Weekend again

Yesterday I lost a lot of my time. I had to go to another camp out. They bother me, because so much of my time is wasted. I wish I could have spent more time on more pressing matters. Now I am home, and am wondering what this week will mean for me. On Friday, I will have to turn in a month long project.  It has been using up all of my effort. I hope to finish soon.

Monday

Today is Monday, the least epic day of them all. It is boring and is the longest day. I think on Monday of weekends left behind. I look both at an uneventful day ahead, and a tedious string of activities on the evening. It is boring, but on future days I wish that I had a better one. It always anchors the rest of my week. That is Monday for me.

Weekend

This weekend has been a camp out. I feel I basically wasted two days of time. It doesn't really have a value to me, and is awfully boring and useless. I wish that I could use this time some other way, yet I have to do it all over again in two weeks. It was terrible, I don't want to go again. Its too difficult. Instead, I'll talk about the 8 hours I've spent at home. I did do some things, but it is so bad. I really expected something different. Both for today and yesterday. 

The Wave

Recently, my dad's to do list had started to become more and more meaningless. He doesn't enforce it as hard as he said that he would the first day. On the first week he let me have the iPad when I forgot to do 11 out of the 91 things on my to do list the first week. The second week, I didn't do 15 out of the 76 things on my to do list. Then on the third week, I didn't fill it out at all - and every single week he let my sisters and I play on the iPad. I partly feel like the to-do-lists burden is far too large, but whatever. Today, I have finished everything on it, but I starting to doubt how long this will hold together. Thankfully, I know my dad pays attention.

Weekend Hill

Finally I will have my chance to do some math. Over the last few months, I have been practicing and practicing for a chance to get in the first math competition I have ever been in. It has been a very bumpy road, at many points I wanted to quit and just do my own things, but I have kept going, because it might be one of my only chances. I also have the science fair next week. I didn't expect to get very far, so it will be interesting. I also come close to the due date of some major projects.

Memories of the Darker Times

Today I am reflecting on the past weekend. It was sure an interesting one. The long four day weekend had a variety of effects. First, I noticed that my dad did not keep his promise from two weeks ago not to give the iPad unless we did all of our things. On Friday, my sisters had somehow downloaded Roblox. They were playing for a long time. I, on the other hand, was watching you tube videos. That was basically Friday, such a relaxing day. I slept until about 9 in the morning. I only got up, because I had Chinese School. After Chinese School, I sat around, because I didn't want to do anything. I took my first nap that day! Sunday morning was where I mostly watched Youtube, and otherwise sat around occasionally doing Dad-Approved things like math and homework. On Monday, I basically did math in the morning, and watched videos in the afternoon. Then, Tuesday Night, my dad set up this new organizational tool, I hope it goes a lot better this time.

The long campout

This week, I went to the mountains, from Tuesday to Friday. It was a school field trip, which set it apart from other camp outs I have been in. It was entirely run by the school. On Tuesday, they rented a luxurious bus. I remembered the bus for its reclining seats and its TV's inside the bus. When we came the movie Inside Out was played for most of the trip. After the movie finished, we waited around for 20 or so more minutes, when the bus reached our campsite. It was on the plateau between the mountains of Sugar Loaf and San G, nearly 6000 ft. above sea level. Right after getting off, they would separate all the 6th grade kids into Field Groups. I was in group I. We hung out for a bit before eating lunch. We had to wash our hands with vinegar (because it is organic). At lunch, we were squished between the two tables. For that while, we had chicken nuggets and bean soup.  In addition, we were served lots and lots of water to combat altitude sickness. Finally, in an attempt to be frugal, no food waste (Uneaten food) would be allowed, otherwise dessert would not be served.

