Learning Chinese （ZT）

I have been learning Chinese for 4 years. In that time I have learned how to say about 1000 words and how to write about 200. This weekend, I learned how to check words in the Chinese dictionary if you find a word you don't know what it means AND don't know how to say it. If you know its Pinyin then there is a simpler method.

Chinese is very hard. This week, my homework was typing, looking up 38 words in the dictionary (the hard way) and memorizing 27 words. By memorizing, I mean being able to write it when you only know its sound. This is much harder for Chinese than English because Chinese is not a sound-based language. Part of it is usually common characters that I know, like 了，子，口, However, there are always characters I don't know, like 易，颗，and 费。

(What I had to memorize: 一颗谷，一粒米，粒粒来的不容易。小朋友们要爱惜，不要浪费一粒米。WARNING: Do not try this at home. May result in massive changes of self-esteem. )

Typing is pretty easy, but finding words in the dictionary is harder, MUCH harder. First, you have to find an "identifying part" and find the page it's on. Then using the number of strokes, you find the page number of the character. There, you can find its Pinyin and meaning. If it doesn't have an added "part", then you can look at a list of words that don't have them. (Are you confused? It is hard explaining Chinese in English to English speakers).

Also, checking words has serious side effect, including morale loss.

After reading all of this, you may wonder why I'm learning Chinese. First of all, it has 1 billion speakers. So unlike Tagalog or Urdu, you might actually be able to use it. In fact, I use it every day when I talk to my parents at home. Also, I use it whenever I talk to anyone else in my family, because all of my extended family live in China and speak Chinese. China is a growing nation, one that is expected to be a world power by the time I grow up.

Most of all, I like learning Chinese. I just want to.

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If I could trade places with anybody, I would pick Ariana Grande. She is a very famous singer, and sings many wonderful songs.

Ariana Grande is a very talented singer. She can sing beautifully, and has a melodious voice. Her voice range is very wide, and it is almost as good as Mariah Carey’s voice range. She can also write many flashy songs that are upbeat and groovy, and star in a music video. Many other singers and rappers always want to work with her. Ariana is an international pop star.

Ariana Grande is also very rich. She has a lot of money, and can buy many things. She will probably not run out of money if it is spent wisely, so she will not have to worry about being poor. Switching places with her would bring great benefits.

One of the best things that Ariana gets to do is… travel! Ariana gets to travel to many different places in the world, and gets first class for everything there. She can stay in luxury resorts, and can get her own private jet. Her transportation would be very fancy, like limousines and flashy cruises. She could travel all around the world, and be nowhere close to middle class by the end of the trip. She can also go to any place she wants, and be able to see things that regular people don’t.

Switching places with Ariana Grande, international pop star, would bring wonderful and very beneficial advantages. I would be able to sing beautifully, be very rich, and travel wherever I wanted. Ariana Grande would be the best person to trade places with.  

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Fencing Tournament

Last weekend, I was at the Sammy Open (a fencing tournament). I wasn't expecting much because I was a horrible fencer. I had started fencing 1 year ago, and this was only my second tournament. Also, it was my first time to fence experienced 10-year olds. Back in Y8, no one was even a year older than me, which let me get 5th place out of it. Not bad for a beginner. Although I was scared and nervous, I was also excited. After all, this was my second tournament, and what if I won? Then I found out we would be fencing in two groups, and I was in the same group as WQ. (Editing notes: the great, almighty, powerful WQ the Great)

WQ is 10, but I think she could fence in Y12. After all, she looks like, and fences like a 12-year-old, and you are allowed to fence in the age category above your age. I know what the bout would be like:

start -->go to the guard line --> ready, fence --> I advance --> she lunges --> she scores-
--> does she have 5 points? --> if yes ---> WQ wins 5 to 0
if no ---> go back to the "go to the guard line" block

I waited for a bit before it was my turn to fence. Now, I was scared, nerous, excited and tense. Finally, I got on strip with T. T is not a exprienced fencer like WQ, but he was good enough to beat me 5-3.

