Climbing the ladder.

I have been given some recommendations for more views on my blog and since this is exactly what I wanted I decided it might be worth a try. I got a recommendation to do a podcast about home school from a man known as Stephen McLaughlin and it didn't sound like that bad of an idea. I have the other recommendations like hop on forums that would be related to my blog so that when someone looks at this forum they might be able to find my blog. It isn't that bad of an idea at all and I'm thinking at trying both. Another thing that made sense was for me to start commenting on my own blog entries. This was from my dad because people seem to respond to the comments and then check on what is going on that day. All of these ideas will be taken into consideration in the long run.

I was supposed to be going to made to serve today but since Kristi was in no condition what-so-ever I didn't get to go today. Since we have agreed that I need to get out of the house at least once a week the parents are setting up a field work Friday tomorrow.  I can't wait since it has been a while since I got one other then going to dad's job. I have nothing against dad's job as I really enjoy going over there but it makes things really hard for me to write something on a subject that I have written about before.

The opinion paper is going really well as I spent a good hour today working on going over sites and sources on my paper. I also wrote down some questions that I wanted to answer with this essay by the end. It is a start so far as there is much much more that I can do with this paper. Even cooler is that unlike the other paper I have several different sources that I can work with. I will be quoting people in my paper, quoting books, and then stating what I like or do not like about these quotes. All in all I will be making this paper better then the last paper as much as I possibly can.

Expanding my Horizon

I have been thinking of  trying to get word of my blog out a little bit more for some more views and such. The problem is that I don't exactly have a whole bunch of ideas for getting the word out. I could go onto threads and find like minded people. I could also set up a Facebook account to start getting the word out but I made a promise to myself to not make a Facebook account so that will definitely be last resort. I only made a Google + account to get some word out among people that might be willing to pay attention.

The Opinion paper is doing well. I already have 3 paragraphs done so I am doing pretty good already. I have been working on getting several points of reference in one paper. These references are along the lines of websites, books, papers, and good old fashioned common knowledge. All in all I haven't had any problems with the paper so far other then I need to check it in with Kristi and she hasn't been feeling very well lately so I decided to leave her alone for a little bit.

The day has been taking a while to get through. It is not that the day had a lot of work it was just one of the days where it seemed to take forever before things started to pick up the pace. The work got done for the day. All of my reading is done, blog is being wrapped up, french, and paper all done for the day yet it still seems to be going on forever. Lets see if the day will pick up the pace a little bit more before the end of the day.

Change of Pace

Today was quite different from yesterday as not only do we have guests coming over but I also got done with all of my work for quite a while now without working as much as yesterday. I will admit that yesterday wasn't that bad at all. I got to go outside for pretty much the entire day, I got to see an old friend as he walked around the neighborhood, and I got most of my work done yesterday. Today I got all of my work done for today and yesterday's make up work. Honestly I really can't argue with how the weekend is working out so far.

Codecademy is going really well with its simple way of teaching and how it can tell you what you need to do while still not revealing exactly what to do. Codecademy will then help you out with hints on some of the smallest things that are important but easy to screw up with. For example I spent 10 minutes on one exercise and when I started going over the code that I had I figured out that the only thing wrong with my line of code is that a couple of words were not capitalized.

I have started yet another book recently and this one is Ayn Rand's Fountain head. Honestly the book is fairly interesting following a man who believes that architecture is something that should be improved upon instead of the constant remaking of buildings. He ends up expelled from his school and refuses to return when it is offered to him. One of the main characters friends was in school and passed as the best student of his year. He is offered a job at the best architectural design studios at the time.

The Ups and the Downs

I look at the views of my blog entry's every day before I start the next entry. I got a great kick out of the fact that I got 21 views the day after my last entry while the day it was posted I only saw one view. This was fairly sad as that was one of the few blog entries that I have put a good amount of effort into. I have nothing against a good schedule I was just dissapointed with the lack of views on the actual day of the post.

