Stidmatt's blog

My love for my planet

2011-04-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

Today I was walking over to my neighbor's house to ask if he had any work for me to do. On the property between ours that was logged two weeks ago I was with his grandchildren, an 11 and a 4 year old, both boys. The 11 year old was climbing all over the piles of logs with his BB gun practicing his targeting and the 4 year old was talking about how he hates puddles because he fell in one a few weeks ago. AFter taking psychology it was so cool to see their ages from a totally new perspective. We talked about height as we went around the vehicle in the middle of the yard, it was a good time. The four year old went home to take a shower which he probably just finished as I am writing this. He was shooting all over the yard and I realized he needed a target. I took a piece of cardboard and a sharpie from my house (which I just took out of my pocket) and drew two circles with a bullseye at the center so he could practice with that instead. He is excellent. We ran some science experiments on how pumping the gun multiple times affects the speed of the bullet (it doesn't, he thought it made it go faster, but after an experiment with 5 pumps, 4 pumps, and 1 pump the gun was only capable of going through three sheets of poster board. He loves walking around the north side of his property and his neighbors which is still forest. When I was his age I did that every day for a couple hours exploring on what is now his property and the recently logged property next to mine. We walked to "the creek" which is a small stream about 2 feet wide and six inches deep at its deepest. I haven't 't walked there for a few years, because I have been busy with other things. I have been deeply involved in environmentalism in my school for the past four years, but walking through that stream I saw it for the peaceful marsh that it is.
I then remembered how I have grown up around these beautiful places where many people are not fortunate enough to live close to wilderness. They live in suburbs or inner cities a long way from true wild lands. The only time they might be exposed to wilderness in their entire lives is when they go to summer camp as children. The planet becomes distant from their homes and they never go to places that are wilderness. I remembered why I identify with the environmentalist movement so strongly, because I believe we need to make sure that we need to protect all species from extinction and keep places wild so that our world's environment which depends on the small ecosystems across the world can be a great place.

Distance and love

2011-02-26T12:41:00.000-08:00

According to Einstein, everything is relative. If we applied this to our everyday lives we would recognize that the third dimension (space aka up, down, and across) is relative too. Realizing this tells us that no matter how far away that other person is, it really doesn't matter, your feelings and friendship will continue.

Yes, I am now officially the boyfriend of my best friend in the whole world. She's a wonderful beautiful person and I love her a lot. It may be a long-distance relationship, but when did that matter?

In honor of Jules Verne, why Science Fiction is the greatest genre from a literary standpoint

2011-02-08T18:45:00.000-08:00

Paraphrased from a speech I gave to my debate team.

Throughout human history, there are many conflicts that we experience throughout life as an individual and socially. Currently, one issue I am experiencing is an unofficial long-distance relationship. 4000 KM seems like the other end of the Universe to me, and it happens to many people throughout their lives. What if the relationship is across a galaxy? In terms of Dune there are times when Jessica is a long distance from her husband Leto. It makes the pitiful 4000 KM seem short, even though it isn't. It allows authors and philosophers to put issues in our personal lives into a format that is understandable regardless of race, sex, or creed. A major part of the crusade for Civil Rights was when Captain Kirk and Ahura had a very informal relationship. Not to mention Spock's father, a Vulcan, and his mother, a Human. This is a format that probably persuaded some people who were indifferent then had to side with the civil rights movement.

Other issues include the origins of religion. In Dune we see the creation of an entire religion with all the complexities. By the third book Muad'Dib has already taken on supernatural aspects of things that did not happen yet the Fremen believed it with all their hearts. To have such a comparison in a modernistic setting would either look and read as a very silly book that people would be offended by. By putting his insight into a format that would reach across faiths, Frank Herbert created what I consider to be the greatest book that is accessible to people from all ethnicities and faiths. Philosophy is included in this topic too, giving the Litany Against Fear which is influential to all fans of Dune.

On the Scientific level Science Fiction has it's most obvious gift to society. In Arthur C. Clarke's writing he explains the scientific principles behind his ideas having video calls and walking on the moon in his most famous work, 2001. In his work Rendezvous with Rama he has a gigantic spaceship the size of a small planet come into the Solar System on it's long journey. This concept was little explored and was given in great scientific detail. In I, Robot by Isaac Asimov we see the original example of robots gone evil, a concept that has been used in countless stories after then.

To sum it up cleanly, putting raw human emotions and political controversies in a format accessible to many people. By doing this, science fiction authors are able to delve into a topic with a freedom not available to many other genres that truly makes it a wondrous tool for explaining answers to that question of humanity.

Halfway through the quarter, what I have learned.

2011-02-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

Here I am, February 3, halfway through my college quarter at the local community college. This quarter I took Math, Developmental Psychology, and Spanish, all 5 credits each. I have learned a lot in Psychology and will be a better person by knowing how people grow up and will know more about what the person is thinking ( or not) and will be able to give appropriate responses that I haven't had time to practice yet. Psychology is definitely a beneficial subject for being a responsible citizen and should be taught in high school. In Spanish I have learned a lot of course, I haven't known much Spanish since Elementary school, and am able to make basic sentences now. After taking two quarters of German last year, the second language is a lot easier because I know how to learn a language and how languages are put together. I am thoroughly convinced that languages should be taught by the European model, first language in the first four years (usually English) than another language in year 5-8, and finally finish with a third language in the last part of your public education. My psychology learning has taught me that learning languages makes connections in the brain during the golden period of languages in the single digits that makes someone more intelligent throughout their entire life.

I took my band final yesterday. We are playing awesome music as usual. Everything else has been steady since December. In SOGO we are playing the Barber of Seville for my last concert (the first piece I played in SOGO in fact) and selected scenes from Carmen. It is going to be a great ending for my SOGO career.

I am also working now at Evergreen. I am designing the web page for the lab I work in and helping to set up the science meeting. Everything is coming together.

A Geek's life list - Part 1 Books

2010-12-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking for a while now about what I would put together into the ultimate GEEK GOSPEL. I'm developing this list and will put them in order of what I feel to be importance to our culture with their historical, philisophical, and scientific worth. I have to start with the following:

The Older Testament

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
The Oz cycle by L. Frank Baum

The Newer Testament

Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune by Frank Herbert; Science Fiction, most influential novel since 1950 by a long shot. Original. Highly philosophical.
Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by John Ronald Reul Tolkien; Fantasy, Old myths put into a magical setting. (See Star Wars)
2001, 2010, 2061, and 3001 by Arthur C. Clarke; Hard Science Fiction, referenced by all, almost only known by geeks.
Rendezvous with Rama, Rama II, Rama Revealed by Arthur C. Clarke; Hard Science Fiction, original
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov; Warning of AI, Potential looming threat
Ringworld by Larry Niven; Hard Science Fiction, Exploration
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams; The best of Science Fiction-Comedy
1984 by George Orwell; Dystopia. Historical yet modern.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis; Fantasy, one of the best examples of a developing genre in its early stages.
A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Water, An Acceptable Time by Madeline L'Engle.; Fantasy, Close to Home and original
Animal Farm by George Orwell; Dystopia, Fantasy
Star Wars by George Lucas; Space Opera, Mythological themes in a futuristic setting.

