Slice of Life #31 - I Hate Minwax

March 31st, 2013

I know I'm going a bit overboard with the Slice of Lives....BUT I NEED TO RANT
NEVER
NEVER
NEVERRRR
EVERRRRR
BUY ANY KIND OF CLEAR FINISH OR GLOSS
FROM MINWAX
I am sitting here fuming...and I'm pretty sure any minute I will start running into walls. I spent a week on my TSA train. I finished painting it, and you could see what it looked like in the previous blog. And to finish, I decided to use Minwax's clear gloss, which was SUPPOSED to dry clear. It dried up into a yellow urine-colored "gloss". There are yellow bumps all along the bottom of the train. That means major points off. I seriously was not counting on that to happen, and now my train looks terrible. The "gloss" also made all my train's windows fall off. I have a lot of work to do, and stupid Minwax just set me back a lot. I HATE YOU MINWAX I HATE YOU

Slice of Life #30 - TSA Again...

March 30th, 2013

I STILL HAVE NOT FINISHED. I AM PANICKING. I HAVE OTHER HOMEWORK TO DO. I CAN'T SPEND MY LIFE ON TSA. :'(
I was planning to finish last Tuesday, but carpentry is so hard...and I have to sculpt too. I'm not that good at either-I can only draw. However, the drawings will be really hard too since I  have to scale everything down and write down 50 kazillion dimensions...stressstressstress
Speaking of which, I still have a pile of homework, and spring break is pretty much over. Sorry, this blog post is really short...
BUT to cheer myself up I shall post a picture of my train. :D

 

It looks simple, I know. It took so long to make though...way longer than I thought. I'm still not done. I have to connect the two cars and plug in the wheels. And do all those drawings. Cryyyy
This would have been funner if spring break was its normal length. Curse you, Sandy. CURSE YOU

Slice of Life #29 - TSA Progress

March 29th, 2013

I've been working on TSA for the past week now. It's left me almost no time for anything else, but I'm STILL NOT FINISHED. Carving a block of wood to look like a train is a lot harder than you think...It took an hour just to drill a one inch wide hole, because my wood refused to cooperate. When I was trying to carve the indents for the wheels, my knife slipped and stabbed my middle finger. Since it was a carving knife, it was a pretty deep cut. Needless to say, fingers are much, much easier to cut than wood. =_=

I still have to make the prototype, paint the train, and do all the drawings and dimensions...I have no idea how I am supposed to finish this. Well, I probably will, but I'll have no time to do other things like work on my FFF project. (btw, my hovercraft flies! Now I have to make sure the wood doesn't explode into splinters).

Does anyone have suggestions on what colors to make my train? My mom said including green makes it look childish. I'm not so sure about that. (Green is awesome). ALSO, does anyone know how to dimension curves? Like not arcs, but curves?

Slice of Life #28: Funny Quotes from The Croods

March 28th, 2013

So, some funny quotes from The Croods (I'm not going to use quotation marks to make things simpler):

Guy: Everything we're standing on will be consumed by lava...I call it: THE END!
Belt: dun dunn DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Son (with burning shirt): It likes me! AHH IT'S BITING ME!
Dad: Try hiding from it in the tall dry grass! *grass catches on fire* Oh. Nevermind.

While hunting:
Dad: RELEASE THE BABY!!

Grandma: I'm hungry *prepares to eat Guy's sloth, sloth points knife at her*
Guy: No, don't eat him! He'll use the knife!
Grandma: Why?
Guy: I call him a pet.
Grandma: What's a pet?
Guy: An animal that you don't eat.
Grandma: OH, we call those children!

Eep: Whoa, what is that? *points at fire*
Guy: It's fire. You've never seen it before?
Eep: No. Where'd it come from?
Guy: I can make it.
Eep: WHAAAT *grabs Guy and starts performing intense Heimlick maneuver until Guy passes out* MAKE SOME FOR ME!

Son: Hey Douglas, can you do tricks?
Douglas: *nods* (he's a dog)
Son: Roll over!
Douglas: *rolls over and falls off cliff*
Son: Good boy, Douglas!

Slice of Life #27 - Hopefully Watching The Croods Today???

March 27th, 2013

My family agreed yesterday to watch The Croods, a new Dreamworks movie that supposedly took 10 years to make. Of course, yesterday we didn't go. So, we agreed to go today morning. Well, morning is almost over. That means we will not be going in the morning. AND SO, we agreed to go in the afternoon! I'm not sure that'll happen either.

But I really, really want to watch this movie...even though it's really childish, I'd like to take a break from high school for a while and just do something fun. I've watched a couple of trailers for this movie, and it seems hilarious. Go to Youtube and search up "the croods belt's sound effect" and prepare yourself for the high pitched "dun dun dunnnnnnnn" belt issues. xD

I'm making this blog post short...I still have to do my TSA project. o.e'

Slice of Life #26 - I GOT A PHONEEEEE

March 26th, 2013

 

Technically, I didn't have to do this post...but I'll keep on going until 30 because this is fun ^.^

YESTERDAY I GOT A PHONE. A LEGIT, WORKING PHONE THAT I CAN FIND THE SPACEBAR ON. :O I know right, I totally did not just get my first working phone in ninth grade.

It's an iPhone 4S, and my parents decided to get it for me after I told them what Mr. B. said: "Tell your parents that if you don't get a phone, you will fail software apps." Of course, I had a phone before, but it was one of those cheap prepaid flip phones that only costs about a dollar to buy at the convenience shop. Each text costs about 25 cents to send. But that's kind of pointless, because I don't think there was a space button on my phone. :P

What stinks is that even though I have an iPhone, I still don't have unlimited text, so I can't give my number to any of my friends for fear that they spam me intelligent messages like "MEOWMEOWBLAHMOOPYMEOWIGOTSABANANAWBU" <--so, so thought provoking! :D
So while second graders brag to each other about having iPhone 5's, I can brag about how I got my iPhone 4S in high school! (I actually don't think it's right for elementary school kids to have these kinds of phones...it's all just a fad). I myself didn't care about what phone I had...I never even asked for an iPhone. xD

^Me in elementary school^

I also can't download any games. I can only access about five webpages per day. Oh well. I guess the best part about it is just being repeatedly able to check my email...Right now, I'm looking at iPhone cases on Amazon and trying to pick one. So hard.