Today has been quite busy for me as I will definitely have make up work in the long run. It has been a while since I have needed to make up any work so I hope to work hard enough tomorrow to get rid of any annoying bits of work that will bite me in the butt later. Either way if I work hard enough this week everything will find a way to work itself out in the long run.

All of you that read this will remember my work in Python but today I started on a website to help with this immensely. This website is known as Codecademy. I really enjoyed my lesson today as it wasn't just easy but also fun. It was mainly review from what I was already doing but I don't care because I understood what it wanted me to do and even better is that Codecademy is not just for Python. Codecademy can also be used for other languages like C++ or Java. All in all it was a very diverse programming site where anybody can pick up a language and roll.

hardly working

Today I went over to dad's job and sadly enough there wasn't much work for me to do while I was there. I did do some work including learning how to work on some of the computers over there. I also got to have fun with the objects that came in that were completely useless. For example I got to smash a mac today as you can see from this picture here on my dad's page. I will say that this was great time for me and dad both as we got to swing the hammer over and over at this strange contraption.

Dad and I got to go out to eat at one of the nearby restaurants. The one we chose was called a schwarma and it is tasty. This decadent creation is served along a Greek salad and with a side of pita with humus. Honestly it felt like the right thing to have for lunch that day. Since me and dad actually couldn't make up our minds on what to have we got both the schwarma platter and one of our friends went out and got some nachos that were to die for so we asked if he could bring us back some

While I was at dad's job I found out about a really interesting product that I now want really bad. This product is called the OUYA. Definitely an interesting name but what it is is an open source gaming console which is built around the ability to play tons of game for the most part free. Of course they won't have everything free and no not all games are free. What they might do with this product is have a demo which is completely unlocked but you can only play it for 5 days until you have to but it. There is also a demo where you can only play 2 levels and then you would have to buy it. Either way this product  seems like a gamers paradise so I really want to get it here soon. I'm still trying to get an answer from dad if he'll let me get it or not.

Average day

Today I have been working over the average time some more. Tomorrow I won't really have to do much work other then my blog and it will be a great relief to have something to write about other then my average day. I worked ahead on my French and reading so I didn't have to do make up work on Friday after getting home. Other then all of that I am done for the rest of the week except for tomorrows blog.

Today's work was fairly easy. In fact if I had not worked on tomorrows french then I would've had nothing to do for an extra hour worth of school. My day has gone pretty well but for the most part uneventful. Since I finished all of my reading yesterday I didn't really need to work that much today. Even my opinion paper didn't add much to the day considering that alone took about 30 minutes to get the first paragraph done and that's all I needed for the week.

I honestly hope for a better day tomorrow at my dad's job. A good chunk of the time I never know what I am going to be doing over there until I actually get to BE Tek. Today wasn't bad just a seriously slow day. I have no complaints about a slow day it just makes writing a blog even harder then it needs to be. I already spend a very long time nowadays in front of the computer thinking of the next topic for one paragraph.

Stepping up my Python

Today's python work has started to inspire me more then usual and I spent a good extra thirty minutes modifying the code to a couple of programs. I would've continued but I had other work to do including work on the new opinionated paper. The modifications included adding more words to the word jumbler and modifying a game called hero's adventure so that you can fail the game and have to exit. Of course I am still not entirely ready for this but I started with a few hidden lines of code that when one item is removed from you inventory the player would then have to exit the game due to death. All in all that was extremely fun testing out what would happen when I added certain lines of code.

I have been reading ahead in most of my books lately so that I will not have to do make up work at the end of the week. This is because On Friday I am going to be going to dad's job again. I still don't know why but I do enjoy going over there and helping out with the computers and other tedious processes over at BE Tek. To this minute I have finished To Kill a Mocking Bird 2 days ahead of schedule and I plan on finishing all of my reading tasks tonight before going out to play.

