I realized today that I never posted last week. Once again, I'm not sure if I can make it up by doing double, but I will do it anyways.
In orchestra and Davis Youth Symphony I feel like I need to practice more, but have made some improvements. When I first started DYS I looked at the music and thought: this is going to be so hard... Now, I almost play through all the songs completely without stopping or messing up too badly. For the school orchestra, I have a concert on the 15th at Davis High. The songs aren't too hard and it should go well.
In Seminary, I just started this list of 101 services I can do over the holidays to earn a pin. I plan on doing it, but I think it will definitely be a challenge to complete all of them. I did 1 of them in class today, so 100 left to do.
The unit of math that we are doing right now looks pretty complex, but it's the only one so far that I feel like I've understood and followed along with perfectly from the beginning (ignoring the reviews that we did at the beginning of the year). It's complex fractions and involves solving fractions within fractions. It seems, this year, that I'm using everything I've ever learned in math.
Manufacturing seems to be getting faster each day. I feel like I'm getting less and less done each day. I'm building a headboard of my own design and it's quite a long process. Making each separate piece alone takes up about half my working time each day. I'm starting to worry about finishing it before the term is over.
I almost forgot about Science Olympiad. I made the varsity team, although the two teams aren't going to be called "varsity" and "junior varsity". On the test that we took to try out for the team, the scores were very close and the people who made the varsity team only did a little bit better than the one's who didn't. So now, varsity will now be called the "Blue team" and the junior varsity will be called the "White team". Both teams will compete at District and Regional, but at the State competition our coach is still unsure whether or not if the white team will be able to earn medals along with the blue team. Also, our head coach says that if the white team does better than the blue team then they will be the ones who go to nationals and not us. I think that this will maybe turn the two teams against each other because they both want to go to Florida (which is where the National tournament will be held). In my opinion though, I think the blue team will do better and go to nationals but you can't be completely sure. We'll see.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
IF
This is the poem I did for 1st term, and I thought I'd see if I still remember it.
If
by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowances for their doubting too
If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting
or being lied about, don't deal in lies
or being hated, don't give way to hate
and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise
If you can dream and not make dreams your master
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with both triumph and disaster
and treat those two imposters just the same
If you bear to hear the truths you've spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
or watch the things you gave your life to
broken, and stoop and build em' up with worn out tools
If you can make a heap of all your winnings
and risk it all in one turn of pitch and toss
and lose and never breath a word about your loss
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve their turn long after you are gone
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
except the will which says to them: Hold on!
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
or walk with kings nor lose the common touch
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you
If men count with you but none too much
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distance run
Yours is the Earth and everthing that's in it,
and, whats more, you'll be a man my son
If
by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowances for their doubting too
If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting
or being lied about, don't deal in lies
or being hated, don't give way to hate
and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise
If you can dream and not make dreams your master
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with both triumph and disaster
and treat those two imposters just the same
If you bear to hear the truths you've spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
or watch the things you gave your life to
broken, and stoop and build em' up with worn out tools
If you can make a heap of all your winnings
and risk it all in one turn of pitch and toss
and lose and never breath a word about your loss
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve their turn long after you are gone
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
except the will which says to them: Hold on!
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
or walk with kings nor lose the common touch
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you
If men count with you but none too much
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distance run
Yours is the Earth and everthing that's in it,
and, whats more, you'll be a man my son
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Poems
Here are a few poems by Robert Frost I found interesting:
I believe this one is talked about in the book The Outsiders -
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
This poem is the one for English class that I have to memorize, so I'm typing it like the last one to help me memorize it.
A Psalm of Life - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! -
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hears, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
I believe this one is talked about in the book The Outsiders -
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
This poem is the one for English class that I have to memorize, so I'm typing it like the last one to help me memorize it.
A Psalm of Life - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! -
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hears, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
To Kill A Mockingbird and other books
This term, for Honors English, we've been asked to read To Kill A Mockingbird and Walk Two Moons. For science, I also have to read either Shackleton's Stowaway, Into Thin Air, or The Perfect Storm. I haven't yet decided which to read. I chose to read To Kill A Mockingbird first because I knew that I already owned a copy.
To Kill A Mockingbird has been an "okay" book so far. I really like the main character, Scout, though. She is more of a tomboy and doesn't really like doing girl stuff. She gets into fights and plays boys games, and her two best friends are her brother and a boy named Dill.
