29

To anon (even though I do know who you are): Yes, you're right. Now, thinking back, I just completely lost it that day. I was pretty reactive during most of it. I became proactive only after he *told* me to calm down and talk to him calmly. That made me more angry because his tone was just so absolutely condescending, but then I shut up. Or, rather, attempted to, because I yelled at him a bit more afterwards.

I did and do have some respect for that person, just maybe not a lot.



Today, I didn't surf the web, or watch tv, or get distracted by other stuff, but I really didn't do much. I woke up late today, and after I finished eating breakfast it was already 3:00. Then, I started packing, but I was quite tired, so I was extremely unproductive. Pretty soon, though, I went to sleep, and woke up 9 something, took a shower, ate dinner, and by then it was 10:45. Only then did I really get into the midst of packing. Nevertheless, I was quite unproductive, and kept dazing off. I guess I'm still tired.

28

I remember back when I was very young, it was one of my goals to take an advanced driver training course.

I've been watching Top Gear. Richard Hammond seemed like an eager little boy just given his favourite game for Christmas.

I still want that drivers course, though I will NOT being racing around a track at any time in my life.

27

Today is the absolutely last day I can procrastinate.

Tomorrow I have a LOT to do.

26

I love this quote:
"You must make sure you have enough funds to pay your tuition fee and to live."
-London School of Economics

Pretty accurate, don't you think?

On another note, my throat is now sore from yelling at a certain someone.

There are certain 'types' of respect I have for certain people
1. criminals that want world-denomination (you know what I mean) or just evil people
2. sociopaths (well, maybe not completely), abusers in general (eg. child abusers, wifebeaters, etc).
3. ordinary people.

Obviously, there are much more to it than just these 3 categories, but I'm going to go straight to the point.

The person I was yelling at was in category 3, but in that category, I have almost no respect left for that person.

25

One of these days I should write a blog of respect, and what I'm doing about it.
Perhaps also synergy, and how synergy would make us all feel better by expressing our feelings and doing something about it.

I really should start synergizing a bit more.

By the way, I am aware that I do have tons of weaknesses particularly when it comes to procrastination, forgetfulnes, and using logic (yes, I know) when it comes to life in general (especially household tasks).

On a lighter note, Lily Allen's Littlest Things is pretty nice.

24

I didn't manage to do a single speck of homework, or to practice the piano today.

Hopefully tomorrow will be different.

Though, I really need to be a lot more strict with myself. Maybe I should start making timetables one day ahead, so then I'll have to follow it from the moment I wake up.

I probably won't do that today though, I need to go to sleep now.

22/23

Again, didn't manage to do a blog yesterday!!!!

Blog 22
Went to the MACC luncheon today.
I felt really really short.
I was SHOULDER HEIGHT of LN, and chin height of AJ, DJ, LM, and AM. And that was only of the people there.
My brother told me that historically our growth spurt stunts at grade 9 (term 1, actually).
That is not good.

Anyways, going back to MACC certainly brought back many memories, but they were mostly of MC's mannerisms.
Words like 'touch base', 'congregate', etc. were words that she commonly used.
On the topic of vocabulary, my vocabulary certainly 'decreased' DRASTICALLY after grade 7. I'm very serious, my vocabulary today is NOTHING compared to what I had in grade 7. I heard FC mention the word 'insipid', and I did not know what it meant. I promise you, if I spent two more years in that MACC environment, I would have known exactly what she was trying to say.
I guess you gradually turn into what the people around you are like. Or at least get influenced by them.
But then again, there are many things I've learnt in MY from my peers that I would never ever have learnt back in MACC.
Too bad table manners isn't part of the curriculum.
I still remember once when MC almost yelled at me for leaving my elbows on the table at a luncheon of some sort.

Well, at the very least, when she tells us to be quiet, we really be quiet, and extremely quickly by high school standard. I guess it has something to do with the high level of respect we have for her that is nurtured over several years of being in her class for several hours every day. Even the grads shut up pretty quickly.

Blog 23
I think my piano teacher wants to carve me up and give me us an offering to the gods of music.
Okay, maybe not.
But honestly, I'm really really bad with practicing.
So, for this winter vacation, my top priority is piano, with science fair a distant second. (Even though it should be my first priority).
And I will plan to practice 2 hours of piano every single day.

20/21

I didn't do blog 20 yesterday, because I slept for 12 hours instead of the 1 hour powernap that I planned... Is it okay to do an extra blog to make up for it today?

Blog 20
I'm very happy now that I can sleep regularly again!!! I haven't had too much trouble with power naps, though I haven't had all that fun trying to sleep yesterday.

I finally got the ULTRA BLUE (don't ask me why, it is capitalized!!!) album from Utada Hikaru on the iTunes on this computer.
So far, it has only 5 plays, so quite a bit far from the top 2 albums (there are 5 in total). Actually, its last.

1. Corinne Bailey Rae-Corinne Bailey Rae (honestly, this album is chock-full of potential singles)
Plays: 100 Tracks: 11
2. Maroon 5-It Won't Be Soon Before Long Plays: 95 Tracks: 11

I guess I might as well do the top 10 tracks today...
AI-Don't Stop
Rihanna-SOS
Corinne Bailey Rae-Trouble Sleeping
Esthero-In Tha Mood (I actually think that she's a better song writer than Utada Hikaru, anyways, this is the best song I've listened to for the past week or so)
Jamie Cullum-Get Your Way
Chantal Kreviazuk-Wonderful
The Last Goodnight-Pictures Of You
Maroon 5-Can't Stop
Maroon 5-Must Get Out
Alicia Keys-Karma (her new single, 'No One', to me sounds pretty bad. I think its because of her belting , though I'm not sure if that's the proper term or not)

Blog 21
I finally caught up on the weeks of Hikaru Utada news that I hadn't followed.
Apparently her record company released 'Automatic' as a free download on Chaku-uta for 4 days.
Argh.
It got 400,000 downloads.
Argh.
Anyways, I wouldn't have been able to download it, because Chaku-uta is an NTTDoCoMo mobile song downloading service, and I don't have a NTTDoCoMo phone.
By the way, she still gets her royalties, and her record company and managing office pays for the rest of the fees.
Whatever, EMI's rich enough, and her dad manages her, so its okay. I'm sure Utada can spare some money for her dad.

By the way, she has a new single, 'Heart Station/Stay Gold' to be released on February 20, 2008, if my memory doesn't fail me. I heard a preview of Stay Gold, its 1:30 minutes long and can be found on YouTube.
IT. IS. AWESOME.
Honestly.
I heard it once, and I thought immediately that this was the best song I've ever heard from Utada Hikaru.
I just hope that the rest of song lives up to the promised that this preview brings.
Honestly, please please just go to YouTube and search Utada Hikaru Stay Gold and listen to the preview. It really is an awesome song. (By the way, I'm too lazy to upload it or whatever to blogger).

She also has a new album soon after the release of HS/SG. It would mean that it would be a full 4 new singles since her last album (as in not including singles off her last album)
Boku wa Kuma
Flavor of Life (Utada HIkaru's biggest single EVER, 8.3 million downloads, Japan's number one single EVER, although not the number one Japanese language single ever-its a song called 'Sukiyaki' which hit Billboard number 1-, and possibly the worlds best selling digital single ever-either more than 5 million or more than 7 million-)ring tones and digital songs
(anyways, there is no official digital download chart for the world
-Daniel Powter's Bad Day sold 1.7 m digital song downloads in USA
-Akon's Smak That sold 2.1m ringtones in USA
-Recording Industry of Japan registeres a previous song which sold 4 m in Japan as the worlds best selling digital single
Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry
Heart Station/Stay Gold

By the way, most fans recognize 'Deep River' and 'Ultra Blue' as her best albums, with the former having a very small advantage.
I agree so too, they both have awesome songs, but Deep River has better singles.
But anyways, I haven't listened to all of her albums yet.

Anyways, Utada Hikaru now has the distinction of having the best selling album and best selling single in Japan of all time!
Well, actually, no.
Because of chart rules for Oricon, digital downloads are not accounted for in actual song counts, so Utada Hikaru sold only 650,000 copies of Flavor of Life, which is wayyyyy down the list. Its the number 2 song of 2007, though.
That is so outdated...

Actually, nevermind, I'm adding the video...

19

Whoops, I forgot the paraphrase and the blog topic again.

Parablog: It's not always easy to get something right.

Willing Suspension of Disbelief

Although we do have to suspend disbelief, sometimes I find myself picking out parts of the piece of work that would never happen in reality. In those cases, I always need to remind myself that this is just a book/game/etc., and not a documentary.

WSD is essential to enjoying a fictional piece of work, otherwise we would spend our energy picking out 'lies' rather than focusing on the entertaining aspects of the piece of work. WSD is found in pretty much all media, and is not limited to things which are intended to entertain, for example, advertisements.

18

For the last week, I haven't been able to sleep well, and in many cases not able to sleep at all. It's insomnia, except it appears to be related to hunger.

When I don't seem to eat enough, it seems that I can't sleep, and I don't feel as sleepy either.

The worst thing, though, is that I can't seem to tell if I'm hungry or not. For some reason, I seem to have lost my ability to 'sense' hunger (though I can sometimes).

And, I don't ever seem to be able to eat enough.



Today, for example, I knew I was dead tired, I slept for about 5-6 hours the night before, and not more than 7 hours (except on Staturday, which I finally was able to sleep at 3 and woke up at 1:30) the nights before. I tried to take a power nap, but for some reason, I didn't feel sleepy anymore, and there was this very vague sense of 'emptiness' in my stomach. Even though I ate something right before.

Its not fun.

17

Pretty late now, must go to sleep now.

I hate it when you can't sleep when you haven't eaten enough, and when you don't know if you've eaten enough or not.

15/16

I wasn't able to complete my blog yesterday, because of some connections problem again. It was okay earlier, but then later on in the day when I was going to do my blog, it didn't work.

