Some Kind of Wonderful

Listening to Hard EBM by Sin

The Chemistry experiments we continued on with today were quite interesting. We had to add sodium to alcohols and they fizzled. The boys wanted to react sodium with water (Those who don't know, sodium reacts highly with water and in large amounts explodes) . We watched it fizzle onto top of the water, with it occasionally sparking. We had to put the alcohols into the organic waste beaker for safe disposal. When Kristina put the liquid in the beaker, the remaining sodium was on fire. The boys then wanted the left over sodium so they could react it some more. This time they did it in the fume cupboard, luckily, for this time it started smoking. Lauren and I, however, left the sodium in the bottom of our test tubes by accident and when Lauren went to wash them...fizzle!

In Human Biology, I got my test back, fully marked. I got 73%.

For Pastoral Care, Emily and I went to bring the recycling bin to the recycling area. Afterwards, I thought that we were supposed to be painting our banners for our valedictory mass but no one was at the art room. So I followed Emily and Catherine to go find Drew, but he was at mass so we couldn't just walk in. We went back to class, where I worked on Chemistry equations from the lab.

Candy came to school today and I saw her at recess. We talked about what was going on and it was a nice catch up.

We spent the two free periods playing cards.

At lunch, Martin was arguing with me saying that playing cards was not relaxing and just going on about it. I have learnt to ignore things that I don't want to hear now, so I just talked to Candy, Catherine and Janna.

In English, we did a quiz on the homework we were supposed to do (it was reading a worksheet on Ten Canoes) and I forgot about it completely. Luckily, most of the questions were directly from the movie so I was able to answer them.

In Maths, we just continued on with 21.1 and Diem explained really well how to work out the questions. Thank you!

Signing off.

The Private Game

Listening to Conteo by Don Omar

We did part of our Chemistry lab today. We were reacting alcohols with acidified potassium chromate. The chemicals we reacted smelt like permanate marker. We will be continuing with our experiments tomorrow where we will be reacting the alcohols with sodium .

In English, we watched the rest of Ten Canoes which didn't end properly. We were then given questions, one which we had to choose to work on with a group. The question we chose was how western values are similar to the values presented in the film.

Khue and I were the only people in Art today. We have no idea why Blair wasn't there, but Joseph said that she was sick. Anyway, we had to draw designs for our final pieces of jewellery. I didn't do much because I was talking quite a bit, but also because I was looking through beading magazines. Some of the most beautiful beaded things I have seen were in there, one of them being a beaded shoe which was made into a picture of people.

In Applicable we moved onto the next chapter. The whole time was just spent with us looking at the notes and writing down examples.

I had Careers next and I spent my time working through my Applicable homework while everyone around me were playing games or just talking and I wasn't distracted for once. I managed to get quite a bit of it done.

At lunch, it was nice and quiet. A majority of the school went to see the pastor who came from America. I wanted to have a private game of 13, where only certain people play and they play certain rules. I don't like the rules that most people play so playing with a group of people you like to play with and playing the same rules makes the games a lot better. So Lauren, Emily, Diem and I played. Diem went off to study Chemistry and English and Martin took her place.

In Human Biology we moved onto the next chapter for the first period and for the second we got our marks back for our assignment and the marks back for the multiple choice in the test. We also watched some more of Walking with Cavemen where we looked at the lives of Neanderthals.

I got my $25 voucher I won at Curtin today in the mail. I can use it to buy things at the bookshop.

Signing off.

Nearly 100%

Listening to Bandoleros by Don Omar featuring Tego Calderon

In Chemistry, I got my tests back. I got 74% on my test and 93.7% on my assignment. I would have got 100% on my assignment if I remember to put the valence electrons onto the oxygen's. D'oh! We learnt about polymers, which it supposed to be the most difficult section on organic chemistry, the answers for the review questions all came from the book which was so easy. Mr C said we would have to name the monomers that formed the polymers = not easy.

Religion was spent with us doing private study. I did the review question I was supposed to do about polymers and started the ones from the chapters before. I haven't actually been doing the questions from quite a few chapter before so I am a little bit behind...that's what this weekend is for.

