Summer is Coming!

By Edward

 Summer is coming closer and closer! There are lots of things you can do during the break: having fun in the pool, going on vacation, sleeping in, playing video games, and many more things. I will go on vacation to europe this summer instead of playing video games and sleeping in. I will get to see the London Eye and the Eiffel Tower. I’m also going to see many other cities during the days I’m off. After that, I have a lot of math tutoring I need to attend 3 times a week! Even though I have that much math tutoring, that math tutor makes math fun. After that, the new year of school begins! What are you going to do during the summer? What do you think what the next schol year will be like? Do you think it will be good or bad? Why?

Grow!
 By Edward

   Grow is a series of very challenging games. They include Grow Nano, Grow RPG, Grow Island, Grow Valley, Grow Tower, Grow Cube, The Life Ark, and the original, GROW. You start off with with someone or something that is completely plain. On the bottom bar, there are many different items. You randomly pick each one and each one of those makes the plain thing more decorated, make it have life, or to help someone. After you pick them all, the the bar will flip over for what level each one got to. Your goal is to get each one of those items to get to max. There are only 1 combination to get all the items max. Each one also has a  secret ending called UFO. UFO is very different from the original ending. If you don’t use the walkthrough, you can spend hours trying to solve just one Grow game! If you ever played a Grow game, which one is your favorite? Why or why not? If you never played a Grow games, Do you think you would like to try one?

Jeremy's Post

Summer Vacation
By: Jeremy

     As the school year ends, everyone’s excited about one thing: summer. This year, the last day of school is on June 26, and summer vacation ends at August 13. This year for the 47-day break, I am going to visit my relatives at Taiwan, like I do every year.
     Three days after summer vacation begins, I will go on a flight to Taiwan, where I will stay for many weeks. Last year, my family went to other countries for about 10 days, then went to Taiwan to see our relatives for many weeks. There were many fun things I did there. The day we arrived at Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, the thermometer said the temperature was 33° Celsius(91°F). Then, we traveled to really sultry places. We went around the country in some high-speed train. When we arrived at another city, I saw how high the temperature was, and I was glad that we lived in California so that the weather wasn’t that extraordinary at home. Its normal temperature in summer there was 40° C or 110° F. Don’t ask me how the residents lived there. The only comfortable place was the hotel. I finally know why air conditioning costs that much now.
   90 degrees seemed comfortable after we came back to Taipei. After visiting other parts of the country, I attended several go lessons and one competition. I earned $500 Taiwan money, or about $16 US.
    After coming back from a 1-month trip, I finally came home, but only for a few days. My dad drove me to Santa Barbara for the annual US Go Congress. Even though the Congress only lasted one week and the Taiwan trip lasted a month, I thought, and still do think, of the Go Congress as the main highlight that year. Each morning when I woke up, I had to get to the campus (UCSB) by about 8:45. At 9:00 every morning, the biggest competition in the US, the US Open, would be played with one round a day, with a break day in the middle. I won 3 games and lost 3 in the competition, and got 7th place in my division. The games took a really long time. Some of the better players needed to think more, and even got a lunch break. They took about 5 hours to play a game. In the afternoon, there would usually be a few tournaments. The events usually started at either 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, or 7:00pm. There would also be teaching games with pros and many youth tournaments.

     Last year’s summer vacation was really fun for me. This year, I plan to go to Taiwan just three days after the last day of school. I will not be back home until August 1st, and on August 4th I will go to Go Congress. The plane back will be on August 12th, so I’ll probably be really tired for the first day of school, which is just a day after I come back. Basically, I only get about five and a half days to rest at home, so that might be a little too much for me. I hope to be fine on the first day of school and win a few prizes at Go Congress. What are you going to do for summer, and what do you hope to do?

Jasmin's Post

Summer Vacation
 By: JasminW.

  

About one more week until summer vacation! Are you excited? I am. My cousins are coming from Shanghai, China on June 29th to visit us. I didn’t see them in a long time. After that, we will go on a 7-day cruise to Mexico . The boat’s name is Carnival Splendor. Before I went on a cruise to Alaska when I was 6 years old, but I don’t remember a lot about it. I’m hoping this time will refresh my memories. I’m super excited!