By the way, can someone tell me how to sign up for Celly? I forgot...And if I sign up, can the entire freshman class spam me with texts, or can only the teacher spam me with texts?

Slice of Life #25 - Some Strange Talents of Mine

March 25th, 2013

I have some weird talents--by this, I'm not talking about math, science, etc. Lets forget those common talents for now. I'm talking about things like:

1. When I'm typing at my computer, I can always, always hear my parents or sister if they're walking to my door. It doesn't matter if they're trying to be soft, or if my sister is trying to sneak into my room so that she can tattletale on me for checking my email. If they're really trying to be soft, I can always sense movement in the floor, or vibrations, even though the floor's carpeted. I can also tell which person it is.
2. I can also walk with almost no sound, at least with no sound I can hear. Of course, I'm not like Gale or Katniss; I don't think I can walk on leaves without crunching them xD I don't know if that's a good or bad thing...like in the hallways at school, if I'm walking with another person, that person's footsteps my clipclop through the hall, but I'll have no sound at all. It might be because I wear Uggs/sneakers/boots without heels all the time. I don't know.
3. My facial expressions are, as Nivetha puts it, VERY expressive. xD I don't know if she's just exaggerating or not...but since I don't make a lot of faces at home (staring at a computer screen does not require facial gestures), my family has likely not seen many of them before. When I went over to Thomas's house last month, I was talking to his mom, and all of a sudden my mom said, "OH MY LORD VIVIAN YOU HAVE SO MANY EXPRESSIONS!" Yes mom, indeed I do. They range from:
• jokingly accusative face (coined by Nick and apparently my most famous one)
• I-have-just-been-metaphorically-electrocuted face
• dun dun dunnnnn face (see the trialer for The Croods for clarification; watch at least ten seconds or until the dun dun dun part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjkPb0ewYPo) I fond that link to be hilarious, by the way
• really-now face
• etcetcetc you get the point

Can you guys do these things too? I'm pretty sure some of you can, they're actually not that hard to do. If you can't, I'm sure you have other weird talents xD

Slice of Life #24 - My Piano Auditions



March 24th, 2013

So, remember I said last week I was going to have piano auditions today?
At 9:00 AM, I woke up. Frantically, I brushed my teeth, shoved breakfast down my throat (how often do I eat quickly?) and rushed to the piano to practice just a couple thousand more times. That usually never happens. On the first couple of days of spring break, I usually catch up on sleep instead of playing piano.

I had played for about 4 hours straight on Saturday, trying, TRYING to play my piece with zero mistakes. Of course, last minute cramming never works. Especially when your song is full of places where your finger has to reach notes an octave apart. That never works then your hands are tiny like mine. So in the end, I had to be satisfied with a decent piece that at least didn't sound like trash...I still made a couple of mistakes where my fingers couldn't reach the octaves. mehhhhhh

When I got to the audition, I didn't even know who my judge was. I was waiting in the hallway for her to call me in, when a lady walked out of the bathroom and said hi to me. I thought, "Well, that must be some random teacher in the building because I think my judge is in that room listening to a student play piano." Sure enough, I heard music. However, it turns out that the room I was supposed to go in was empty, and the music was coming from upstairs. The lady turned out to be my judge. After I nodded hello, she beckoned me inside the room I was supposed to be judged in, and I finally realized this was my judge. I internally facepalmed myself and said good morning.

After playing through my two pieces that are somehow a little easier than one of last year's pieces, I could see my judge writing furiously with her pen on her comments page. I knew I had made a couple of mistakes...I've actually never made a mistake during auditions before. It's just that this year, I've had less practice time. I don't know if this is a good sign...musicians tend to be lazy when it comes to writing things, and I've never met a judge that wrote down good comments. Usually, they can only summon the energy to write areas to improve upon. A page full of marks...I'm guessing that's not a good thing?

Also, the piano was weird. It was one of those pianos where if you press down on the pedal, it doesn't really go down--the little pressure you put on it is enough to make the notes blur. The keys were really slippery and almost TOO easy to push down, resulting in difficulty for me to make parts of the pieces pianissimo. So....almost everything sounded too loud. >.<' Another problem: my dress was so, so, so long. It was lavender, and actually pretty this year, but it was definitely meant for someone taller than me. Every time I walked up stairs, even though I basically held up half my skirt, I was afraid of tripping. The skirt bottom almost brushed the ground.

Anyways, afterwards, I went shopping. I know. LE GASP. I almost forgot what shopping was... But I got so tired, since I don't exercise as much. After only a couple of hours walking around the Jersey Shore Outlet, my legs started to give way. Now I'm sagging at my desk pounding out this post. :D

Slice of Life #23 - Being a Proctor

March 23rd, 2013

I have to practice piano, so my post will be kind of short.
So, being a proctor is a lot harder than you think. During the CTP4, when you feel uncomfortable when the proctor walks around the room, it's not the proctor's fault. I was a proctor today for the HSK 4 at my Chinese school (kind of a graduation test for Chinese kids)...or rather, I was the TA, but I was pretty much still a proctor. The teacher in charge of me told me to stand up the entire time, to make sure no one was cheating. So, that meant basically 2 hours of standing. Of course, it was great exercise for my legs. I never thought I would be so tired...last year for jazz band I've stood up for long periods of time. I've stood up for 3 hours in a row waiting for roller coasters. I guess I'm just seriously out of shape. :P

Anyways, all the kids in my room weren't from my Chinese school, so I didn't know any of them. They seemed pretty well behaved, and their eyes almost never left their papers. It's really, really boring to stare at a group of kids for 2 hours, so I could understand why the teacher walked around, looking over people's shoulders. Since she's a teacher, I would think that looking at Chinese questions would be interesting to her. My legs were sore enough just standing, so I didn't walk around.

After, I took a two hour nap. It was my first long nap in...well...a long, long time. It felt great, and although I am still tired (of course I am) I am less tired than usual :D

Slice of Life #22 - The Day Before Spring Break

March 22nd, 2013

It's the day before spring break, and I should be feeling happy. I AM happy, for that matter :D

However, it seems like I have a million things due right after spring break, from basically all my classes. While the teachers told us to just finish it before spring break so that we wouldn't have to worry about it,
1) Even if I stayed up the entire night yesterday, I still would not have finished that mountain of work
2) I was too tired yesterday to stay up late again.

