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. :)