     After the cruise, we plan to go to southern California for about a week. We are going to see San Diego, for places like the US Midway Aircraft Carrier, Zoo and Safari Park. We also plan to go to Los Angeles city for sightseeing. I’m not sure where exactly we’re going to, but it must be a fun trip. For the rest of our vacation, I’m just hanging out with my cousins, sleeping, eating, reading, etc. Some people think it is unfair that we get less than 6 weeks of summer vacation. But I think it is fair because our breaks make up for it. Do you think it is fair and why? What are you going to do for summer vacation? Are you going anywhere special?

Harry Potter

By: Krisha M.

 
The legendary Harry Potter was born in the arms of Lily Potter, wife of James Potter, all of whom had attended or were attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The school was run by Albus Dumbledore who was an old man with long silver hair and blue eyes. The school’s students were divided into four houses Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. Harry soon got his turn to wear the “Sorting Hat” that placed him in Gryffindor with Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Harry’s teachers were Professor Snape for Potions, Professor sprout for Herbology, Professor McGonagall for Transfiguration, Professor Hagrid for Care of Magical Creatures, Professor Binns for History of Magic, Professor Flitwick for Charms, Professor Trelawney for Divination, and for any injuries Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing.
During, Harry’s first year he met malicious Draco Malfoy, a rude boy who Harry hated. Harry lost his temper when he was first learning to fly a broom because of Malfoy. Harry zoomed pass McGonagall’s window. She rushed outside and told Harry to come out of the air that instant and took him to see Gryffindor Quidditch captain Oliver Wood as a new seeker. Harry had no idea what Quidditch was until Wood told him. This is how Harry understood it, there are four balls, two of which are bludgers, one , the quaffle, and finally the Golden Snitch. The bludgers would try to hit players of their broom to guide them there were two beaters Fred and George Weasley who hit the bludgers with bats. The quaffle were shot into three hoops by chasers Alicia, Katie, and Angelina. To block the quaffle was keeper and captain Oliver Wood. And finally the Golden Snitch, this ball had wings, and was a ball that flew so quick it looked like a golden blur it was Harry’s job to catch the snitch which meant the end of the game.
Do you like Harry Potter? Why or why not?

My Fishing Experience
by Courtney

“Okay guys we should probably head back,” my dad said. “Awww!” we all said. While we were on the boat heading back to the dock, I started to think about the day. This was my second time fishing. My sister, Lauren, had caught two fish right at the beginning of the day. Even though we were fishing for trout, Lauren had caught a bass. Johnny, my brother, was next. He caught two fish also. It seemed like I would never catch a fish, but then, finally, I caught my first fish! It was exciting, but I just wanted to
catch one more before we left the lake. Suddenly I felt a jolt on my rod! I said “Dad, I think I got a fish!” I started to reel the fish in. When I got it closer to the boat, Johnny said, “This one’s huge! Let’s make sure we don’t lose this one too!” (Earlier in the day, Lauren hooked a monster trout. When she got it close to the boat, before we netted it, her line broke and the fish swam away.) When he caught a glimpse of the fish, Johnny exclaimed, “This one looks even bigger than the fish that Lauren lost!” My dad warned, “You need to be careful because your little reel wasn’t made for such a big fish.” I felt it trying to dive down to the bottom of the lake. To tire it out, I let some line out so the fish could dive, and then I started to reel it back in. When I finally got it close to the boat, I saw how big it really was. My brother grabbed the net to get the fish into the boat. Unfortunately, our net was about half the size we needed for this fish. He reached so far to net the fish that Johnny almost fell out of the boat! When we finally got the fish into the boat, everybody was ecstatic! It was flopping all around while my dad was trying to take the hook out of its mouth. On the way back to the dock, I sat beside the stringer of fish, that was hanging from the side of the boat. My day turned out to be fantastic and that night my fish fed six people! Have you ever caught a fish? What was it like? If you haven’t, would you like to? Why or why not?
 