Now, since I have everything due right after spring break, I will probably spend spring break working. Of course, I did persuade my parents to go on a brief one day vacation to New York, where I REALLY REALLY REALLY need to get a new clarinet. Whenever I blow into my clarinet right now none of the air goes through, and sometimes no sound comes out. Which is why people were staring at me when I made mistakes in my solo for the chamber concert. >.>' I've been meaning to get a new clarinet for about a year now, but I just haven't had time to do so given the fact that we've had no days off for the entire year after Sandy came. Thanks, Sandy. </3

I also have TSA and FFF to work on. I barely started on my research proposal. SO MANY THINGS TO DO AND SO LITTLE TIME....Maybe if spring break was longer, I would rage less. :DD

Slice of Life #21 - That Feeling When You Swim Right

March 21st, 2013

When asked, many people say they exercise just for an extracurricular activity, or exercise because their parents make them do it. I exercise just because if I don't, I feel like a blob of fat. (very sentimental, I know...) After swimming almost continuously for almost seven years, I can't just stop...it makes me feel too unhealthy to stop, and it makes me feel so good when I do swim.

The last two weeks, I almost haven't touched the water at all, mostly due to no more practices since the season is over for me. I've been sitting at my desk doing homework or surfing the web most of the time--until yesterday, I couldn't stand it anymore. I legitamately felt like I was obese. Usually, I eat chocolate and sugary things, telling myself I'll exercise it off later anyway...but after realizing I haven't exercised for so long, it occured to me that I had probably gained about five hundred pounds. I'm not even someone who cares about how much I weigh (actually, I only gained about a pound). It's just that when I gain weight, it's harder to run or to move around. So, yesterday, I made my mom take me to the YMCA to practice by myself. :D

See, if you keep putting off exercising because you just feel to lazy, or you don't want to feel like caca in the water, the next time you DO swim, you feel even worse. So you have to get it over quickly. Whenever I start swimming again after, say, not swimming for a week or more, I'm extremely, extremely uncoordinated. When you're swimming the right way, you don't force yourself. You exert as little force as possible to go the longest distance. And I'm not saying that just because I'm lazy--doing this will both conserve energy for you during races, and make you feel more relaxed and less stressful. But to become more fluid in my movements, it usually takes about a half hour of continuous, jerky swimming.

I remember when I practiced the most and won the most races (when I was ten), I felt like a fish, like I was one with the water. This sounds really dramatic, but it's the best way I can describe it. I literally had to put almost no effort into moving my arms and legs, yet I got maximum propulsion. It's all about moving the right parts at the right time, and not kicking too hard. See, sometimes not putting a lot of effort into something is a good thing. xD

That's kind of part of the reason why I like fly so much. It comes naturally. Once you get the hang of it, it's the most fluid stroke; your body just curves and slides through the water. I just do whatever is easiest, which isn't always appealing to other people. For example, I swim with slightly bent elbows and slightly spread fingers, just because it's faster for me. My mom used to reprimand me, telling me to straighten my arms, because that's how everyone else did it. Well, according to recent revelations, my method was right all along. ^.^

Well, I have to practice more. It may or may not be the reason why I'm not winning as many races lately. Did I mention, winning is a great feeling, too? xD See, this is a video Tiffany recorded for me from shore conference (after I didn't practice for a while). It kind of explains why I'm first only for the first lap, and then I get really tired and I finish around fourth or fifth. The video only has the first 75 of the 100--I'm the person in the lane closest to the camera. Please don't laugh at my slowness. Also, the video's sideways; I didn't have enough time to rotate it. Sorry. xP

Slice of Life #20 - Overthinking Things

March 20th, 2013

As children, the people in my district were trained in school to pick the "best answer". As long as we could adequately defend our answer, we were right. This increased logic and problem solving for the kid, who often strained his mind to find an answer that logically fit the question. At the same time, I think it's turned all the Marlboro honors kids into the kids who overthink all the time (a lot of High Tech kids in general are like this). At Marlboro, we didn't really prepare for standardized testing much in middle school, so we weren't the best at taking them; we were a lot better at taking insanely hard science tests instead. :D This may or may not explain why I always get hundreds on hard tests, but get terrible grades on the extremely easy ones. On the easy ones, I don't trust myself, and go back to check the test and change some of my answers into the wrong ones.

My reading teacher used to tell us, "When you take the NJASK, please don't be dumbed down by the questions. The questions were not designed for you. Also, please, please, please DON'T OVERTHINK." Well, she told us the same thing right before our reading midtern. While there were kids in the school in average reading who got awesome grades, almost everyone in honors reading failed. Why? We overthought almost every single question. To us, all the answers of a multiple choice question were right. Sometimes, being in honors has its downfalls.

Now, since we've come to High Tech, the issue has expanded, at least for me. On history tests, I frequently get things wrong just because I convinced myself that TECHNICALLY, one of the wrong answers was right. I tell myself that why, WHY in the world, would a teacher make a problem so easy? This must be a trick question. Usually, I succeed in proving the original right answer wrong, and pick the wrong one. Then I get the question wrong. It turns out the teacher wanted to make the question easy. On these occasions I get quite frustrated.

Even MATH started to have more ambiguous answers. Math, which had always been the one subject that had certain, cut out answers. Even since we started chapter 6's experimental/observational study statistics, I always mix up the two. Math has started to integrate more and more logic and reading skills. For example, on the test we got back today, the question was:
Randomization is a key element of well-defined studies. Which best describes how randomization applies to a sample survey?
I was debating between:
A) A random sample is surveyed from the population studied
B) As possible, random samples can be selected from the groups being studied
At first, I chose A, the obvious answer. However, since I finished the test in 20 minutes I went back to check, and I ended up spending the rest of the test debating between A and B. I finally changed my answer to B.

My logic:
 - the question asks how randomization applies to a sample survey
 - sample surveys can include convenience, self select, systematic, and random samples.
 - therefore, there are some types (convenience, self select, and systematic) that DON'T use randomization
 - so the answer can't be so absolute. A must be wrong because it doesn't apply to convenience, self select, or systematic sample surveys.
 - B allows convenience, self select, or systematic surveys while also allowing random surveys

So apparently I overthought the question...when I tried to tell Dr. Eng how I did it:
Me: "...<everything I just said up there^^>..."
Dr. Eng: "...what?" <proceeds to explain again>
Me: "Butbutbut"
Dr. Eng: "You were the only person who put B." <Dr. Eng laugh>
Nick: "Ohhhh Vivian is a REBEL!"
Me: "Yes I am very special."
Dr. Eng: "I think you overthought the question."
Me: "Yeah, alright. Maybe I did....a little..."

