done before I had to call dad and say that I didn't understand any of the work. I didn't have to like the fact that this was pretty much giving up all of the work I had done but I was just getting even more mad by the second. I got so mad that I took a walk outside in the cold just to be distracted from how mad I was. It did help but another 30 minutes I was just as mad as I was before my walk. So I was getting nowhere being so mad. I couldn't even concentrate.

Anyway other then all of that math nonsense I didn't get much accomplished. I didn't get to do anything with Zoe, I didn't get to see any of my friends that were also home today, and I managed to drive myself to give up on my math. I'd say that this was probably one of days that could've ended better. Even if they could've been better I can't help how bad I did just do better at the problem next time.

Sleeping in and Freaking out

Today I was told that I needed to sleep in as I was like a zombie the entire day the last couple of days. So I slept in until about 9:45. I stayed there and couldn't stay because I finally had some energy. Actually I had too much energy in the last couple of days. So I got up and was ready to aproach the rest of the day and get going. I then realized that I could have been in a lot of trouble when it came down to work. I usually start at no later then 8:00 because if I do people start coming in the door at about 3:00 or 2:30 on Wednesdays. So waking up at almost 10:00 was at the time that my little sister starts coming home. I thought to myself that this can't possibly be that bad. Well it didn't end that bad as I found out that Kristi was willing to let me work until about 3:00. I am writing this blog after my day but I am so relieved with the extra rest.

My essay is coming along nicely with the first 2 paragraphs done. I got to work on the math work finally but I didn't understand all of it so I did everything else first. So all of things are coming into place before my 4 day break. I am loving how my days are only getting easier from the start of each day. Of course there is always some kind of impediment on some random day. Of course there is always going to be some sort of problem. Problems are what make the days interesting. Other then hobby's like tinkering and science.

So tomorrow is going to be a bit more interesting then I thought it would be. Instead of doing something like relaxing or helping with Made to Serve I am going to watching Zoe. Now this isn't going to be to bad but it might make my day a bit more interesting. Zoe can really get on my nerves at times. Even worse is how am I going to answer even half of the thousands of questions that she asks.I hope that tomorrow goes easier then what I am thinking that it can be.

50th blog post!

Tae Kwon Do (White belt ahoy)

So there is an update on my Tae Kwon Do work. I have the necessary work to have finally achieved my white belt! All this took was turning in 4 papers over a period of one a week which is approximately 1 month. Sadly I didn't turn these in all of the time and I am just now getting my actual white belt this Thursday. That is if I turn in my sheets as I was supposed to be. Either way if this is not this week it will definetly be next week. I would start getting mad if I forgot to bring in the sheets two weeks in a row.

Today I was supposed to finish the math that was assigned yesterday. So today right after lunch I decided to go downstairs and start on them. After I managed to type in the addresses I realized that something was wrong. It all looked like the text that might come out of dads terminal. Even worse is that since it was obviously programmed with all of the info for the problems I could see the answers too and the picture or graph I was supposed to use wasn't there. This was so bizzare that I decided to stop trying to figure out what happened and hop onto one of the other exercises. Sadly it was the same gibberish as the last one. Even worse is that this assignment was supposed to be done yesterday. I just got one extra day thanks to Kristi. I don't even know how to explain this to dad.

So since my little sister Zoe is home from school on Thursday and Friday this counts for me as a day off. Technically I actually only have Thursday off and thats just because someone has to keep an eye on Zoe while Kristi is helping with Made to Serve. Friday on the other hand is actually another field trip. This field trip will take us to the money museum at the Kansas City Federal Reserve. The reason why is because this field trip will be appropriate enough for Zoe even if some of the concepts are over her head and I can still learn something from going and best of all Zoe is left home alone. I think that this is going to be a win win situation as Zoe gets to go on a field trip with me and Kristi while we can have piece at mind that Zoe is safe. 

Khan Overload

Today I was assigned a whole load of math. 2 videos and 5 different exercises to complete. I never got around to doing the exercises. I do know that I was having a hard enough time trying to stay focused on just the videos without going off topic. I just have had one of those kind of days that no matter what you do you cannot stay focused. Started this morning when I got only about 7 hours of actual sleep. Even if I did get some caffeine this morning I just can't really stay very focused. Today has kinda reminded me when I was so distracted that I almost decided to put the trash from upstairs in the washing machine. I am quite glad I didn't or else That washing machine wouldn't be in our garage anymore.