This book is set soon after the Civil War and life is different from how we know it now. The education system was very old, and was just coming around to changing. Scout has to deal with her odd neighborhood, school, and her family. As I read it, I can just imagine how things felt for her. With the details, you can see each expression and feeling. It sort of reminds me of how a child thinks, seeing it through the eyes of Scout.
To Kill A Mockingbird has been an "okay" book so far. I really like the main character, Scout, though. She is more of a tomboy and doesn't really like doing girl stuff. She gets into fights and plays boys games, and her two best friends are her brother and a boy named Dill.
This book is set soon after the Civil War and life is different from how we know it now. The education system was very old, and was just coming around to changing. Scout has to deal with her odd neighborhood, school, and her family. As I read it, I can just imagine how things felt for her. With the details, you can see each expression and feeling. It sort of reminds me of how a child thinks, seeing it through the eyes of Scout.
Monday, November 7, 2011
1st term......now 2nd
I forgot to post last week, and I'm not sure if I am allowed to make it up but I'm going to do double this week anyways.
1st Term was pretty good. I've met so many new people and I barely scraped out a 4.0 GPA while keeping up with NAL, Orchestra, and Davis Youth Symphony. Some of the things that I wished I had done differently was maybe go to more after school programs. I didn't go to a single volleyball game, and now will never be able to go to one as a student at my school. I also missed concerts for band and rhapsody.
For Honors English I barely made it. I was supposed to read The Yearling for the term and that was the only reading assignment. It's over 400 pages and takes a while to get through. Well, I pretty much forgot about it til the last week of the term. I got it on Monday and told myself to read it. I, of course, waited til Wednesday to really get a start on it. I practically read the whole thing in 2 days, most of it on that Thursday. That was a disaster. I was up so late doing that.
2nd Term I think is going to be more hectic. Science Olympiad is just starting up and is going to start taking up my time. Some things I need to work on include: REMEMBERING TO POST ON THIS EVERY WEEK, practicing for orchestra, and reading. For English, this term, we have to read To Kill A Mockingbird and Walk Two Moons. I'm already about 50 pages into it so I'm doing well for now.
I've now made it a primary goal to get to know and make friends with as many people as possible this year. Why? Because I've realized now that there are so many kids that I don't know in my school. This is going well. I now talk with and hang out around kids that I didn't even know the names of last year. I hope it continues. I can see now how there are different type "groups" of friends around the school. There's a group where most of them are either in rhapsody or drama. There's a group for kids who are in orchestra and various academic groups. There's an athletic group who do all the school sports and other sports outside of school. Among these there are kids who are in between them. They're partially in one group and also in another. The trick is finding out what they're into.
1st Term was pretty good. I've met so many new people and I barely scraped out a 4.0 GPA while keeping up with NAL, Orchestra, and Davis Youth Symphony. Some of the things that I wished I had done differently was maybe go to more after school programs. I didn't go to a single volleyball game, and now will never be able to go to one as a student at my school. I also missed concerts for band and rhapsody.
For Honors English I barely made it. I was supposed to read The Yearling for the term and that was the only reading assignment. It's over 400 pages and takes a while to get through. Well, I pretty much forgot about it til the last week of the term. I got it on Monday and told myself to read it. I, of course, waited til Wednesday to really get a start on it. I practically read the whole thing in 2 days, most of it on that Thursday. That was a disaster. I was up so late doing that.
2nd Term I think is going to be more hectic. Science Olympiad is just starting up and is going to start taking up my time. Some things I need to work on include: REMEMBERING TO POST ON THIS EVERY WEEK, practicing for orchestra, and reading. For English, this term, we have to read To Kill A Mockingbird and Walk Two Moons. I'm already about 50 pages into it so I'm doing well for now.
I've now made it a primary goal to get to know and make friends with as many people as possible this year. Why? Because I've realized now that there are so many kids that I don't know in my school. This is going well. I now talk with and hang out around kids that I didn't even know the names of last year. I hope it continues. I can see now how there are different type "groups" of friends around the school. There's a group where most of them are either in rhapsody or drama. There's a group for kids who are in orchestra and various academic groups. There's an athletic group who do all the school sports and other sports outside of school. Among these there are kids who are in between them. They're partially in one group and also in another. The trick is finding out what they're into.
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