Blog 15
Report cards were issued today, and I'm pretty happy with my marks.
I was several percentages away from an A in Math, and if I did get an A, I would have had straight A's. Oh well. To be honest though, I'm not a straight-A student, so I think this is pretty good for me.
However, I heard that many other schools have principal's list at 7 A's and 1 B, while we have it at 8 A's. Hmph. I guess if we did it that way, there would be too many people in our school getting principal's lists, cause we're so much smarter than the other schools, right?
Okay, I didn't really mean it.


Blog 16
It turns out that I accidentally skipped my piano lesson today.
I thought she said that I didn't have any lesson today, but it turned out that we had.
That's a really big deal, and I totally should have checked again with her.
Ugh.

14

Instead of procrastinating by surfing the internet, I'm now developing a tv addiction.
In the last two days, I've had my first doses of Grey's Anatomy, Will & Grace, America's Next Top Model, and have began watching other tv shows such as the Simpsons after a long break.

Parablog:
Competition can be great (and harmful at the same time).

13

The Calgary trip is now cancelled.

I feel relieved, for some reason.

12

Need to sleep now.
Only managed to do one hour of homework today...

11

Yeah whatever, I'm too lazy to do the chart thing.
Well, not really, its just I can't get around to doing it.
Which in other words means I'm procrastinating.
Procrastinating in turns means that I'm too lazy.

Whatever.

10

By the way, about the theory exam yesterday
I was at the Peace Mennonite Church (I forgot the name, though).
While waiting for my brother to arrive, I was reading their youth group's calender and newsletter. It was quite frank, to the point, and humourous.

9

I did my theory exam today.
I think I did well.
But everyone does well, Grade 2 Rudiments is one of the easiest theory exams ever. Every single person I know got above 95%.

For some reason, my brother talked me into playing Resident Evil/Biohazard 4. I am absolutely not that type of person. My eldest brother absolutely loves it, though, and has beaten every single Resident Evil game.
I did play some of Biohazard Zero and the re-release of Biohazard for GameCube while in Japan several years ago, because those were the only games that we had (it was my eldest brother's). I only got through about one chapter or so, and then gave up. Needless to say, I am not good at those games.

8

Paraphrase:
Even though you may be an evil and deceitful person, if you are talented enough, the world will listen to you.

That is quite depressing.

By the way, The Last Goodnight is an awesome band. Sounds a little bit similar to the music of Maroon 5, though.

7

I forgot the paraphrase again.
Paraphrase: Mary Anning was probably one of the best untrained fossil excavaters ever. Another person named Mantell, who was an excellent paleontologist, was probably the first person to 'discover' (well, more like publish) the dinosaur, except that somebody else sort of told him to slow down and not publish yet but did so himself anyways.

I should go now.

6

The debate fundraiser is now up in the air. I don't even know if I'm going to go tomorrow.
CS and VD want to stop, at the very least temporarily.
I don't blame them. Its not always that great getting up at 6:00 in the morning and then going to school, waiting for other people to come, set up, and then discovering that all you've earnt is less than $20.

Anyways, I have a lot of homework to do today, even though I had nothing after school.

By the way, there was a Grade 8 girl at square dancing yesterday who looked very much like Angela Aki.

In every group of people, there are always some that tend to be less 'social' (not necessarily reclusive). They might be seen as less fun, or other things like that. I don't know why, but I get the sense of innocence from them, meaning that they tend to think better of other people and not so aware of the stuff that's been circulating around (not that I'm claiming to know everything, I really really really don't. People just don't tell me, and I'm perfectly fine with that). Then again, maybe they're just storing it up inside and not telling everyone else. However, I do have to say that I've met some people like that who are just absolute jerks (however, only 1, though).

I am getting the impression that I'm one of those people.
I think a great deal of my blogs are filled with negative comments of other people. That is really not a good thing. Those blogs tend to be boring.

Anyways, I'm being pretty rude sometimes to CS. People tell me I'm too serious, and sometimes I get a bit passionate when I see people doing rude things, even though they're all in fun. Sigh.

This is probably a bit late, but David Bowie (!) portrayed Nikola Tesla in the prestige.

5

I got the science marks back.
Didn't do too well, 80/100. I didn't think I really wanted to know, but I did anyways.
Barely scraped past an A.
In Japanese, I did pretty well, getting 95%. Although, all the high-achievers got better me, something more like 97%. Oh well, its an A, and I don't really care about much.
For some reason, I got 92% in PE. My best ever mark. In French, I have a 93% or something like that, so its okay. In math, our teacher bumped me up 2 percent for participation, so I got 83.6%. However, I didn't improve at all on the retest, and that was mostly because I didn't do the corrections at hand. Although, I did have two questions which I would have gotten right, had I checked my work. For one of those two, I filled in the wrong blank... but whatever, I wouldn't have gotten A anyways. JC was super, getting somethign like 98.4%. Wow.
Apparently, to get into IB HL math, its really hard, and you would have to go directly to grade 11E math next year, and take math at summer school. That's not an option for me, but oh well, its okay.

Today I was talking with my mum, and the topic of the debate trip to Calgary was raised. Apparently I could go after all, and it just depended on whether I wanted to go or not.
I've been telling everyone that I couldn't go if I couldn't get subsidized. Well, that changes things now.
Though, to be honest, I don't really want to go that much. I think I have a good idea of how I'm doing in debate, with tournament rankings to back me up, and those results are really not that good.

4b Paraphrase

Paraphrase:
This time, we're looking at fossils. First off, William Smith was trying to figure out how to seperate rocks by their ages. He realized that he needed some form of reference, and the answer lay within fossils. As we learnt in science, with different levels of rocks, there are different fossils of species. Smith later on published a map, which became one of the most important publications of geology. However, he didn't care about why they were there.
Nevertheless, as we bring God in the equation, there are many questions that are left to be answered. Why did God kill off so many species, and were those ones killed but not other ones?
Later on, there were many other dinosaur bone discoveries, but none were really investigated.
Nonetheless, in England, Mary Anning found another fossil, and started gathering fossils and selling them, becoming the origin of the tongue twister 'she sells seashells on the seashore'.

Blog:
I just remembered about the science test we had today.
I'm glad that I didn't think much about the test afterwards, otherwise I would have been very depressed the entire day. I didn't even manage to start on the last page, so 6 marks are gone right there. I don't even want to think about how many marks I lost/can get, or even if I'm going to get an A or not.
MP did say something that I should keep in mind though. She said something along the lines of how one test is so insignificant in our long paths in school. It'd really help to keep that in mind.
After remember this, I practiced piano. Not so much because I wanted to practice, but because I was not happy about the sciente test.

4

With the debate fundraising, we're okay on the hot chocolate, but not really anywhere near close to break-even yet on the raffles.
Actually, there is other stuff with raffles that we haven't worked out yet. But to you buyers, there is no problem, it does not affect you in anyway. It just affects us.

3

I better go to sleep now, because I have to be at school early tomorrow.

I've been thinking about an overall plan for the day, which is sort of a successor to the daily timetable I did last year and sort of gave up on/too lazy to continue.

(I'm being EXTREMELY generous with the times, nobody takes this long to do these things)
4:00 arrive at home
4:45 start eating
5:15 finish eating
5:30 start piano
7:00 finish piano/theory
7:45 start eating
8:30 finish eating
9:00 start homework
10:00 finish homework
10:30 go to sleep

Hm... There really isn't much time, is there?

1/2

Blog 1/2 (They're mixed together)

Its snowing....
and its finally getting cold. Not that I want it to, but its just an observation.
This morning, I was late for Chinese school by about 20 minutes. Nobody cared.
Yesterday, I came home at 4:20, because MP offered to drive me back at four, so I stayed around after recycling. After I came home, ate a little bit (couple of those Danish cookies) did some other pertinent things, and slept at around 7:00, planning to wake up at 8:00 to work on my two theory practice exams due tomorrow and study for the test and also the theory exam. Woke up at 8:00 next day. (That's why I wasn't able to do a blog yesterday.) Quickly looked over and studied for Chinese a bit, then went down and ate. After everything, it was 9:20. Then, by the time I got to the bus stop, it was around 9:30, and I thought I missed the bus, so I just walked to school. While walking, I saw the bus pass right next to me. Hmph.

By the time I walked to piano, it was really cold. I was much better prepared now, though, and dressed appropriately.
It's during these times that I'm glad we have ground heating, double windows (or whatever they're called), and that our car has all-season tires and ABS. Its also these times that I'm somewhat disappointed that our car has unoperable airbags (don't ask), two wheel drive with a not-very-good differential (well, at the least its front wheel-drive), no traction controls of any kind (well, if you don't count ABS, and ABS isn't really a 'traction control' device), and no snow tires.

I'm not sure if I've talked about this before, but I remember very clearly there being no student testimonials for Middle Years Program. I wondered why before, but wasn't concerned up to the point of not applying for it. Now, I think I have a pretty good idea of why there isn't a student up there. If I was up there, I think I'd be able to convince everybody not to apply for MY, and probably Britannia Venture. Although there are quite a bit of good points, but the fact that its not a district-wide program eliminates most of the people who would benefit from them.

EDIT: Changed the blog counts, forgot it was term 2.

81 (skipped blog 79)

My total blog count for the term is 81 (I accidentally skipped blog 79)

Kelly: Yeah, I heard Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Utada Hikaru has done a cover of it! For some reason, though, I like Wake Me Up When September Ends better. Though BoBD also sounds pretty good.
I gave up on Facebook, because it was such a distractor. Although I don't go there often, once I do, I spend a huge amount of time there.

Paraphrase (JC)
The first ever recorded finding of a dinosaur bone, 100-years before its second discovery, was met with indifference, and eventually lost. American were thought by the Europeans to be vastly inferior to their European counterparts. Also, there was the problem of discovering remains of species that were extinct, causing the prevailing theory at the time that everything has its place in the world to fall apart. There were expeditions sent to explore America past the Mississipi River, hoping to find live versions of those species, but none were found. Later on, other species were exaggerated way beyond what they really were.

81

To Kelly: Actually, I forgot why. There originally was a reason, I guess. Then I forgot it.
Probably had something to do with habits, and confusion, and so on and so forth.