I am so glad that I have the Python work as it is making my computer easier to work. The fact that now I can run a program from the terminal now when I couldn't even work the computer without crashing it is a huge step for me. I used to be so bad with the computer that I could never get it to work properly. In fact I had my computer crash on me before I ever turned off my computer for the longest time. Now I keep my computer running in pristine condition and enjoy it even more then back then. I am extremely grateful to everyone out there that has helped me get better in the computer area. The help has paid off a lot.

The Circle of School

As most might know I finished my Freakonomics  paper during the last week. Although this might be an amazing occasion for me and some family it does not all end there. Today I have been given the task to come up with an idea for a new opinion paper. I know it may be a concern that it might take just as long as the Freakonomics paper, but now that I have the experience as well as no amazingly difficult months like November and December then this should take a lot less time Then the first paper.

I really have started to get to the point of missing my friends from when I was in public school. I don't really have any idea why I haven't contacted them yet this year. I haven't said hi to any of my old friends except for 1 who lives in my neighborhood. What's even more sad is the fact that I have all of their phone numbers and I haven't heard from any of them because for some strange reason I just decided that I didn't want to call anyone. Maybe because I'm afraid that they may not remember who I am. I remember them quite fondly but from what I've heard they have moved on. I'll give it all some more thought but for now I'll wonder some more about my friends.

I have been doing my basic work for today and nothing interesting is currently going on other then the subjects going on above. I have been reading a new book called " An Invisible Thread." The book is about two people one is a kid the age of 11 the other is an adult age 34 and working a successful life at as a advertising sales executive for USA Today. This book takes place within New york city and it starts out on September 1, 1986 which the book follows the main character who goes by laura who was walking through downtown and ran across a small boy whose name is Maurice. Maurice is a panhandler who asked Laura for some change. Out first Laura ignores Maurice but for some strange reason comes back and offers Maurice lunch. The book starts out strange and considering that about 20 pages are all intro I haven't gotten very far into the book yet so I don't really know much about it.

The time has come!

I am so glad to announce that today is the day that I finally post the long awaited Freakonomics essay. I am sorry for all the delays that ensued on the way to creating this essay. I give thanks to Kristi and her help with the editing and sticking through all of the aggravation that I put her through while the essay was in progress. This is my first real essay so I would love feedback from anyone that is willing to give any. I have come a long way since Public school's essay assignments as now I know where I was going wrong and for once I got to write about something that I actually enjoyed. Without further delay I give you my Freakonomics essay. I hope that you all enjoy

Freakonomics

What is Freakonomics? Freakonomics is a form of economics studied by a few of the many economists. The books that I am going to be reviewing are based around this form of economics This may not make sense in the beginning but will progress to a reasonable statement. This intro will begin to make more sense as you read the essay. I will lead you into the world that these two books will present before you.

The authors behind the books are Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. These two authors started out as the unlikely combo of journalist and rouge economist. The two of them together decided to write the first book Freakonomics. Freakonomics was frowned upon with a claim that there is no main theme and even worse criticism was given when they proposed that the name would be Freakonomics. After Freakonomics sold 4 million copies world wide they couldn't help but publish a second book with similar qualities and themes like the first. The book posits many improbabilities that most people wouldn't consider during their everyday lives. Dubner and Levitt on the other hand decided to delve even deeper into these areas.

One of the things that Steven and Stephen delve into are improbable comparisons. The two kinds of people that you thought you could never compare are suddenly very similar. The first chapter of Freakonomics is about how teachers and sumo wrestlers are alike. I was baffled that these two could be compared at all, but the two brave authors did it and I managed to understand it. Teachers and sumo wrestlers both are willing to cheat to appear better and get greater benefits. Money is the incentive. A Sumo wrestler might cheat to increase his rank and get better pay; the teacher will do the same thing to be seen as a better teacher and be paid more for better results from the students.

The sumo wrestlers get their pay quite like a pyramid scheme. Even though the average sumo wrestler holds a place filled with respect if you are at the bottom of the pyramid you have so little money you would most likely live in a horse stable. While at the top of the pyramid a sumo wrestler would live like a king. Of course where there is incentive people will cheat. Sumo wrestlers would throw matches so that two people could advance. The person that threw the fight would then request that the other wrestler threw the match next time they met. This way they move up the pyramid and gain more money to lead a better life.