Anywayssss that's what happens when I finish too early. xD

^This is so, so, so true...

Slice of Life #19 - So Mermaids are Real...?

March 19th, 2013

This blog post might seem really shallow and whimsical...in a way it is. I was really stressed out yesterday, and decided to take a break. So, I started searching the Internet for random things, and came across an article on mermaids. It claimed that mermaids are indeed real, and the government had found evidence of them ever since WWII. Of course, I was slightly wary at the credibility, but I assumed that if they actually did find mermaids, the mermaids would look like Ariel (something like that). However, when I dug deeper in and did more research, I was greatly disturbed.

Apparently, there's two sides to the debate. One side claims that from the evidence, mermaids DO exist, we just haven't met them face to face yet (except for one fateful event that I shall describe later). The other side, as usual, says it's all a consipracy theory and that the government had said already it wasn't true. However, the scary part was that I couldn't find any evidence for the second part (or it could be that I didn't spend much time researching this side...). Meanwhile, for the first side, I found loads of "evidence" that just made me even more scared.

So apparently real mermaids don't look like Ariel. What is this nonsense. xD

 

On Youtube, there is a video that seemed pretty credible and was posted by an organization (I forgot which one...I wish I had a better memory. But I think it was something affiliated with Animal Planet). Experts in marine life were interviewed, and some pointed out that during WWII, the government had been mapping sea life sounds. They were mainly doing it for humpback whales, but there was one sound called the "Bloop" that was apparently a mermaid. It was really, really, really scary, to say the least. It hasn't been attached to any known animal yet.

In the same video, there was a short film taken by two boys. It was really blurry, and it showed one boy walking along the beach, and kneeling down to poke a dead fish. Well, the "dead" fish had a human torso and picked itself up and screamed at him. I nearly had a heart attack watching that. Apparently they have recovered a body of a "mermaid" that really just looks like what I would have for dinner, except with a head and hair attached.

I really still don't think mermaids exist though...I don't know...this kind of proves why surfing the Web isn't always good. xP I think I'm going to have nightmares of screaming mermaids now. :D joyyyy

Go search this up yourself. Tell me what you think.

Slice of Life #18 - Bloodwork

March 18th, 2013

Bloodwork--the chilling word that gets me thinking about needles stabbing me, pain, and lots of blood coming out of my arm. I haven't actually had many bad experiences with bloodwork, though. Up until my last two visits, I was still considered a kid (hurray!), and they used butterfly needles instead of the real ones on me. These needles are really tiny, don't hurt that much going in, and have "wings" to cancel out any movement or jerking around of the needle.

However, during my last last visit, I went to a different facility to get my blood taken. They decided to use an adult needle on me. The person who took my blood also looked really young--almost like they hadn't graduated college yet. Anyways, she was really bad at it. Right when the needle went in, it started hurting like crazy. And, she decided to wiggle the needle around while she was at it. After 15 seconds of that, she decided she couldn't find any blood (seriously?? Even I can see my blood vein, it's pretty prominent after being stabbed at a couple hundred times). She decided to try again (yay...no.) and drew the needle out. It felt like someone was stabbing me repeatedly in the arm with a knife instead of just a needle...When she FINALLY got enough blood, my arm was throbbing.

sdlfkjdsj looks so scary :'(

So, today, when the guy doing my bloodwork asked me, "You're a pro at this now, right? You've done this a bunch of times." I answered, "Hm. Not really." It turns out he was pretty good at drawing blood, and it basically didn't hurt at all.

See, when I was a kid I wanted to donate my blood. You know, for leukemia patients, or for people with blood deficiencies, etc. etc. But, after hearing about how others almost fainted after donating too much blood, or thinking about reliving the experience with the amateur blood taker except for much longer, I decided to not donate my blood, at least not yet. I feel terrible, but I just can't stand making my arm a dartboard again.

Slice of Life #17 - My Audition Would Have Been Today

March 17th, 2013

If I hadn't moved my audition date, I would have went to Princeton in the morning, performed in front of a judge, and trudged out feeling like a failure. Thankfully, I had my audition moved to NEXT Sunday, and even though that's still not far off, it makes me feel better for one more week.

My worst experience with auditions was with my first one. My teacher was usually mean to me, and always picked favorites (I was pretty low on the totem pole). Her ultimate favorite was a boy, and whenever I came to a lesson, she would talk about how I stank at piano and how the boy was so much better than me. Well, audition time rolled around, and GUESS WHO GOT HIGH HONORS?? Me. >:D The boy got honorable mention. Or something like that... karmaaa Well, the teacher was angry at me (I don't even know why, I actually practiced a lot) and kept telling me:
"HOW did YOU get high honors while <boy's name> DIDN'T???" Thanks for the insult.

Ever since then, every year for the past five years I've high honors or honors. I would practice not that much over the course of the year, but then a week before the audition I would basically cram practice until I was literally banging my hands on the piano. What often stunk was that I would do fine, as in play both pieces almost perfectly--and then the day before the audition, BAM something would go wrong. My fingers would sometimes just fumble in the middle of a chromatic scale, or I would keep on forgetting one easy part. Usually, I would get everything straightened out and play a perfect or near perfect two pieces for the audition.

However....this year, I barely have had any time to practice. I've been trying to practice more now (since my audition is less than a week away). I'm not sure I'll make it this year--I probably won't. If I don't, I'd be mad at myself for breaking my streak. >.<'

If you make high honors, you usually perform here:


If you make honors, you perform here:

Slice of Life #16 - Kids These Days

March 16th, 2013

I have never realized the extent of variation in younger kids these days--until today. In Chinese school, I TA for a first grade class (hojoy). There's three categories of kids. One group is the kids who come to class every day with all their homework done, and can actually understand what the teacher is teaching. The other group is the kids who go to class having no idea whatsoever about what is going on. If you ask them a question about chinese in general, they will either stare at you blankly, stare at the ground blankly, or mumble something incoherent about how they like turtles too. These kids will sometimes dress up like diva queens. The third group is the kids who have to have their parents sit with them in class because they are hyperactive and will scream their heads off if they do not have adult supervision.