I went to school today, and finished my Japanese test.
I hope I did well, and I think I did, but the realistic me knows I didn't do well.
Why? Well, while doing the hiragana and katakana translations of romaaji, I kept on making mistakes, and erasing as I go along. I didn't have much time to check, so I might have gotten a lot wrong. Sigh.

I've been listening to Can't Stop by Maroon 5. Its pretty much my song of the day. Yesterday, I've played it only 3 times, now, its 10 times. Its now tied for 5th place with CBR's Put Your Records On. 'Can't Stop' has a catchy beat, they're right, there's more stuff on this album which you could sort of dance to. The closest thing on CBR is 'I'd Like To', and that one definetly isn't a dance track.
By the way, the second most popular Maroon 5 song I had, the one before Can't Stop overtook it, was Sunday Morning. It used to my favourite song (actually right now it sort of is), but the quality is pretty bad on this song for some reason. It's not mine, actually, its the previous owner of the computer's.

80

I'm feeling better now; I'll probably go to school tomorrow.
Should I?
I really don't know. All I know is that it'll be very inconvenient if I don't go; I'll have a huge load of work to do on the day that I do go back to school.

I'm toying the idea of covering my monitor with a piece of paper that says 'Fight Computer Addiction!' I'll probably get around to it once I get around everything else.

Oh yeah, the top songs thing.
I'd Like To-Corinne Bailey Rae
Trouble Sleeping-" " "
Put Your Records On-" " " There's a reason its the most successful single from CBR
Goodnight Goodnight-Maroon 5
Better That We Break-" "
Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro-Utada Hikaru (she's probably going to have one song on every list I make)
Do You (feat Utada) -Ne-Yo (I just had to bold that)
Always On Your Side-Sting and Sheryl Crow (I'm not sure if the title's right)
2 Hearts-Kylie Minogue (second time) I listened to 'X', her latest album, on Sympatico MSN. It was not really that good. Her best song was 2 Hearts, although that was an excellent song.
Wake Me Up When September Ends-Green Day

78

JC accuses me of infecting her with the flu.
I'm not surprised, although I do have my doubts.
However, I do think I might have infected a lot of people today. Maybe I shouldn't have gone to school.
I remember during our French test, when I sneezed, Ms. Ziakos gave me an evil look.
By the way, our Japanese test was postponed. That was soooooo good. Because if it wasn't, I think its highly possible I would have failed it.
By the way, I got my math test marks back today. I got 70%, which is really low. Luckily, I had a 90% average, so now I have a 81,6% or so average. KB told me that our teacher might give out random bonus marks, but I don't think he'll give them to me. I'm not exactly his brightest student.
I was prejudiced against MSh today. I got a bit of angry at him, and TP also got some of the overspill. He was asking me about my math test marks, and I asked what he got, and he told me he got 91%. I then sort of exploded after that. After calming down right now, I think that it was not his fault at all. It was only I who asked him what his marks were, and it wasn't his problem that I got such low marks. Although he does have a reputation for bragging, but thats what bragging rights are called. Personally, though, I really don't like that. I sort of hate it with a passion, but I probably do it sometimes...
YS was awesome today. After school, when I was whining about how, if it snowed today, I'll have to walk to school tomorrow in the snow, and get a even worse cold. I know, I shouldn't have whined, but I felt like it! Anyways, I didn't expect anyone to listen to me at all, and just dismiss it as some random rambling. But YS did not. He listened to me, then inquired a bit about where I lived, then offered his monthly bus pass for me, where then he would walk. I of course refused, as I did have some passes of my own, and shut my mouth after that. But that was very kind of him, and I would never have done that.
I don't think I should got to school tomorrow. I'm really not feeling well, actually. So, I probably won't be at school tomorrow.

77

My mom left for Japan today...

Sigh.
She's probably landed now by the way.


Also, its only my brother and I now.
Hmph.


In addition, I'm sick. Actually, I've been sick since Friday, and I went to see the doctor on Saturday. I also ran into JC, VD, and JL at Oakridge.

I guess I should go and study for my French and Japanese end of term tests tomorrow, and then my Science test, plus finish my SS, Science, AS homework, and study for the upcoming theory exam.

I should really get started...

By the way, there was a problem with blogger, so I couldn't publish or save for quite some time.

76

I am so sorry I forgot all about the paraphrase.
I kind of forgot most of it...

Paraphrase:
Usher figured out the age of Earth using biblical references. Other people chose other ways, such as coal mines, but all of those estimates were grossly incorrect.

That's about as much as I can remember now...

Blog:
I've been listening to Corinne Bailey Rae's self-titled album.
Some people are great singers, such as Christina Aguilara and Mariah Carey. However, they don't have what I would call angelic voices. Bailey Rae has that kind of voice. She's just awesome.

In addition, It Won't Be Soon Before Long (the album) by Maroon 5 is also on my playlist. It's pretty good, like pretty much everything from Maroon 5.

75 Big Questions/Big Answers

For the video, are we supposed to submit notes, or 'big questions/answers?'

Why doesn't the moon fall if the apple does?
-the moon is affected by the gravity, but since it is so far away and travelling at such a high speed, its momentum keeps it in orbit.

How does radium emit energy if it doesn't have a source of energy?
-energy comes in packets called quanti
-however, lots of uncertainty

-Galilei Galileo - testing by experimentation
-falling rate of items w/ different mass
-Newton-Law of Universal Gravitation
-all objects have gravitational pull
-Laws of Motion
-SEcond Law of Thermodynamics
-Rudolf Klauseus-in energy exchange, some energy will always be lost
-Magnetic fields-Michael Faraday
-used magnetic field to create electricity
-James Clerk Maxwell
-Albert Einstein Special Theory of RElativity
- Says that space + time are not constant
-e=mc squared
-Quantum Theory Max Plunk
-Marie Curie had radium, which glowed without apparent source of energy
-lots of uncertainty, weird principles, electrons at both place at same time
-Newton had 1st theory of light-particle properties Corpuscular Theory
-Young showed light has wave properties
-Einstein said light has both qualities
-Nucleus
-one equperiment in whcih alpha particles were shot at gold foil
-expected it to go through
-but some where deflected
-due to the very dense nucleus
-superconductivity-Dutch scientist created liquid helium
-found resistance lowered as it became colder
-~4 degrees above absolute zero, resistance of the mercury was zero
-called superconductivity
-goal is to find superconductors at room temperature
-Quarks-Murray Gell-Mann
-proposed that neutrons/protons were made of quarks
-later proved to be true,
-experiment was like an electron microscope picture of nucleus
-3 quarks
-Theory of everything
-theory unifying S/WNF+EM is really bad
-extremely 'ugly' relative to theories of gravity

What patterns do planets follow in their orbits?

Can Earth revolve around something else?

What's happening with Mercurys' orbit?

What was the origin of Earth?

Blog:
Remember before, when I was becoming apathetic towards marks?
Well, I sort of still am, but I just remembered the goals I sort of made last year. One of them included getting good marks (well, it was a lot more specific and in-depth than that, but I'm not going to go into it). So, now I have to start caring again. And I need to care now, because my marks are dropping.
As of a couple of days ago, I had an A in English, Science, Math, Japanese, and French for sure, with hopefully an A in Applied Skills and Socials, and most likely a B in PE. But now, it seems that I only have an A right now in Japanese, and the Science A is in jeopardy. Actually, the fate of the Japanese A is yet to be decided, because I have the by far biggest test this term next week.
Why?
Well, I didn't do my homework for French, which resulted in me getting a 1/10 on the homework check. That is scarily low. Homework is most likely worth at the very least 10% of the mark. which means that I have to get at the very least 94.1% or so, maybe more to get an A. Ugh. And the Unit 1 test is coming up, and with the amount of tests that I have, I dont' think I'll do well on any.
With English, the memory book is seriously wrecking my chances of getting an A. Mr. Hauck said that our memory book could be as plain as we wanted it to be, and NL asked him if he was going to give extra marks for making it prettier, and he said no. Well, being as naive as I was, trusted him, and turned up with four sheets of paper in a folder. It was very plain. Then, on the day that it was due, he said that he was going to mark us on creativity, which includes the format (in this case, folder) that it was in. There goes 4 marks. Then, another 4 marks were based on whether or not it was edited and refined. Mine wasn't. I thought that, since it was a memory book, it should be based on raw memories, and I don't refine my memories. Ugh. I will never ever trust Mr. Hauck again when it comes to things like this.
In math, well, I've taken it for granted that I won't get an A. Its a bit of disappointing, especially after I knew that I was getting an A after the first test. If I didn't know that, I wouldn't be disappointed. But, now, we had a quiz and a test, and I did poorly on both. On the first one (the quiz), I got an absolutely borderline B. It was 72.9 something %. On the test, I couldn't finish two problem solving questions, both worth at the very least 2 marks each, and 4 scantron questions (hopefully only 1 mark each). That means 6 marks gone forever. Which means that, if I got 100 % on everything else, the test must be out of at least 42 marks. Which it is not. I remeber there being 17 scantron questions, 5 problem solving questions, 6 other questions worth possibly 2 marks, and 2 questions worth possibly 1 mark. Okay, so that is 41 marks. Hm. Maybe, just maybe. But I have never EVER gotten a 100% on any math unit test in high school. Even when I was in Grade 8 regular, my highest was something like 95%. And that only happened once. What chance do I have of 100% in Math 9E?
In Japanese, to prepare for the test next week, I have to memorize 100 characters, and a dozen of other terms and such. Terms I might be able to squeeze an A (just barely), but the characters are a lost cause. In three months, I have only memorized about 25. Now I have to memorize 75 in 3 days.

I feel the stress coming right now.

Sigh.

73/74

Blog 73
I couldn't do a blog today, because after I came home, I ate, then slept. I was going to sleep for only 1 hour for a power nap, but I ended up sleeping until 3:00 in the morning. Then, I ate something, and decided to do some homework. However, the internet was down, so I couldn't make a blog.

I was really really tired after not sleeping early enough for quite a few days. Its becoming a habit.

