9/17 Reset

9/17 Reset

     Okay,  so school started about a month ago so things are slightly hectic? PE teacher takes everything so seriously, making us run a mile for warm up. Eventually, she wants us to run a 5k in December. I think her standards are a bit high but that's just me. I like my Chinese 4H teacher. She's pretty kind to us and my brother had her for AP. Biology teacher is very understanding of us students and tries to make our high school experience the best it can be. It is awesome that he also plays badminton :D. Band is not bad I guess, the music we play is actually kind of legitimate. Our teacher makes some really bad jokes that I just don't understand. Literature is slightly boring, but it is one of my weaker subjects so I should probably try and learn something. However, the teachers are not really teaching anything? Math teacher is cool. Teaches physics as well. I think I made a bad impressive on him after sleeping a little bit. Oops. Well, here are my goals I guess.

Musical-
Practice piano at least 1 hour a day instead of slacking off
Need to get level 10 quickly before I have too much school work
Get 1st clarinet parts, probably should have tried harder on auditions

Chinese-
Speak Chinese more fluently so I can actually communicate with Chinese adults
Get a high percentage A in Chinese 4 Honors
Be able to read majority of important Chinese words

Badminton-
Make JV hopefully move up to Varsity in Junior year
Play badminton with Paul and Zachary to get a taste of high school badminton
Regrip my racket

Academics in general-
Talk to teachers so that they know me
Actually participate in class
Learn some CS and don't take random breaks from it
Self-study Java and C++.. at least beginner-intermediate material
Straight A's as usual

Bible-
At least read a bit everyday
Read more deeply so I understand what the true meaning is

Miscellaneous-
Be more outgoing
Make more friends
Keep contacting Bryson at UCLA

Expect to see me post some progress updates in the future

An Attempt at being creative

Today, I am going to try and be creative. To exercise my creativity by thinking of random things and thinking about those random things differently. I will just be stating everything I think about when I think of something. This is going to be very messy. Here we go.

Okay let's see. Trees. Umm, they provide shade and oxygen. Maple Syrup from the maple tree. Christmas. It takes 3-4 trees to provide enough oxygen for one person. Houses! Yes, they are made of wood. Right? wow a lot of things are made of wood. Never really thought about that... I think that's it. Wasn't really creative....

Crayons? Umm, I guess they can substitute candles. Apparently they can burn for 30 minutes. Not bad. Rainbow? cuz all the colors create the colors of the rainbow. What does a crayon taste like? What can crayons be used for? I guess you can use the colors to change the color of something, like a shirt, although that's like the main purpose of crayons. uhh. Crafts! Yay. Melt a ton of crayons, then let it cool. Bam, you have a paperweight. Although you could use that with a regular crayon that isn't melted. Wtv, it was worth a shot.

Pringles? the ring. Ya know, the challenge where you try to create a ring use pringles. Eating. A wide variety of flavors. you can use the bottle to hold eggs. I mean, I used a pasta box to hold eggs so I guess it's kinda the same thing? ish? Ohhh, you can put pasta!!!! like the spaghetti noodles? I think you can grow a plant inside a pringles can because you just fill it with dirt and a seed and add water. you can use it as a water bottle. A pencil pouch.

Umm, I think I've had enough for one day. Bye.

Cups

Remember when I said I started playing poker a lot? Well, I think that's going to change because I don't think that being a pro at gambling is something to be proud about. I'm going to quit online poker even though it's fake money. I know this is kind of random, but I feel like it will help me remember. Anyways, back to the topic stated in the title.

Cups are so simple. When you think of cups, you probably don't think of anything special or beyond this world. But when you look closely, and really think about it, you will see cups in a way you've never seen them before. It's all about your perspective and creativity.

According to some dictionary, creativity is a mental characteristic that allows a person to think outside the box, which results in innovative or different approaches to certain things.

At first glance, a cup seems ordinary. Something that you use to drink water or juice. When a creative person looks at a cup, what they see is not an ordinary cup that is used to drink water. They see a tool that can be used to dig dirt. A pot to grow plants. They think about the story of the cup. Where it came from, the way it was made. Now, I am not the most creative person out there. In fact, I barely exercise my creativity. Action plan: I will exercise my creativity more, and by doing so, I will have a different view of the world.

Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter! Today is the day the Jesus rose from the dead. He died on the cross, and after 3 days and 3 nights, he rose from the dead. In the bible, it says that Jesus was flogged 39 times because it was said that if you flog somebody 40 times, they will be dead. I mean, that's pretty shocking. Jesus was on the brink of death, yet he still had to carry the cross on his back. 39 is a significant number because currently, there are 39 major diseases known to man right now. That is why you often hear people say, " By your stripes I am healed."

Recently, I started playing poker. Casual poker with friends. Not crazy WSOP stuff. One of the main reasons I play poker, is the way it allows me to bond with my friends even more. Before I went to Yosemite this year, I kind of felt like I was losing a few of my friends. Losing friends is one of the worst feelings ever I and wanted it to stop. This was mainly because I didn't share any classes with my friends, so I was unable to talk about much. However, once we started playing poker, we had something in common that we could talk about.

Songs
Father of Lights-Kim Walker-Smith

Weekend Update

     This weekend I went camping. Specifically, we went horseback riding. However, due to the rain before Saturday, the trails were closed. As a result, we were only able to ride in circles which was still pretty fun nonetheless. After we went horseback riding, we went to the beach where we had a sandcastle competition. One of the scouts created a realistic sculpture of a horse out of sand. It was pretty amazing. For dinner, we had some hot dog weiners and bread crumbs, carrot juice, and sugar cubes. Not the best dinner. At night, it was extremely windy, and started raining extremely hard. When we woke up, we had to leave the camp early due to the hard rain. That pretty much marks the end of our campout.

     The Parable of the 10 talents

If you don't know this parable, I'll give a brief summary. There is a man who is about to go on a journey. He calls his servants and entrusts them with his property. He gave to one 5 talents, to the other 2 talents, and to the last one 1 talent. While the master was gone, the servant with the 5 talents traded, and gained 5 more talents. The servant with 2 talents made 2 talents more. However, the servant with 1 talent went and dug in the ground and buried his master's money. After awhile, the master returned to settle accounts with them. The servant with 5 talents came forward, bringing 5 more talents with him. The master was pleased with him, and continued on to the second servant. The servant with 2 talents came forward, bringing 2 more talents with him. The master was pleased with him as well. Lastly, the servant with 1 talent came forward, bringing only what his master had given him. The master was not happy with this servant and told him to give his talent to the servant with 10 talents.
Matthew 25:26-30: But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So tkae from him and give it to him who was the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who was will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I apologize for this long summary, but I felt it might be necessary. Anyways, I feel like this parable is really important. It's telling us that God has given everybody gifts, but it is our choice whether we want to put it to good, or leave it. Because God has gifts, we must use these gifts to give God the glory. This parable also shows that maximize the use of our gifts not for our selfish purposes, but to honor God.

Songs
Praises-Josh Baldwin

Back from Yosemite

3/6/16    
     Today is my second day back from Yosemite. I have to say that it was a very fun experience. The only downside of my trip, was the fact that my throat got completely messed up. Like it hurts soo much when I swallow, and I'm coughing up phlegm all day. My voice is also messed up, and you wouldn't even know I was talking if you heard me. Right now I'm eating instant noodles which probably isn't the best thing I should be eating with a sore throat. Anywaayyys, let's take a look at my trip to Yosemite:

Day 1: Orientation Day

     We gathered at De Anza College to start loading the buses at around 9:45 am. We then proceeded to leave De Anza College at approximately 10:15 am. The bus ride was quite uninteresting, as I tried to sleep, but the people around me were being extremely noisy so I couldn't. We took a bathroom break at Walmart, and I'm sure the staff had a wonderful time seeing 400 students inside Walmart. At around 2:00 pm, we finally arrived. We had a quick orientation, and then they gave us the keys to our tent cabins. At night, we walked over to the theatre, which just happened to be .6 miles away! We watched a video about Yosemite's history, and that pretty much concludes the first day. If you want to know what I ate, I'm sorry, I forgot. All I remember is jello and salad.

Day 2: First Hike

     We woke at around 6:00 and went to breakfast at 6:55. There were hashbrowns which had absolutely no salt in them which was a problem. Along with the hashbrowns were eggs, french toast, and some sausage related food item. Also, there was yogurt, oatmeal, and cereal. Overall, a decent breakfast. We met at around 8:00 to start hiking. The hike today was relatively easy, but they view was just amazing. We could see so much of Yosemite Valley, and it was beautiful. If only I had a camera, then I would be able to capture the amazing moment. For lunch, we had sunbutter and jelly sandwiches which wasn't too bad. Dinner was at around 5:00 which was relatively early compared to what I'm used to. Once again, I forgot what I ate. All I remember is jello, cake, and salad.

