Nothing Cool This Week

WHOA, what a stupid week for me.

During my school's Arbor Day, all I really could do was serve food at my school's Pancake Breakfast. So, I was up bright and early on a SATURDAY doing this, and I hoped to plant a tree right after. No, the event takes up all my time till noon and I don't get to plant a tree! There goes my one green thing a year. I couldn't even paint a garbage can... c'mon. But the food was good, so I suppose you can say its worth it.

Then, at the Leo's club, I sign up for this Hep B awareness thing. So I personally think it's cool. I don't really know much about Hep B, except for that it affects 1 in 10 Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders. So, since it involves me I really should be concerned ehh? Well, I have nothing to do with it right now, except for a team of people who wanna help. Hopefully we'll have something to do soon!

Well, first, I have this PreCal quiz. So its pretty big for me, because my quiz grade is a 79% and I need anything, like even a B, just to move up the 1% and get an A- overall in the grade. Well, I'm sure I did my hyperbola problem completely wrong, so there goes that chance.

Then, in swimming, nothing cool really came out. Todays meet against Aragon, I swam the 200 free and the 100 fly. No Personal Records, and a lot of disappointment for me. Added quite a bit of time today. The pool was nasty too, really dense water - thats a first!

Chem, you can say, was actually fun this week. We melted glass and use those high powered air nozzles for a change.

iProposeWe Make Slime

I propose we make SLIME!

This is part of my chem class today: making up a lab. Whoot!

Making Slime

Materials:

• Borax Powder
• Water
• 4 ounces (120 mL) of Elmer's Glue
• Teaspoon
• Bowl
• Jar or Measuring Cup
• Food Coloring (optional)
• measuring cup

Safety Precautions: Wear Goggles! You are playing with dangerous chemicals. Eating the slime is toxic for you. The slime cleans up easily, just remove the dried slime after soaking it with water. The more you play with the slime, the harder it will get. Store the slime in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to prevent mold from forming.

Procedure:

1. Pour the glue into the jar.
2. Add about half a cup of water into the empty glue bottle and stir.
3. (Optional) Add food coloring.
4. In a separate jar, mix a cup of water with a teaspoon of borax powder.
5. Slowly stir the glue mixture into the borax solution.
6. Put the forming slime into your hand and slowly knead it until it feels dry.

Scientific Purposes:

1. To make and mix solutions and mixtures
2. To make a chemical reaction
3. To observe the weird properties of slime

To see this in action, watch this YouTube video.

SPRING BREAK

Portland, Seattle, Vancouver ---> ROADTRIP.
It was pretty fun. Got to shop, got to see family, got to play. Perfect. It was a fast week, sadly, and I neither swam nor slept in. Bummer. But fun. Lotsa food. So much food in fact that I now have a "muffin top" when I wear my speedo. Gross. Not a serious one, but noticeable from where I stand! But reality is, no swimming, no burning, FAT.

Well, this Chemistry Review Packet has been a killer. So much that I forgot. Well, STAR TESTING continues next week, not a lot of fun ehh?

Finished Breaking Dawn today. Best out of the four books. Finally, a good insight on being a vampire and what not. Too much sex though, but ehh, at least they waited till marriage? Anyways, interesting book. The dialogue at the end between them and the Volturi was epic. Loved it. Good series in terms of the plot, but I think a rather sucky book to read. Like the TIME magazine, I suggest you skim it, but read the really good parts. You'll know where they are.

Hey, also got to read a bit of Green Lantern comics at my cousin's house. He has a great collection. I love Green Lantern though I don't know much about it. Cool though, and pretty gory but epic.

Test Day

So, the test is over. Hooray. Once again, so many questions I jitter as i sit in my seat filling out the scantron. I really hate scantrons, they bother me because i hate how you make slash marks instead of bubbling in. Bubbling in is fun and relaxing and stuff, but making lines is just too complicated and weird for me. I don't know, I just guess I'm weird anyways.

We finally beat a team, Westmoor. WHOOT. About time. So nice races. My shoulder hurt so I couldn't really do much, but I did the best I could for my team so I guess I did ok.

I finished New Moon today. Greatish. Don't really like the middle with Bella and Jacob. I think I'm team Edward because Edward as a vampire is just cool, ya know? No sleep, forever young, flawless. Yes. I want to be just like that. But a werewolf where I always gotta strip and run like a dog.... cool to have the muscles and stuff but not me. Well, I picked up Eclipse and Breaking Dawn from my friends today, but my friend put me on this scavenger hunt because he was mad that I was reading it. Yes, I admit, Twilight is kind of a girly book. Interesting plotline none the less. Anyways, I hate scavenger hunts, but I finally got them back right before SPRING BREAK!