Blog 74
I was looking at the play counts on my iTunes today, and I was somewhat surprised. Its important to keep in mind, however, that most of the songs I listen to aren't on iTunes. Also, the previous owner of the computer had listened to alot of songs, and I haven't listened to them much.
Name Play Count
1. Stickwitu-Pussycat Dolls 42 (not mine)
2. Crushed-Rosette 31 (not mine)
3. Dirty Little Secrets-The All American Rejects 21 (not mine)
4. Naked-Marques Houston 21 (not mine)
5. Fix You-Coldplay 18 (not mine)
6. Unwritten-Natasha Bedingfield 17 (not mine)

and it continues so on and so on until my first placing one:
7. Kiss & Cry-宇多田ヒカル (Utada Hikaru) 10
8. Fly Me To The Moon-Utada Hikaru 9
15. Kiss & Cry-Utada Hikaru 8
16. 2 Hearts-Kylie Minogue 7
17. Do You (feat. Utada)-Ne-Yo 7

So, the top four out of my top 5 (2 Hearts and Do You are tied) are by Utada Hikaru. Hm.

By the way, Do You was just released Nov. 21 on Japan iTunes, so after only 3 days (in Canadian time, it was released on the 20th) it has shot up to number 17. That's pretty good...

72

I am absolutely stuck for an idea for memory book.
And its due tomorrow.
Argh.
Better go now.

71

I was quite disappointed when John Legend's concert was removed from the MSN In Concert shows.
Oh well.

Ordinary People-John Legend
And I've been listening to 2 Hearts (Kylie Minogue) again. Its finally scaling the charts, but not really here in Canada yet.

Paraphrase:
Lyle began to lose his sight. He was a geologist, and worked a lot on Hutton's theory, although, like everyone else, he never ever got through his works. But because of this, everybody thought that Lyle was responsible for the theories of Hutton. Later on, there was another large debate, opening up between the Neptune and the Pluto (I think) people. Lyle was a catastrophisist, who believed that Earth was made due to catastrophes. After his death, some of Lyle's theories were proven incorrect. Also, there was some controversy regarding rocks and their classifications due to time periods. Well, it was a huge controversy, but it was solved eventually.

70

I also need to stop myself from playing the DS.
And opening the computer.

EVERYTHING must be done by hand.

Oh yeah, and Ne-Yo's the guy who sings 'Because of You'. It's pretty nice.

10 songs I've been listening this past week
Until the End of Time-Justin Timberlake featuring Beyoncé
These Words-Natasha Bedingfeld
Superstar-Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthew Santos (absolutely love this song; this is my favourite of the week)
Girlfriend-Avril Lavigne (translated versions) She pronounces Mandarin so well for a person who doesn't speak it!
Break Anotha-Blake Lewis
Call Me-Bran Van 3000 (They have a new album called 'Rosé'! Its been around 6 years, I think, since their last one)
Drinking in LA-Bran Van 3000
Out of My Head-Mobile
Deep River-Hikaru Utada
Final Distance-Hikaru Utada

68/69

Blog 68
Basically I was just so tired I slept and forgot all about Chinese. Which was just as well, as I was not really into doing it. Except I didn't manage to practice piano, which I dearly needed to.

Blog 69
I didn't do well in Chinese today. Oh well.

I also discovered today that there was a higher level of atrociousness (proper word?) with piano that I haven't reached before. Well, I reached it today. I had a study, and it was TERRIBLE. It sounded like as if I practiced only once or twice. My teacher, being who she is, didn't say anything, and said I did excellent (but she says that at the end of every single song to make whoever's playing it feel happy).

Oh, and I didn't do any homework today. Which means I have a mountain of it tomorrow...

67b

Technically its still the same day, so I can't count this blog as another one.

Parablog:
Parkinson and Lyle were both discussed in today's reading. Parkinson was famous for Parkinson's disease today, and Lyle, who eventually wanted to study law, became a geologist under the influence of a very eccentric geologist.

67

Paraphrase for JB:

The very talented but shy scientist from last day was asked by his friends to publish his findings and hold seminars. It was extremely boring, although it had landmines of information contained in them. Very few people ever got through it. Probably none. However, one of his assistants published a more easily comprehensible form of it, which sold much much better.
Another person also came along and published another uncomprehensible text, but that one sold pretty well.
Also, a society of geologists (I believe) began to eclipse the power of the Royal Society.

66

I feel a lot like an obssessive fan right now.
Anyways, she has a new digital single to be released in Japan.
That's not it, if it was only that, I would have thought 'oh okay. Nice.'
But this is an English release. I feel like saying OMG over the place.



Well, not really.



Actually, I absolutely do not feel like saying that.

Its a collaboration with Ne-Yo, called "Do You (feat. Utada)"
He's doing it to raise his profile, and this only one of his many collaborations with overseas artists.
Hmph.
It's not even going to be released in USA.
Hmph.
Oh well, at least it means she's going somewhere. By the way, they are label mates.
It appears that she was also referred by Jay-Z and Reid. Not really surprising, since she's the only Asian superstar under an American Universal label. Heck, she is the largest Japanese artist under the Universal label, period. Okay, she's the largest Japanese artist as of this moment. Well, fine, you can say Koda Kumi or B'z, but, well, not really.

65

I'm looking at what I have to do today, and trying to finish them all by 11:00 seems like a pretty hard task:
Japanese homework x2 (anyways, I left it at school, but I can still do it) 40 min
French ideas 20 min
Piano 1 hr.

Even though right now I should also be working on science, English, socials, and theory. I also gave up on math homework, so if he does a homework check, then I'm going to be in big trouble.

64

Right now, I'm slightly dizzy from the new glasses I got today. I like them better than my old ones, they kept on falling down.

Anyways, at the store, they had all these promotional posters up. On one of the Gucci posters, I found a image expiry date. Apparently the image had already expired.

When I was young (and a little bit even today), I didn't really understand the difference between supermodel and model. So one was super, and the other wasn't? Not much of a difference, is there?
And then, I didn't understand why there needed to be a difference. I thought that all models looked good, so there wasn't much need to have the same one over and over again. I also thought that it wasn't a good job being a model, as I thought there wasn't that much work to have a stable income. Since I didn't remember seeing the same model twice, I thought that there was way too much competition for too little jobs.
Obviously, today I think differently, but still.

62/63

Blog 62
So...debate.

Well, we started debate on Friday after school, and so we went to UBC, ate a small meal, then headed over to Buchanan and then Woodward, then back to Buchanan for our actual debates. We first debated whether or not we should ban medically unneccessary cosmetic surgery, and we were the proposition. We lost that debate, but oh well. They had 1 month to prepare, and we knew exactly 10 days before the debate started.
We next faced STA. I didn't really like them, and we won. No matter how you see it, we won, whether by that round, group standing, individual standing, or even school standing (I think). And then had two months to prepare, plus previous experience at this tournament.
That night, I was extremely tired, slept at 11:30, and woke up the next day at 6:30. Not very surprising, but I was VERY VERY TIRED, so tired that I wanted to skip debate so badly.
I drank quite a bit of tea that morning, and then felt better as the day progressed. We seemingly did better today, but maybe that was because the tournament was tabbed, so we were against opponents our own level.

And so on and so forth.

Eventually, that night I didn't sleep well because I drank too much tea. It's the first time that's ever happened.

Blog 63

Well, I'll just list 10 songs that I've been listening to the past week;its not in any particular order.
Don't Know Why-Norah Jones
Pink Key-Namie Amuro
Boku wa Kuma-Hikaru Utada
Piece of Me-Britney Spears
Taking Chances-Celine Dion (absolutely love this song)
CAN'T EAT CAN'T SLEEP I'M SICK-Namie Amuro (yes, its completely capitalized)
2 Hearts-Kylie Minogue
Full Moon-Namie Amuro
The Great Escape-Patrick Watson
Eason Chan-(I'm not sure what its English name is, but a translation could be 'Man on the Moon', 'People of the Moon', or something else)

61

I would talk about debate, but my eyes are crying out for sleep.

60

You can call it apathy, but really underlying I do care but I don't care enough to care. If you don't get it, that's okay.

Debate today was just terrible, I completely obliberated any chance our team had of winning. Didn't help that our opponents were well prepared either. We weren't, at the very least.

I don't think I'll do well tomorrow. Maybe possibly in the impromptu, but other than that, not much.

I'm sooo tired, so I'll talk more about it tomorrow.

59

You know what,
I Don't Care.
I don't think I really care anymore.
I haven't handed two things in yesterday, and I sure didn't do all of my homework for tomorrow.
I've never done my Math homework, but now I didn't even do all of my Socials and my Japanese homework.
This is sort of ironic, cause right now, I'm doing the best I've been doing ever. I have an A in English, Science, Japanese, French, and Math. Don't know about Socials, Applied Skills, or PE. I've never gotten A's in English or French before, and only one once in Science. I currently have the highest mark I've ever gotten in science too.
Today I scanned pretty quickly the IBSC10 marks. Out of about, say, 90 students, only 3 got A's. In MY, about 5 or 6 people got A's. Wow.

People have been telling me that its the first I've done this or that, meaning I've broken other people's expectation or image of me. I don't really care.

And you know what, tomorrow's debate tournament. We have no way of filling up our time the way things are going. And you know what? I don't care. At all.

Paraphrase:
I DON'T CARE ENOUGH TO DO IT. REALLY.

Fine. I'll eventually get to doing my homework.

Anyways...

Huttson, who worked in Edinburgh, was an extremely smart man. He, like the other people of his time, had very diverse interests, and he worked well in all of them. He was also the leader of the Oyster Club, which had specialists from many different fields. But he was particularly interested in geology. One question that occured was why were they clam shells on mountains and high hills, far away from the coast? There were two schools of thoughts in the day, the Neptunians and the Plutonians. The Neptunians believed that different water levels in history have caused the clamshells to wash up on the mountains, while the Plutonian had theories about internal and external forces, volcanoes, etc., but none that really practically could explain what actually happened. They just found faults with the other group.

TOKW

Workplace Name: HSBC Software House
Hours: 7:00-4:00
What duties did you observe, etc...
-tour of the building
-activity with software development
-presentations on multiple intelligences/e-learning

What did you enjoy most?
I enjoyed having conversations with people I didn't know about.