I understand that a lot of this has to do with preference and that I am forgetting a LOT. It is only supposed to be examples of the best of the different types of Science Fiction. I am certain the first seven of the New Testament won't be moved much and can be agreed upon by all geeks.

A walk on the Wikipedia

2010-09-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Article 1 is going to be from the Random Article button, This will be 77 steps.
1. CMYK Color Model, 2. Color Printing, 3. Jacob Christoph de Blon, 4. Category:1667 Births, 5. Anna Maria Luisa d'Medici, 6. State of Presidi, 7. Napoleon I, 8. Acre, Israel, 9. Galilee, 10. Kabbalah, 11. Zohar, 12. Four worlds, 13. Ein Sof, 14. Creation myth, 15. Rationality, 16. Feminism, 17. Equal Rights Amendment, 18. United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, 19. Torture, 20. Uzbekistan, 21. Moldova, 22. Romanian language, 23. Spain, 24. Guerilla warfare, 25. Sudan, 26. Jihad, 27. Crusades, 28. Catholic Church, 29. Ronald Reagan, 30. Grenada, 31. Canada, 32. Viking, 33. Nazi Germany, 34. Stalin, 35. Red Army Invasion of Georgia, 36. Tbilisi, 37. Football (soccer), 38. South Africa, 39. Same-sex Marriage, 40. Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages in Mexico, 41. Coahuila, 42. Republic of Texas, 43. Texas Dollar, 44. Numismatics, 45. American Numismatic Association, 46. Seattle, 47. Grunge, 48. Micheal Jackson, 49. Vitiligo, 50. Albinism, 51. Dominance (genetics), 52. Central Nervous System, 53. List of Infections of the central nervous system, 54. Rabies, 55. Louis Pastuer, 56. Pasteur Institute, 57. Bacteriophage, 58. Biotechnology, 59. Bioengineering, 60. Artificial Limb, 61. Circulatory diseases, 62. Cardiovascular disease, 63. Biomarkers, 64. Heart disease, 65. Heart, 66. Iron, 67. Transition Metal, 68. Nickel, 69. Rechargeable Batteries, 70. Flywheel Energy Storage, 71. Conservation of Energy, 72. Galileo Galilei, 73. Jupiter, 74. Europa (moon), 75. Extraterrestrial Life, 76. First Contact (science fiction), 77. The Time Machine,

Everything is Connected.

Really great website.

2010-07-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

I was at a friend's house today and met his brother. He has a website called http://sharlowtech.webs.com/ that is really, really cool. He is a programmer and makes some excellent games he has developed. He is currently working on a project to allow people to make their own games and is remaking Doom 2.

The Joy of Languages

2010-03-04T21:17:00.000-08:00

I am taking German at my local community college. I have enjoyed it immensely. I am listening to a German podcast as I write this, and have noticed things about learning a foreign language.
1. It increases the knowledge of how your own language works grammatically which makes you a better speaker.
2. It is fun. It allows you to speak with more people, and the joy of learning and making connections is cool.
3. It allows you to get more perspectives when you look at the news through new websites.

I plan on taking more languages throughout my life, and I will use all of them as I travel the world. Up next: French.

On XKCD 695

2010-03-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

http://xkcd.com/695/

Next time NASA builds a billion dollar rover, they should put wipers on the solar panels so that the rover can dust itself off to increase time that it works and efficiency.

Google News

2010-02-19T13:55:00.001-08:00

I just went on to Google News and saw there was a new layout. I looks like something I could get used to, but the problem is it doesn't organize the news into sections like the old format, which is still used for other countries and languages. If I want to view all of the articles for a particular subject, I can't do that on this new format.

I think they should keep this new format for when people want all of the most important articles from all subjects, but have a "Classic view" link at the top so we can go back to the old format which is similar to a newspaper organizing articles into different sections. Keep it, but don't scrap the old.

Canada Trip

2010-01-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

I forgot to blog about this when it happened, so here I go. Over Thanksgiving Break I visited Vancouver, Canada to see The Vinyl Cafe by Stewart McLean on Saturday November 28.
Trip to Canada with Grandmere and Grandpere
November 26-29, 2009
Destinations:
Vancouver, Langley, Tsawassen, Canada
Point Roberts, United States of America
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Olympia, Washington, United States of America to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
I went to school and did my two classes of the day after an hour break of walking around the school. We then started to drive up I-5 towards Canada. I had packed everything the night before with Grandmere. It was an easy drive up, quick and speedy, even through Seattle there was no delay. We went up past Bellingham, the furthest north I had been in Washington, and through the farmland to Blaine. We went to the border. We waited about 5 minutes, and went through. The farthest north I had ever been. It is White Rock, and lots of farms in the lower Fraser river valley. We went up easily, and went to our hotel in Vancouver. We went shopping at the Burrard Street mall to get some things for my grandfather. We went back to our hotel and watched a special on the geology of the Great Lakes. I went swimming in the hotel.

Thanksgiving, Thursday, 26 November 2009
Vancouver, Stanley Park, and University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada
We started our day with a nice breakfast at our hotel. We then went to Stanley Park where we drove around the perimeter of the park. We first stopped at the totem poles, of course, where we took pictures and got some souvenirs. We continued to drive along the perimeter of the park and took pictures of Burrard Inlet. For an inlet surrounded by city it is very pretty. We went to the northernmost part where there is the lighthouse where we read the signs on its history. We finished going around the park and then came back to our hotel where we saw an escort of police cars going past our hotel. We then went out to the University of British Columbia. It is a very big campus. We went to their museum on First Peoples. An excellent museum, smaller than but definitely as good as the Royal BC Museum. We went around the campus looking at what was happening. There was a graduation happening, so the place was very crowded. We went back into Vancouver where we had dinner on Robson Street, which has a lot of restaurants as I discovered through Google Maps. We walked there and ate a delicious dinner of lamb, and when we were coming back we looked in some shops. I stopped in a bookstore where I saw a book my science teacher has, Pocket Reference by Thomas J. Glover, which is now going to go with me when I go overseas. When we came back to the hotel I drafted a letter concerning the lack of economics in high school and the excess of PE. I went swimming in the pool.

