Math

Thursday, February 28, 2013

New Schedule


     This week, CSCL made a new schedule  for the next month or so. They have added classes and subtracted classes. This blog post will detail the new classes I'm taking, as well as reexplain the ones that remain on my schedule. I am not doing debate anymore, because it was interfering with programming class. Also, the new space doesn't have an oven, so cooking class is not running anymore. Here's the new schedule:


  • The physics class is will mainly be an introductory class, but the class hasn't happened yet, so I don't know the topics we will cover. 
  • Algebra has been continued on from last time, and I am still attending it. This class provides challenging math  topics, which I did not have in public school. Also, this class is made up of my friends at CSCL.
  • The Programming class is the same as it was before, and I can confidently say that it is my favorite class. We are still programming in the Processing language. The teacher of this class has transitioned it to a class where he gives us a project, and we work on it by ourselves.
  • Free Range Chicken time is the same as before. It is the block of time where I don't have anything scheduled, so I can work on whatever I want.
  • Due to that I am currently very slow at typing the correct way, I have decided to take the new typing class. I hope to get to a point where I can type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts.
  • Because there were a good percentage of kids that wanted to do a Spanish class, CSCL has hired a teacher. I am excited to learn a new language, hope the class will be fun.
  • Thursday afternoon, I have I one-on-one tutorial on either math or programming. I will decide weekly which topic I am in the mood for, and We then do a 45-minute to an hour lesson on it.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Blog Statistics



     Today, I am going to give a basic report on the statistics of this blog. I find this type of thing interesting, and I hope that you, my readers, find it interesting too. There are some sections that I don't understand, but if you do, please let me know in the comments.

     First of all, my views. Blogger says that over the time I've had this blog, I have gotten 1,529 views. I am guessing that a lot of these come from me looking at my blog; checking that the format worked, etc. I can see how many views for all time, the year, month, week, day and right now.

Image displaying most popular platformsImage displaying most popular browsersOut of all my posts, My Schedule (as of now) has the most views, with 56 in all. The runner-up is the Fudge post, with 54 views. I can see which country, operating system, and browser is giving me the most views. So I know that most of the views come from Macs, most of the views come from safari, and most people are reading this from America.
   
Graph of most popular countries among blog viewers


     The funny thing is, although 1,454 views come from America, I also have 27 from the UK and 21 from Germany.  As well as that, I have 11 from Romania, 6 from Poland, 4 from Argentina, and one each from Brazil, China, France and Japan. I can see the key words people use to find the blog, so I know that some of you are forgetting those spaces between the words. I hope you found this entry interesting, and thanks for reading!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Lord of the Rings #1

http://mysite.verizon.net/aznirb/mtr/fotr99.jpg
     Very recently, I finished the first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This book, titled The Fellowship of the Ring, took me a long time to read, but I liked it enough to continue on to number two.           Before I read this, I read The Hobbit, the prequel to this series. The way this book was written was a little old-fashion, and my edition had almost unreadable small text,  but I loved the storyline and characters, who had very believable personalities. I thought that the beginning of the story dragged on too much, but once I got past that I liked the pace more. Unlike other books I've read, this book's storyline was not so predictable, which I feel is very important. Overall, I really liked this book, and would recommend it to anyone who like fantasy stories. I think it is important that before you read this book, you read The Hobbit, which gives very helpful background information. Thanks for reading!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Radio Programs

     Recently, I have been spending a large amount of time listening to radio programs as podcasts. These programs are from WBUR, the local NPR station. Out of the many on WBUR, there are three programs which I enjoy the most. You can go to the links for each if you're interested in them.

1. Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

     Wait Wait.. Don't Tell Me! is a radio news quiz. I find it completely hilarious. It makes puns and other jokes relating to the news, and I love listening to it. Here's the link: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!




2. RadioLab

     This program is about science and philosophy. This show picks a certain topic, then gives a couple of stories related to that topic. This show always makes me think about what we actually know about science and what we could do with our current science and technology.


                                    
3. This American Life

 
     This American Life is sort of life RadioLab, but it is not about science. This American Life is about people and culture. Like RadioLab, this program also pick a topic and give a couple stories about it. I like This American Life because it always has interesting stories to listen to.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

New Temporary CSCL Space

     For at least one week, CSCL we be relocated. We are moving due to multiple logistical issues. The other problem is that the second floor of the building we were in may not have been fire safe. Unfortunately  the new space is far enough away from my house that I can't walk to it every day, unlike the previous place. I will have to take the subway with a group of people from CSCL, instead of walking. This new space has two main rooms, plus a  room that we can sometimes use and another small room. There are organizations that work in other rooms of this building, so we have to be a little bit quieter than we were before. Some of the equipment owned by CSCL was moved, but a lot of it remains at the old building. I am exited for this new space! Thanks for Reading!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Problem-Filled Processing Code

      This post is contains code in Processing that I have been working on at home. I am trying to make a Block Breaker game, (move the paddle, bounce the ball off it, break the blocks) and am working on the mechanism for the block disappearing. If you know how to fix it, you can comment in the comment box. I am halfway through this code, so there might be snippets of it that don't do anything. I don't have the code commented, but I'll try to comment on it soon. I can make them disappear, but I need the ball to not bounce into the blocks once their gone, which is hard. Here's the code:


float paddleX;
float paddleY;
float ballX, ballY;
int blocksBroken;
int alive?