We continued to watch Ten Canoes in English, which a lot of people were dreading because they don't like. I do, because I don't have to do work, but by the end of it, I could have fallen asleep. Not because I was bored, but because I was so relaxed.

The first period of Applicable was a catch up period to finish 20.1, which I did. The second period we had an in-class EPW, which I found easier than the ones I have done before, seeing as I have failed them.

In Art, we made earrings. I made mine all out of white beads, increasing in size from the base. They looked so pretty.

In my free period, I played cards again. A few games of 13 and the rest of time was spent playing Jim Rummy, which everybody seems to be picking up really well.

Catherine gave me a book full of bloke jokes. Some of the funniest jokes I have ever read or heard. Wouldn't be very funny to all you guys out there...

Signing off.

Another Day of Tests

Listening to Figure.09 by Linkin Park

In Chemistry, I found out that the bars of soap that you use to wash yourself are not actually soaps. They are detergents. If we used real soaps, then they would react with calcium or magnesium ions in the water and form a solid scum. I found that quite interesting.

In Human Biology, I had my Human Biology test, which Mr Godfrey added questions from the next chapter that wasn't supposed to be in the test. I just made up anything which sounded intelligent and I hope I fluke it.

In English, we started watching the Australian film Ten Canoes about the traditional life and stories of Aboriginal people. A little bit strange but I found it quite interesting.

In my free period, Diem helped me with Applicable homework.

In Religion, we continued to take notes on the beatitudes. Luke did this trick which made his arm look like it was getting longer. It was amazing to watch.

In art, we made a pendant out of clay as a trial. If we like this technique, we can then use silver clay, which when fired, turns silver.

In Applicable, we did chapter 20.1.

When I got home, I watched some more episodes of CSI: Miami. I only have two more to go!

Signing off.

The Looping Technique

Listening to My Confession by Josh Groban

I started off the day learning about esters in Chemistry and how they are formed.

In art, I began to make a copper wire bracelet with beads. The technique was to curl four wires separately, add bead to the loops and join the loops together. I created mine more tightly curled compared to the other people in my class, I am going to make it that the loops will be on one side of the bracelet and have the four pieces of wire to form a straight band which links to the loop I created.

In Religion, we took notes on the beatitudes of Jesus which we will need for our upcoming in-class essay we will be writing in two weeks time. I have never heard of beatitudes before and I find them quite interesting, because if you do a particular something, God will give you this.

In my free period, I taught people how to play Jim Rummy.

In English, I had an in-class essay where I had to write about two images. The question that we were given I found quite difficult to write on, even though I wrote two and a bit pages.

In Human Biology, we got our Assignments back. Mr Franchina hasn't finished marking the last question, but with the marks I do have, I'm on 76%.

I got home and tried to do my Applicable homework but I didn't understand it so I went on to study for my Human Biology test tomorrow.

We have bought a treadmill. We tried putting Missy on it, but she wouldn't walk. She just moved right off the back of it and it was only going at 1km/hour. I guess she was just scared.

Signing off.

Curtin with Car Dents

Listening to Bandoleros by Don Omar featuring Tego Calderon

Today is Missy's birthday. She has turned six (42 in dog years). Happy Birthday Puppy!

Today, Emily and I went to Curtin University.

We went to the new laboratory for Pharmacy that they completed last year, where I picked up information about the course and we listened to a lecture.

I wanted some chocolate so we went to a vending machine, where it ate my money.

We then went to the School of Psychology where Emily picked up some information. We walked upstairs and a student asked us if we were willing to spit into a cup to give her our DNA. She wanted to compare the DNA of people with autism and people without it. I was not willing to give my DNA, even though they didn't get our names, but Emily did.

We walked over to the health science building where we got free icecream and I found out that soft serve is better for you than normal icecream. We walked to the nutrition area, where we tried to identify 100% apple juice from 50%. We both got it wrong. In the Dental Therapy area, we watched people pretending to do fillings on dummies and we completed a quiz on dental health to win an electric toothbrush just for fun. Just for doing the quiz we got a dental pack with a toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, chewing gum and floss.