What surprised you?
The role of money laundering in software development

Would you pursue a career in this profession? Why or why not?
IYes, but only if the chance comes, as it seems that there is good pay, hours, and benefits!

58

I feel like I totally should not go to pre-IB. I am right now suffering from an outrageous amount of homework, and if it weren't for the Rememberance day weekend, it would be a lot worse, as I would have to practice a lot more piano and Chinese.

Its completely my fault though, I had so much time before... I just didn't use it effectively.
I only managed to spend about 4 hours on homework today because I got home late...

I am so sorry, but I really have to go now, so I'll finish the questionnaire tomorrow. Please....

I also have a certificate and the timetable, which if I have time (earliest on Sunday, with debate and all that stuff) I will scan and upload.

57

I'm looking at what I have to do before Friday.
That list includes 4 things due on Thursday, and 5 things due on Friday.
NOT including the enormous debate tournament on Friday and Saturday, for which we've only done less than half of.

This is the worse ever by FAR.

At the very least I'm sleeping early today, have to wake up early tomorrow, then come home around 5...

56

Absolutely need to go to sleep now.
I predict that the debate tournament will turn out to be a disaster for our group.

55

From now on, unless if I absolutely must, I will stay away from the computer until I've done ALL my homework. Otherwise I will get nothing done.

Norah Jones' 'Don't Know Why' was in my head for the better part of the day.
Namie Amuro's 'Pink Key' wasn't that bad either.

Maybe one day I'll have a 'weekly top 10' songs that have been stuck in my head.

54

Ugh. I've been watching Ellen DeGeneres for the past hour or so, and I really haven't gotten much done. Though, I did get started somewhat on Science.

53

I personally think power naps are wonderful. I've tried them twice in the last two weeks, and they were very very helpful. However, for each of those times, I had a very hard time waking up, and usually got up 30 minutes after waking up. And there were many more times when I couldn't wake up despite the alarm clock ringing, and slept for 3 hours. Today was one of those days.

By the way, Kelly sent this to me: http://weblog.xanga.com/kelsers123/625003229/59-destiny-numbers.html

Wow. Maybe because I'm looking for it, I think some of it is true actually...

Paraphrase:
John Cavendish was an extremely shy and smart man, way ahead of his time. Mitchell gave him a set of instruments that could be used to calculate the mass of the earth by using two 350 pound balls and recording their effects on each other. It was extremely precise, and was extremely sensitive. Despite the thousands of possible sources of errors in the experiment, he managed to calculate the earths mass to within 1% of what we think it is today. It was also quite close to Issac Newton's calculations earlier, and he didn't have any experimental data.

52

I remember when I was in Japan during the summer, for a while I was completely stuck listening to "Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5 over and over again. Well, not exactly over and over again, just maybe 5 times a day. Which wasn't that bad, but then I sort of got over it, and listened to other things.

Well, I think I should go to sleep now, so I'll be quick.

By the way, I'm starting to think that Mika has a really nice voice. Though, to be honest, I got tired of hearing Grace Kelly over and over on the radio a couple months ago.

51

I was hoping to get a some time to take a breath and not do anything. But that's not possible, since I have to get science ready by Friday, and I have a pretty big debate tournament on November 9th and 10th. Sigh...

The international collaboration was useless, and had so much contradicting measurements that it was impossible to see what actually happened. Also, after much looking around, a suitable mountain was found to measure its mass in Scotland. After lots of hard work, the mass was found, and this solved the mystery of how much the planets weighed! However, it was still not possibly to figure out much without knowing the density of the planet, and that was left to a relatively unknown Briton.

Song for the moment: Pink Key-Namie Amuro

50

Oh yeah. I just remembered that I had to do a summary yesterday. Sorry!!!!!

Newton's laws dictated that the earth was not completely spheric, but slightly bulging at the equator, which was a shock to everybody, since it was commonly accepted that the earth was perfectly spherical. A French team went to the Andes to test this theories out, and in typical French form, faced many difficulties for several long, arduous years. Another team went to northern Scandinavia, and, along with tales of their own difficulties, brought back measurements that proved that Newton was right.
There was also an international collaboration to track a transit of planets, but this collaboration was illfated from the start, especially the French. Many of them didn't manage to reach their position in time, and one was stuck in sea at the time. He waited for several years, building a conservatory, checking and rechecking his equipment, only to have a cloud ruin all his work for all these years. After arriving back in France, he discovered that he was declared legally dead, and his estate plundered by his relatives.

I'm sure our AS teacher is being indundated with complaints about too much homework, and I agree with everybody else too.

Ugh, Namie Amuro's "CAN'T SLEEP, CAN'T EAT, I'M SICK" (yes, its completely capitalized) is stuck in my head. And I'm not anywhere near finished studying for science...

49

I was hoping to get some piano practice today, but used up all my time sitting around doing nothing, sleeping, figuring out the theory exam, and random requests.

Okay, so now my medium term 1st priority is the Science Project
I need to get the entire plan, complete with procedure and pretty much everything just short of actually doing it by Friday.

I think that's possible.

48

Remember yesterday I was telling you about how I was studying for the Chinese test? Well, after I finished the blog, and also this morning when I was studying, I had Hikari/Simple and Clean blaring really loud in my head. It was impossible to turn it off. Well, I still managed to get some studying done, but not really as much as I could have.
Anyways, you have to love her "Hikari" video. What it is is Hikaru washing dishes (really), and lip synching to the song. She also drinks water for a while, and disappears for 20 seconds to get two cups. Apparently this simple video was made because her then-husband couldn't make it.
Some people think its a joke for her foreign fans, because "Simple and Clean" is the English version of it.

"Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars"-Fly Me To The Moon
"hikki can come over and do my dishes"- some YouTube user

Apparently there's this one fan of hers that did a 'weekly' video summary of Hikaru's blog.

47

I have a Chinese midterm exam tomorrow. Which means I have quite a bit of stuff to memorize. Ugh.

Apparently other people in my piano level practice everyday for at least 1-1and a half hours. Wow. Well, I guess that's expected, it's just that I haven't really been such a keen pianist.

"Aoi sora ga mienu nara aoi kasa hirogeteii
ja nai ka KYANBASU wa kimi no mono..." -COLORS, Hikaru Utada

"When you walk away
You don't hear me say
Please, Oh baby, don't go." Simple and Clean, Hikaru Utada

"TEREBI keshite
watashi no koto dake wo mite ite yo." Hikari, Hikaru Utada

Simple and Clean and Hikari are very similar, however, they aren't really direct translations of each other, as the chorus and other parts of the songs are slightly different.

46

Okay, I really am still stuck listening to Utada. As of now, I'm watching a youtube video of Utada and Beckham. No, I'm not watching it when I am doing something that requires my full attention, such as the paraphrase of the book.

Paraphrase:
So, first of all we go back to Newton's work, and how it affected the calculation of the earth's circumference and other things like that. His laws demonstrated that the earth is not really perfectly circular, but is like an oval. That was a huge shock to pretty much everybody, as nobody ever seemed to doubt that the earth was spherical. This threw pretty much all calculations of the earth out of porportion.
In England, there was one scientist, who walked all the way from the Tower of London to York, using a chain to figure out exactly the distance between two consecutive degrees. Most people would think that this was very inaccurate, but was off only by 600 yards when his calculations were extended across the globe!
Later on, the French began to become very interested in the idea of finding out the globe's circumference.

45

Hahaha
I lost my lab, which is due tomorrow. I think I left it in science class yesterday. I went there today, looked through the paper recycling, and couldn't find it. Nor was it on one of the desks. And our teacher wasn't there, so I couldn't get another copy of the lab.
Oh well.
However, one of my classmates sent me their lab, so I got my brother to white their answers all out for me. You know, it felt really really good to have him white it out. It was probably the first time in a long long time that he has done some 'grunt' work for me.

Anyways, I am still not over HU's music. It's still quite addicting...

Then again, I'm listening to other stuff now.

44

Okay, I've sort of got over the HU listening spree.
Well, anyways, I saw clips of her Utada United 2006 tour, and I have to say I absolutely love the stage and the cinematography. The wonders you can do with a huge budget.

43

Some times, I tend to 'obssess' over a particular singer/artist. Well, not really obssess, but just listen to their songs much more often than regular.
And as of now, that's Hikaru Utada.
Oh, and she's posted on her blog a month ago that she's starting work on her second English album. I'm hoping for a breakthrough...

42

I am such a such a such a such a forgetful person....
Okay, finished the powerpoint, except for the activity.
Just a question, does the activity have to be covered within the seven minutes?
Better get started on French and Japanese now...

41

Okay.
I will need to spend all of tomorrow working on the various projects, homeworks, and general things on my imaginary to-do list. (I should write down a to-do list.)

Oh, and about the plane that just crashed a day ago...
I heard this conversation on the radio, a lady phoned in to a Chinese radio station to report on what happened. Although this is translated, the actual meaning is very very close to what it means in English.

Host: Hello, miss. Can you please succinctly tell us what you saw today regarding the car crash?
Lady: Oh, the balcony broke, and the airplane went in. (no, that's actually what it means in Chinese)
Host: Oh, thank you, that was put very succinctly. Can you also tell us whether you saw any glass or not?
Lady: No, I couldn't, because glass is transparent.
*later*
Host: Also, did you manage to see any flames of any sort?
Lady: No, duh, I already said I didn't see any!!

I love that first line. Her attitudes almost as entertaining as Doris Lessing's.

40

Okay I really need to go to sleep now.
Spent most of the day out, then doing Chinese and practicing piano.

39

After Wednesday's kickboxing and ab exercises we had to do in PE, my body is aching. A lot. My left leg feels like its dead now.