The teachers have a harder time cheating. The teachers try to find ways that will stump the standardized test system. They will do simple things like post answers on the board or more discreetly filling in the answers after the proficiency test. They usually use the discreet method of cheating because if one kid tells an adult they got the answers from their teachers, the teachers can be removed from the school permanently. The incentive is recognition and in some cases an increase in salary. Most of the time salary increases come from tenure, but in some cases they can get an increase in money by better standardizedtest results because they are teaching “better”.

Not all of Freakonomics is comparing people to each other. Levitt and Dubner could also easily compare people to inanimate objects. Another chapter is why a terrorist should buy life insurance. Terrorists are people that can cause chaos all over a country through acts of violence. How do we catch this menace to society? The answer was found by Ian Horsely who worked at a bank and found some data that helped with terrorists immensely. When looking at the data most terrorists don't have life insurance and other red flags like not using a credit card or withdrawing large quantities of money all at once. Ian Horsely devised a system to pick out terrorists in our society. The computer program wasn't perfect but it worked well and most terrorists wouldn't have been picked out if Ian had not picked out all of the red flags.

The chapters I found most interesting are written about a man known as Sudhir Venkatesh. Venkatesh studies in some of the worst part of Chicago, where he observes the inner workings of a crack selling gang. He learned that the inner system of the crack gang worked much like a pyramid scheme where the top people earn almost all of the money. The lower ranking people in the gang earn little to no money at all and struggle to get to the top of the pyramid. They usually never make it. Using a book that was being used to record all of the data Venkatesh brought the data to a rogue economist whose name was Steven Levitt. Together Venkatesh and Levitt figured out the inner workings of the crack gang and exposed it all to the world. Venkatesh then went on to work on a much more touchy subject, prostitution. Most people wouldn't ever be proud of participating in such work. Venkatesh was working on the daily life of a prostitute and sent former prostitutes to follow around the current ones to ask questions about their job. Both studies led to the conclusion that both crack dealing and prostitution led to extreme troubles for the people in this line of work. For the gang there was drive by shootings on the streets. For the prostitutes there was the risk that they might get ripped off and could get raped. The risks are so great for the jobs that they almost aren't worth the effort though as long as there is still demand there will still be the dirty jobs that most don't want.

Now that I have the basics down of the book I think that it is about time to get a bit deeper, including how Freakonomics addresses some of the more relevant problems. One of those relevant problems is global warming. We hear about global warming but there is so much information about it that its hard to discern which facts we should listen to. An interesting fact about our environment is that our world that we live in now used to be a lot warmer. The fact that they state in the book is that we might be doing something right with the global warming but we are just doing it too fast. I thought that it would be worth mentioning this specific fact and that we can also slow things down in a fairly simple way. One of these simple solutions is to release some small amounts smog into the atmosphere. This simple solution will cost so little that it would be less money than is spent on the United States elections every 4 years.

One of my favorite chapters other then the ones about Sudhir Venkatesh is another one of the person to person paragraphs. This chapter was about how a real estate agent is like the KKK. If you don't know who the KKK is they are also known as the Ku Klux Klan and were known for their hate for the people of color and their supporters. During the time that the Klan was a group they were completely secretive. Most people knew nothing about the Ku Klux Klan, but what does this have to do with a real estate agent? The real estate agents job is to sell your house but how much incentive do they have to actually give you the best price they continue to promise you. The fact is that the average real estate agent makes a miniscule profit of 2.5% of the actual selling price of your house. So when you think about it the money won't change much if you get the price to raise another $500. Instead of holding out for the highest bidder they instead encourage you to take the first offer arguing that there won't be a better offer later. The overall similarity is the fact that they both gain from keeping secrets from the people. One keeps secrets for money and one keeps secrets to remain in power. In many books money and power are inseparable.