One thing that happened was my grandfather while talking to the person at the front desk said, “Oh, you Canadians,” in a sneering voice. I was embarrassed.

Friday, 27 November 2009
Vancouver, Ladner, Tsawassen, British Columbia, Canada, and Point Roberts, Washington, United States of America
We started today by going south to Ladner, where my grandfather and I looked at a boat he was interested in. It had some problems which he didn't want to fix, so he said he wouldn't buy it. However, that boat could go around the world, is comfortable, and the cabin is about 5' 5” tall. It would have been a nice boat to work on, but he didn't want to repair something he just bought. We then went south to Point Roberts. We started by going to the Tsawassen Ferry Docks, but we realized when we were on a narrow spit of land that we were in the wrong place, so we turned around. When we were driving down, we realized that we didn't have the papers allowing me to go overseas with my grandparents. However, we decided to try it anyways, a bit risky in my opinion. We got onto the right road and drove to the 49th parallel, the longest unfortified border in the world, where we showed our passports to the American and he said he didn't know if we would be able to get back across without them, but we decided to go anyways. We went to the marina. It is a nice little place. We drove around the western shore and drove back to Canadian customs. We got through easily despite not having the papers. We were lucky the customs official understood it was a simple mistake. We ate at an excellent restaurant in Tsawassen where they served Fish and Chips. They were inexpensive, were prompt, and had excellent food. I will go there every time I am in Tsawassen. We drove back to highway 99 and back to Vancouver. We went back to our hotel and dropped our stuff off. We walked to the art museum that is a short walk away which had an exhibit on American and Canadian landscape paintings on the first floor. We saw the entire museum and then went back to our hotel where we had some drinks in the coffee shop. We spent the rest of our day in our hotel room, and I went swimming a little bit too quickly because I had some tummy trouble.

During that day there was a group of girls from Kootenay on a school field trip that arrived.

Saturday, November 28, 2009
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
We woke up and I finished my Thanksgiving dinner. We then went down to the restaurant where we had our breakfast. We went to the room, got our materials, and then drove across False Creek to the Maritime Museum where we went to see the first ship that circumnavigated North America. It was a great exhibit, I got some flag pins for me and my brother, and we then went to Granville Island. It is a very nice market, and we got lunch and some items of course. While talking to a person who worked at a stand, he said some hateful things against the president. It is okay to speak out against someone in power, I personally have some concerns with the fiscal issues. But he talked of him as if he was talking of Satan, and I was so embarrassed to be related to him that I walked to another stall. We went through Granville Island and bought some more things, and we then went to the hotel. We had our dinner in the hotel, got showered, and dressed. The theater where the Vinyl Cafe was was sold out. Stewart McLean uses his arms and voice very well, and the musicians were really good. There were three stories, one having to do with punch and alcohol, bicycles, and one other.

Sunday, November 29, 2009
We ate breakfast at the hotel. We ate breakfast at the hotel, got out of the hotel quickly, and were leaving at the same time as the girls from Kootenay. We got down to the 541 border crossing promptly and waited about 15 minutes. We got through with no problems, the customs official was nice, and we drove to a rest stop. While there I suggested that we go to Bellingham so that I could share Western with Grandmere and Grandpere. We ate a snackat a local bagel shop, which felt a lot like Bagel brothers. While in Bellingham Grandpere made snide comments about some High schoolers labeling them as Western Students. That was the last straw. We drove through the campus, but didn't stop anywhere. I will go back with Grandmere and Mom at some point, but Grandpere will not come along. The drive back to Olympia was easy, and the conversations were small. I was quiet in the back seat until we reached Tacoma where I took out my little black book. When we got home I talked to Grandpa, and put my things away before taking my math test.

I have told Grandmere and Mom how much Grandpere embarrassed me through myself, my family, of my nationality, and intelligence. This is the last time I go outside Washington with him willingly.

Remarks on destinations
Vancouver is very pretty for being such a large city. It is clean, most of the people are young, athletic, and there are few people on the corners. There are some, but not nearly as much as Los Angeles. However, there are a good number of sirens through the city from police cars because it is such a large city. About 2 blocks from our hotel there is a garden where people grow food, which gives a nice feel to the downtown area.

Stanley Park is a truly amazing park because of the foresight the people who created it had when it was created.

The Canadians of southwestern British Columbia are so excited about hosting the Olympics. This is wonderful, and the pride of their country I have seen from them is wonderful.

Point Roberts is a really nice little peninsula, it is very unique, having a fair sized amount of people and being a practical exclave of the United States while being so close to Bellingham by boat. As we were driving through Tsawassen going down I wondered why you would live there. We assumed that they probably wouldn't be working because of the long border waits on some days, so I thought that it would probably be a retirement community. It is sheltered from Tsunamis by the Gulf/San Juan Islands, and gets cool breezes being on the Strait of Georgia. It is a nice little community with a nice marina and a little park. My grandparents were thinking that it is a wonderful place to retire. After being there, the border is best left how it is because the Americans who live there live there because it is somewhat isolated yet close to large cities, and people haven't moved there who still work because you have to cross the border twice in order to get to the rest of Washington by car.

The University of British Columbia is an excellent school with a very wide variety of coursework they offer. It is one of the school I am considering going to, mainly because they have a phage lab I learned about a while back.

Other remarks

I will definately go with my grandmother on many trips in the future. She is one of four people I will travel with, the others being my father, and my other two grandparents who live in Chicago. She is fun to be with and I love her dearly. I hope the two of us can travel the world together, with no one else to darken the trip. That would be wonderful.

Music editor on Google

2010-01-11T12:23:00.001-08:00

Google has a word editor, spreadsheet editor, presentation, and a form editor. Google should put on an editor on Google Docs that allows musicians to write music as they would on Sibelius. This can't be copyrighted because there are many score editors. This would make it really convenient to musicians so they can access their music anywhere in the world. Also, look at my first post labeled Google to see another idea for music.

42 on Blogspot.

2010-01-05T14:26:00.000-08:00

On Google, 42 has only 1,990,000,000 at the writing of this post compared to 41's 2,020,000,000. Why? 42 is the answer. Only bloggers have the power to change this, and if Randall Munroe of xkcd is reading this, you can reach a much wider audience, it is in your power to change this.