Today we had two fieldtrip. They were both quite interesting, actually.
We first went to Granville Island, where we listened to an author from the Vancouver Children's Writers and Readers Festival (probably got the name wrong) talk about 'pop culture', and the differences between indie and corporate culture. To be honest, though, I had heard about pretty much every single thing he said. Oh, and I just started listening to CBC Radio 3 a couple days ago, so that wasn't new to me. It's funny sometimes how things you do/see/etc. relate to each other.
I half recognized the picture of Sid Vicious as part of the Sex Pistols. However, I mistook him for Vivienne Westwood's husband, Matthew McLaren, so I didn't know that.
Oh, and his list of 'top 5 media companies in the world' wouldn't be what I would have said. He said AOL/Time Warner, Disney, BMG, Murdock, and Viacom. I personally would have shoved BMG and Murdock off, and put Vivendi and Sony there instead.
However, I really enjoyed listening to him speak. He was quite humorous, however, he was hounded by questions revolving around 'how can you be indie when you make money', etc. Most indie stuff don't even make money, and he needs to eat, so of course he's going to get paid.

Now, for the TRIUMF tour.
Well, first off, aside from Nolan's group, everybody was late. Our group was second, and we managed to get AD's dad to drive us.
Our tour guide was a pretty good one, and he managed to catch my attention almost the entire time, and I understood most of what he said. I haven't been on many tours where that's happened.
The trip home was also quite interesting.


Oh, and I saw LN from Tech MACC at Granville Island. He was there for the same speech, and was staying later for another workshop. We had a chat, and to be honest, I almost didn't recognize him. He was much taller (a head taller than me), had braces, and longer hair.

38

Today I didn't do any homework, so I'm planning on spending quite some time on piano and sleeping early. Don't think that'll happen.

Oh, and as of now, I'm still wondering what's happening with tomorrow's bus ride to Granville Island.

Yesterday, we had to see "Through a Blue Lens", a documentary film by Veronica and David Mannix and the NFB, which was about drug addicts in the downtown Eastside. It was extremely graphic, and you know what, 3 minutes into the film I felt like I would rather have a project due tomorrow than see the rest of it. I promise you that I will never ever touch any of that stuff. It just brings back really bad memories.
I was reading a bit about it, and apparently it was quite well-received. Mr. Ehrmantraut said that all the women in the film had died, but Randy Miller might have stayed clean. I read a imdb article, which said that Nicola had also cleaned up and stayed that way, but then, the comment was written in 2004. Carlee and April both died, Carlee dying of drug overdose and April being strangled. Ugh.
However, it appears that crystal meth usage has grown much more than when the film was made, so now there is a near zero chance of rehabilitation and staying clean forever.
This is really some depressing stuff, you know.


Edit: I just went to this website:http://www.oddsquad.com/EN/through_a_blue_lens/_through_a_blue_lens/

Sigh.

37 Book Summary

Summary:
In 1735, the Royal French Academy of Sciences headed an excursion to Peru (and Quito) to investigate the circumference by calculating the distance between two degrees. During that time, there was a lot of interest in discover things about Earth. However, that excursion was ill fated, and included such bad fortune as having a doctor killed, many diseases, permit problems, and tensions with the locals.

Halley, a genius who was famous for many things, went around, work on some stuff, then went to Cambridge, talked to Newton about Keplar's laws, then discovered that Newton had figured it out, but didn't do anything else about it. Newton was quite a genius, and worked and so many things that it'll take forever to mention, but his specialties were alchemy and religion.

36

Ah.
The music of an extension was pure bliss. It totally made my day.

Now, just after typing that, I realize how much of a procrastinator I am. I asked around, and everybody is ahead of me.

Lots of work to do.

35 Education/Punishment-A Short History of Nearly Everything

Okay, have to sleep soon, to prepare for tomorrow's inevitable lack of sleep, so I'll make this blog short.
By the way, I forgot to check the website in a while, so I'll blog about Education vs. Punishment and A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Education is obviously not punishment. Not much more to say about that. For some people, they view it as a punishment, not because of education in itself, but how they view the way they're being educated. Some do think its a punishment, though, because the things that they're learning gives them a sense of depression, but that doesn't apply at all to us.

A Short History of Nearly Everything really helps in explaning very technical topics to us people with not much prior knowledge, except the very basic concepts. His comparisions to things that we can relate to make it so much more easier for us to understand how big, or small, or dense, or whatever a certain thing is. He sort of 'explains' the numbers, if you understand what I mean.

34

Okay, since I have some time today, I'll just talk a bit about what happened the past two days.
Well, on Thursday, our Japanese 10 class went on a field trip to the Nikkei Place in Burnaby, where we saw their Japanese Expo. We learnt how to make sushi, sumie (one-stroke painting), several handicrafts, and also their exhibit on shojun manga (girl comics). They also had many other workshops, but we didn't manage to visit them. There were also a couple of small activities we participated in. AC and I also had a interesting conversation with one of volunteers there.

33

I slept two hours today in the afternoon, then spent the rest of my time listening to various radio stations. To be honest, I never knew that there was so much Canadian music on the CBC channels.

32

Soo tired right now. I'm still awake doing English, because I slept the afternoon away.

31

I'm promising myself that today I will sleep before 10:00 today, because I slept quite late yesterday, the day before, the day before that, and the day before that.
All I really have to do is just practice the piano, but I should also work on the Applied Skills project, as that is coming up very soon and I haven't really done that much yet.

30

Okay. I didn't do any studying for the Socials test tomorrow, or practice piano, because of :
I came home late after debate
The extremely irritating and annoying JAL Mileage Bank (we're booking a ticket using miles, and because of a promotion that's happening, the entire process is taking hours)
English
Procrastination

29

Well, I really didn't manage to do enough today.
I did finish Socials notes (excpet a small part of me is reminding me that one and a half page of notes on half of what I should have done is absolutley positively not enough.)

Ah. Another weekend not used effectively. And it was a long weekend.

27/28

I wasn't able to add a blog yesterday, because I went out in the morning for an opthmologist's appointment, then came back at 10:00 after I had a birthday dinner. If it doesn't count as a blog, please let me know, and I'll fix the blog numbers.

27
Well, today was the first time I went to a Greek restaurant. My family and several relatives celebrated my birthday today with me. Yeah!
To be honest though, I wasn't in the birthday mood. I totally didn't care if nobody remembered my birthday, or if today was just another day. Oh well, it's not like as if its a bad thing.

28
Today I just felt like I didn't want to do any work. I just wanted to do nothing, and sort of got frustrated when I had to work. So, from 9:30 AM to now, all I've done is just a couple lines of Chinese, some very easy and quick French, and just piano. Tomorrow I'm going to have to do a whole lot. Sigh.

26

Ever since DL and KB mentioned 'Springtime for Hitler", the words were stuck in my head.
Wow.

25

Oh I am so tired.
I feel even more tired than when I slept at 4:30
I'm not near done my work.
The science group lab has been giving me a whole deal of trouble.
Partly my fault though, should have checked email earlier.
But then, I was out seeing the doctor.
Oh well, hope I'm done soon.

24

For English, we started on the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.
I read the first 50 pages or so, randomly read 5 other pages, and then from that I knew the general plotline. And now I know pretty much the entire plot line. Sigh.
Okay, I'll try to write the rest of the blog from the point of view of an Aspergers. It's not very accurate, though.

The skin on the tips of my fingers are falling off. And I slipped and hurt my right forearm yesterday. And now my right arm hurts and I cannot do anything physically strenous with it or my arm will hurt even more. But it doesn't hurt if I don't do anything with it. And yesterday when I meant doing English homework I meant the class final project. And somebody said that we should work on it during MYAS.

(Actually, it was probably suggested half-jokingly)

23

Hello.

Ah.

Well.

Okay.

Well, at least Sunday was over. That meant all that homework was done and handed in!

Okay, now lets just move on into our powerpoint presentations x 2, science proposal, all the Japanese letters, but luckily no English/Japanese/Math homework. No actually, we do have English homework, but we're supposed to work on it as a group, which probably means during MYAS or MYEN. Hopefully.

22

I really do think that I'm the worst procrastinator in my class. Still awake at 4:30.

21

Okay. Really really tired, should go to sleep now.
By the way, watched Ella Enchanted on TV. It was the first time I watched it, and the book was way better.

20

We ran 6 laps today.
The new times for points are significantly harder than last year, and I barely managed 8.5 points. Actually, I was supposed to get 8/10 points, because I was off by one second, but our teacher was nice and just gave me 8.5.
That's really nice, except that its now pretty much impossible, given my ability to get an A in PE. Okay, its not impossible, its just extremely difficult.

19

Today was pro-d day, so I finally managed to get some work done. Not a whole lot, mind you, but I did manage to do an hour or two of solid work. Mostly math and English.
Math 9E is much harder than math 8 regular. However, after asking my brother how to do a couple of questions he never taught in class, I was fine.

18

So tired right now. Must sleep.
Slept yesterday at 12, not fun.

17

You know what, today I feel like going on a rant about the mediocre-ness of American household electronic appliances compared to their far FAR superior Japanese counterparts.
Now, just a disclaimer, I have not done any research whatsoever, and all of this is based purely on my experiences.

Let's start with, hmmm..... How about washing machines?
You know, in North America, there are front-loading washing machines, front-loading dryers, top-loading washing machines, and top-loading dryers. Well, in Japan, there is the not-exactly-front-loading-but-not-top-loading washer/dryer. This design places the chamber thing at 20-40 degree angle, which makes reaching in and out WAY easier. Plus, there aren't any dials, everything is done from the control panel which consists of buttons and displays. There are also many functions, but which I've forgotten. However, Hitachi's flagship model, the BeatWash(or whatever its called) is top-loading but still a two-in-one. I remember it was either Toshiba or Sanyo (probably the former) who first introduced this appliance way back in 2002, and now, almost every major company has introduced a second generation.

It really honestly is wonderful, if I knew Japanese, I would be able to tell you much more about it.