A name is a word that is assigned to a person and forevermore they are addressed by this word. A long asked question is how important is a name. Names can be important but not as important as some of us are willing to think. For example the book mentions there are two kids, the first kid is named winner while for some reason the second kid is named Loser. Loser ends up becoming extremely successful eventually becoming a very good cop who is loved by many. Winner's greatest achievement is his rap sheet of the many crimes that he committed. This proves part of my argument but there is still more. It is also proven that people with a traditional black name are less likely to get a job then a person with a traditional white name. Not only does this prove that there is still plenty of segregation but this also shows that proper names do help in a person's future.

From the 1970's to the 1990's there was a large crime boom but around the year 2000 there was a sudden crime drop. When it was thought that criminal activity would go up the crime rate exponentially dropped. Many economists proposed several explanations for this sudden drop including better gun control and the police crack down on crime. While all of these explanations could help explain a large proportion of the drop there was much that they were missing. The proposed explanations for the crime drop only equaled a little better than 50% in Levitt's opinion. I thought this was quite spectacular but Levitt proposed 50% was abortion. It makes sense. The kids that would have become criminals from dealing with the bad neighborhoods, bad families, and bad friends were not even born in the first place because they had been aborted.

I read an article that may have proved something wrong in Freakonomics. This work was on altruism. The altruism experiments would show that many college students that were below the age of 25 were not very altruistic. The first set of experiments consisted of student A being given $20 who was able to decide to give any amount of money. This test usually ended with them giving about $6. Another experiment that was done consisted of two people that had $20 and they could take money off of each other as well as give money. The second experiment had the exact opposite effect where student A would take all of the $20 from Student B and keep it all to themselves. The article I told you about was how a human brain would not be fully developed until they were 25 years old. It shows that these experiments in Freakonomics were not accurate. When these same kids turn 25 years old they might think completely different due to brain development.

In conclusion Freakonomics is an extremely fascinating book set that can take you to places that you wouldn't think of during your average day. From how sumo wrestlers compare to teachers and how terrorists would be safer with life insurance. All of the many subjects I have discussed and more can be found within the 2 outstanding books. Each chapter different from the last in some way or another. All I can say right now is that I can not truly give you the full experience that these book have to offer so I recommend to find them and read them yourself.

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Coming soon to a blog near you.

Today I have been working really hard and I am proud to announce that I am ready to be posting my Freakonomics paper. The long expected essay of mine is going to be posted tomorrow so I hope for many of you to check out my blog tomorrow for the full thing fully edited and finally done. I hope for all of you to enjoy the entry tomorrow I am definitely going to be posting it tomorrow as I am going to be making the very last edits today and make some last minute checks tomorrow. This has been coming so long that I am sorry for taking so long. It will hopefully be worth the wait.

Today dad got to stay home from work so I got to work with him on my Python. This helped me out immensely with the Python. Dad and I worked on my current code and fixed where I went wrong. Through this work I got to get a better understanding of Python's uses as well as how powerful it really is. For example after we went over my code we went over how python can simulate certain objects. The example dad used was a simple ink pen. He then showed examples of code that included how to make it so that you could click the pen, The pen could run out of ink, and you could simply write something using the pen. All in all the code was pretty confusing but made sense when put together. I really did enjoy have dad helping me out through all of the work but tomorrow I'm back on my own again so lets see how it ends then.

All in all today went fairly well with all of the events going on. I was quite thrilled with the finish of Freakonomics being right around the corner and with dads help Python wasn't as hard as it seemed. I am glad to have the parents that I do. That isn't just dad and Kristi too. every step-parent I have ever had helped me learn from my own mistakes and my mom helped me learn discipline, manners, appreciation, and much more. I couldn't have asked for a better family and I wouldn't trade them in for the world.

Needing help

Today's problem has more to do with curriculum then something that has gone wrong. The problem is that I have been working the last hour and a half on Python and I cant manage to do any of the challenges. This much scarier then it sounds as I am only on chapter 3 and I can't complete those challenges. If I can't complete chapter 3 what gives anyone any reason to believe that I can remember and use Python when I am finished.