Number	Results on Google
1	17,750,000,000
2	14,340,000,000
3	12,370,000,000
4	10,780,000,000
5	10,400,000,000
6	8,670,000,000
7	8,010,000,000
8	7,740,000,000
9	10,500,000,000
10	10,700,000,000
11	8,520,000,000
12	8,850,000,000
13	6,390,000,000
14	6,420,000,000
15	6,960,000,000
16	6,330,000,000
17	6,030,000,000
18	6,190,000,000
19	5,790,000,000
20	7,230,000,000
21	5,670,000,000
22	5,770,000,000
23	5,420,000,000
24	5,430,000,000
25	5,450,000,000
26	4,730,000,000
27	4,650,000,000
28	4,790,000,000
29	4,550,000,000
30	6,330,000,000
31	4,070,000,000
32	2,430,000,000
33	2,320,000,000
34	2,280,000,000
35	2,500,000,000
36	2,250,000,000
37	2,070,000,000
38	2,100,000,000
39	2,060,000,000
40	3,060,000,000
41	2,020,000,000
42	1,990,000,000
43	1,940,000,000
44	1,980,000,000
45	2,360,000,000
46	1,880,000,000
47	1,820,000,000
48	1,970,000,000
49	1,920,000,000
50	3,610,000,000
60	1,870,000,000
70	1,380,000,000
80	1,530,000,000
90	1,430,000,000
100	3,040,000,000,000

Predictions for the next Decade.

2009-12-30T20:24:00.000-08:00

Most of these I have heard, and these are the ones that I think are going to probably happen.
In Technology:
Hard Drives are going to stop being used and Flash memory is going to become the only current form of data storage used because of its capacity and size.
The internet is going to become even more available in our every day lives.
All video game systems are going to be wireless in the next generation because of ease and lack of cords.
Mice and keyboards produced will all be wireless.
Computers will be able to attach to newer mice and keyboards from hardware inside of them.
Skype will be used by more people. I'm not sure if it will continue to be free.
All major cell phones will be smart phones by 2015.
Cell phone service will be expanded to include all of America and Canada where people live.

In Politics:
The PATRIOT ACT will be repealed.
The European Union will become more economically balanced East to West.
The Republican Party will die out if they don't change their platform the way they did in 1908 and will be replaced by the more moderate Blue Dog Democrats.
Gay people will have the same rights as Blacks and Women.
The Stimulus package will work faster than the New Deal because the fear of communism in the country is less and we will be recovered by 2012. I base this on the fact that during Hoover's presidency the economy continued to fail and GDP slowed, and after the passage of the New Deal in 1933 the GDP increased. We will not need a large war because of the Socialist propaganda in the 1930s.
People will start learning how the economy works in High School to prevent future economic meltdowns.
China and Cuba will become more moderate economically.
Muslims around the world will unite and decide to worship all 5 pillars of Islam. Not Jihad.
The War on Terror will be won. If every free nation pitches in the time will be decreased and lives will be saved.
The best way to defeat the terrorists is to teach Muslims in the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa how to read in their native tongues and make sure they have a Koran they can refer to when the Terrorist recruiters/Preachers come to their village.
The Far Right

In Transportation:
Buses will become more convenient in America.
Fuel efficiency will become higher to popular demand no matter what fuel source we use.
We will see Plug-in stations for cars pop up all around the world. Electric cars will become more efficient, available, and reliable. They will all eventually be able to be plugged in.
Global Warming will not happen if we limit the amount of gases we put in the atmosphere from transportation, and this will make the conservatives happy, but they will forget all of the change in their arguments.
We might see Hydrogen Fuel Cells used by the end, but that will take a long time or impressive leadership like this world has never seen.

Another suggestion for Google.

2009-11-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

I was going into my Google Books account and while looking at the 41 books I have added, I thought that I would like to organize them into categories. Hint hint, wink wink.

Better the World by browsing the web.

2009-11-11T19:23:00.000-08:00

Try this out and earn money for the world! I'm doing the Polar Bear Conservation with the World Wildlife Fund.

Climate Change, a few days late, but it is my part.

2009-10-15T17:26:00.001-07:00

Global Warming, Climate Change, whatever you want to call it, there is evidence.

The first thing I tell people to do is watch An Inconvienent Truth. The layout of the movie is a slide show, and everything besides Al Gore's biography is statistics on Global Warming from governments and scientists. This alone shows that is happening and is more than enough proof.

Another thing that is important is what can you do to stop it. An Inconvenient Truth is now 4 years old, and there is a lot more information and ingenuity coming out every month. Whats most important is "What can I do to stop the rapid warming?" The most extreme and useful examples for one person is to not use gasoline, and go all-electric for your car. But this takes a lot of money and the infrastructure is being built, but isn't there yet, so an all-electric car isn't worth the hassle yet. You can buy a hybrid and use that instead, using less gasoline than in a normal car in the long run if you keep it for a number of years.

But, the most useful thing you can do as a citizen of Sol 3 (Planet Earth) is to recycle your cans, glass, and paper. Recycling takes less energy than using new materials every time, which means in most cases, that less CO2 goes into the atmosphere which has been proven to be a greenhouse gas. This also saves money in production, mining, etcetera, an economic reason. The reason they are more expensive is because there is higher demand. You can also buy local, which uses less gasoline for shipment, and also supports local businesses, an economic reason. There are so many other ways you can diminish your carbon footprint. It will never be 0, that is impossible without dying, but you can always make it smaller. Anyways, the Earth can support us breathing and eating, but not when we put more CO2 than the Earth can replenish.

Long Live Planet Earth.

A new search engine idea for Google.

2009-10-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

I play music, and have music running through my head all the time. One annoying thing with this is that I often will not know the name of the piece that is running through my head.

An idea I had today is for a search engine for music. You type a few measures of the music on a keyboard on the screen with your mouse and then search. It goes through music files and finds similar music by the different partials in the music. This could be done easily with classical music by having the sheet music on the database and finding the different tunes.

I unfortunately don't have the knowledge necessary to make such an engine at the moment, but I know Google could do this perfectly. I do NOT copyright this idea.

Our only home...

2009-09-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

We must protect our home, and need to reverse global warming through stopping using fossil fuels and destabilizing our atmosphere's balance. Look at any scientific article written and they all say the same thing. But, unfortunately, too many people get their news from unreliable resources that distort facts and lie, and the facts of science need to use another newsfeed to spread the word of an inconvenient truth. This is why I am going to participate in blog action day this year. Register your blog at:

It is our only home. It deserves our respect and we must take care of it. JOIN NOW!

SOGO, college begins, and old friends....

2009-09-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

As always, on Sunday I went to SOGO. The Sleeping Beauty by Tschaikovsky is amazing of course, and we are playing it well in the back, with the front needing to do a bit of work before November.

