The Pun Punk-Episode 1

Intro:

This is my new line of posts. I make a lot of puns, so I decided to record them. I’ve forgotten a few, but here goes the rest.

7/27/10

Tour Bus? Where?

Intro: My family and I were looking for a tour bus in Toronto (year 2008), and our GPS was working less than optimally.

Pun:

I don’t see why we’re looking for an expensive tour bus. Our GPS is showing us everything anyway.

You were Pun Punk’d!

Not my best pun, but I have better.

Have to be Mean:

Intro: It was the day before my dad’s birthday, and my dad said my sister was really nice. He asked her to put away his coffee cup. She said… nah.

Pun:

I know why [my sister] is being so mean to you today. Since she can’t be mean to you [on your birthday tomorrow] she has to be twice as mean!

You were Pun Punk’d!

Good Cook, Bad Taste

My mom said she actually LIKED the High School Musical musical(read my review), so I made this pun.

You know, it's weird that your cooking is so good, seeing as you have such bad taste.

You were Pun Punk'd

-Pun Punk

High School Musical 2- The Musical Review

Intro:

Fro those of you who have lived under a rock for the past few years, High School Musical was a phenomenal movie series started by Disney that is huge. It makes me want to puke. Worse still, they ACTUALLY made a musical of it. Just to make it clear, I have nothing against the actors, just the whole story, which caused me to make this very mocking review of a movie-musical that causes nausea.

Storyline:

To be honest, there is no storyline. The famous high school students finish junior year (FYI, some of those “high school students” are still in middle school). Sharpe, the main villain, once again, causes strife to win the love of Troy by bribing him with a college scholarship at a summer job at the country club owned by Sharpe’s father(where the whole high school gets jobs, as well as Troy)… or at least make it look like she is his girlfriend. And now they have a ridiculously overdramatized talent competition and everyone wants Troy on their side. Ugh. I wonder who wrote the original storyline. Disney should fire them. Of course, everyone knows that Disney’s own live action movies fail miserably, and in my mind this is no exception, no matter how many people like it. On the other hand, their classics like Alladin and others are much better, and ALL of Disney/Pixar’s movies are phenomenally great (read my recent review of Toy Story 3), but there live action just fails because they miss a fundamental part of live-action: the action. But I’m obligated to say that the actors in the musical did well.

Other:

Some movies (again, read my Toy Story 3 review) make you feel. High School Musical didn’t. And this musical made me feel only one emotion. The overwhelming feeling of wanting to cover my face and hide from the humiliation (mind you, I didn’t go of my own free will). Oh, and I was insanely curious why the actors in the musical would condemn themselves to such a horrible fate. Overall, I rate this musical as almost mediocre, whereas the best type of movie (*cough Toy Story 3 *cough*) is rated utterly awe-inspiring and phenomenal.But I have to say that I'm not very experienced with this thing and my family loved it.

Toy Story 3: the Movie Review

Intro:

For those of you who lived under a rock for the past decade, Toy Story 3 is the last installment in Disney Pixar’s most phenomenal and epics trilogy, the Toy Story Trilogy. Created almost a decade ago, Toy Story was a HUGE smash hit. It spawned Pixar’s first sequel, the equally great Toy Story 2. But now we have Toy Story 3, and I have to say, it lives up to the series.

Overview:
Andy is owner of the toys that Pixar made famous, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Bullseye the horse, the Little Green Men, Piggie Bank Porkers, and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, to name a few. He loved those toys and always played with them. But now he’s going to college and he’s too old to play with toys. He enrages the toys when he calls them old junk. His mother tells him that he has to choose what to do with them. He decides to take Woody to college, but puts the rest in a garbage bag. Fear not, though. The toys are heading safely to the attic… something they don’t believe. But they’ll get there, as it’s only a few steps from Andy’s room… or will they? Andy’s sister asks for him to help with something, and when he’s not looking, his mother sees the garbage bag and puts it out for the garbage truck. Don’t fret though. Woody’s there to save the day! But he’s too late to save them himself. But the toys save themselves. They get into the toy donation bin inside Andy’s mother’s car. Woody tries to discourage them from going to daycare, which he thinks is horrible. However, all of them get driven there and donated. They are greeted by Lotso Huggin Bear, a friendly old bear that smells of strawberries. Anyway, Woody escapes, which he later learns is a nearly impossible feat. Because all is not what it seems, for Lotso is turned evil many years ago when he and his two friends, a baby doll named Big Baby and a clown named Chuckles. He crossed miles and miles to get back to his owner, but learned he had been replaced by another Lotso. Since his owner liked him the best, Lotso cracked. He told them all that they were ALL replaced. Chuckles wasn’t fooled, but Big Baby was. That was when they got to the day care. Lotso turned it into an evil hierarchy and put himself at the top. Chuckles was broken and escaped, though Big Baby became Lotso’s chief henchperson. Anyway, enough backstory. Woody just happens to escape into the house Chuckles lives in and learns of the evil crimes that take place in the daycare, such as the new toys being quickly put on the slaughter list and are sent to the young children’s room, who’s residents would break any toy in a week and be incinerated at the dump after being trashed. Meanwhile Lotso and his henchpeople live in comfort and luxury with the older kids. Woody must save his fellow toys and they all must get back to Andy’s house.