After kind of adapting to this new lifestyle, we went over a rules briefing regarding the snow, the classes, and just basically how to live in the camp. With that, the first class, or the "Team Discovery" hike to root. We walked up many switchbacks to climb the snowy hill to the south of the camp. After sinking into knee-deep snow, our group found a dry spot in the area and began talking about the week ahead. It was where we set our goals, and got to know our instructor. We then got to know our cabin for the week, mine was the Lizard Cabin. So, at 4:30 pm we would switch to our cabin groups. In our cabin groups, we brought down all our luggage into our cabins. Soon, we decided where to sleep, and I took a top bunk bed. Soon, it was time for dinner. My dinner experience was very different than my lunch experience. First, when I came in I randomly drew a poker chip from a bowl. It would have a number from 1-14. That would be the table I would get to sit at. I drew an 11. Sitting down, the first thing I saw was a bowl of salad and a plate of bread. I didn't realize that I wasn't supposed to be eating yet. Apparently the camp had a rule not to eat anything before everyone else got food. It was to ensure no one would be bored watching others eat. After eating, we met again with our cabin. We had a class about snakes and their properties. I got a really cool photo of a snake slithering up onto my classmates hand. Then we learned about astronomy. On a night hike, we had a 30 minute session on astronomy, then the day time activities were over and it was sleep time.
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Using the bathroom at night was a complicated procession, we should've only needed to use the bathroom in the case of an emergency, but I had drunk to much water. To go pee, I have to wake up my buddy, wake up my instructor, and make them approve of my visit. Then, I need to put on a whistle just in case. Finally, I can use the restroom. I woke up at about 2 o'clock and really needed to go. So I walked around in the cabin, because I didn't really know how to wake anybody up without being too rude. So I waited until I eventually woke them up at 3. I went back to sleep and got a grand total of 7 hours of sleep on the first day.

The next day was adventure day, where the camp seemed more like a summer camp, than a science camp. At 9 it was time for morning switch over, where we would go from cabin groups to field groups. We brought along our lunch, as we would be eating outside for the second day. We climbed up a long towering hill of snow. Later, we adventured into knee deep snow, looking for a good place for the next class. Over there, we would learn about survival in the wild. At first I decided that I learned much of the stuff from Boy Scouts, but I came up with some interesting things. I learned about the importance of extra clothing. Finally, we also learned about building a stick shelter, we split up into two groups of 6 and had 20 minutes to build the best shelter possible. It was recommended to lean it onto a log, and insulate the shelter with snow. After 20 minutes, our crude shelter was built. In comparing them, he noted the southward facing and lack of snow of our shelter, both were mainly done by accident. there was much that I had learned from that class. Next was rock climbing, with a weakened arm I barely got to the second rock. Then, what everyone was looking forward to, came archery. I did pretty well in my own opinion. And just like that the first full day was over. It was time for afternoon switch over. We then went over to dinner.  The next time I drew a 7. I enjoyed the meal. The evening activities were line dancing and learning about nocturnal animals.

The next day was environmental day, we learned about rocks, mammals, and conservation. The evening was marked by the campfire, where each group did their own skit. It was a great day. Finally, on Friday, we left camp (at 9) forever.

The end of the week

At the end of the week, my dad is supposed to judge whether the work we did during the weekdays was sufficient, determining whether I would get the iPad or not. It really helped, because I started to write blog better! and I paid attention to other important things in life, it was not just a cycle of homework to video games to homework. I still feel that in the end, this will not last, and that the motivation is not enough, but as of now its going well. The last year, I thought of a different idea, which was to form more goals. I think I'm already starting to slip. Hopefully I can get it this time. 

Fortune this week

Today I have come towards the end of the week, and I did a lot better than the previous weeks. This week their was very little daily homework, and I did a lot of research for future projects. I was glad to not have to worry about something huge eventually, and right now am pretty optimistic about the coming weeks. My dad has told me about getting the iPad on the weekends by doing everything earlier in the week. Right now it has me motivated, but I wonder what it'll do in the future. So I am eager for the days to advance.

Hello again, blog

Today, I have discovered something, I had not written blog in a million days. My arm was broken and I had a cast on for the past few weeks, I still have my cast on, but recently I my fingers had healed enough so that I could type as fast as I normally can with the cast on. My parents have not forced me to write blog recently, but now that its healing, I'n back to many of my normal responsibilities, such as, playing the piano, doing math homework, playing my flute, and writing blog.

To this news, I have mixed reactions, they take time, and without doing them I could focus more on regular homework, but when I think about it, I didn't really focus a lot more than normal. The extra time was used on video games and such. On the other hand, I'm interested to test out how I can do better on piano, math, and blog after this break. I want to see how much better I can do with it.

Finally, this year, I want to start writing about better topics.

A day completely at home

Today I stayed home for the entire day, it was an entire day with only video games. Over the entire course of winter break, my mom has brought my sisters and I to Barnes & Noble, and on this weekend my sisters went skiing on Xmas Eve and we played board games on Sunday. So today, I spent the first half of the day doing my school projects and the second half staying put and wasting time. That is, on my computer. At 5:30 we ate dinner, and my dad told me to write blog.  So I wrote this, looking back on this day, I felt it went successfully because I finished a lot of school stuff, and I managed not to procrastinate further. In the future, my family will be going on vacation this break, with a broken arm I spent a lot of time at home, but I'm proud of completing my tasks.