I have another paper coming up. This paper instead of writing about Adrian Mole I'm planning on writing a paper on the Freakonomics series. The reason is because these two books have single handedly changed my perspective on my future job choice and I would just love to see what I could do with the paper on a subject like this. I honestly have no idea where to start or how the paper will end. I hope that the two books can even be put into a paper but if not I think that I can find something else to write about. The paper might be about Catcher in the Rye if Freakonomics fails. Even then If I don't think Catcher in the Rye will work then I guess I can find something else.

I have mentioned my 3rd book Nothing to Envy before. I think this book is just getting more and more interesting. The fact that the regime in North Korea is just a modified version of Communism is almost shocking that the people don't do anything about it. The people are almost brain washed by their leader and can't do anything about it if they don't know. The fact that they will be reported by each others neighbors is altogether shocking as that someones closest friend may report them to the authorities and get them sent in to the mines for the rest of their life and that there is no way to return to your old life after you fall in rank.

changing perspectives

Isn't it all quite interesting how all of our opinions change yet stay the same. I am talking about how my opinion on my future jobs have changed. While originally I wanted to continue in my pursuit about black holes but I have found something much more interesting. I figured out how much I liked Economics more then black holes but they are all just as interesting as they always were. Nothing has truly changed but my interests. Even then they are all still the same in they way that they are both extremely fascinating to me.

First up is the black hole career. While I spent the last few years researching these hulking imploded stars I also felt that there was so much to learn including why they are the way they are, how come they lead to nothing that we can ever reach. In a way they seem to be mocking us from a distance, daring us to approach them and to tame them to learn their true purpose. I couldn't help but want to learn more. Even going as far to read books and debates and theories on them I just couldn't stay away.

Economics on the other hand is a much more subtle and reliable form of work. Economics helps us understand the world around us then to make sense of everything else we know. This includes scams, the state of our economy, and more. Almost to much to count. Even cooler is the fact that this can all be applied to everything. As this is the study of everything we know in the social world. Just like a teachers incentive to cheat was at one point higher then it is now. But even then they still cheat why is that. Is it just easier to go through all of the work to make them look better. I don't think so but they must have some sort of incentive.

Outside the Box

Today I had absolutely nothing to write about so I had to get some help. I was pacing and bashing on myself to try and find something to write about but all I could come up with was something exactly like yesterdays entry. Well I couldn't let that happen at all as we all know if someone repeated something over and over the repeated object would become obsolete. So I talked to my dad at about 10:00 PM and we finally came up with a topic. A topic I am not to thrilled about typing but it is better then repeating yesterday's entry. The topic is based off of what I notice during my walks around the neighborhood. To be completely honest I barely pay attention to my surroundings but I guess it's better then repeats.

The walks start every day at 10:00 AM where I lock the door and close all of the windows around the house. The drive way has been cracked since we moved into the complex. I have wondered how it became so riddled with cracks and elevations but I hike upward to the sidewalk where leaves litter the ground. The leaves are usually orange or a deep red. They are almost comforting like rose petals along the green and brown grass which slowly dies as winter approaches around the corner swiftly. I run across  the second road which there is always at least three cars parked along the side of the road. None touch the grass but one car which you can tell has beaten the grass to death which it has stopped growing and disappeared where the grass should be. I take a right turn on the 3rd or 4th road and walk up the uphill incline to a road lined with brown and yellow leaves. Why is it that the leaves are different colors over here then the ones along the road next to my house. A long sidewalk leads me to the 4th and final road I walk to return to my road leading to my house. The sidewalk is as broken as my driveway and the gutters are in the same state as well. I let my feet guide me to my destination as I am to busy thinking about whatever might pop into my head. Only coming out of my thoughts to turn or to shield my eyes from the bright sun which is always in my eyes while walking along the 1st and 2nd street. I walk the path I used to walk when I first moved to this complex about 3 years back to the beginning road to continue my work and to rest to repeat the process the next day and the day to come. The process seems to never end but all things come to an end for something else to begin and thus the cycle repeats and the world changes around me each day as I saunter down my roads which shall always lead back home.

An homage to Catcher in the Rye. 

Reading, Reading, and More Reading

So today was consistent with a whole load of reading in fact other then my blog and French that is all I did today. So there was three different books I read. One of them was SuperFreakonomics. Another one was Catcher in the Rye. And to finish it up Nothing to Envy. I read about 1 chapter in SuperFreakonomics and it took until about 10:00. Next up I read about until about 11:00 on Catcher in the Rye. I then finished up with some lunch in between with Nothing to Envy. I decided that most of you know what Catcher in the Rye is I think that I will give a rundown on SuperFreakonomics and Nothing to Envy for everyone reading this. Mainly because this is all I really did today. Of course they are all good books and can all teach you something.

