Topic

   Topic is already decided, the topic is ... My day at Barnes & Nobles, my mother suggested it to me.

   So, I like going to that Barnes & Nobles on Sunday or any day I have a whole day of free time, and I spend the whole day there, paradise! Today I did it again. I've done it four times. Most of the time, I can get in a full day, and eat lunch at the shopping center. I got to read so many books. I love it! The library doesn't have every book I want at the exact time I want it, but at Barnes & Nobles, almost every book is there. Anyway, today I went again, I didn't even stop to eat today! I had a really good time.

Itchy finger typing

     Yahoo! No intro today! Intro meaning the opening speech before the actual post, wait nooooooooooooo! This is an intro. DARN!

    My post title is called Itchy finger typing, because when I don't know what to write I just write things like "HELLO" or "HELLO KELLY" it just is a placeholder, I get rid of it later, but I thought it would be funny if I told you about it. Sometimes, I'm not even aware, I've done it so many times that it just comes naturally if I don't type anything for more than 6 seconds or so. Since I want to do something other than tell you about it, I'm going to continue my criticism of common core in math.

   The repeat thing is really big. DO THEY HAVE TO REVIEW PLACE VALUE AGAIN?! I mean seriously, come on! They really should look at last year's books, 'cause the standards are almost the same. Why don't they just get to the point with all the diagrams, models, and other random stuff? In real life, are you ever going to have a paper to draw a diagram? Do you really need to conceptually understand a skill, before learning the procedure. This makes lessons twice as long, one for procedure, one for conception. You get to less. Math books should definitely revolve around what teachers want to teach, if teachers go off the book to much, that is a sign the book is bad.

Laziness

Yay! Finally I figured out a title, before I wrote the content of the post!

Anyway, today I want to talk about how hard it is to write a blog post, most of the time I want to write a quick post, oh and, use a random topic, I also like to attract attention with funny openings before I get to the real post. And I'll always remember how I like to do something else while I'm writing my blog. (oh no! Now I revealed my secrets I can't use them anymore), just kidding I totally will keep doing this. Now I want to write something I wanted to do a long time ago:

Common Core-ugh, I hate it:
So, Common Core finally came around into Southern California two years ago back in September. I remember their advertising campaign: "With the worn down students, remembering the loads of criteria on the math agenda, we decided to fix one thing. We'll only put standards that are commonly used in day to day life."

Now I've seen the books I don't really like that. Well what did they change? Many things:
1. More word problems/problem solving
2. More explaining of how a problem was done
3. Loads more "visual representations"/ "conceptually understandings" as some call it.
4. Repeats, as in multiple skills in different books (Do you need to do "Basic Multiplication of Fractions" in Fifth Grade and "Multiplying Fractions" in Fourth) , and that's just the chapters. Some lessons teach almost the same thing, like once, they gave you one model in a lesson, and a different model in another lesson.

1. I'm okay with this
2. I HATE this
3. Is that commonly used in daily life. HYPOCRITES! (well fine they did get rid of telling time on an analog clock and counting money)
4. I don't like to do things over and over, you have a test, a homework sheet, and a million reviews, you don't need another lesson or even chapter to give you some more practice.

*All this was done without a single interruption of doing something else.

    Whatever, forget the title. That is all I'll say about the title today.

Now I have to do a thing in school known as the T.A.S fair. I like it, but I've to go into the millions of problems encountered of using a programming language.  First, I have to write, download something, test it, and then do a million other of confusing things, I hope this will be worth it, if not then, well, I'll get so mad!! Anyway, I might win, there are only eight projects and two will win, maybe I can, I never win these fair type things, but in this category maybe I can!

Omit the title, that is what I always do, by the way, it is funny how blogger works. If you don't give your post a title the content of the post is the title. So right now, you might be thinking, "ah Omit the title, what a nice title", so funny right. Oh wait, I could be wrong, oh well, I'm just saying, I like to Omit titles and put them in later, just for fun I won't put it in now, so earlier readers can still find the first part funny, if I'm right of course. Then again it might say "[untitled post]", anyway, for now I'm just going to tell you that the title would be... actually, I don't know.

Time

Time passes really slow, really really slow, especially when you aren't having fun or , wait ... I think that is a myth. Oh whatever, let me explain.

Yeah it is partly true, especially if you want something to be over, then time passes even slower. However, the exact circumstances of how time is involved in your situation is important. If, you are waiting for the bell to ring in five minutes it can be pretty slow, but not at the maximum amount of slowness. If you are already waiting for the bell to ring in 30 minutes or above, you will feel the need to do something and the next 25 or so minutes can be pretty fast. When you don't have time to bail you out, things can be much, much faster. Like when doing homework. When you are doing something that you can't get out of early, like music practice, you feel it drags on even more if you look at a digital clock and think "IT HAS BEEN 5 SECONDS, how come that DUMBO clock hasn't changed yet." Anyway if you wan't things to feel quicker, then if it is an assignment, that if you finish early you can do fun stuff, finish it! If you just have to stay longer than, you're in trouble, do your best.

Musical education

One thing I stress a lot about is music. Sometimes I ignore the fact that I need to practice, other times I don't take practice seriously.  I don't like practicing, I want to do a million other things. With the piano I mainly: on bad weeks: play to get a reward, play to prevent being shouted at, or procrastinate until my mom doesn't care if I play or not. On good weeks: I play for an "longer" period  of time, else I also just play for reward(I don't miss a single day of practice on these weeks, well no, only one or two, wait or three). With the flute it is way worse. On good weeks I "practice" (which is really just halfheartedly playing while thinking about something else) three times a week. Other times, I don't play at all.

So, as you can see I don't care about music as much as regular homework. I'm lazy, but I want to get a good grade. It is hard, I hope I can do it. I have a quick comment "I don't think music is important" oh well, practice anyway.

Back to the routine

Today, well yesterday, my dad said that today we would go "back to the routine" meaning Winter Break is over and the regular routine is back. Today I'm going to mention my bumpy road back to the regular routine. Well, it started actually way earlier than that, last week in fact. Those days, I felt like nothing was happening and I wasn't being really productive or anything. On Monday, I wasn't too worried thinking I still had, the whole week and the weekend which is a surprisingly long time. On Tuesday, I still was pretty happy. On Wednesday however, the trouble finally started. I was starting to think it was Tuesday, but knew it was Wednesday. On Thursday, I couldn't believe how fast the week had passed. I spent the whole day at Barnes&Nobles for a change. I was happy until I realized the next day was FRIDAY. I was even more upset when my mom made plans for a last minute vacation that totally took up all my Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, I was finally over SLAMMED, I had this one assignment. I decided to take the day at Barnes&Nobles, but I knew I had to do the assignment so at 4 o'clock (I actually said 3, but I got an extra hour ;D) I started reading a new series, I was so hooked up, but I had to go home, the rest of the day made me feel really productive, doing all that. So, when I said my goodbyes to the break, I realized I had a good break.

Now, today, as I'm writing this, I'm happy to say that I had a great break.