The Dinner

Today was both my mom's and my dad's birthdays, so to celebrate, we went to a restaurant. Which is nothing new, except that the restaurant was empty, I was really surprised, but there was no line and the food didn't take so long, which was probably was what made me feel so good about it. It was a Chinese restaurant, AKA where my parents complain that I don't eat anything but fried rice & dumplings, so I decided to challenge myself and try at least one piece of every dish ordered, and I succeeded except for one dish, and then I was full. The food was mostly meat. Interestingly, my sisters and I didn't beg for desserts after the dinner. Once done, we went to buy a strawberry mousse cake, which my sisters were horrified to discover that it was actually vanilla cake covered in strawberry filling. My mom was saying that she loved the cake and would buy it again.

The Gifts

Today my family went Christmas Shopping, but there are so many restrictions. When my mom us that the price did not matter, us kids still felt a need to minimize the price, and we weren't allowed to ask for video games, I managed to negotiate for one though. Mostly I wasn't that interested, reading some books at the store. I just felt that nothing was appealing, the board games I would get bored of and lose most of the parts, the toys I would lose and get bored of, and I was afraid if I bought a card game my little brother might rip them apart, so nothing I really wanted. 

7 hours of stuff

Today was the first day of my school's winter break. I thought that I would be able to just play on the computer all day, that's what I really wanted to do, but I had to go somewhere, because my mom didn't want us inside all of the time. So I went out to Barnes & Nobles for the day. We were there for seven hours, but the new book that I had wanted to read wasn't released yet, so I basically just read old books that I've already read and guides that always call themselves "The Official Guide to..." or "The Essential Guide to ...", but they're kind of interesting, because they have illustrations. When I got home, it was almost 6,  we had dinner and I now am writing a blog on those 7 hours. So I'll just go back to the fun stuff now.

Journalism Club

At School, I have go to this after school club called journalism club. This year, the first year of the club, I decided to become an editor. Historically, the school magazine was written by the school PTA, but this year they let students have a shot at writing articles, taking pictures, and even add comic strips. It was really fun to be able to do try out this, because I feel about what I could do would be so much better than past editions, it always is fun to do that.

Hello, I don't sleep

Today, I wanted to sleep until about 9 o'clock, because I was sleepy and there was no school today. I, however and limited by the fact that the washing of my clothes happens at about 8, meaning I have to get up, or sleep in my day clothes, which sucks! I do get kind of sleepy all throughout the day. Recently, I've been losing on sleep, mainly, because I have to sleep in a sleeping bag in the night and I wake up so much. I can sleep in the day, but I just want to play video games. So I don't catch up on sleep on no-school days either.

Writing is boring

There are many reasons why I can't write good pieces. In my opinion, it is hard to make me right well for a couple reasons: 

a) First of all, typing is hard, because there are many things I'd rather do, because when I get the computer, I just want to use it in a fun way

b) If I do have to write, then I don't take much time, because I technically still "did" it.

c) When my parents tell me I have to write a good post, I ask what to write about, and I generally want to avoid my topic getting picked for me.

d) In my head, I do want to write about picking a topic and how to write good posts with structure and all that, but it is hard to do that over and over again

e) Then I think about some topic other than a journal, but it takes a lot of work, and my poems always seem the same each time.

All this means, that when I have to write it well, I recycle my old topics, and make it a little more "interesting". Basically next time I have to write something good, maybe I'll just change the letters into numbers and add a little humor.

Sleeping Bagt

The last few days, I had to sleep in a sleeping bag, because my grandpa is visiting. I kind of enjoy the sleeping bag, because it keeps me warmer than the blanket. However my bed is cozier, and the sleeping mat is easy to roll off of. Yesterday, I slept on my bed for a day, and I kind of miss it. On the other hand, when I end up going back to my bed anyway, I'll get more used to the bag. I talked about this , because sleep is very important to me.

What today

Today is Veterans day, we didn't do anything special today, other than stay home and do stuff. At 4:30 today, I have a First Lego League practice session. It is the last one before the competition. I have to miss my Chinese school to do it though. I don't like missing Chinese School,  especially since tomorrow is the test, and every time I have Boy Scout camp out, I have to miss Chinese School for it.

No Way

I was about to ask my dad what I should write my blog about, but after what happened last time, I think it would just be better to keep silent. Though, some of the advice is important. It really doesn't matter what I write about, but how I write it. I just don't want him picking my topic for me. After writing that, my idea came to a halt, and I again can't think of much to write about. If I finish, I technically did do it, that is the main reason I write blog.