We had lunch, where we saw Rebecca and Lauren and we went to the faculty of science tent where we were told about a mushroom which glows green in the dark.

There was so much there that we really didn't have enough time to see it all.

On the way home, a boy threw a piece of brick at our car. The hit was so loud it scared me. We turned around to see if anybody was there and then Dad drove to the backroads to see if he was hiding. The boy had left a small dent in the car door. It was so close to hitting Mum's window. When we were driving back, the boy was standing in the park holding a metal pipe, which he must have used to hit the piece of brick. Dad shouted out from the car to him and the look on his face was of such guilt it was funny, but we didn't have any proof that he did it.

Signing off.

Bowling and Mermaids

Listening to The Joker & the Thief by Wolfmother

John and I went bowling today at the last minute. I was so angry with myself because I could not bowl properly. I usually get a score over 100, but today I got 92 on the first game and 85 on the next. A few times I only hit one pin, only made two spares and got no strikes. We both played horrible games. John beat me the first time by three pins and I beat him the second time by quite a bit. My hands were getting so sweaty that the ball would slip out of my hand in the wrong way and would go to the side of the lane. I usually play bowling when I am using the end lanes, but today I played my first game in a middle which felt a little strange. The two games we played only lasted half an hour.

Afterwards we watched the pros play. They were awesome. Their strike rate to spare rate was very high and they had very good technique. The ball would have a spin on it that made the pins look like they were exploding. One of the guys had a bowling ball ball that looked like a soccer ball. I watched one guy make three strike in a row on the last set. When he made the first, his cheer squad were shouting, one more. When he got the second strike, they called one more again and he got it. It was amazing to watch.

Afterwards, John and I caught the bus back to my house where I burnt him a copy of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero but a LAN version so you can use Hamachi. He spent a lot of time talking to my Mum about random topics. We played ball with Missy and then put it into a sock, so it became a whole new game. I showed off Missy's skill in catching Yummies (her biscuits). Missy is really afraid of balloons so we decided to see what would happen if we put some of her Yummies into a balloon. When we put them in there, she started barking at the balloon like the balloon was hurting it or something. We blew up the balloon, she sniffed it, but she didn't want to pop it. John popped the balloon and the Yummies went flying everywhere like when you hit a pinata.

I watched the movie Mermaids today which is one of my favourite movies. It stars Cher. It is so strange because the 15? year old girl wants to be a nun and then has sex with the 26 year old caretaker at the convent next to their house. Interesting...

Signing off.

Araluen

Listening to Here With Me by Dido

Today was a well deserved Pupil Free Day, so my family and I spent the day at Araluen Botanical Park. The drive to the park was amazing, with beautiful views of the hills and trees.

When you first walk into Araluen, you come across the old swimming pool, with a beautiful background of the main area of the park.

As it is nearly spring time, the hundreds of tulip bulbs that the many volunteers have planted were in full bloom in an endless array of colours.

They had set up a new attraction this year called, "Surf the Floral Sea" where they made garden beds look like the ocean. They brought in beach sand and mannequins dressed up as surf lifesavers and swimmers.

We had a barbecue lunch of sausage sizzles and two ducks came to visit. They came right up to the blanket I was sitting on, but it didn't like to be touched. We had a bag of hot dog buns on the blanket and one of the ducks came up and pecked at the bread from the outside of the bag. I gave the duck some bread, which it ate from my hand. I was able to get a photo of it to should how close it was to me, without zooming.

We went and parked the car on the other side of the park where there were other trails to go on.

We visited the Roundhouse gift shop where I bought lemongrass lip balm which smells absolutely wonderful.

The park is having a competition where you had to find 8 signs with "Yates, Have a Grow" written on them to win an iPod. We found 5 before we moved the car and found two more on the other side of the park. We still had two more to go so we decided to go on the gold coin donation "train" ride to see if we could see any more. Dad spotted one while on the ride and we found another. We could not find the other one so we went to the gift shop to see if they had any clues, which they didn't. So I marked on the map where I thought it might have been and put it into the barrel. When we got back to the car, there was the final sign. It had been hidden behind a man who was working on a machine who was there when we parked the car!