Things are starting to get back into the swing of things and that is a great relief. I do enjoy school just as much as knowing what is going to be going on in the near future. They both bring a relief to me as I get comfort knowing that there is a routine to things. Reading is doing fine, I explained Python in the first paragraph, French is doing badly but I am still trying, and I don't have any math at the moment so I am safe in that subject.

Blogging is getting really hard lately as it is becoming hard to find something to blog about. I feel that my blogs are getting boring and that people are just going to stop visiting my blog as nothing really goes on anymore. I hope to avoid the possible outcome of people stopping reading my blog altogether. I hope to have a decent entry sooner rather then later so bear with me while I try to get something interesting down on my blog.

Running about

Today's work was really quite easy other then Python but since I had to run about during the day I couldn't get anything more then 2 assignments done until I got home. The 2 assignments were simply reading some books but I had to wait until I got home before I could do Python, French, or my Freakonomics paper because I have been using Libre Office so long that I have forgotten how to work Microsoft word. I still managed to get my work done which makes things work out really well in my favor but all of the work I have had to do in such little time is really hard. I won't have to do any of the running around the rest of the week as far as I know so I am safe as far as I know.

In Python I was working on the Infinite loop problem. For example I would press enter over and over and over until the thing has run the program a total of 100 times. The funny part is that it doesn't end there. The program can keep on running until you exit the program or cancel the current task. The fact that this can go on forever is amazing and can help one stay cautious while working on Python for games. The reason is that one wrong code in the actual game and boom! You got your self an infinite loop that no one character can get through.

The good news of today is that I got all of my work done. This only occured by working all the way to 4:00 today. I really have no reason to complain as I get a great education, comfort,and personal computer. Either way the work was done fairly easily and it is done so I don't have much to worry about. i have absolutely no complaints about how the day went down and in fact I enjoyed it.

Back in action!

Today I have returned to working on my Freakonomics paper. Seriously this is taking a lot longer then I have thought. In fact I have high belief that most people have forgotten about the paper altogether. I assure you that it is going to be finished soon if it is the last thing I do. I want to be able to post the essay on the blog but without it done there is very little that I can truly do. I hope to have it all done by the end of the month but if it isn't then we will at least finish by the end of the year maximum.

Python work continues and it is not getting any easier. Work now consists of making the work respond to different words when they are typed. Of course this makes things interesting when I work on setting up my password and then getting it to say access granted or denied. Of course this is doesn't require much work but when you think of how simple it is to type in a password it wouldn't really help out much in the long run. The fact is that this is all still really cool and fun to work with.

I remember typing about Nujood in the blog entry on Friday last week. Well I have been told in my instructions from today to type up some specific facts about Nujood. A couple of these I have answered already within my last blog entry but I have also been given permission to copy and paste answers so lets begin. First fact is her history and who she is. First off she is a little girl who grew up in a very small village in Yemen. Yemen is south of Saudi Arabia and West of Oman. Nujood was married at the young age of 10 and was abused the entire time until she finally managed to become divorced.I accidentally answered the second question already which was where she lives. I guess that means that I have get to move onto the hardest question which is what if this happened to my little sister Zoe. First off I would have to confront my parents and get some sense back into there heads as none of the arranged marriages can truly be arranged unless the parents approve. That would mean that dad would have arranged for Zoe to marry at the age of 10 and that someone would have to do something about his stupidity. If the parents did nothing about any of this then I would go out and help Zoe get away from her "Husband" as soon as possible.

Books

Another weekend has come along so time to wrap up the week with some details. I have been working on my books mainly above all else. One of the books that I never mentioned but have already finished is "I am Nujood, age 10 and divorced." This story takes place within Yemen. As the title says the book follows a little girl age 10 who ends up getting married against her will who works for a divorce. The book is quite sad to read as you follow a girl who had her childhood taken from her without any consent and no respect for what she might think.It gets worse as her husband abuses without even a day to get to know her. In fact her husband throughout the entire book does not even know her first name.