I spent Monday and yesterday at the college, but got back to Capital in time for lunch. I took the bus those two days to and from school. Lots of time in the library doing stuff.

Yesterday German started. It was really nice to finally take it, and I refreshed some things I have known for a while. It should get new things soon. The teacher is cool. I went on to freerice.com in the library and found how they have expanded and now do more things. I am going to master their German word set.

Today I went to Lacey with my Mom to get my permit, but the line was too long so I couldn't get it, because we had to go to my middle school to pick up my brother. I was in the parking lot talking to Mom and I looked near the entrance and saw someone I knew two years ago in middle school. We talked for about five minutes and we summarized the past two years in everything we haven't said on myspace. I was going to ride my bike home today too, but my tire was flat, and when I tried to fix it it wouldn't work right, so I will do it correctly tomorrow or Friday.

The past week... lots of school!

2009-09-18T18:09:00.001-07:00

Over the past week, SOGO has started. We are playing un-arranged music from Sleeping Beauty, which is really cool. Brass choir is awesome as always.

School keeps going on. I went over to the college a couple times and rode my bike to school which is about 11 miles from my house on Tuesday and Thursday. It was a fun ride. I also went to Griffin Monday through Thursday to help at Griffin's library. I straightened and balanced shelves, and got a few extra community service hours. I spent most of today in the library reading and browsing. I finished my reading for history next week, which feels good. I'll try to stay ahead and maybe get a few chapters ahead this weekend, which would feel really good.

Running Start starts next week!

I am remembered at my alma mater

2009-09-10T18:51:00.001-07:00

Today was what these two weeks are going to be like, go to two classes and then I'm done with school for the day.
I rode my bike to school with one of my friends, and traveled the 11.5 miles in 55 minutes, averaging 12 miles per hour approximately. Pretty good, in my opinion.
I went to my two classes, and then the college by bus where I finished paying for my classes. I rode the bus back to high school where I ate lunch, and then rode my bike back to my grandparents, about 5 miles. While there I played some Grieg, Debussy, and Beethoven on the piano.
I then decided to go to my middle school which is a five minute bike ride away from there, if that much. I dropped by our friends' fruit stand next to the school, and then parked my bike. I walked in, said hello to some friends and walked into the library.
In 8th grade I spent almost every recess in the library and while there I shelved books and straightened shelves. I did both of these again and helped a kindergarten student find some comic books. Then while I was straightening shelves in the non-fiction section near where the windows are, a 5th or 6th grader came up to me and started asking me to do the llama dance, which I did a lot during middle school. It consists of saying: "Llama rock, llama rock, llama llama llama rock. Llama shuffle, llama shuffle, llama llama llama shuffle. Llama tweest. Llama tweest. Llama old school." I was amused, and one of my friends said that the people around my age remember me for who I am, but the elementary schoolers remember me for my crazy antics. This was really funny, and I hadn't thought about the stupid song for about a year if that short a time period. When I read this post several years from now will probably laugh again. My Mom picked up my brother and then went shopping, our librarian left and I rode my bike the remaining 6 miles. I have had a quiet evening, having already rode 23 miles today. A good day.

First day of school

2009-09-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

A pretty good first day. I have two classes in the morning, band and IB English. I then have the rest of the day free. In band we got our syllabus, and in English we learned about each other.

I then went over to the community college where I am going to start running start on September 21. I forgot to pay for one of my classes, and talked with one of my friends for a while and got my ID card. I went home around noon and then rode the bus back to my high school. There I ate lunch with another one of my friends and then hung out in A pod and wandered around the school. I was in the library in the end, and went to my grandparents on the "yellow limousine" or school bus.

I rode my bike for a little bit when I got home and basically am resting.

Dancing, church, and fun.

2009-09-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

From Tuesday to Friday, September 1-4, all I really did was hang around the house. We have watched a good amount of tennis, as I am watching while I write this.

Saturday and Sunday however, were a bit like one day to me. I went to a dance at the local Mormon church. I hung out for the first hour or so with my brother and our friend, and then about an hour later one of my friends arrived. We talked a bit and danced. About 4-5 years too late. I'm slow. It was fun. I didn't know too many other people there, though there was one couple that goes to my school.

Sunday I slept for about 3 hours total and then went back to the church to go to service. It has been a long time since I went to church, about maybe 9-10 years. I enjoyed it, don't think I want to join the church, but will definitely go back with my friends. The rest of the day was spent with our friends that invited me hanging around the house.

And that brings the chronology up to today, with lots of de-cluttering planned.

Excited for school to start, but I will miss having so much free time. :)

Mount Saint Helens

2009-08-31T22:18:00.001-07:00

Today I went with my Mom and brother to Mount Saint Helens. We went to most of the stops along the way to the mountain and spent a good amount of time, maybe 3-4 hours at the visitors center. Grant hadn't been there before, and it has been about 25 years since my Mom had been there, so it was nice to go back. I had not been there for 3 years, a school field trip to the mountain.

It is so cool to see the mountain come alive and see Earth with very little assistance from Man in the blast zone recover so quickly. An excellent display, and anyone who enjoys science, or just cool stuff should go there.

Hanging out

2009-08-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

The past week has been a typical summer week for me. Most days I have just hung out around the house doing stuff, and we have picked blackberries a lot.

I have done a good bit of genealogy, because I found on one side of my families a supposed connection to German royalty. I need to proof it, and there are too many genealogy sites where cousins have posted information for me to completely discount it.

I went for a boat ride yesterday around the sound, it was fun and was the first time in two years I had gone on a boat ride.

I am disappointed we are not going to Canada this year. We were going to go, but one week ago I completely lost it and instead we are going to Mount Saint Helens.

I have started to practice my trumpet a lot more over the past week, and I can hear the difference 30 minutes a day makes.

Band has already started, tomorrow and Wednesday I have a band practice, which is going to be fun. I had one on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week too.

On xkcd comic 214.

2009-08-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

This comic came to my mind while I was cleaning the kitchen today, so I will limit myself to 70 clicks in wikipedia starting with the article on Canada and see where it gets me. I will seperate the webpages with colons.