Starting with the book that hooked from the title SuperFreakonomics. The first chapter is based on the research by a man named Sudhir Venkatesh. His research was all about the downtown neighborhoods like the rundown neighborhoods in Chicago. In the first book he researched the inner workings of a gang selling crack cocaine. His skin color lets him be accepted almost anywhere even places with segregation. For example since he is Indian he is a mixture of both letting him slip into the ghettos and "Academia" Without any trouble from anyone. So this time he went into the area of work that is known as prostitution. I don't like the subject but the chapter was very interesting. So he researched the wages, the dangers, and finally the overall life of a prostitute. Once again I did not like the subject at all but I liked the overall chapter. In fact I quite like Venkatesh's work in general. Including his entry on the Crack Cocaine in book one which was a bit outside the box.

Next up is Nothing to Envy. This is a book about the life of the North Koreans. The first chapter is all about the lack of Electricity. Can you imagine life without electricity after living with it so long. I don't think I could. Mainly because I can barely stand a day without my computer let alone an entire life where computers are almost completely unheard of. Even worse this means that you can't walk at night because street lights wouldn't work even if there was any. Then there is the problem with if you are not in the high ranks of the community you are in the middle or at the bottom. If your at the bottom then there is almost no chance of ever becoming successful in North Korea. In fact we followed the story of a girl who almost went to work under Kim Jong Il. She didn't go because her father was originally from South Korea and was instantly apart of the bottom class and could never rise from the bottom. So they could never go any higher then where they were so their life was horrible there until they defected to South Korea. That is where she was interviewed by the writer.
And so I end my blog on that dreary note and hope you decide to look into this book as despite how depressing it is this book is amazing as it is all based off of the peoples lives in North Korea.

Getting Good

I think that most people have noticed this but I thought it might still be interesting to address. I'm talking about how I have been getting better at my daily work. My increased blog entries and for some of you getting done with all of my work early is becoming very prominent. Including today because I just finished with all of my work today that was assigned so I am working on mentioning all of the facts. Essay questions are getting easy, I am flying through math, not hard english, all of my science is writing. That was only today too.

I also have to address the problem that we still need something else other then essay questions. We can't do the school methods as they are worse then essay questions. School methods consist of problems like multiple choice, fill in the blank, and matching. I would like to ask if anyone has any recommendations other then the essay questions and the school methods then PLEASE place a comment on this post as I read my comments every day.

I started SuperFreakonomics and it was extremely interesting. This book covers some of the more interesting things. Like why a terrorist should get life insurance. Why horses were actually worse  then automobiles. I thought that was pretty interesting. The horse subject actually are worse as their waste realeases methane, they could easily trample people under foot, and when they stopped going they can't keep on going they had to be put down. All of this could lead to huge troubles and the reason why the horse drawn carriage was dead over night.

"Field" Work Friday

so today was my 4th field work Friday. The key word there is work. I havn't made it very clear by saying field day Friday so I decided to point that out while I still remember too. I also have some new books that I got for my work in continuing Economics. The first one is Economics for dummies, the second one is Nothing to Envy, and the one I am the most interested in is SuperFreakonomics. For these books we would be willing to accept some new ways of work other then essay questions so if anyone has any recommendations don't hesitate to comment. Speaking of Freakonomics, Kristi and I watched the Freakonomics movie today for the work of the day.

The Freakonomics movie released some content that wasn't even in the book. For example they had an experiment where they tried to bribe ninth graders to get them through high school. There was some people that this worked on but other then that the rest of the students didn't take the bribe and failed most of their classes. The bribe was 50 dollars and a chance to enter in a lottery that had a prize of 500 dollars and the chance to ride in a jeep limo. You would think that more would have taken the bribe but no the bribe didn't work that well and wasn't really what I expected when they said that it only helped pass 37-40 kids. The movie went into more detail about things that were actually from the book like corruption in sumo wrestling. and the name dilemma that is only about do names actually have an impact on a persons future. Of course the main impact on a child's future is his family and neighborhood but names have a large impact on the future like getting a job.