Okay, now lets move on to refrigerators.
I remember in Japan, when I was walking around Akihabara, the world famous electric street (or so I've been told, I've never heard of it before I went there 5 years ago), I walked into one of those electronics stores geared for foreign visitors. In there was a section of fancy new refrigerators. At the very very far end, tucked away in the corner, under the sign "Overseas Models", was a GE refrigerator. Nobody ever ventured there, and when you could just compare the GE model and the Japanese models, it was clear who was the winner.
Japanese houses are significantly smaller than ours, so they had to make much use of their space. Their refrigerators reflect that. They have so many innovative compartments in which you could put probably 2x the stuff inside the same amount of space. Certain models have these ionizers, or plasma ion, and other stuff which is supposed to be good for your food, keeping them fresh, but I never understood them because I don't know Japanese. Usually, the freezer is at the bottom, with 1-3 drawers above it for fruits, vegetables, meat, etc., then on the top is a general compartment with one-touch open doors (yes, you don't have to pull the handles) and ample space. Look, even opening the doors uses significantly less space than our American ones. By the way, all the higher end ones have electronic displays, automatic ice dmaker, stuff like that. However, I have yet to see a single refrigerator with an external ice/cold water dispenser.
Oh, and they're for sure much more energy efficient than American ones, that's a given.

I think I should go now, so I'll just leave it at that.

16

Apparently the Iranian president is not very popular in New York. He's speaking at Columbia University, which I personally think is a good thing. Even though I completely abhorr his policies, I do believe in free speech, debate, and think it is a good thing he can express his opinions, and for us to try to understand why he says the things he says. Then, we hope that he does the same, and then we can all have a fair debate, and then leave hand in hand, shower everybody with flowers, and bring peace to the world.

In a perfect world.
Well, we're just going to have to live with it.

15

Okay, next time I won't borrow a book until I'm sure I don't have any homework for the next while, and will set to read it all in a couple of days and then return it. Otherwise I will just spend my days reading bits and pieces, never reading enough to finish the book, and always spending to much time on it rather than on my work which I should be doing.

14

I didn't manage to write a blog yesterday, because I was really tired and very very busy with Chinese, plus a lot of other activities, etc.

Well, yesterday I went to grassroots. I was washing the recycling bins, and it was at the same time much worse and much easier than I remembered. We managed to finish everything so much quicker, and it wasn't as hot as I remembered. However, I was definetly a lot wetter and icky.

I was listening to a lot of music on the internet, and discovered a lot of hidden gems (okay, maybe they weren't hidden to other people, but they were to me) which were much much better than mainstream music. Even though, to be honest, the ones that I were listening to are mainstream music. I'm not that much of a indie listener, for some reason.

13

Oh dear. Our group still has a science lab plan due tomorrow, and we really haven't started. At all.
And, if HC hadn't reminded me, I would have forgotten all together. Then, our group could just freak out tomorrow. Possibly complete it during Applied Skills.

By the way, I have just figured out another big time waster. It's sort of a big 'duh, of course', but for me its the radio. I just sit there, do nothing, and listen to it. Its relaxing sometimes, however, sometimes I just get headaches.

12

I have done absolutely nothing related to homework/piano today, so I plan to sleep early.
My legs hurt quite a bit, I'm guessing its because of running so much after a generally dormant summer. Oh well, its better now after I used some of that analgesic, whatever that meant. However, I do have to run the 6 laps tomorrow...

11

Really tired right now actually. Really want to sleep. Better go do that now.

10

Well, I guess I can't really stall not doing much homework for any longer, cause I just got quite a bit of assignments today. Hm. Maybe it'll take something like this to give me a push to really get back into the regular routine. Which means I need to make a daily timetable, something that I've only done once this school year, plus an organization period to get everything straight.

At the very least, I'm sleeping relatively early...
But not for long, at least, if I don't get everything straight, and soon.

Oh yeah...
By the way, during the summer, I was contemplating whether or not to continue piano or not. I thought that if I got a low mark on my Grade 8 Pratical, I wouldn't continue, and vice versa. Well, it actually wasn't that important to me, as I wasn't eagerly waiting for the test results. I just remembered and checked on the spur of the moment. Anyways, I did fine, getting 82. Like always, the teacher took pity on me. And also gave me the benefit of the doubt. (I made a couple of false starts, and sort of pretended that I played the wrong song and didn't hear her correctly, and so on and so forth).
My teacher just told me to start on Grade 10, because she wants me to finish it before I reach Grade 12 in regular school. Well, that means I have 2 years to complete several theory courses.

Oh, by the way, I missed the Emmys.

9

Okay. I think I should be going to sleep now. Just a brief overview of what happened today.
Regular routinue, homework, piano, etc.
However, participated in a project as an interviewee for somebody. It was about a "kids view" of the world, or more accurately, their school-related habits.

8

The common cold's been making its rounds at school lately, and I'm one of the victims.
Oh well, I think I should be sleeping now.

7 and String Theory Questions

1. When does theory become fact?

The line is actually blurred according to some, as some people consider facts to be influenced in one way or another by theory. I am somewhat confused, but from what I understand, 'theory' is used to explain 'facts', and is more of the reasoning behind these facts, and not necessarily 'scientific facts' themselves.

2. What is the difference between philosophy and theory?

Again, I don't have a clear idea, and after some research, I believe that theory is an explanation based on logic or mathematical calculations of scientific facts, that can either be tested using the scientific method or through observations.
The definition of philosophy is highly debated, and this explanation may not be the perfect one. Philosophy is more of a method, rather than the actual results. The method is based on rational thinking.

3. When will string theory be a religion?

Well, as far as I know, religion is very hard to define, and is quite subjective. You can get a very general definition, in which string theory is already a religion (then again, so would most scientific theories), in which it is a group of people holding a same group of beliefs; or believing in a set of doctrine that governs our lives. Otherwise, you would go into more stringent definitions, which involves deities, and those that are sacred, or divine, or spiritual. Now, if you used that definition, string theory would very likely not become a religion.


Blog 7

Today I switched from Spanish 9 to Japanese 10, because I just felt that learning Japanese would probably be more important to me now than Spanish. Well, anyways, it turns out my teacher and I had a lot to talk about. She lived in Yokohama, a little bit north of where I lived, but she was there from 2000-2001, where she taught at one of the best public schools in the city. Then, she got fired, due to cuts across the board, and came here. Well, I stayed in Yokohama for the summers of 2002-4, and so we had quite a bit to talk about, particularly the development in Minato Mirai 21, or whatever its called.
Quite a pleasant surprise, except now I have to copy 15 pages of 5 hiragana characters.

6

I'm really really tired right now.
I'll just leave it at that.

String Theory

5

Yesterday I finally ordered the book, and, according to a email they sent me, it should arrive on or before September 17, 2007.

I got some homework today, and I also did get some homework earlier last week, but honestly, I really haven't gotten started on them. I'm just constantly procrastinating, still thinking that summer's not over yet, and I have some time left. Sigh.
I remember I wrote down a list/plan of action of how to be more productive, etc., but I have to find that list. As of now, I can't find it, and I suspect that it was thrown away along with some of my notes from last year. Oh well, if I can't find it, I'll probably start on a new list, as I do need to sit down and really work on my very vague goals.

Oh, by the way, I changed the number of the blog, as I made a mistake on the numbering.

4

I just started getting back into the work routine, but I'm not doing that well.

By the way, the VMA's are on tonight.

Oh, and I just spent the better half of an hour watching Ellen DeGeneres online. But, the thing is that I can barely hear her.

3

Oh, I really don't know what to talk about today.
I guess I'll talk about what I know about the Japanese pop scene. Which really isn't a lot, since I only know the chart toppers, plus, I really don't know any Japanese, so yeah.
First of all, most Western singers aren't that big in Japan, at the very least not at the same scale as in Europe. And, of course, none of us have heard of Japanese singers, have we?
Well, anyways, there are four major female solo singers, a couple of bands here and there, and that's really it. Okay, lets just start with those four.
Ugh. I'm getting confused.
Okay, so there's Namie AMuro first, who was the absolute queen of pop for a long time, until I think she got married and had a child I think in 1998. Then, there was Ayumi Hamasaki. She became number one for a while, but then Utada Hikaru came on, and had the best album sales ever. She is also one of very few Japanese artists who could speak English fluently, the rest mumble with a large accent. Well, at least they speak better English than we speak Japanese. Also, she had an English album, Exodus, under Island Def Jam, or whatever its called. It sold very dismally, but it probably had more to do with the fact that she was new, there was practically no promotion, and she was Asian. Oh, by the way, she originally got her start in USA (EMI), but then left for Japan sometime later. Globally, she has sold like 40 m. units and has 3 United World Chart toppers. That's saying a lot for a Japanese singer. Sure, Avril Lavigne or Rihanna could easily do that, but, well, not if you're Japanese. The size of the market makes a really big difference. Oh, and then Kumi Koda came on the scene, while all this time Ayumi Hamasaki still did her part and wasn't bad. Also, Namie Amuro, now divorced, came back on board, albeit without her previous successs. Nevertheless, she wasn't that bad. Also, UH went to Columbia University, but then dropped up to pursue her music career. Oh yeah, this year, Utada Hikaru divorced (I heard it was on the same day her parents divorced), Ayumi Hamasaki broke off her engagement, and Kumi Koda also broke up.

Aside from them, the only people of note are Mr. Children (think UH-like success), KinKi Kids (most consecutive number-1 debuts), and that's pretty much it.

Oh, and by the way, the Japanese have an afinity for weird English names for their bands, albums, and singles, even by chart-topping people. Like, say "very special!!!", "I am...", "A Best 2 -white-", "Step you", "Tommy february6/Tommy heavenly6". They also have an afinity for weird capitalization ("evolution", "CAN'T SLEEP, CAN'T EAT, I'M SICK", "A", "H") and weird usages of "~".


I guess that'll do for now.

2

Oh dear. Some people REALLY don't get what they're doing. Generally reactive people. Ugh. I guess I won't get that book before Monday, it's going to take a while. Mainly because I have $10 in online certificates (I got those from completing online surveys), and possibly some more money on a giftcard which doesn't work. So, the giftcard needs to be sent to a retail store. Which won't happen soon, as the person who I'm planning to ask to do this is pointedly ignoring me.

UGH.

And also being very very defensive, which also means being reactive.
I was also reactive.
Sigh.
I'll talk to him later.

