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.

Love

     Nothing special happened at school today, so I guess I'll just leave that part out. Well, since school wasn't that interesting, I'll talk about something I heard at chinese school.
   
     During chinese, our teacher shared about love. She talked about Heidi Baker, a person who was called by the Lord to go to Africa. Specifically, Heidi Baker went to Mozambique. She was offered to take over an orphanage that nobody was able to support, not even large churches or donor nations. She loved the kids and provided for them. Our teacher said, "when Heidi went to wash their clothes, the clothing would get destroyed when you wash it because it was that old." These kids were very poor and even went dumpster diving. In Africa, there aren't fancy trash cans like we have. Instead, they just have huge piles of trash, and the kids will go look for food that people don't want. Obviously, this pile smells really bad, but she loved them so much that with the help of God, she could go help them find food. Due to poor conditions, the kids had skin diseases and many problems, but she still loved and cared for them. She even held them in her hands even though the diseases were contagious. Because of her love, many children got to know Jesus and got saved.

     Heidi demonstrated an enormous amount of love, and to be honest, I don't think I would be able to do what she did. If I encountered kids like the ones in Africa, I wouldn't even want to get close to them.  John 13:34 says, " A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. Again, in 1 John 4:7 it says, " Beloved, let us love another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." We need to ask God to help us love others like he loved us because we can not do this on our own strength.

School

     Today is Wednesday, the favorite day for most students. Why you might ask? Well, Wednesday is the one day each week where students are able to go to school later than usual. On normal days, we need to go to school at 8:20, but on Wednesday, we need to go at 9:30. That's one more hour of sleep! I had a math test today, but it was really easy since it was about special right triangles. In band we're playing this song called mexican festival. I really feel like our band can play more difficult pieces, but I'm not the conductor. A couple years ago, our band director did this song with the Intermediate Band, and here we are playing it as the Advanced Band.
     As I am about to go off to High School, I've been talking with my friends a lot about electives. Although most people advise against this, I am going to take Chinese at Monta Vista. My second elective is going to be band, although that is going to be the last time I will touch my instrument. Bye bye, clarinet. Anyways, I opted for a 7th period even though it's not guaranteed. I want to take Java because I just feel like it. The 2nd trimester ends next friday, and I will be 1 trimester closer to MVHS.

   

2/23/16

     Let's start off talking about my day at school. I started off the day with PE, probably one of my favorite classes because we just talk and have fun. For our final project, our teacher made us teach the class for a day, and today the group teaching did a decent job. Next I had band. Personally, I don't really like band because it's kind of boring, but I guess the music that we get to make is pretty cool. Following band I had science. We did some writing about the milk, food coloring, and detergent experiment. Science isn't that bad of a class, but just not my favorite. After Science was Language Arts, the least favorite class of most of the students in our village. Recently, our teacher went on maternity leave, so we were left with a substitute teacher. We do not accomplish much in class, and many people do not pay attention. I don't even think they're teaching the curriculum. While other classes are doing grammar and such, we are reading some story and doing nothing. Then I have History. History is a class I decently enjoy. The teacher is really chill and makes learning about US history fun. Lastly, I have math. Math is one of my favorite subjects, and today we learned about special right triangles.

     Today we will be discussing: What does the bible say about cursing?

     In life, whenever we are frustrated or something doesn't end up the way we want it to, we tend to swear. Some of which include the f-word and s***t. As we continue to do this, it slowly becomes a habit. Naturally, you will begin to say it more often without even thinking. Now, what does the bible say about this?

     In the bible, the concept of swearing is used in how we relate to people. In Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, he talks about the consequences of swearing and cursing another person. He said, " You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgement. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.(Matthew 5:21-22)

     When people curse us, our first instinct is probably to curse them. However, Jesus wants us to do the opposite. In Luke 6:27-28, Jesus tells us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. These people that are cursing you, may need encouragement, or acceptance because of the way they have been treated. Before we blurt out some dirty words, we should think before we speak.