Working with my computer makes things easier I hop on. The more code that I learn the easier all of the computer is to work as I can run commands that help me get through some of the harder problems. This includes my computer acting up I can run a command and get everything working with minimal effort. Even better I don't need any anti virus software to keep my computer clean. Even cooler is that I can have several windows open at the same time and the computer runs still as smooth as ever.

Today I was going through my challenges from Python and I came across a challenge that got me thinking. The challenge was for me to use a quote that I enjoyed and the reference it back to the person that first said the quote first. What made me start thinking is that I not only don't have a favourite quote but I don't really know that many quotes at all. After some research I decided that one of my favourite quotes was "For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness." This was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Pr0gr4m1ng

I have been enjoying for the last hour figuring out more and more about Python including working out and remembering code that will help me out immensely when I start getting into the harder stuff. The harder stuff will include creating and running my own personal games. In fact my final assignment in Python is going to be for me to create my own program and have it run at the final product. Sad news is that I am not fully grasping all of Python so I am working with the challenges that I can complete including letting a second person come and fill in some lines and get a specialized output for every answer. For example one program is where a person comes and enters their name and then the computer will then greet them with their name. The problem is that it only gets harder from here and I can't wait to see where this all ends.

The python work is what has me the most excited as I quite enjoyed being able to manipulate the output of all of my work.  I do enjoy reading still but in my day I now have another thing to look forward to. I know that this will not last much longer as the work will only get harder from this point on and I really need to read it in front of the computer as a way to write down the code and remember important parts. Then save the filled out code for references in the future.

I still look forward to reading my new books just as much as my Python work. My books give a more relaxing feeling then my Python of course as while reading a normal book I can sit down and relax. While reading my Python book you can see the gears in my head turn as I work out what I am supposed to be doing with this bit of code. I work all of it out in the long run but it requires much harder work and I love the books that I got to get when I was at Barnes and Noble.

About and Out

Today I was brought along by Kristi to her friend Dana's house. They work on Made to Serve together. Of course they aren't the only 2 people there. There was 3 other people who showed up but sadly these are the names that I remember the most of all which isn't that bad considering how long it has taken me to remember other peoples names this is no special case. I have been here one time before and that time was when I got my Google + account pic. That picture was me putting icing on cupcakes and those cupcakes went to feeding the homeless so that was a good day.

Today's work was really just a repeat of Monday so there isn't much to talk about except maybe the next problem. Of course when I got home the problem was resolved but like all of my greatest problems they don't strike just once. The problem I speak of has to do with my French work and it is the same problem that got me freaking out last time when all I needed to do was reset the computer. The answer couldn't have been any simpler but this time it wasn't the case. I restarted the computer 3 different times and all 3 times I tested Pimsleur twice. all 6 times didn't work but when I got home and I tested it Pimsleur worked just fine.

Speaking of Problems I got the problem with Python fixed without really doing any form of work. Sadly I didn't do anything at all really. Even worse is that I already had the program on my computer and just to make it even worse my dad reinforced this knowledge by showing me the Ubuntu Forums that proved that it was already installed with the form of Ubuntu that I had. I felt really bad not doing the work that day but once again thanks to Kristi with the Python make up day this Friday to catch up any work I didn't complete or do.

Stop and Think

Today I ran across the first problem of the semester. The problem was that the challenges that I was supposed to accomplish from the Python book couldn't be done without a certain program that even when I followed instructions I couldn't find. I went and followed the instructions and couldn't find any of the necessary programs so I couldn't finish any of the Python work. I feel kind of sad not being able to do all of my work but the good news is that I got a Python make up day later this week.

I have been working on something else other then Python including reading and continuing my French work. I still am not so good at French but I still do as much as I can. This may not include much in the ways of speaking French but I fill in as much of the sentences that I can at a time. I also complete reading and speech work in French but once again I can only do so much in French due to how little I truly know.