This morning consisted of sitting down at a table and working on my current math packet. The work is point slope form and it is a pain. I worked out how much work I will have to do daily and it should work out properly if I do 6 problems every day until Monday and then on Monday I just do 6 and the last problem and I will be done. Of course in order for this to work I actually have to stay on top of the work over the weekend. The cool part is that I got to try a new restaurant that is not really that new, I just have never eaten there before. This place is known as Jimmy Johns and I think I am one of the only people that I know that hasn't eaten there once until today. It wasn't the most impressive but they still make a pretty darn good sandwich. I think the reason I liked it though is because I ordered a sandwich that had bacon on it. Who doesn't like bacon, Other then the people that don't like bacon of course.

Compare and Contrast

I finished to books based around a what if of the future. One book was the Hunger Games. The first book in the popular trilogy.The other book is Anthem. A classic book that revolves around the lack of individualism written by the author Ayn Rand. For my blog entry I decided to give a rundown of what they have in common and then tell you which one I liked better. So how about we get started.

Lets start out with the Hunger Games. The popular rebel Katniss is known in any city with a media source. Mainly known by the first book Katniss was always trying to put on this macho act for her family to let them know she was there to help. The day comes where she is whisked away to battle to the death with other blood thirsty competitors. She goes into the arena with a boy with a secret crush on her by the name of Peeta. He is extremely strong and crafty but gets himself injured trying to save her. This ended up with her taking care of him as he died very slowly. She ends up saving him and the two of them win the games and the hearts of the audience as the star crossed lovers. The fact that two people lived for the first time started a rebellion within Panem ( the future America ). It then continues into the next books which I will sadly not recommend to anyone.

Next up is Anthem and its screwed up anti-individualist society. For example, the words I,me, and ego are now banned words that will get you burned at the stake and are considered the only punishable crime by death. We start out the book following the boy Equality. What I can't type up for you is the serial code that follows Equality which is a pain to type up. Every job is picked by the government. So every kid out there wanting to be a doctor could be a sewer worker. This same problem occurred with Equality and his wish to be a scholar. He ends up becoming a street sweeper which he finds an old tunnel where he can study things in peace. He meets a girl called Liberty while sweeping the streets one day who he falls in love with at first sight. this is actually a crime as was the wanting a specific job. As these are not the thoughts thought by everyone. As is him finding the old tunnel and not telling anyone. While in his tunnel he discovers electricity and decides to share it with the scholars who turn it away and try to turn him in to the government to be punished for so many supposed crimes. The book ends with Equality and Liberty finding the banned words and living in the ruins of a large building from our current time where they live in peace.

So its time to compare the two of these together. First up is the fact that both of these book are based on a future where war destroyed the world and is taken over by a new government that both have something wrong with them. Then there is the fact that the main character always falls in love with someone as Katniss starts falling in love with peeta and equality instantly falls in love with Liberty.Continuing off the last sentence Liberty and Equality run off together while Peeta and Katniss escape the arena together. Hence they both get out of a tough situation at least once together.I think it's about time I said which one of these books is my favorite. My favorite of the two was Anthem. The reason why is because Anthem was fascinating and didn't need 2 more books to explain everything. Even the fact that Hunger games was 2 times longer didn't even help. I love a good long read but not rhis time.

Mathtastic

In math we are doing linear equations now and now I have to find the x and y intercepts as I've said before. Except that now I can at least find the x and y intercepts. I finished my first packet of work. 3 sheets of x and y intercepts. The last 10 questions were actually graphing them. The work wasn't exactly fun but I feel so proud for actually getting through the work I was struggling with for so long. Thank you dad and time to work on the next packet.

Next thing is that I had to write a three paragraph summary on Anthem. It took a while but it was pretty easy for the most part. The book was pretty cool. I mean how can you not love an alternate future where no one person is an individual. I know I loved the book. I would recommend for anyone that can to read this book. It gives you a different look at what our independence means. We take it all for granted  but this is like a big what if we never had our own independence.

Today was really made up of 2 hour projects. Though ironically when I went to work on my essay questions I flew through them in less then an hour. I think I'm getting better at writing but that doesn't mean I enjoy writing now. In fact I prefer typing much more. That's why on a good day I crank out a decent blog in less then 30 minutes. On a magnificent day I crank out a blog in about an hour and thirty. The reason for that is because on a magnificent day I want to show all that I can in my blog that I couldn't get in if I try for my usual 30 minutes.

Long Day

The day started out with me waking up and getting started on my work. Pretty average routine like usual. Did my work until about 12:30. From then I proceded with going with dad and Kristi for lunch at buffalo wild wings. Dad got a garlic Parmesan, Kristi got teriyaki, I got Aisan xing. During lunch we discussed proper dining edicate. I believe that since they were referencing back to things I did at Aixois, that it was because I didn't really do to well and it was time to be taught. After heading out we stopped by the gas station to refill Kristi's car. I watched dumbfounded as the price went up to about 46.00. A bus pass for a month is 50.00. So if you refill that tank every week you would pay about 200.00. So by buying a bus pass for one month you would save about 150.00. And be economically friendly to boot.