Other:

When a movie makes you feel, that movie is just pure AWESOMENESS! And this movie was one of those movies. I was happy to see the resolution and a almost cried when some sad things happened. So as far as feeling, this movie was great.

Conclusion:

The movie was awesome. Pretty obvious, seeing as ALL of Pixar’s movies are awesome. The only thing I didn’t like was that this was (probably) the last Toy Story. I wish there was a Toy Story 4. Then again, one day, they might make it.

Robotics Journal

6-21-10

Today was my first day at robotics camp. We're going to create some robots in teams and then we would play the robot game, VEX Elevation, by VEX. We were supposed to make a robot and win the game. No holds barred, our robot could do ANYTHING to the enemy robot! For full instructions, go to http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/vex-elevation/elevation-game-manual.11242008.pdf. I was put in team 6. When deciding our team name, none of us had any ideas. Then I remembered the GREAT 42! THE MEANING OF LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING (the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)! So we got ourselves called Team 42! This week, we'll be making our base drive, known as "The Protobot". It's quite fun. Sadly, I'll miss Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday because my family and I are going to Utah.

6-22-10

Today, we kept working on our drive-base. There was a lot of confusion over the instructions. Pretty obvious that there would be confusion, seeing as that they were pictorial, didn’t show arrows, pointed at stuff, etc., and were assigned gibberish instead of names. There was a lot to do and we progressed slowly. Sadly, the end result was only a finished 4 parts of the instructions, half done the previous day. While I’m at Utah, though, the team will work on it.

6-28-10

Today, I went to Robotics Camp after going to Utah. My team made a lot of progress. Today, we were working on designing arms for our robot and programming/testing it. I came up with a few ideas, but they had problems. I’m still working on my last idea. At 2:15, I went to get our robot tested. There seemed to have been some electronic difficulties previously. Anyway, our first programming delay was when we had to unscrew and re-screw an important element to connect the battery. Then we downloaded information. We got a crystal and started testing. However, because another team already had a crystal like ours, we had to use a tether. To attach the tether, we had to unscrew and re-screw THE SAME THING WE JUST UNSCREWED AND RE-SCREWED! And for some reason, it wouldn’t work. EVERYTHING WAS GOING CORRECTLY! Tomorrow, we are going to try and replace the most important part, which is probably the problem.

6-29-10

OH MY GOD, THIS IS SO EXASPERATING! WE REPLACED THE IMPORTANT PART ONCE, AND IT DIDN’T WORK! Then we did lots of re-downloading, testing, and… WE HAD TO REPLACE THE ELECTRONIC PART AGAIN! IT TOOK THE WHOLE TWO HOURS AT ROBOTICS CAMP! But at least we figured out the problem. One of the engines had died. We learned this after constant re-downloads of master and competition code. Also, the engines had to be placed into the main electronic piece in a specific order to work. Now the robot works, YAY! We had to replace the dead engine, which we did. Anyway, we just have some testing to do tomorrow.

6-30-10

OH GREAT! THERE WAS ANOTHER PROBLEM! Everything worked, BUT IT KEPT MAKING THE ROBOT GO IN CIRCLES! We replaced the engine AGAIN and IT STILL WENT IN CIRCLES! We showed the teacher, and he told us one axle wasn’t properly inside the engine and there was a programming error. WE HAD TO FIX THE ENGINE AGAIN, AND REPLACING IT TOOK HALF OF ALL THE CLASS TIME! Fixing the engine took another 3/8 of our time. And then, for the last 15 minutes, we reprogrammed it. But at least now it works perfectly.