In my class, I am sorry to say, group 2 is prevalent by far. Today, there was a test, and I was in charge of grading the oral parts, where the kids had to read a pingyin passage out loud and I had to judge whether or not they said the words correctly. Forget that--the kids didn't even SAY anything, let alone say it correctly. Sometimes, it was really frustrating, but it felt wrong to get mad at the kids or say anything mean. So, even if a kid got every single word wrong, I still said, "Good job, you got an awesome score."

I don't think I remember ever being like that...but I mean, you can't blame the kids for not knowing anything. Being kids, they're bound to be hyperactive and not wanting to do their homework. I can only hope that later, they'll learn to work harder.

Slice of Life #15 - Worrying About School...Is It a Good Thing?

March 15th, 2013

If and when we ever write a handbook for the future generations of High Techers, the official preamble should really be this:
We the students of High Technology High School, in order to form a more perfect union, work too quickly, stay up past midnight, cram for tests, promote the general hysteria, and secure the blessings of paranoia  to ourselves and our classmates, do ordain and establish this "How to be a Nerd" handbook for all High Techers to ever come.

Despite the general truthfulness of this preable, sometimes we can't be too proud to be so panicky all the time.
Last night, I stayed up my latest ever yet--about 12:40 PM. My enitre family had gone to sleep already, and I was still studying for history. I didn't even procrastinate yesterday. I came home from school late because I had to do science league, and then after half an hour I left for orchestra. After coming home at 9:30, I shoved dinner into my mouth and went to work at 10:00. (I'm a slow eater. I can't help it. If I eat fast my stomach hurts). I had four quizzes to study for, including a biology quiz that I actually studied for this time. Usually I don't even have to, but this time I panicked, since the quiz was bound to have possible outcomes, which is related to math. My weakest point in math is possible outcomes.

Sometimes, I think High Techers worry too much about grades, myself included. I think part of it is the pressure--as you see others say they spent 3 hours studying for a history quiz, and you only studied for 20 minutes at home and 5 minutes on the bus (which is basically all the time you have) you can't help being at a disadvantage. So you stay up later. You remind yourself of the terrible grade you got on the last quiz and try to redeem yourself. You push yourself to study--but the next day, you're too tired to focus on the quiz. Even when you get a hundred, it's too late to push up your deathbound average. It's a depressing, negative cycle, giving you the feeling that one bad quiz grade is all it takes to bring you down. So we study more. And more. And more. Until we have dark circles under our eyes and almost fall asleep in math class even though the class is actually interesting. Our growth is impeded (especially for those of us who haven't started really growing yet, and were going to grow a lot in high school). We're stressed out from the sleep deprivation and the almost primal instinct to get a good grade. So sometimes, I can't help but think: what if we didn't have to do all of this?

Another point: In general, High Techers work too late, and too fast. During Latin class today, Magistra told us to work in groups and finish 3 tasks. In my group, Prashil and Elvis chattered away, having a good time, and recieving plenty of evil stares from Magistra. However, we did pay attention to the quality of our work. Although we finished about 5 minutes later than the other group, who zipped through everything, we goot more questions right. And when the other group got a question wrong, there was always one or two people who would say, "OH, I didn't get it wrong..." Because you weren't working with your group, people. Listen to directions! xD This might go against the divine laws of High Tech to work more slowly, but sometimes it's really necessary.

While we must be proud for our nerdiness, it comes with a hefty price. Students in other schools might not study or panic as much, and might not get as high grades as we do, but they often get more valuable things: health, family time, friend time, fun time. We push aside the things we really need because we're deluded into thinking grades are the only thing we need--it really saddens me to see this. My parents refer to the times when they were in high school. They tell me how easy their classes were, how they could fail as many quizzes they wanted, but as long as they knew the information well, they would get into an awesome college. But I have to say, "That was back then. It's different now." Then, of course, I go do my homework.

Slice of Life #14 - How to Stop Hiccups the Roche Way

March 14th, 2013

Hiccups: the things that singlehandedly annoy teachers, invite humorous remarks from friends, and make you feel awkward. I've always been prone to hiccups, especially whenever I'm hungry or tired. Other times, hiccups just consume me for no apparent reason. So, today, in biology, I was hiccupping. Incessantly. When Mr. Roche asked a question for another student, and the classroom became quiet, I hiccupped, loudly. Mr. Roche and I then had an extremely meaningful discussion which went something like this:

Mr. Roche: Vivian, would you like to know a way to stop hiccups?
Me: ....sure?
Mr. Roche: Well, you just bend over like this *bends over and puts his hands on his stomach* and say this *he says BLEURGGHHHHHHHH* That method has never failed me yet! Get up here and try it.
Me: I'd rather not, but thanks.
Mr. Roche: Fine. You can only hiccup three more times--after the three strikes are out, you stand up here and do what I just did. *smiles evilly*
Me: O.O''
Class: HICCUP VIVIAN HICCUP

People seem very eager for others to embarrass themselves xD
 Today was pi day too--when people got pies thrown at them today, everyone cheered (we are a very sadistical species...) I found this part extremely funny:

Pretend host: And NOW...surprise announcement: Mr. Olsen, please come up to be pied!
Mr. Olsen: What.
High-Techers: *stompingfeetandcheeringandclappingandshouting"
Mr. Olsen: *gets up and starts walking towards host*
High-Techers: *SCREAMINGHYSTERICALLYINJOY*
Host: Mr. Olsen is a brave man! Cheer for him!
Mr. Olsen: *speedwalks out of MPR*
High-Techers: *boooooooooohisssssss*

Slice of Life #13 - Pulling Weeds and Relieving Stress

March 13th, 2013

Today was one of the rare days where I actually had time to go outside, exercise (aka take a short walk) and do other miscellaneous things. It felt really nice to enjoy fresh air, after breathing stale air in a school or house 24/7. However, after my walk, I saw something that made my blood boil: a weed.

Usually, I don't care much about weeds--I think that as a society, they're undervalued, seen as trespassers or terrible plants coming to destroy the World Of Our Beautiful Immaculate Lawns. Most of the time, they're pretty, with brightly colored flowers that light up your front lawn instead of making it look ugly. Today, I guess I was feeling both angry at my grades and at these ugly, yellow, giant weeds just killing the dandelions growing next to them. (Some weeds are better than others).