When we got back I went with dad to a place called Scooter world. The reason why is because dad has a scooter being customized from a 50cc scooter which can only reach around 30mph to a scooter that can reach about 70mph easily. The people that worked there were nice and they treated dad as if he was another employee there. So we got to look in the back of the store and dad also got to test out the scooter. When the scooter started up it sounded like a swarm of  angry bees. When dad drove away we could hear him down the road. He let another person try it out and we could hear him down about 5 blocks. I swear that this is going to be one fun bike.

When I got back from the Scooter world with dad we hopped in a car with Kristi and Zoe and headed out for our first doctors appointment in a long time. So we all went up to the office and sat down while dad and Kristi filled out sheets for me and Zoe. We waited about 30 minutes to be called before we went in for our appointment. After getting through the basic check of weighing and height measurement we were put in a room for another 20 minutes before the doctor arrived. We then went through a set of basic questions that would most likely relate to stress in some way. So we left after getting our ears and noses checked and then I got my heartbeat checked. Not really as bad as I thought it would be.

Apologizing again

I've been feeling pretty shallow after writing that blog entry last night. I don't know why I typed up something so hateful to everybody out there. I don't know why I said the things I said. In fact, I don't really know where to begin in all of this. I know that there is more motives for painting and creating then making a living. Football is a past time for the people that enjoy it. That's why Superbowl is such a big deal for people. I felt like I was just complaining the entire entry. So for anyone that I may have insulted or hurt the feelings of in my last entry, I'm sorry for everything. Everyone has something they enjoy in life. Even things that others don't enjoy. I am not the only person that matters when it comes down to opinion.

Today wasn't very interesting except when I skid across the ground right out in front my house while rushing back to the house. Only reason why I was rushing is because I thought the front door was unlocked when I went for my walk. Even worse I went as far as to think the door could've been open and anyone could walk in. So I rushed back, tripped, skid, and walked back inside instead of going on a walk. I don't even know if I will go into Tae Kwon Do tonight. I also ended with a big bruise on my shin.that hurts every time I walk. I'll say that so far this day has been just a little bit interesting.

Work in math is as bad as I thought it would be. I am now graphing and figuring out x and y intercepts. Sadly I still do not understand them even after asking dad how I was supposed to do the work yet I still couldn't figure out the problems. How I was doing gave me the same answer for both x and y every time. I was confusing myself and when I sat down and thought I couldn't see what I was doing wrong so I decided to stop before I hurt myself even more.

end of the week

Time to do one of my special weekend posts. Also because I didn't do it Friday. This weekend was hectic other then today. The only reason why I remembered is because of dad. He reminded me while I was gaming on my computer. To be completely honest with everyone reading this. I don't even know where to start this blog. So I guess that the best place to start is on Friday.

On Friday I headed out for my new assignment of the month. The statistics on a High school football game. The twist in all of this that we had to watch the game in about 30 degree weather. Interesting fact is that this wasn't as relieving as I had hoped. I do not like football games but on the other hand I do love me some cold weather. Football, sadly cancels out the love for cold weather when your siting on bleachers trying to keep your hands warm while writing info your not interested in. The upside was dinner. We ate dinner at a place called Po's. A order at a table Asian restaurant. Really tasty meals in large portions. Got to love it all.

Yesterday consisted of going to work with dad in the morning, eating lunch, going to an art museum, then finally eating my special dinner. The reason why I went to work with dad was because we were planning to have Aixois for lunch not dinner later that night. Sadly, since dad's work was so hard we had to wait until later that night to go. Kristi came to pick me up as we were planning to go watch a movie for my work this week but we all had to eat lunch first. We ate at a place called Cascones. Authentic Italian cuisine. Despite all of the good food the place needs some redecoration. We had to go to the museum as we were far to late for the movie. To be truthful I wasn't a huge fan of the art mainly because I don't really understand why these were made. I know people were trying to make a living but I just don't see much point. Finally dad, Kristi, and I had gone to Aixois with reservations. There I ate an expensive 24.00 steak that was a little under medium. Dad ordered some Salmon with a side of couscous. Kristi had bacon wrapped quail legs that were to die for. To top off the night we all shared a creme brulee.