Oh well, I was expecting that. After that, I fenced ZZ and won 5-4. That was pretty hard too. Then I was obliterated by WQ. However, I was smart enought that the flowchart thing didn't happen. In fact, I held her back for a few munites. The most I could do, though, was slow her down. then I fenced S. She's small (well, in Y10, small the same size as me) but she's a great fencer. She beat me 5-1. Finally came my bout with E. Last Friday, I had beat her 10-9 but that was close, very close. she had started off with a lead of 5-2, and in this tournemanet we would be fencing to five. Now I was very tense. Since she was the last person, I knew I would be fencing her 20-25 minutes before it was annouced. My mental clock said 20-25 hours. It wasn't accurate because I was about to fence E now.

I held her back fro a while, but she still score some points. Now it was 3-0. Suddenly, the referee said: "47 seconds left!". If I scored enough touches that my points are even or above E's, I would win. If time ran out or E reached 5, she would win. It was almost impossible. I think it's that almost impossibileness that made me have my energy burst.

At first I tried to supress it. I tried to concentrate on my strategy. I would let her attack, and then retreat if I thought it was too risky. If I had an opportunity to score, though, I would stay there and counterattack or parry. It had worked last time.

Then there was only 23 seconds left. Now, I decided to use the burst. I forgot about my tiredness, I forgot about my strategy, I forgot about everything. The score was 4-0.... My instincts told me to go and lunge. I have had failure many times before... but I did it. Then I scored. 15 seconds left. I did it again and scored. 9 seconds left. I did it one more time... off target. 3 seconds left. Then I did my final attack. I advanced straight toward her. I pushed her blade down. I lunged... and scored! ... one second overtime. It didn't count.

Then I was annihilated in the elimination rounds. Still, I was happy. After all, it's not every day that you score 2 touches in 10 seconds.

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Today we made a lantern flashlight.

I was in school at science class for 5th period yesterday. I sat down in my seat with Ben and Lioness, and excitedly waited for Mrs. King’s instructions. I knew what they were already because I had looked ahead in our lab instructions textbook, but I was still excited because I knew what would happen would be very fun and interesting. Finally, Mrs. King told us to read the instructions in our textbook, and then begin.

We began drawing plans right away. Originally, my ideas struck with the stereotypical ____ (I’m still not giving it away) with a paper cylinder with a hole on one end and two batteries, a bulb, and some wires inside (plus a switch). However, after a while, I decided that was boring. I decided to try something new: How could you make something that emits light from all sides?

I was instantly puzzled by this. No matter what, the switch would have to cover one side of the fl___ … Oops, that’s still top secret. However, after a while, logic triumphed against perfectionism, and I decided exactly how I was going to make the flashlight (finally revealed). After a lot of discussion, a lot of erasing, and a lot of drawing cubes, we came up with a design. At first, I had wanted to have the “light cube” on top of the “battery container”. However, Lioness said that the wires and paper wouldn’t be strong enough. So our plan came out like this

(A dummy bell shaped design with the light cube on one side and the batter container on the other side, connected by a hollow cylinder in which the wires go through)

We had two sheets of cardstock paper, a pair of scissors, and all the tape you could every possibly need. On the first day, I started by trying to fold in the sides of one of the sheets of paper. After some very complicated tricks with scissors and tape, we managed to get a floor and four walls of the battery container before the end of the period.

Lioness helped out a bit, but she, along with Ben, spent most of their time trying to repair our homemade “switch”. Considering that the “switch” was made of an index card, some pins, and two Fahnestock clips and a paper clip that seemed to dislike the Fahnestock clips so much that the three never were on the switch at the same time, I think it’s not surprising that something kept going wrong.

Today, we returned to keep on making our flashlight. I had to retape some cuts and cut something new so that the top was just the right size and that there were two openings, one for the switch and one for the wires.

After that, we decided to reconsider our design. We found out that the wires could support their own weight. At about that time, I had finished the box (mostly). Ben and Lioness helped with taping the sides of the box together. After that, it was time to make the light cube. Ben got busy on the connection tubing while Lioness and I got busy making a cube. I was liking this activity a lot. I managed to make a (nearly) perfect cube. Lioness cut holes inside of it for the light to come out. We tested the flashlight so far. After some battery readjustment, it worked. I was very happy. Then, we disconnected the flashlight, taped it inside the upper cube, and reconnected it via the connector tubing Ben had made.

It worked.

I was very proud and satisfied. We showed it to Mrs. King, who liked it a lot. She said it was kind of like a lantern, so we named the lantern flashlight. Finally, we attached some red tissue paper to the top. So far, this has been my favorite science project in the electric circuits unit.