Block block1;
Paddle plat;
Ball ball;

void setup(){
  size(600,600);
  block1 = new Block(0,0);
  plat = new Paddle();
  ball = new Ball();
  background(255);
}

void draw(){
  background(255);
  block1.display();
  block1.die();
  ball.ballReset();
  plat.display();
  ball.display();
  ball.move();
}

void keyPressed(){
    plat.move();
    //ball.paddleRadar();
}


class Ball {
  float xSpeed, ySpeed, ballsRandomX, ballsRandomY;


  Ball(){
    ballX = width/2;
    ballY = paddleY - 50;
    //ballsRandomX = random(0,8);
    //ballsRandomY = random(-8,0);
    xSpeed = -5;//ballsRandomX;
    ySpeed = -5;//ballsRandomY;
  }

  void display(){
    ellipse(ballX,ballY,30,30);
    println(blocksBroken);
  }

  void move(){
    ballX = ballX + xSpeed;
    ballY = ballY + ySpeed;
    if ((ballX > width) || (ballX < 0)){
      xSpeed = xSpeed * -1;
    }
    if ((ballY > height) || (ballY < 0)){
      ySpeed = ySpeed * -1;
    }
    if (((dist(ballX,ballY,paddleX,paddleY) == paddleX - ballX) && (dist(ballX,ballY,paddleX,paddleY) < 50)) || ((dist(ballX,ballY,paddleX,paddleY) == ballX - paddleX) && (dist(ballX,ballY,paddleX,paddleY) < 50))){
      ySpeed = ySpeed * -1;
    }
  }

  void ballReset(){
    if(ballY > height){
      fill(0,255,0);
      ballX = paddleX;
      ballY = paddleY - 50;
      xSpeed = 5;//ballsRandomX;
      ySpeed = height/100 * -1;//ballsRandomY;
    }
  }
}


class Block{
  int blockX;
  int blockY;


  Block(int tempBlockX, int tempBlockY, string temp){
    blockX = tempBlockX;
    blockY = tempBlockY;
  }

  void display() {
    rectMode(CORNER);
    rect(blockX,blockY,width/25,width/25);
    rectMode(CENTER);
  }

  void die() {
    if(dist(blockX,blockY,ballX,ballY) < width/50 + 15) {
      int
    }
  }
}


class Paddle {

  Paddle(){
    paddleX = width/2;
    paddleY = height - 25;
  }

  void display() {
    rectMode(CENTER);
    rect(paddleX, paddleY, 100, 8);
    fill(170, 0, 250);
  }

  void move() {
 
    if (key == 'a') {
      paddleX = paddleX - width/12;
    }
 
    if (key == 'd') {
      paddleX = paddleX + width/12;
    }
  }
}



My Experiences with Blizzard Nemo

     Over last weekend, my neighborhood was hit by a winter storm. We got approximately two feet of snow, and lots of wind, too. I had a lot of fun playing in the snow, and earned money shoveling sidewalks for neighbors. On Friday night, I walked around the streets near my house with my friend and our parents. I also volunteered at a ski festival by running the register in the food tent. Here is what my house's front stairs looked like:






Here is a picture of some snow art we saw in a park. You can see how windy it was.
(We did not make this.)












My friend and I made a snow fort, shown here.                              (Picture not available yet)

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Overview of CSCL


     Today, I will describe the garage-house combo that I am learning in. The building has two floors, and just three rooms that we use. All though it looks very messy in these pictures, this was right before we cleaned up, and made the space much neater. A fourth room is rented out by a company called SocialSci, and is used as a workspace during the day.
The top floor (shown at right) is one gigantic room, with a table in the middle and big windows. The "Hall of Screens" (the only place kids are allowed to use a computer) is on the second floor. All of the meetings we have are on the second floor.









Downstairs, we have two rooms; one large one, and the library. The library is often used as a quiet place for reading and writing. This is mainly because it has a door that shuts out noise. Kids store their backpacks here.






This is the other room on the first floor. It also has a table, and a couch. The walls of this room are used for storage. This room is like a center room, because it is connected to all of the other rooms. Thanks for reading!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Chocolate Pudding

     Yesterday, I made a very, very delectable dessert. For the first time, I made chocolate pudding. Towards the beginning of the cooking process, I thought I had messed up and done something wrong, so when the pudding thickened up I was pleasantly surprised. The end result was smooth and chocolatey. The recipe is from a William-Sonoma cookbook, but I found the recipe online here.  Enjoy!


Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar


  • 1/3 cup cornstarch


  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
  • 4 cups milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Whipped cream for serving

  • Chocolate sprinkles for serving



Directions:


Prep the ingredients
Before you start, be sure an adult is nearby to help.
In a bowl, use a whisk to stir together the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Set aside. Use a serrated knife to chop the chocolate into small bits.


Melt the chocolate
Put the milk and vanilla in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and warm until tiny bubbles appear around the edges of the pan. Add the chocolate and stir with a rubber spatula until the chocolate is melted, about 1 minute.
Carefully ladle about one-fourth of the hot milk into the sugar mixture and whisk until everything is smooth.


Mix it all together
Add the remaining hot milk and whisk again until the mixture is smooth. Add this mixture back to the saucepan and place over medium heat.
Stir the mixture with the rubber spatula until it begins to thicken. Use the spatula to scrape the bottom and corners of the pan to make sure those parts dont burn.


Cook, cool and serve
Cook the mixture until very thick, about 2 minutes. To test it, run your finger through the mixture on the spatula (let it cool a bit first!); it should leave a distinct trail.
Ladle the pudding into bowls and let it cool for at least 30 minutes. Top with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. Serves 6.
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Sweet Treats, by Carolyn Beth Weil (Simon & Schuster, 2006).