If problems had hair, the hair would be the weeds I saw today. A weird analogy, I know, but all the stress I've been feeling the past month to finish projects, etc., has really took my toll. That toll must be pretty big if I think weeds are hair, now that I think about it... When I couldn't yank out the weeds on my first try, I actually tried to use my stored energy from my last swim practice (long, long, ago.....like 2 weeks ago) to keep pulling. However, the roots of the problems (hahahapunny) were too deep, and I went to get a weed fork.

After repeatedly stabbing at the roots, I got one weed out--it was probably the most satisfying, happy, and disgusting part of my WEEK, let alone my day. It felt great to yank one of the ugly plants out. When I was little, my guidance counselor used to tell my class, "When some people get angry, they take it out by ripping paper. Others scribble. Others read." And I yank weeds! I'm so special.

 

It felt like I had actually pulled out my problems. I moved onto the next one (divide and conquer!!), and pulled that one out, too. In the end, I had pulled out 3 weeds with roots that were half a foot deep. Remarkably, I don't feel that stressed anymore. Some of you should try pulling out weeds when you're angry, too; after doing so, you feel better, and your yard is not being taken over by ugly weeds anymore. You'll make more space for pretty weeds, which DO, contrary to popular belief, deserve a place in this world ;D

 

A picture of the weeds I pulled out:





Slice of Life #12 - Sadness :'(

March 12th, 2013

Over the years, I've realized a pattern: your saddest day always comes right after your best day. To me, I think that it must be because during your best day, you feel like you can do anything, you actually feel smart or likeable for once, or you feel some of the stress lift off your shoulders. It could be a day of vacation, where you spend all your time swimming at an awesome beach, or a day where you just spend some time with family and friends having fun. Then, the worst day comes right after--the day where something really bad does happen, but it's made all the worse by the fact that you're still sitting on your silver-lined cloud. It hurts to be dragged down so quickly and suddenly. If life was a swing-- if you fall and crash on a normal kick up, you might get bruises. If you find the energy to swing higher and higher, when you crash you might have broken bones and a concussion, to put it bluntly.

I first realized this after I read Looking for Alaska, by John Green. For example, Alaska says that her best day was when her mother was alive. She and her mother went to the zoo, where they looked at giraffes and monkeys, and basically had an awesome mother-daughter bonding experience. Her worst day came right after--her mother was killed in a car crash, and Alaska was left wishing for the times when she had looked at the monkeys with her mother.

When I came to High Tech, I was elated. To be frank, I never thought I would have been smart enough to get in. However, I had a fairly sad day right after (not the worst) where I realized that the competition level at High Tech is insanely high. I even spent a couple of days asking myself if it would have been a better choice to go to Science and Engineering. After all, my friends over there said that there was basically no competition other than those who went to my school.

I had another one of my worst days today. It feels terrible to finally, finally, be on the biology science league team--and then be told that after all, you didn't make it. I'm not saying it was anyones fault. It was no one's fault except mine. The teacher just made a mistake putting my name on the team list, and Kathryn really deserved that spot. If I really were to make it, I should have scored higher. In the meantime though, I gave up my alternate position to someone else. Hopefully they'll be happy ;D

Slice of Life #11 - Drawing in Math, and Are Beans Dicots??

March 3rd, 2013

Alright, for those of you who were showing off your beautiful drawings done on the whiteboard in math class, our class is clearly more artistically talented >:D <hairflip> just kidding. However, you have to admit that today, our drawings were very creative. EXTREMELY creative, I should put it. These pictures were taken by Amanda. The first one features her catchphrase: "Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows" with a picture of a unicorn that I drew in 2 seconds ^.^ so, please do not criticize my hastily drawn unicorn.

There were also several other pictures on the board, some of which featured coconut trees dropping their coconuts on poor people and giving them concussions (I am referring to you, Nivetha). However, within a minute of drawing my beautiful unproportional unicorn, William saw it. And when William sees it, everything changes. For the worse. DUN DUN DUNNNNN

Basically, this is what happened:

Moral of lesson: do not let William near your drawings, unless if you want him to turn them into afro unicorns ;D

Another interesting part of today: we had a strange discussion during lunch after the biology tryouts test. We talked about

• how beans are actually dicots, not monocots. Who would've known that!?!? Whenever I eat a bean, I can never split them. The bean just mushes up. It might be that I'm just eating abnormal beans though...very likely....
• how we were such strange kids in middle school. Brandon, Andrew, and I talked about old teachers (cry. cry. want to visit them.) and how much they taught us, as well as strange moments in class. The whole time, Kathryn sat by having no idea what we were talking about. I'm sorry Kathryn...next time you can tell us about Manalapan!! :D

Slice of Life #10 - My Sister's JOs

March 10th, 2013

This weekend, my little sister Kelly went to swimming JO's--or in other words, junior olympics. It's quite difficult to make them (usually around 3 or 4 people per age group in each team make it). I've only ever made it twice (all for fly, of course ;D) and skipped one of them to go on vacation. Going to JOs is an occasion which justifies buying a 40 dollar sweater to commemorate your success.

However, Kelly's definitely a lot faster than I was at her age. She's undergone much more rigorous training, partially due to the other competitors in her age group. There's at least 5 other kids her age who take 3 private lessons a week and go to six practices a week. Under the pressure to do well, my sister has gone to most practices (something I consider a feat since I only go twice a week). She does not take 3 private lessons a week. And yet, somehow, she's one of the fastest kids in her swim group--she routinely gets 1st place or 2nd place in her events (I can only ever do that for my heat, I've only got 1st a couple of times in an event). She qualified for JOs for 8 events. Although she didn't do that well at the meet this weekend, I was still amazed that she made so many. After all, it's usually the Red Bank kids who make that many events.

Slice of Life #9 - Sleeping In

March 9th, 2013

Back in 7th and 8th grade, I would always rely on my weekends to sleep in. However, ever since 9th grade started, I became too busy during the weekend to sleep in. I have chinese school on Saturday morning, then I have piano lessons on Sunday morning. I usually have to wake up by 8:30 on Saturday and 9:30 on Sunday--so no more sleeping in. But, today, chinese school was cancelled (YAYYY), so I was fortunately able to sleep until 10:30. I was so happy....the bad news: I still had a lot of work. The good news: I do not feel like falling on my face and going to sleep on my desk while typing up this blog post. :) Thankfully, I did not feel like this:

This year, I was really looking foward to spring break, during which I was planning to sleep in every day to make up for my sleep deprivation accumulated over the year. But, Superstorm Sandy just HAD to come along and make spring break only 5 days. We can't even do anything given only 5 days...Washington DC, Busch Gardens, or Hershey Park? Apparently they're too far away and would take up too much of the 5 days. My sister has tried to persuade my family to go to Great Wolf Lodge (apparently it's some famous kids swim resort? Or something like that?) but I still can't understand what's so good about it.