Tomorrow I have quite a little to do in the morning. This includes waking up early then getting all of my stuff together and then finally doing my French before I head out for the day. I am going to be heading out to Dana's house which is one of the people that help out with made to serve and I am going to be going there so Kristi can do her work with Made to Serve and I will bringing my books to work on while I am there. I hope that I can help out a little bit while I am there like last time. I really enjoyed helping getting the food ready for the homeless.

Starting Again!

Today I got all of my new books for school as well as a future collection of classic books. These books include "How to kill a Mockingbird", "Les Miserable", "Fountainhead", and finally a complete set of Charles Dickens. Kristi took a picture of me with all of my new books as you can see on the right here. All of these are nice hardback copies other then Fountainhead as we could not find a hardback copy for Fountainhead within our Barnes and Noble.

I realize that I have not truly gone over what the Raspberry Pi is. I looked back through all of my blog entries and the best that I described the Raspberry Pi is that is a small computer that I got for my birthday and that it will be apart of my Curriculum in the future. The Raspberry Pi is a small computer that is transportable and can be modified for many uses including  LED cubes, Servers, sensors, and more. Produced cheap people could only buy 2 Raspberry Pi's. I got one of the 2 Raspberry Pi's and I will be using it with my programming curriculum this year including working on Python which is a computer language primarily used for gaming. The Raspberry Pi will be used to work on Python as well as program the computer for its own personal use which I have not personally decided on yet.

I hope that I can treat you all to a bunch of good posts this semester as my goal is to improve upon what I can do each month but between semesters there should be some improvement. I will start adding a few more pictures hopefully and make links to info that some would not know about. Including the link to a Youtube video on the LED cubes in the paragraph before this I will continue to do things similar to this to help explain more things while also trying not to use to many Links or pictures or even some videos to add to the mix.

Glimpse of the Future

Kristi  and I are supposed to be going to Barnes and Noble today and we are going to be getting some classics for my home school. One of the books that I wanted was Les Miserable. The other book that I wanted was Beowulf. I believe that these two classics would be a great book to read and it would be pretty cool to turn around and watch the movies after reading the books and any other activities that might help.

I know that I have returned to blogging but I have not posted anything about actual work that I have been doing. This may sound odd if you remember all of the things that I was talking about with the new semester but I have been given the chance for an extended vacation so I don't have to do much work. Work includes free reading 30 pages as well as typing up the blog entries that people read. I am currently just relaxing until Monday which will lead to all of the work that I need to do including working on the Python computer language and the algebra work from dad.

I have currently been working on some projects of my own while I have been relaxing because now I have time of my own to figure these things out. This project includes installing Linux for the upcoming work that will require a compatible operating system that will make things easier to work with when I start working on my Raspberry Pi. As well as Python which I can run Python programs on my Raspberry Pi thus making it two lessons with one machine.

Welcome Back!

Great to be posting again especially when things are finally starting to calm down. With Christmas, dad and Kristi's wedding, and finally the new year all in one break it can be just a little bit hectic. Then there is the fact that we all had to do a lot of work to get things ready for guests on all 3 of these events. When school came back around I was glad that there is a routine to work with again as the vacation seemed to have random plans that I didn't have any control of and now I can make plans without half as many worries.

As I mentioned in the paragraph above that Kristi and dad did get married in the last week. I have to say that this could be seen coming for quite a while as they have been dating for quite a while now. Yes I realize that most people that read this blog would know about the fact that they got married but I think that its just as important as any holiday so it deserves some recognition. This is a dedicated paragraph to there union and I am glad that they are together as life should get better from here.

I know that Christmas came around and I have not really given it much attention in the entire blog but holidays and special events seem to get less exciting for me every year. When Christmas came around there was no great leap for joy and Christmas eve was the same way. I know how much these holidays mean to people it was just not as exciting as holidays usually are. Though I was extremely happy with Thanksgiving, Christmas just doesn't mean the same thing as it did back then.