It was such a relaxing day!

Signing off.

Oxidation

Listening to She Wants to Move by N.E.R.D.

To answer your question Janusz about the Everglades

The Florida Everglades are subtropical marshland located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, specifically in parts of Monroe, Collier, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Broward counties.
Though much modified by agricultural development in central and southern Florida, the Everglades is the southern half of a large watershed arising in the vicinity of Orlando known as the Kissimmee River system. The Kissimmee flows from Taylor Creek, Nubbin Slough, and Fisheating Creek, and discharges into Lake Okeechobee, a very large (730 mi² or 1,890 km²), shallow (10 ft or 3 m) fresh water lake. Water leaving Lake Okeechobee in the wet season forms the Everglades, a shallow, slow-moving flood at one time 40 miles (60 km) wide and over 100 miles (160 km) long moving southward across a nearly flat limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades

So an Everglades fire is a fire in the Everglades.

The jewellery is going good. I have made it into a style of my own now and I am now making rings for people by request. I finished Diem's ring and it looks great.

I didn't have Chemistry is the morning today, because Mr C had to be elsewhere. Anyway, I played 13 in the morning and shuffled the cards for ten minutes straight waiting for people to show up, so by the time they came they were so well shuffled that it was to my advantage and I won three times in a row (and I swear I didn't sabotage the cards).

English was spent with us annotating images of Sci-Fi and Mystery genre movie posters.

In Art, we continued making our rings and we went on to make seconds. Three MLC teachers came to spend time in our class to have a meeting in which they were discussing something about subjects but I wasn't really paying much attention to them.

In Applicable we did maths work.

In careers I studied for my Human Biology In-Class Assignment and then continued to finish of the ring I was making.

At lunch, we played 13.

In the first Human Biology period we studying for the Assignment and then in the second we did the test, which wasn't too bad, but I did need the book for quite a bit of it.

When I was waiting at the bus stop to go home, I noticed that the copper rings that I have been making had oxidised and had left a green residue on my fingers and to the people I am making the rings for, don't worry. I make my rings out of a different material and they don't oxidise.

I watched two more episodes of CSI: Miami, which totals to sixteen episodes I have watched so far.

Thanks for the comments everyone and I hope you will continue to read my blogs.

Signing off.

The Escort

Listening to (Exchange) by Massive Attack

Today was a more fulfilling today compared to the rest of the week. With the last Chemistry topic long gone, we practised naming and writing out the structural formulas of certain organic compounds which was quite enjoyable.

Religion was spent with the class listening to the rest of the class and their songs about freedom.

For English, we were going to do an essay question on viewing images and I had planned my essay on the questions she had already given us, but then she changed the question to one that had words I didn't understand. Once I found out what they meant, it was quite enjoyable to write seeing as I had a lot to say, but seeing as it was only a practise essay, lots of people were talking to it was hard to concentrate.

I had a double period of Applicable Maths, which we continued to work on the Poisson Distrubution chapter and I got quite a lot done seeing as I was talking quite a bit.

At lunch, Ms Perks called for me. I was thinking, "What have I done wrong?" but all she wanted Wilson and I to do was to escort two women to the Staff Room. I came to the conclusion that they were English teachers and that they were here for a meeting, most likely for moderating. They asked us questions about the school and they also asked if we were Prefects, seeing as we were escorting them. That made me feel important.

In Art we continued to make our jewellery.

In my free period, we played cards again, but in the library in front of the Year 10's who had to do their Religion Assignment research on the computers.

When I got home I watched two more episodes of CSI: Miami. "Slow Burn" was amazing. It was the second time that I saw Alexx and Eric nearly die from being caught in an Everglade fire. A very good episode.

Signing off.