     In Matthew 15:10, Jesus says, " it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person." This quote is telling us that unclean words come from an unclean heart. As we speak more and more unclean words, our purity goes lower and lower.

     What can we do about this? One way to prevent yourself from swearing is to read God's word. The bible purify's your thoughts and will affect your actions and words. We should try to filter what comes out of our mouth, so that what comes out is positive and uplifting, instead of the words that can hurt feelings.

Thought of the Day

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

Matthew 18:35 - This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.

One of the most important things we need to do is to learn how to forgive others. When you are mistreated by people, ask God to help you to forgive them as it is not always easy to forgive from the heart. It may be easy to simply say, " I'm sorry," but what matters is, do you really mean it?

Snowwwww

For the first time in forever, I finally saw some snow. Ha, see what I did there? This weekend, I went to Cisco Grove with my Boy Scout Troop to go Snow camping. The past few years we did this, there was no snow. I didn't go skiing at all last year, and was pretty excited to see the snow. We built some snow caves, which was pretty fun. We had a snowball fight which didn't end out the way we expected it to. Basically, I threw a "snowball" and a someone. Little did I know he was a baseball pitcher, and he fired a snowball back at me. The first throw missed, so I walked away casually. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a snowball comes at my face at like 60 mph and connects with my face! Immediately, my nose starts bleeding, and there's is blood all over the snow. That was pretty disgusting. Anyways, I had a lot of fun snow camping, although my feet got wet and super cold. Overall, it was a good experience because now I know how to prepare better the next time I go snow camping. I'll remember not to mess with baseball pitchers anymore.

Music

So I was on Discover Weekly the other day, looking for some more songs. Most of them were good, and I ended up adding about half of them. The only problem I had, was that one-fourth of the songs were in Spanish! I enjoyed the music, but I simply could not understand what they were saying. Another problem was that some songs sounded really good, but the lyrics were just terrible. I just didn't like the message that was being conveyed through the lyrics. About half the songs I have are Christian music. The lyrics are great, and the music is great as well. The other half is just random songs that I find, or are recommended to me by friends.

Starting a Blog/Break

Today is a special day. That's right! I'm starting a blog. I was getting bored, so I thought starting a blog might be better use of my time than watching Youtube and doing worthless things all day. The hours that I have spent on Youtube are more than I would expect.

I've been on break for the past few days, and before break, I made a few goals. Here they are:

1. Catch up on reading the Bible

2. Do C++

3. Exercise

This year, I started a one year Bible plan. The reason for this, is that I've realised how much time I've wasted doing unimportant things, and I wanted sharpen up my Bible knowledge. Now that I'm 1 1/2 months into the year, I really feel that it's changed me. Reading the Bible really allows me to change the way I look at things. However, I'm really falling behind, as I have been getting lazy. I can see it affecting my decision making, and the words that come out of my mouth. Now, it is time for a change.

Why in the world would I want to do C++? Well, that's a good question. You see, before this year, I wasn't really interested in programming, and never really took academics seriously. As I am about to enter high school, I feel that it is important change gears, and start taking things more seriously. One of the main reasons I decided to start self-learning C++, is because of my friend Nicholas Zhang. He was the one who told me about how he self-learned Java and C++, and that he is now taking AP Computer Science. I was really amazed by the things you can do with these languages.

Exercise. Usually over breaks, I stay indoors and do nothing. This is really bad, and I wanted to change it. There's a lot of bad things that happen when you sit at a computer the whole day. It's just not healthy for the body. I've started swimming for about 4 months, and honestly, I'm not that fast. I swim for 1 hour a day 5 days a week. I know this is not much compared to others, but hey, I just started swimming. Have you ever had that feeling where one day you were like, " I'm going to run a mile everyday," and you didn't? I feel like I can really relate to that. A lot of times, I want to go running, but when I actually think about it, I don't want to go anymore.

Well, there you have it. My first blog. It wasn't really about today, more about this year so far.