Week Full of Meets

So, this week has been filled with meets for me. Right now, my body feels like it's dead! This weekend was my SOLO meet. I made all personal records, making an amazing 55.9 on my 100 free sprint. One of my goals is to reach the JO time, which is 53, and according to my goal plan, I'm right on track! Two other astounding achievements: a 4:57.9 (under 5 minutes!!) in the 400 IM and a 1:12.9 in my 100 breaststroke event. They're all amazing times which i hope to continue breaking. This totally remotivated me for a while, because high school swimming has been kind of a drag compared to awesome club swimming!

Today I had my first official high school swim meet against Carlmont. As a sophomore against a varsity team of juniors and seniors, I did pretty well! Well, the glory's not the same as being a freshmen, like I was last year. I basically made life best times today even though I wasn't feeling so great. So, my 200 free event I made a life best time compared to what I swam at the better pool in SOLO. So, that was great. Also, because I didn't do so well in my 200 free event at SOLO, I learned one very big lesson - DON'T HOLD BACK, which I quickly learned, leading me to the record SOLO meet times I wrote up there. Anyways, I beat my swim buddy, but he still has a faster time than me. Props to him!! Also, shout out to this girl on my team. I think she will read it and know this is for her. Rumor has it that she, who has been swimming a bagillion years longer than me, has an eye out for a 1:12 on the 100 breaststroke. I hope she gets it because she's one of the amazing swimmers I've been watching and learning from!! Well, back to me swimming. I had the 200 IM right after the 200 free, so I was crazy tired. The first 50 fly was ok, but then in back I was losing it. I gave up in breast, took it sorta easy in the first lap of free. Then I found one of my teammates losing it there, so I went turbo and finished with a life best time. I can go faster, and dang, that was me when I was tired!

In the end, we all swam well, and as our former coach last year said: "Based on times, not bad for a first meet." Our JV team has a TON it needs to work on, so I hope they improve!!

Bummer, I lost my ASB election. Oh well, I'm just going to reapply for Leadership and hope for the best!

Well, to the main point of this blog, chemistry. The test was ridiculously easy. There were a couple things I didn't get, but I'll still have an A in the class anyways. We've moved onto stuff about Pressure and Gasses. Its really confusing and our labs lately have not been working. Well, another fun filled week of chemistry! Honestly, I think this blog should be called "Swimming..." or something, because all I can cough up about is swimming more than chemistry!

Equlibira What?

So now we're doing stuff with equlibrium and stuff, about how gas changes in concentration when you add more moles of gas or change the temerature or pressure. Ok, so so far I get how by adding more moles of reactants you get more moles of products. But I have no idea what is going on with the pressure and temperature. I really don't get it, and I need help quick. I'm lucky enough to not have school tomorrow - teacher's work day or whatever - so my test is on Friday. But still, not enough time to understand what we're doing.

A Heck of a Week

Last Saturday was my birthday. My sixteenth in fact. You know how people have their fabulous "sweet sixteens" with some sorta party and everything goes right. Well, nothing happened to me at all. I usually am not much of a birthday person, I think it's really embarrassing to have happy birthday sung to me and all, but this year i actually wanted a little party and all. But my parents never asked so I didn't hold one. They ask every year except for this one. Thanks mom and dad. Better yet, they don't even SAY happy birthday to me. Come on, some of my friends bothered to call me, but of course they didn't, my own parents. I also specifically told them what kinda cake I wanted, but of course they get me the wrong one. I wanted a vanilla buttercream chocolate cake, no fruits. It's really a simple cake they coulda gotten at the local Safeway. Really, that's all I wanted.

No.

Instead, they give me this crazy cake from Satura, a day after my birthday. It was a medium sized, chocolate mousse cake. Once again, my mom only hears the half of what i tell her. Typical of my parents.

Yea, I'll admit to anyone who reads this, I think I'm pretty depressed about it. Well, not in any serious way! My parents now are trying to make it up to me, my mom at least. My dad is mad at me, but whatever, I'm sick of this on and off relationship with him so now i just say to myself that I have nothing to say to him and only ask him for rides and stuff. Seriously, my parents can't do anything to fix up what they've done for my "sweet sixteen". Now, I can only wonder what I'm gonna tell people years from now when they ask what I've done for my sixteenth birthday.

Swimming isn't as interesting for me anymore. Swimming at the Mills Pool is really hard. My jammer tan is going nowhere, not even a shade better than I started with three or four weeks ago. I'm trying to be hopeful for the Solo Club Meet this weekend. I'm gonna see all my buddies from BAC! Thats a good thing.

I'm having an obsession to watch Code Geass again. Its really cool, and I enjoy it. Its one of two animes that I like to watch. I hear they're coming up with a new season, possibly in a different time place but with the same basic plot. Hey, as long as it's got the Holy Britannian Empire and Knightmare Frames, I'm good.

Finally, the main event of this week's blog: chemistry. We're doing thermochemistry. It's all about this great equation Q=MC(delta)T. I honestly don't get it and I'm struggling through it. Its all about how stuff is heated and cooled and releases energy and what not. Its great. Got a test next Friday, you should know the drill by now. Enough said. You can figure the rest of my chem life out now.

'Til next week!