1. Canada: 2. Australia: 3. ANZUS: 4. United States: 5. Barack Obama: 6. Harvard Law Review: 7. ACLU: 8. United States Consitution: 9. Jacob Shallus: 10. Pennsylvania: 11. Quaker: 12. William Penn: 13. London UK: 14. Palace of Westminster: 15. Cnut the Great: 16. Viking: 17. Newfoundland: 18. Category:People from NewFoundland: 19. Henry Clinton: 20. King George III: 21. List of Mentally Ill Monarchs: 22. Otto of Bavaria: 23. Bavaria: 24. Henrik Ibsen: 25. Edvard Grieg: 26. Denmark: 27. Euro: 28. Greek Drachma: 29. Tetradrachm: 30. Alexander the Great: 31. Mesopotamia: 32. Iraq: 33. George W. Bush: 34. Same-sex marriage: 35. Unitarian Universalism: 36. John Quincy Adams: 37. Andrew Jackson: 38. Ethnic cleansing: 39. Bushmen: 40. The Gods Must be Crazy: 41. Sandra Prinsloo: 42. South Africa: 43. Nelson Mandela: 44. Nobel Peace Prize: 45. 14th Dali Lama 46. University of Washington: 47. The Evergreen State College: 48. List of the Evergreen State College People: 49. Matt Groening: 50. The Simpsons: 51. The Waltons: 52. Mission: Impossible: 53. Inspector Gadget: 54. Bermuda Triangle: 55. The Bahamas: 56. Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom: 57. Gough Whitlam: 58. Papua New Guinea: 59. English Language: 60. England: 61. France: 62. NATO: 63. Georgia (country): 64. Dmitry Medvedev: 65. Vladimir Putin: 66. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 67. The Holocaust: 68. Genocide: 69. Homophobia: 70. Taliban

Everything is connected.

Reading and hanging out.

2009-08-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

Over the past week not too much has happened. On Monday through Wednsday I read The Scarlet letter for English. It was a good book, which had some good themes. I rode my bike of course on each of these days. I finished yesterday and then hung out at a friend's house. It was really fun.

Today I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and made some money helping in the yard. I got a graphing calculator and shared my Aussie currency (finally) with my grandparents.

The Great Gatsby is interesting. I haven't read anything like it before, and has a lot of just basic city people running around doing their things.

PHAGE!!!!

2009-08-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

On August 7th and 8th I hung out with Giorgi at Evergreen. There wasn't too much to do. I also swam a couple of times.

On August 9th there was the picnic. It was really cool and I joined in with other scientists with the nice Native Americans who are there every two years cooking for us in a dance, followed by an evening session of talks. It was easy to follow them.

On August 10th there was the phage meeting. It was easy to understand what they were talking about, and there were a few talks about S. Aureus which I am interested in. The afternoon session talked about genomics, and I didn't understand a lot of it, so I hung out in the area around Betty's office and went swimming.

On August 11th there were talks about Agriculture, which was interesting hearing about, and in the afternoon they talked about Phage commercialization which was easy to understand and very interesting. I invited an old friend to my myspace.

On August 12th they talked about Human Phage therapy. I listened to most of the talks, and enjoyed most of it. It is saddening to me how we need to reprove how well bacteriophages work, which have been every day in Georgia for the past 80 years.

On August 13th the morning talked about genomics a little more and lysis in the afternoon. I went swimming and in the afternoon listened a little about phage lysis, not that I understood much.

Yesterday, August 14th, I went to Mount Rainier. One of the vans broke down on the way up and it was a pain in the rear getting everyone back down. It was also bad weather for climbing the mountain, with clouds everywhere. If there is a meeting again, I hope it will be a better trip to the mountain.

Today I took George, his grandmother, and another Georgian to the airport with Mom and Dad. As of writing this I already can't wait until he comes back. I might go to Georgia before he comes back to America, but who knows. I spent the rest of the day at home. While at home I played on the Wii and looked at the Everybody votes channel. They asked who shot first, Han Solo or Greedo. I thought about it and after weighing the options and variables, stupid bounty hunter versus man who just lost the only woman he ever loved up to that point, think that Han would be more likely to shoot first. He was already in a mood. This is based off of the Han Solo Trilogy mainly. Great trilogy.

Australia trip

2009-08-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

This summer, I went to Australia. It was a trip with People to People, which is an American organization founded by President Eisenhower, designed to culture understanding between cultures, and allow American students from 6th grade to adults travel the world in organized, well planned out trips. They travel to every continent on the globe.

July 14 - I went to Seattle Tacoma International Airport where I met with my fellow delegates and boarded a plane for Los Angeles International Airport. It was a nice flight on a Virgin aircraft. We landed in Los Angeles and hung around the airport for a number of hours. I didn't find LAX very well laid out, and it is hugemongos, so on a first glimpse, I thought it was a little confusing. We boarded V Australia late at night and took off. It was pretty smooth to the Australian coast, but a ways off of the Australian coast there was a thunderstorm, and our plane was hit. But it was barely a scratch and we landed as expected in Sydney at 7:10 am on July 16th. But since there were thunderstorms, we didn't depart from Cairns as expected. We stayed at the airport for many hours until about 4:00 PM. Before we got to leave, I saw an American show like Oprah playing in the airport, which was interesting in how much American media dominates the world. We then took off to Cairns in Queensland. We landed at 6:00 where we met Peeta, our delegation manager, and Hayden, our bus driver. We went to dinner first, and I had a tropical fish that was really tasty, followed by going to the hotel. It is in the tropics, so the sun set at 6:30, and we were at the hotel. We went to bed after writing in our journals.

July 17 - We started, after a continental breakfast at the resort, going to the reef. We went to a touristy place where they bring you out on a boat on the ocean to a dock that is in the reef. The sea was very rough. We docked with a dock that is in the ocean on the reef. It has a restaurant, and swimming equipment. I got into a wetsuit, which covers my entire body keeping me warm, and learned how to snorkel. I have swum all my life, and to put your face into the water and be able to breath took a minute to get used to. I swum in the small swimming area next to the dock, and then went back up. I went on a boat further out on the reef where I snorkeled with a group of people to people people. I saw amazing fish and the unique coral, which forms valleys, and is amazing. Coming from Washington, I am used to ocean water being freezing cold, but the tropical water was nice and warm. It is very pleasant to swim in. We went back to land and went straight to a night market where I bought a few things. It was a lot like a farmers' market, with many booths and many items for sale. I got some shirts.

July 18 - The next day we headed north to the rain forest. We went up the mountain to the top where there was a store and tourist gifts. We went into a little gondola and went down the mountain. It is a beautiful area, similar to the Hoh rainforest in the density of life, but different in the types of trees that are there. We went down the mountain stopping several times to walk around, and at the end were at the main place with a store and a few other things. I might have got something, and we then went to the Aboriginal cultural park. The first thing that we did was learn how to throw a boomerang. You throw it with it upright, but slanted towards your body a little, bringing it back, and then throwing it. We then threw spears at hay bails using a small stick that gives us better leverage. We then went to learn about a leaf that smells like lemons that also makes noses clear of goo, followed by face painting, and going to see a play. Some boys from our delegation got their chests painted and they danced with the Aborigines which was really fun. We finished the day by going on the road to the farm stay. We arrived, unpacked, had dinner, and then went star gazing. We saw the southern cross, and I now know how to find north, and south, a very useful skill.