Me with all of the fish. (On the stringer.)

Me with the fish I caught.

April Fools’ Day
Celebration

By: Morgan

Hi, have you ever wondered why we do pranks on April Fools' Day? Well, it is because in the 16th century, France celebrated the New Year just like we do today, except they partied on April 1st. In 1562, Pope Gregory changed the calendar to the one we use today and from then on, the New Year began on January 1st. Lots of people didn't know about the new calendar, or they ignored the new calendar and kept celebrating on April 1st. So everyone else called them April’s fools and played tricks on them. In different countries, they do different jokes. For example, kids in Italy and France traditionally tack paper fish on each other's back as a trick and shout out “April fish!” To let the other person know that they have just been pranked.
 
This year, for April Fools’ Day, I just showed a math trick to my family and friends, which I hope I can show everyone. I was hoping to also find out what you did on April Fools’ Day. So tell me, what did you do for April Fools’ Day?


The iPad is Here!

By: Naren

It is here. The latest iPad has come, equipped with a lot more features than its cousins, the iPad and iPad 2, do.

The retina display in this new iPad is unbelievable. Brighter and clearer than any other iPad, iPhone, or iPod. The iPad is noticeably more clear than both the iPad (1st generation) and the iPad 2.

The iPad 2 was a pioneer in the whole camera-on-the-iPad thing and it wasn’t the best camera Apple created. The new iPad is a lot better thanks to the better lenses and the 5 mega-pixels, which creates more clarity in every picture. The picture of the flower to your right was taken by the new iPad. It is very clear.

The new iPad’s Internet is super fast. Faster than my computer! It is all thanks to the new 4G LTE, which enhances the Internet to go at lightning fast speeds.


Some other improvements are Dictation and the ten-hour battery. Dictation is for people who would rather talk than type. If they just say what they what they want to type, Dictation will type it for them. Even though the new iPad has better retina display, which would usually consume lots of battery power, the iPad still has 10 hours worth of battery.

There is no doubt that the iPad is very brilliant. If you could design at least one new feature for the next iPad, what would it or they be?

Discovery on Antarctica

By: Nick

     20 years of drilling. Drill drill drill. Finally! Recently, Russian researchers have found a lake on Antarctica. Lake Vostok is the largest lake of Antarctica, 50 miles wide and 160 miles long. That is huge! It is similar to Lake Ontario, near New York. American and British researchers have drilled other lakes too, but they are smaller and younger.

     Scientists around the world are eager about this discovery of the lake. They are waiting for water samples to test. They want to see if there is any possibility of life in that dark, cold lake. There might be bacteria, thriving in the unknown. Who knows? Nobody so far. The bacteria could be similar or the same as the bacteria on the ocean floor. " The more we learn about life, the more we learn about its ability to grow and survive and do well in environments that we formerly thought were too inhospitable." That's what one of NASA's senior scientists, David Morrison, said.

     Drilling Lake Vostok has made it easier and a lot more possible to test new and different technologies. Those technologies could also be used to test similar parts of the solar system. "Conditions in lakes in Antarctica are the closest we can get to those where scientists expect to find extraterrestrial life." said Valery Lukin, the head of Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. Researchers believe that the conditions of the lake are close to those found under an ice crust on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa, and on a moon of the planet Saturn. The study of Lake Vostok will help scientists determine which part of space to research next.  Do you think that there is a possibility of life that has a complex mind like us? Why or why not?

My Quarter Collection
By: Jessie

        Do you ever collect quarters? Well I do. I started by having a lot of different state quarters, about 40 because my dad has quite a bit of change in a little bag. We decided to start by buying one of those maps where you can insert a carved out hole for every different state you have. We also have the territory quarters. The territory quarters that I have are Northern Mariana Islands, Americans Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S Virgin Islands.

Now that I am finished with the state quarters, I am now working on the new kind of quarters the national parks quarters. I only have a couple of national park quarters. It will probably take a while to finish that collection because only a few come out each year. When finally all of them come out, it will be 2021. Are you interested in collecting quarters? Why or why not?