1

Hello.... I realized that I haven't updated in a very long time, and a lot has happened over the summer. Probably going to write bits and pieces of it sometime over this year. Well, anyways, today was the first day of classes.



Anyways, yeah. I guess that's it for now, probably wil add more later on as I really start getting into the school life and settle.

Okay. Let's start from July 1st, with Hong Kong's 10th anniversary of the handover. (yes, it occured before Canada Day).



So, just a bit of a background, because of Opium Wars, and a couple of (unfair) treaties here and there Hong Kong was given to the United Kingdom, along with Kowloon, and New Territories. I think the New Territories and Kowloon were on 99-year lease which expired on June 30th, 1997. UK didn't had to give back Hong Kong Island, but it made much more sense to do so. I have no memories absolutely at all of the handover, but it must have been an emotional experience for all.

Anyways, soon after the handover, a series of major events happened, including the Asian economic recession\crisis\whatever you call it plus the stockmarket crash, 911, SARS, protests against a resolution or two and a CE(O) of Hong Kong . There's a lot to talk about this, and this really isn't a good summary, but you can look through any of the major global news services, they're bound to have an article or two on Hong Kong.



Canada Day:

I went to a family friend's house today, and we had a great time watching fireworks and playing on the Wii. I could elaborate more, but I want to get through everything first.



July 3rd

Today I left for Tokyo, which is becoming a tradition every summer, I've been there ever since 2002. I don't know if I'm going next year or not, though, I doubt it. Flight was uneventful, we flew JAL as usual. Oh, by the way, the phase I of the new wing has been completed already, and it was quite cool. About a hundred of the people on the plane was on a school trip, another couple were transfering, and some I found were half Japanese-half Canadian. Or that's what they looked like.


I personally think that the example of YVR is amazing as an airport in this world. Sure, YVR might not be first or second in the world, but it has made do with a very tight budget, high lease fees (I'll elaborate later on), and still rank very high on passenger satisfication. Many other airports in the world do not have to pay very high lease fees just to run an airport.



Okay, so after WWII, YVR was given over to the federal government by the municipal government, as it just cost too much to run YVR. Then the federal government in 1993 or so started to make regional authorities run YVR. These were independent non-profit airport authorities who ran them on a 50 or was it 70 or was it 90 year lease. Thing is, they had to pay the federal government to run an airport the federal government should be doing. USA gives money to their airports, and so does many other places around the world. Well, YVRAA shouldered on, and managed to turn YVR from any old undercapacity airport to fourth in the world and first in North America. THat's really saying something. As far as I know, Hong Kong and Singapore don't have to pay airport rents. In fact, I'm doubting Hong Kong makes money in its airport, even though it has a lot of business. Another thing, Vancouver isn't exactly such a large market. Sure, we're Western Canada's Pacific gateway, but that's not really a lot. Salt Lake City has more passengers than YVR gets. Oh, and by the way, YVR is very financially stable. I heard something about getting a good credit rating, but I'm not really sure about that.

Some people say Toronto (YYZ) has to pay a substantially more lease rate than YVR, or any otehr airport in Canada for that matter. Well, sure, YYZ pays way more rent proportionally than any other airport in Canada, but hey, the GTAA is pretty bad in managing the airport. Very bad airline relations, the highest airport landing fess IN THE WORLD (that's REALLY saying something), and extravagant spending. YVR's terminal, although maybe not the most beautiful, was very carefully planned and managed, becautifully done without splurging. YYZ's T1? See those beautiful roof, and all those wonderful open air spaces? Guess how much that cost. A lot. AC is its largest tenant, and I can tell you AC HATES YYZ. I read Robert Milton's book about AC, and they totally don't like YYZ. Really. And the thing is, YYZ has a constant demand, you can't escape it if you want to make it big in Canada. Not like YVR. Nobody has to serve YVR. If you ask anybody, YYZ is a far larger and generally more profitable market than YVR.

Oh, by the way, the airport with the second highest fees in the world is Tokyo's Narita. Their story is a lot more...'colourful', then YYZ. Colourful, as in full of angry, sometimes violent farmers, who were bent on protecting their own farmland from the 'menace' of the federal government's plan for a new airport in Tokyo. Before there was NRT, there was HND. Haneda. The airport was overrun with planes, extremely under capacity, with flights having to divert to Nagoya, which was quite far away, because there was no room for them to land. And then, Narita was chosen as the site for Tokyo's new international airport. Then, the farmers began to get angry, and started to do whatever was in their power to end the construction. These ranged from peaceful lawsuits to not-so-peaceful arson attacks. Eventually, construction went ahead, but the Supreme Court ceded some things back to the farmers. Nevertheless, the farmers still kept on revolting, tearing down a control tower (!) and other things like that, forcing the government to start preventative measures. Now, to visit Narita, you need a piece of ID. Which isn't that bad.

There was one picture on airliners.net which I found quite interesting. I don't think you can find the same scene today. By the way, I don't know where it went, so if you are really interested, search it up on a.net. Anyways, a farmer had a plot of land right in the middle of a planned runway. NRT built a runway surrounding it, but it was only operable right up to the farmer's house. It was completely surrounded by airport property, in the middle of a runway. Last year, another court decision granted the land to NRTAA.

Oh, by the way, Japan is also home to probably the world's most innovative airport today. KIX (Kansai International Airport), which serves as Osaka's premier international gateway. It's on a complete man-made island, designed by a world famous architect whose name I forgot. Anyways, the island had been sinking at a very fast rate, but KIX'll survive. Oh, and Kobe, which refused to create an airport, which was originally supposed to be KIX, just went ahead and created its own airport. Stupid move, I say. Pride must have had a factor. Japanese airports all around were suffering from little business, and had some of the highest landing fees in the world. KIX was suffering from too little traffic, with most airlines except UA reducing their frequencies. Oh, and Nagoya had a revamped, or was it a completley new airport?

Really, only NRT and HND were in any position to charge high prices and still expect traffic. They were where people want to go. Not Osaka. Who ever heard of someone going to Tokyo via Osaka? The opposite'll happen. Oh, and HND is the airport with the most domestic traffic in the world, or maybe its second after ATL. It was the world's largest domestic airport, after the Taiwan flights swtiched to NRT and before scheduled charters to Seoul Gimpo started. HND plans to allow international traffic within a roughly 2,000 mile radius after the creationg of the fourth runway. HND has over 60 m. passengers per year, with almost all domestic. By comparision, ATL, the world's largest has 81m. YVR has 16 m., NRT somewhere around that.



July 7th

Hey, Live Earth started today. I watched the Tokyo show on the internet(not live). I only watched bits and parts of it, but I saw almost the netire portion of Linkin Park and Rihanna. It seemed like everyone was there because of Linkin Park, and nobody heard about Rihanna. By the way, she seemed like she ran out of breath pretty often, and it was pretty much just listening to her backup singers sing. And there wasn't much enthusiasm for RIhanna, either the people didn't know English, or they never heard of her songs before. Must be something for a singer who currently has the number one position on the United World Chart.

As far as I know, the only Japanese big people in the show was Ai Otsuka, and Kumi Koda. The really big people, Hamasaki, Hikaru, and others, wer enot there, but that wasn't surprising. It wasn't as if all the American top charters were in the Live Earth shows.



Kyoto

Wow, it was surprisingly good. I didn't listen to Rip Slyme, though. Anyways, Michael Nyman and YMO were pretty good, I liked their songs. obviously, Kyoto got their own show because of the Kyoto accord, and the possibility that Kyoto was the most environmentally conscious major city in the world.
There's a problem with the feed though. I can't see it anymore.



Shanghai

They had peopled from Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, with probably Sarah Brightman being the only foreigner. Not surprisingly, it wasn't a real concert. I have my personal thoughts on why.

Sydney

Well, I didn't really watched this one. Not that interesting to me, for some reason.

Hamburg

Watched only bits and pieces of it. Nothing that interesting. At least not the parts that I watched. Which was only Enrique and minutes of other singers, so don't take my word for it being boring.

London

Wow. I was surprised that it was filled to capacity, and having such a wonderful atmosphere.

New York

Again, pretty amazing, obviously the flagship show of Live Earth, followed closely by London, though.

Rio de Janeiro

Didn't watch much, but Macy Gray and Lenny Kravitz were pretty nice.

Jo'burg

Barely watched it, and apparently the Soweto group is missing in the feed right now. Oh well.

Antarctica

These people were playing OUTSIDE in the freezing temperature. Do you have any idea how cold their fingers must be? How in the world can you play guitar like that? You can obviously see that their fingers were that flexible, and pretty rigid. Excellent commitment.

By the way, to many Live Earth critics: Do you research before even saying anything negative about this concert or Al Gore. No, ignorance is not bliss, and its really annoying to other people when you take what you think and try to pass it off as truth. Its not the truth. Well, okay, sometimes it is, but in this case, it really isn't. And keep your mind opened, and if you really don't like Live Earth, do something more substantial than just dismiss everything as Gore propaganda and forget about everything. There are many more productive and practical ways to express your thoughts about Live Earth than some of the stuff that you guys have written on the boards...

Oh, and by the way, the B787 was just unveiled a couple of days ago. Well, just to tell everybody, never EVER take what the major global news services say about anything in aviation as truth. Because, honestly, they know next to nothing about it. Except for maybe BBC, but definetly, say, CNN, and a couple others. No, the B787 isn't revolutionary, its just evolutionary, its not the 'savior', gosh, fuel prices are rising so quickly the increase in efficiency isn't really that much, and no, the decrease in operating costs won't translate to their customers, because of rising fuel prices. And, by the way, almost all of the traffic growth is because of low-cost carriers stimulating the markets (think Southwest, Ryanair). By the way, point-to-point doesn't work everywhere, especially not trans-pacific. Nevertheless, it has been far more successful than anything new anybody else has on offer. The A350 has taken a lot of setbacks, the A380 is a near-disaster, although there's potential. Heck, Airbus is in big financial trouble right now. But dont' worry, it won't collapse. The Germans, if not the French, will find someway to keep Airbus solvent.
By the way, I'll just add this much for now, more coming later. Usually the blogs aren't this long...