Slice of Life #8 - Where was the delayed opening?

March 8th, 2013

My mom woke me up 10 minutes later than usual because she was certain we were going to have a delayed opening, but after calling William's mother, apparently William's bus had already picked him up. I was basically told to brush my teeth and take out my contact lenses as quickly as possible, and to cram food in my mouth. Fun.
As I was eating, I couldn't help being shocked that we didn't have a snow day, or at least a delayed opening. The bamboo plants in my backyard (which grow in a cluster and usually stand perfectly straight) were literally pushed all the way to the ground by the snow. According to my experience, this only happens when:
1) There is a LOT of snow.
or
2) There is really heavy snow.
Either way, it's an occasion for a delayed opening--I highly suspect today was a case of the latter, where the snow was really thick and wet. Anyways, my always reliable bus driver (ahermherm) decided to come even later than usual. Usually, she picks me up at 7:25, which is 15 minutes before school starts, and then she speeds to get to school right at 7:40. Of course, after repeated calls to the school, nothing changed. Oh, well. She must have her reasons. But today? I waited in Brians car until 7:40 (which was when school was SUPPOSED to start), and we made up our minds that she pretty much wasn't going to bother coming. So, we were driven to school by Cynthia's dad (who ALSO didn't realize we had school today xD).
While we were driving to school, I couldn't help but marvel at the white that covered the trees--it was immaculate, a natural lace being formed out of the countless branches weaving through one another. I would never be able to paint something like it: the grayish, bluish tint of the snow, the small snowflakes trickling from the sky, the half brown, half blanketed with white branches of the trees. In basic words, it was breathtakingly beautiful--I had one of those moments where tests, quizzes, and other usually important parts of our lives were trivial matters compared to the vast expanses of nature.

Slice of Life #7 - Careless Mistakes...Why!?

March 7th, 2013

 

As all we Algebra 2 people know, we got our math quizzes back today. I'm very sorry to say that while many people probably got hundreds, I got a fairly stinky grade that ruined my day. Why, you may ask? The usual answer: careless mistakes.

Originally, I thought I was going to fail this quiz because it was on combinations and permutations (I am really bad at them. This might explain why I'm not the best at competition math xD). It turns out, I actually figured all the problems out and made just one mistake, which wasn't even on the stuff I wasn't sure of. Dr. Eng had included some of the Chapter 5 extensions, including the inequality problems. Apparently, I had calculated everything right up until the one fateful line:
x(x-1)
Guess what I distributed that into?
x^2-1
Yes. I know. I'm having one of those moments where I want to go bang my head against the wall and then eat ice cream. It sometimes hurts knowing that while you knew how to do everything, you still don't get a hundred because of some stupid mistake you made that cost you about 5 points.
For
every
single
quiz
or
test
this
year
that
I
didn't
get
a
hundred
on
it
was
because
of
a
careless
mistake.
RAGEEEEEEE

Slice of Life #6 - The Swimming Banquet

March 6th, 2013

I came home relatively late today (about 15 minutes ago), and realized I still had a lot of homework to do. But from 6:00 to 9:00, I went to the Marlboro swimming banquet, which you might have heard about from Tiffany's post.
To this event (which I thought was semiformal), I wore a decent cardigan and jeans. Little did I know that it was supposed to be some extremely fashionable, formal event, where all the girls wore short dresses and high heels. So, when I walked up to get my varsity letter, people stared at me strangely. When I came back, Priscilla looked at me and said something along the lines of, "Well, that was awkward." #TheWiseWordsofPriscilla
There also happened to be no dancing whatsoever (which was fine with me) and a lot of food (even better). Basically, there was the appetizer, which was really delicious deviled eggs, which I usually find repulsive, and fresh tomatoes and bread. The main course was pasta, STUFFED SHELLS <3, broccoli, and french fries, among other great things. Desert, always the most important, was ice cream with lots of unhealthy toppings like M&Ms and chocolate sprinkles and rainbow sprinkles and cherries and whipped cream and chocolate drizzle :D Of course I applied all of them.
Later, I was trying to take pictures of Tiffany and Priscilla (all to no avail). I did get some pictures, but I will not post them here for 2 main reasons:
       1) They will yell at me for the rest of the school year.
       2) They're all pictures of them covering their faces with their hands or phones. It's not very good quality.
But the banquet did provide the highlights of my day--I found out that my 100 fly had made 3rd place in Marlboro Swimming history!!! :DDD (that really isn't much of an achievement, but it was pretty exciting compared to the tests I've taken this week. Plus, I got agitated that my coach put on the slower, older time. Sigh). And congrats to Tiffany, who got 3rd place too in backstroke! :D
Anyways. Does anyone know how to order a varsity jacket? I kind of want one (they look so comfortable, even though Priscilla says I would look "strange" in them xD).

Slice of Life #5 - My Comfort Food

 March 5th, 2013

 

I can't help but realize that half my blog posts are about food...nevermind.

But I have to say, an integral part of my life is Honeynut Cheerios. Not just Cheerios. HONEYNUT Cheerios. It's my comfort food--or in other words, it's the food I turn to when I'm depressed about something, generally sad about my day, etc. etc.

So today I was feeling terrible; when I came home I almost immediately reached for my Honeynut Cheerios. And of course, I was feeling pretty much all better after eating a bowl ;D
Also: I have to rant on how people like cereal like Fruit Loops or Lucky Charms. Why, why in the world would you ingest sugar every day? Especially when the sugar is from something that tastes terrible? Basically all the kids' cereals (Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, Frosty Flakes, etc.) taste way too sweet for me. Lucky Charms, in particular, is not very appealing. If I take out all the marshmellows (regular marshmellows taste good, Lucky Charms marshmellows are basically 100% sugar) then it tastes alright. But I seldom go through all the trouble.
Meanwhile, adult cereal (diet cereal, sporting tabs that say "LIGHTLY SWEETENED" or "NO SUGAR!") tastes terrible as well, perhaps even more terrible. Cereal needs to be sweet--but not overly sweet, like Fruit Loops. Diet cereal just tastes bland.
Even now, I'm munching on Honeynut Cheerios as I type; the honey just makes it all the more awesome. :)



Slice of Life #4 - What I had for lunch today...