July 19 - We started the day by learning how to milk a cow, something I hadn't done before, and seeing how they make meat out of livestock. I now know that I do not want to be a farmer. We then went to the freezing river where some people swimmed. I chose to stay out of the below 10 degree water. We then had free time, and I asked the farm owner about what sports they play in Australia. The sports they play the most are Australian football, American football, rugby, and soccer. We then went in groups to the old homestead, which is where the old farm owner Jack lived. He was not a very kind man, having hung some boys up by their toes for not doing a job correctly. It had many antiques, which was interesting to see. We ended the day by going around Woodley station in a truck. It is a very big farm, with many pastures that are all larger than my property. During that night, their son brought a very confused goat into both of our delegation's tents, which woke us up, and I've been told is a joke. I don't think it is very funny though.

July 20 - We left the homestead and went across the mountains back to the coast. We went south to the billabong wildlife sanctuary outside Townsville. We learned about different fauna of Australia including koalas, wombats, and crocodiles. We then kept going south until we got to Ayr, which is where we heard how Australian local government works. It is very similar to America's counties. We walked around Ayr and then went to our hotel. I relaxed in the hot tub a bit with people from our delegation and the Montana delegation which would be at the same hotels for a number of days.

July 21 - We drove a lot, and had a stop at a shopping mall in Mackay. We watched a lot of crocodile hunter on the bus. I got a nice shirt. We landed in Yeppoon, which is supposedly a very posh resort.

July 22 - The first thing we did was go to Capricorn caves. We learned a little about fruit bats and then climbed through the caves. There then were three cave hikes we could do, and I chose the intermediate one. It was really cool, with a couple places where the cave got really closed in. The front of my shirt, unlike a lot of other people's, was clean. We then made our way back to the resort after lunch. I found that their washer and dryer were very old, and I wasn't allowed in the weight room even though I am old enough. We then went to the crocodile farm which is where we saw how powerful crocodiles are once again and got to eat crocodile soup. It was a cool activity. They are extremely powerful creatures.

July 23 - Another driving day, though for lunch we stopped at a little christian school in Gin Gin. the kids were nice, and

July 24 - We drove again, down all the way to Brisbane. We went to Queen Street Mall where we shopped for several hours. We then went to where the ferry was going to take us to Moreton island, and saw some cricket. We crossed the bay and fed dolphins on the island. My phone got soaked when I walked into the water, and is completely ruined.

July 25 - We spent the day on Moreton Island. We fed pelicans. They are really big birds with yellow eyes. We went further into the island to the sand dunes through the rainforest in coaches. The trail is very bumpy. The sand was wet, and because of that we couldn't go sand tobogganing on a large dune in the island, which was disappointing because the other delegation did. The island is mainly rainforest and has great trees. We had lunch back at the lodge and went snorkeling at the wrecks. We were out of the tropics and the water was really cold, and I decided to come in. We were supposed to hold onto a line in the water too, and because people were sitting on it I couldn't reach it, so I went back on the boat. When we got back we got changed and after resting heard some lectures about the local dolphins and how much damage is being done to them by people. After hanging out in my hotel room after dinner, my friend Brian dragged me down to where people were dancing. I hung out and danced a little. It was cool. The first dance since 8th grade.

July 26 - We drove down to the Gold Coast. It is filled with amusement park rides and malls, a very preppy place. I got a couple things, but not much, and then we were in New South Wales after going back to the mainland. We drove into New South Wales, I missed the sign, and took on the coastal route through a rural area to Byron bay where we ate lunch. There is a local college that is probably like Evergreen and there was a music festival with hundreds of hippies. It was amazing what clothing they were wearing!!!! We went to a pizza restaurant and had lunch. I now know that Olympia is not the hippie capital of the world, that is Byron Bay. The streets looked like arts walk on steroids, and it wasn't even a parade! We went to the easternmost point of Australia too, which is Cape Byron. I got almost to the tip before it was time to go back. We drove south some more until we hit Ballina. We all met our families and I was with Mickey at Barb and Jordan's. They showed me some of their coins, from about 7 countries. Mickey and I gave them some USD to help with their collection. Before going to bed I played Battlefront II with Jordan on his Playstation.

July 27 - After dropping by a friend's house we went over to Jordan's school, which is a nice little Christian school in Ballina. We started by playing volleyball, basketball, and rugby, which was interesting. I was terrible at volleyball. We then had a snack, and I sat with some 6th/7th grade girls telling them about America. They were all interested and want to come here someday. I then tried rugby some more. We then had a detour to a tea tree oil plantation 500 meters from their school. We did a scavenger hunt through a maze and a small rainforest. The entire area around Ballina before the Europeans came was covered by rainforest. We watched a video about the farm and then walked back to the school. We were divided into groups and went into individual classrooms where my group did a quiz. I was in a 4th grade class. A lot of the questions were about words, and most of us Americans didn't know the answers, and then did some art. We took a piece of wood which we painted and put a long string at one end. It makes a loud whooshing noise when you spin it in the air. We then went back to the house on the bus. Barb came in right after we got home and we played soccer on the PS2. They offered to give us some of their coins and gave them some more USD. We went to dinner with the other Americans. I hung around and didn't do too much. we came home and got ready to leave after we gave our gifts. Mine was a book about Washington and a bag with Native American art on it, and 4 pens.

July 28 - We then went back on the coach and went south. We stopped at our final destination in Coffs harbor, where we saw the "big banana" which is a plantation with lots of banana things. We then went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was a good movie, but the end stopped 5 minutes too early and didn't include Dumbledore's funeral, which wouldn't take long to get the scene in, and it left out some important scenes that set up the Deathly Hallows.

July 29 - We drove all day and got to Sydney at 6:00. We ate and then went to the hotel, where I yet again couldn't get Internet.

July 30 - We spent the whole day in the Blue Mountains at a site managed by Full On which is a company that works with people to people only. We started the day by rappelling down a cliff. We started by practicing a little and then my half of the group did a maze first, which was on a checkerboard and you are supposed to go through without making any mistakes. We then went to the cliff which is a short walk away. I was near the back of the group and people went down in front of me. I went down, and saw the valley. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Once I was down it was easy and really cool. The fear you feel before you do it goes away once you start rappelling. We went back to the full on lodge. We started by breaking boards after lunch. I did a simple hand break, and made it on the third attempt. We spent the rest of the day doing other activities and hearing about a part in the back of your brain that helps you focus on what you want to focus on. We went back to Sydney after dinner.