Tomorrow Never Comes Until It's Too Late

Listening to No W by Ministry

Today was my Chemistry test. Not too hard and not too easy, but quite good.

I felt like I was falling asleep in Human Biology again. It must be something about that room.

English consisted of us analysing the representations of gender in visual texts. In a Pepsi ad, Blair suggested that the picture had a sexual message to it, so the class was spilt in a battle of whether the woman in the picture was trying to be seductive or she angry. The discussion lasted for at least ten minutes.

The free period was again spent playing cards.

In religion, we had a man come out to talk about his life at a seminary. The talk was actually an hour spent asking him questions, some of which were not exactly appropriate. By the end of it, I noticed a lot of people were losing interest because it was mostly the guys in the front row asking the questions and the people in the back rows were unable to hear.

At lunch I was explaining to people what makes a fruit a fruit and they were so surprised to find out that a capsicum was a fruit. We were also discussing the unusual shortened versions of names that don't sound anything like the full name like Dick is short for Richard. We also tried to find a boys name that started with U. If anybody knows, please leave me a comment.

Art was spent with us picking out the beads we wanted to use for our jewellery piece and I started making a ring out of copper wire.

In Applicable Maths, we learnt about Poisson Distribution. Ms Vivian gave us another applet for our calculators which are so helpful and quick for finding the answers.

When I got home, I made my own copper wire ring whilst watching CSI: Miami. I have watched fourteen episodes so far.

Signing off.

Just Another Day...

Listening to Everywhen by Massive Attack

Not much happened today. In art, I drew designs of what I wanted my pendant to be and I also curled wire, which was quite fun.

My free Chemistry period involved us playing 13 for an hour instead of doing any work.

I got my in-class essay results back and I got a 6M (equivalent to 75%). That is the first level 6 I have received for an in-class essay and the first A grade I received all year in English. I was so suprised that I got such a high mark seeing as I thought I would have only got a level 5H at the most.

See? Not very interesting was it? Probably the most interesting part of the day was watching two more episodes of CSI: Miami and eatting cupcakes.

Signing off.

Yesterday and Today

Listening to Maria from West Side Story.

After waiting more than a year from it to come out in the shops, I finally purchased the CSI: Miami Season 2 box set. I watched six of the episodes yesterday, five of which I know the story to very well and one of which I had only watched once. I was talking to Diem on the phone just an hour ago and she told me that Emily had said I hadn't talked about CSI: Miami in a while. While that is quite true, seeing as I had stopped watching it on TV for two reasons: that Channel 9 moved CSI: Miami to a different time slot and that the story line wasn't as good as those of the earlier seasons. Well now I have more reason to talk about CSI: Miami again.

Yesterday was Babcia's 70th birthday party which we hosted. Everybody from Mum's side of the family came except for Uncle Martin, Griffin, Austin and Justin since they live on the other side of the country. It was great to see Aunty Leonnie again after such a long time. We had a great arrangement of food such a pierogies (a Polish pasta dish with a potato and cheese filling), kapusta (a Polish cabbage dish with mixed in sausage), sausage rolls, pies, open sandwiches and mini pizzas. We purchased her birthday cake from a Polish shop in Sorrento called Chopin. The cake was made of chocolate mousse and covered with large chocolate shavings. It also had a chocolate plaque with "Happy Birthday Mum" written in Polish. It tasted delicious!

The day consisted of eatting, talking and the cousins playing the Nintendo 64. Stephen was unbeatten in Diddy Kong Racing for a while, until I took over and then he took over me again. I also spent a good 5 minutes arguing with Jason about whether GoldenEye was a better game than Perfect Dark on the Nitendo 64. We also played Battle in Mario Kart. After playing for a good 3 hours, all of us had become sleepy from staring at the bright lights coming fromn the TV in a darken room.

I tried Champagne for the first time. I don't like beer or wine at all, but now I found a liking to champagne. It was "Bella" by Yellowglen and it was pink and fruity. I want a bottle for my 18th now!

Today I have spent my time doing Applicable homework and watching more CSI: Miami episodes. Not very fun.

Signing off.