March 4th, 2013

It's horrible, the kinds of things people feed to poor schoolchildren. In elementary school, it was yellow, mushy carrots and stale mash potatoes, and the only thing to look forward to was a slushie (for 2 dollars). Of course, they decided to take that away too. Middle school was slightly better--if you got the server lady to like you she would heap your plate with spaghetti ;D
And then high school came. College food costs about twice as much as middle school food, and we get half the food we got in middle school. One serving of tater tots has about 8 tater tots--and costs $1.50
Meanwhile, in middle school we spent a dollar for about 20 tater tots or a sleeve of fries. Of course, I ordered tater tots today, because I was too scared to order soup or pizza....For all you guys that go to HTHS, you know how scary ordering soup is.

 

Meanwhile, pizza is never a good choice. True, sometimes it actually looks and tastes like pizza. However, on some select days, the pizza turns out strange. For those of you who sit at my lunch table: Remember those times when my pizza was all yellow and had no sauce? And remember that time when the pizza wasn't cooked enough and the dough was still able to be kneaded? The good old days of terrible pizza.



 If you have any complaints about your lunches or past lunches, please comment. :D

Slice of Life #3 - Pepperoni Pizza

March 3rd, 2013

The mundane art of having lunch just became even more mundane for me. This was made possible by the infamous pepperoni pizza, a food that is a desecration in the hallowed halls of food.
After I came home from my piano class (at which my teacher made us pay another 10 dollars, for what I don't know) I found out that my mother had already ordered pizza for lunch. I opened the box, hoping to find mushroom pizza or plain pizza.

But of course, my hopes and dreams were shattered. Because, oh, THE HORRORS, there was pepperoni pizza.

Just to make myself clear, I consider pepperoni pizza terrible. Well, at some places, pepperoni pizza can be quite delicious--but it's not very good when you get it from Marlboro Pizza. Or basically anywhere that serves its pizza topped with about ten gallons of orange oil.
I think my distaste started back in middle school, when my friend used to buy pepperoni pizza every other day--and then she would get a napkin, lay it on top of the pizza, and sop up all the oil. Within two minutes, that napkin would be saturated, so we would have to get 2 or 3 more to reduce the oil amount to a decent amount. Okay, I might be exaggerating. We usually only used 2 napkins. Same thing. xD
Whenever I go to the mall, I get plain pizza, and people always look at me like I'm weird. They order pizza salad (pizza with salad on top? ._.) or pizza pasta (pizza with pasta on top? .________.) or something else that's really pizzare. <--That was a typo, but I will not fix it because it turned out to be a pun. :D
But pepperoni--why? You taste all spicy and slimy and ughhhh. I usually pick you off my pizza. WHY MUST YOU TASTE SO TERRIBLE!?

Slice of Life #2 - Sleep Deprivation

March 2nd, 2013

Usually, I go to bed at a decent time--but that doesn't mean I'll go to sleep. I'll TRY, of course, because sleep is great, but previous occurences or regrets that day keep messing around with my head. So yesterday, I ended up going to sleep after midnight.
I don't know if I'm the only person who experiences something like this. Yesterday, I came home from school particularly tired, hoping I could go to sleep early that night. But, it seems like the more tired I am, the harder it is to fall asleep. There wasn't even that much homework last night.
However, on the days that we DO have homework, I think mainly of what my doctor and school nurse tell me. "You must have at least 8 hours of sleep for your body to grow properly." Well, I guess that explains why I'm so short xD Short people, do not despair--"Tall plants might be uglier..."-Mr. Roche
^That was not an insult to tall people.

Sleep deprivation also leads to stress (this was a major theme of my musings from last night). Although I tried to force myself to sleep, the more I thought, the less sleepy I was. When I woke up today and went to chinese school, I was even more awkard than usual. (For those of you who saw me, I copied the wrong number of papers, I walked into a lady's chair, and for some reason I let 2 people cut me in the copying machine line.)
Another thing: I was so tired I didn't even feel like going to swim practice today. Even though I'm seriously out of shape...

Slice of Life #1 - Recent Woes

MARCH 1ST, 2013

If one simply stepped up to a High Tech student and asked him/her what was the worst thing about their day, I can guarantee that most students would either say, "The horrible quiz/test I took today" or "Nothing, really." (Note: those who do not mention quizzes or tests probably did not have a quiz or test that day. Which is extremely unlikely.) I will dedicate this post to the terrible past week, chock full of tests, quizzes, and projects.
While I'm hearing great news all around me ("VIVIAN! GUESS WHAT! I GOT INTO S&E AND MEDSCI!" congrats, by the way, to all the people I know who made it into the schools they applied to :D), I am remorsefully staring at my computer watching a pitiful slump of my GPA. It might have just been me, but I started my third marking period pretty badly. The first week was basicaly cramming, handing in one project after another, and then the second week was handing in another 5 assignments within the first two days and then studying for about a million quizzes. I'm sorry if I complain too much, I just had to let off some steam :'(

Then after studying for those quizzes and tests, I epic fail all of them. Alright, maybe not literally, but I Asian failed --according to the wise words of Tom Li, I "will bring great shame to my famiwy!" Ask Tom if you don't understand.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who's depressed (short sidetrack here): in Latin today, Nivetha was sprawled out on her desk, being generally depressed, while Prashil and Elvis were making faces. Of course, it was incredibly funny and Nivetha eventually laughed. But, Nivetha soon got mad at us for ruining her depression, and went back to being sad. I'm sorry for ruining your depression, Nivetha. I sincerely apologize. :(
I think part of the reason many people epic failed (of course, excluding the couple of you who got hundreds on everything. * SHUN T.T *) is sleep deprivation resulting from working continuously on one project after another. Another reason was very well likely the fact that I stink a lot at drawing auxiliary views--and I found out right as I was taking the test. ANOTHER reason I did poorly on my history quiz might have been that I did not learn from my past mistakes and still changed 2 of my answers at the last second. Of course, these were the two questions I got wrong. It figures.
Anyways...I hope the marking period improves in terms of better assessment grades. :) Wallowing in despair won't help much.