31 July - Today was really cool. We went out to the waterfront where the opera house is. We looked around and saw the amazing architecture. We also went into the symphony hall where we heard the Sydney Symphony Orchestra rehearse for that night's performance. It was music to an old Russian movie about the Russian Revolution. We finished that and I got a few more souvenirs. We went then further into Sydney where we went to the top of Sydney tower. In it you can see boats coming to Australia 2 hours before you can in the harbor. We also walked outside of it tethered to the tower, and there were always barriers, so we couldn't fall. We went shopping at a mall, ate and then went back to the hotel, I went to the pool.

1 August - We went out first to the Sydney Cricket grounds. We met our guides and then went to the Football field. It is small by American standards, but fits the population of footballers in Sydney. We then went a little further to the cricket ground. It is one of the most important cricket grounds in the world and the field has been used for over a hundred years. I got to walk out on it. We all went to the practice cages and while there we played some. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to bat, which was disappointing, and I was bad at bowling too. We then went to Port Jackson. We went around on a boat where we ate lunch. We got to see the different inlets of it and it was a lot like Puget Sound, only smaller. After that, we went to an opal store where we learned about how rare opals are and how they are mined. We went shopping one last time at the Queen Victoria building. I was pretty shopped out by then, and I got a few pins for my landyard. We ate dinner and went back to the hotel for the last time.

2 August - Our last day in Australia. We started by driving to Bondi Beach. It is a nice beach and would be crowded in the summer time. I looked in a market which was right next to it, and couldn't decide which Harry Potter book to buy, so I didn't get any. We went back to Sydney for lunch and then went to the aquarium. They have a wonderful collection of fish from the southern Indian Ocean which is really cool. They also have marine mammals. We had an early dinner and then went back to the airport. Some of the people in my delegation put down their "race" for their nationality which upset one of the customs officials. We all got through and we were on our way back to America. 14 hours later we were in LAX. We had to go outside unfortunately to go to the other terminal. It was extremely humid outside. We got onto our flight home and there was Mom, Dad, and Giorgi waiting for me at the airport.

All in all, Australia is a really nice country and I will go again someday to share the sights with my family.

The past few days

2009-08-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

After my Australia trip I got home at about 11:00. My friend George was already here and we came back home. I pretty much fell asleep right away once I had got home.

On August 3rd, I woke up at 2:00. I went to my grandparents house where I shared the details of my trip, followed by coming home and hanging out.

On August 4th, I went to Evergreen where I saw friends and shared the details. I went for a walk with George that night when we talked and I showed him around my neighborhood.

On August 5th, I went to Seattle with Mom, Grant, and George. We spent most of the day at the Science Fiction museum and Experience Music project. They are excellent museums and everyone who likes Science Fiction and/or music should go to them. There was a muppets exhibit on, which I saw after I went to the Space Needle with George. I labeled the places I knew. It has a great view and is the main attraction of Seattle for a good reason. It reminds me of Sydney Tower, which is similar in purpose.

Today, August 6th, I went to Evergreen. I helped in the Phage lab again, cleaned dishes and went swimming. I feel like I am back to my swimming skills I had after I stopped swimming consistently at the end of 5th grade. We all went to Grandmere and Grandpere's house first. While there we had lunch, and I played the piano. It is a lot harder to sound good after you haven't played for 25 days! Mom, George and I came home while Grant is now doing Tai Kwon Do.

The Past Year

2009-07-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

High school has been interesting. I am going into my junior year and I am in two clubs, Environmental club, where we recycle for the school, and debate, where I compete with debaters mainly from King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. It was pretty steady, with Jesse following me around while I'm sitting with my friends from Environmental club at lunch, and going through six classes, biology, history, geometry, wind ensemble (the advanced band), boring typing or simple weight lifting, both where all brain functions minus breathing, blinking and heart beat are turned off (not my choice. Wasn't even on the radar.), and then the pre-IB Honors English where we read Dickens. A very bizarre schedule for anyone, especially a scientist, 3-year knowledge bowler, and debater.

I went in August of 2008 to visit my grandparents in the Tri-cities. It was a good chance to get to know them as a teenager with more experience from the last time I had an extended visit, which was 2004 in Hillsboro.

I travelled to Victoria, Canada in December with my Mom, which was a fun trip. Lots of snow in the great white north.

On July 14, I board a plane to Los Angeles enroute to Sydney, Australia enroute to Cairns, Australia. It is going to be 7:45 PM July 15 PDT, or 12:45 PM July 16 local time when I finally land. I am going to go be excited for the whole thing, from aborigonees, to dolphin feeding, to home stays, and to the Sydney harbor bridge. Their money is nice because you can tell denominations quickly because their length is different.

Running Start starts in late September with cheap college credit and getting an associates degree in my senior year.

Rant: Google has more information on Mars than three countries on Earth.

2007-12-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

Here is my first rant.

I am tired of it. It is absurd, it is insane. Google has excellent first-class information on everything except for three countries on Earth. They have more information on the smallest countries in Europe than on these three countries.

You may have noticed it too. Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia have no information. I am hoping that Google will fix this and put on roads, territories, cities, etcetera onto their maps. I know Google Earth doesn't have their roads either, but I just would like that because Google Earth refuses to run on my machine. I have a graphics card driver, but it won't recognize it, and I need help can anyone do this?

FreeRice

2007-11-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

Two days ago the local news station did an article on FreeRice.com, a site where you click on the definition of a word and then you donate 10 grains of rice to the poor and hungry. I did about 5000 yesterday, but today I just did 10,000 grains which I just did at 6:14 PM while listening to Handel's Water Music on the speakers in the living room. I started this morning and I feel great!

There was orchestra practice today and I enjoyed it immensely.

That is how today went. Played with the dogs for about 30 minutes straight from about 5:30 to 6:16.

Turmoil in Georgia

2007-11-17T08:29:00.000-08:00

I am very bothered by the trouble Georgia (the country) is having. I wish that Abkhazia would talk with Saakashvili et all, and I wish they were doing well. I worry so much because I have friends over there and I wish they were doing better. It makes me sad that this is happening.

I want it to be calmer over there and lively as it was a week ago. The BBC has a collection of pictures that show what it is like at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7085005.stm. check it out!

Who I am

2007-11-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

I love Star Wars. When I am an adult I plan to work with bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria and save lives every day.

Other things I like are Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, climate change, and geography.

That is me!