Day 3: XC Skiing!
     YAY! Skiing! It was my first time cross-country skiing, so I was pretty excited for this. The skis were a lot skinnier than downhill skis, and the shoes were sooooo much more comfortable. At the beginning, I was not doing very well. I kept falling, and was struggling to slow down/stop. At this point, I was extremely frustrated and ready to give up. However, our guide encouraged us to stay positive. I thought that this was really important because even when things may not be going our way, we need to stay positive. When we aren't positive, we tend to be a bit more negative. Being negative is not a good thing, because it affects a lot of things. Negativity becomes our source of unhappiness. This leads to anger, frustration, and sadness. When this occurs, your daily decision will be affected. You will start making bad decision which could potentially affect your personal relationship with other people. Also, negativity is contagious. Once you are negative and start doing bad things, people will start becoming negative as well. It's all kind of a chain reaction. Anywayyyss, back to my skiing experience. As our skiing continued, I started to get the hang of it. We reached a large flat meadow where we could go higher and do some downhills. We could also have a snowball fight which is pretty beast. for lunch we had some burritos. My friend didn't want his so he gave it to me. That was pretty nice. We had to get back to the bus before 2:00 so we had to start heading back. When we got back to camp, I showered, and then played poker with a few of my buddies. That was pretty nice because we were back in camp before most of the school so there was plenty of privacy and silence. At night we had some lesson on Cosmos or something. Really boring and I almost fell asleep.

Day 4: Easy Day
     Since today was the day before our Challenge hike on Day 5, our guide wanted us to take it easy. We had a very short hike, about 1.5 miles long. Our theme of the day was "Everything is Connected". We learned about the placement of all the waterfalls and rock/mountains in Yosemite Valley. Some of these included: Bridalveil Falls, Half Dome, North Dome, Vernal Falls, and Washington Columns. I think the best part of the hike was skipping rocks. However, I think I threw a bit too hard so my right arm was sore for the next few days. At night we had a lesson on fire ecology. All I remember is that fires are good and bad, depends on the situation. Really boring as well.

Day 5: Challenge Hike
     Today is the day we've all been waiting for. The Challenge Hike!!! YAYYY!! How exciting. No not really. We hiked in total 8.6 miles today. Yes, I know, that isn't much, but that isn't the point. The point is, that the view was just amazing. I mean it was so beautiful. If only I had a camera, but I don't. Lunch was a classic sandwich. I gotta say, the lunches here were quite good.10/10 would eat again? I'm sorry about the lack of description for my hike, but nothing really happened. It was simply hiking. We entered camp at around 4pm, which is a lot later than usual. For once, I actually remember what I ate for dinner. We had some KFC like chicken. At night, we had the closing program as we got ready to say our farewells.

Day 6: Farewell
     Today was the day we've all been dreading. It's our last day here at Yosemite:( On the bright side, we got to visit the Spider Caves!!!! If you don't know what that is, it's basically a cave that is pitch black. This activity really taught us about the importance of good teamwork and communication. Without the people in front of you telling you were there were rocks and obstacles, you will surely get hurt. Even though it was pitch black, I must say I had a lot of fun. Afterwards, we had our last lunch together as a group. We said our last words, and then went back to camp to begin boarding the buses. At around 2:00, we left camp. It was a sad moment for all. Well, I think most people. I know my friend did not enjoy the trip at all so he was happy to leave. The bus ride was pretty fun. I guess. We made a restroom stop at Walmart, and arrived at De Anza College at 7:30. I went home, and fell asleep.

Last Day of School Before Yosemite

     Today is Friday, the favorite day for all students. First off, it's the last day of school for each week! When Friday is over, you have the weekend, which is two days of  rest. Not much usually happens on Fridays, but today was the last day of school before our eighth grade goes to Yosemite. As expected, there was a lot of chatter about Yosemite. Many people were like, " I didn't even start packing yet! Did you start packing? " Moreover, today was the last day of the trimester for us. I heard lots of discussion about what teacher people thought they had. When school resumes on tuesday, we will have a new schedule, which I'm really looking forward to. However, I didn't get my favorite history teacher which is pretty disappointing. Overall, a pretty normal day.