7-1-10
Today, we figured out ANOTHER ENGINE PROBLEM! HOW MANY ELECTRONICS PROBLEMS IS THIS, 7???!!! One engine was slower than the other so it always turned in a circle, and only to the left. After fixing that, we worked on the arm. The guy working on it mistook advice (didn’t listen to me when I told him what was wrong with his reasoning, either), and he had to kill one part of the arm. Maybe we can still use it, though. We worked on the pivot, which we have finished planning and might be put into operation tomorrow or next week. This weekend, I don’t have Robotics, which is lucky because we’re going on a trip to Lassen Park and Crater Lake.
7-2-10
Today, we finished the plan for the arms. They will be feed systems. Treads are attached to motors so that the treads spin. The treads, in turn, pick up blocks and score goals by moving inward and outward. They will be attached to a pivot so that it can reach the highest goals and pick up the cubes on the ground.

7-6-10
Oh. My. GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORE ENGINE PROBLEMS!!!!! At first, I thought that A) One engine was burnt out, and B) another was loose. I fixed both. However, there must have been another problem, because, though the constant circular movement of the robot weakened, it STILL moved in circles. One motor might be dead. We’ll fix it tomorrow.

7-7-10
First things first, we didn’t fix the motors. Actually, we didn’t do anything with them. We worked on the arms. They are on a pivot and are given torque by to high gear ratios connected by chains on an axle so that the gears will make the angle of the arms change. Anyway, we learned that our extremely light robot and extremely heavy arms weren’t compatible. We had to lighten the arms, shorten them, or, as a last resort, make the robot heavier. We decided to lighten them. However, that didn’t work, so we had to remove the extensions (maybe) and put the mounting towers closer to the front so that the shorter arms can reach the cubes.

7-8-10
Well, we finished most of the mounting tower. The bottom axle has been placed and so have the gears and motors. Tomorrow, we will add the chains to connect the bottom axle’s gears to the top axle to add torque. We also finished the arms, but the length was not equal and has to be fixed. By tomorrow, we have to finish the robot. Next Monday, we scrimeouge, Tuesday-Thursday, we have the tournament, and Friday, we dismantle the robot.
7-9-10
Well… today we finished the arms. They work as feed system. The mounting towers are just about done. But we didn’t finish soon enough. Today we were supposed to finish. But at least we aren’t the only group. Only about half of the six groups finished. But we REALLY need to step on the gas and speed it up. On Monday, we were going to purely scrimeouge. Now, we have to finish before we start the scrimeouges. Also, when we finish, we can choose whether to do autonomous mode or not. In autonomous mode, the robots work by themselves for twenty seconds. Even if only one group does it, they can do it. We have to wait twenty seconds anyway because of the autonomous mode timer in the programming.
7-12-10
Well… it’s Monday… and we didn’t finish. We will have only tomorrow. BUT IT’S NOT OUR FAULT! WE’VE BEEN PLAGUED WITH BAD LUCK EVER SINCE WE STARTED! Today, for example, we had to COMPLETELY dismantle the mounting towers we worked days on and put just two part facing a different direction. AND NOW the axles are too short. SEE! I’VE TOLD YOU ON MY OTHR ENTRIES! WE HAVE THE WORST LUCK EVER! We’ll finish tomorrow.
7-12-10
Okay, today, we just about finished. We finished fixing the mounting towers and attached the arms. We just have a few gears to fix and axles to change. The good thing is, we have a few minutes to do it tomorrow morning. I think our robot is one of the fastest in its class (feed mechanism arms, scoring, no defense or offense) since the entire drive base was made of aluminum. Anyway, tomorrow, the tournament starts. I wonder who’s going to win…
7-12-10
I’m going to be honest right now… today was… AN UTTERLY HUGE DISASTER! First off, we finished the robot and were just going to program, it, but it took too long. Our match was rescheduled. But then, our robot didn’t work. We had to forfeit and the enemy could just score without us. But their robot broke too. And suddenly- KERPLOP! EVERY SNGLE ROBOT STOPPED WORKING! The rest of the day was spent fixing the robots. Out of 15 planned matches, we finished… 1. And one team scored 0 points. Our robot only works on a tether, so we have to use that during our match. This means our robot can easily be interfered with. Today we were supposed to have seating matches, but now we have to skip them and go straight to the tournament.
7-13-10
Today was fine. However, during our match, something cracked. Literally and metaphorically. The arms kept it from moving. Luckily, our first match was a tie. But we lost the rematch. It was a really fun day and group one won. Tomorrow, we are playing for third place and have some exhibition matches. And finally, we’ll dismantle the robots.

7-14-10
Due to time constraints, the rest of the tournament was cancelled. For the first hour, we dismantled our robots, a very quick process. Then we watched part of the movie Transformers, because it was (according to our teacher) “mildly” associated with robotics.

My Utah Adventure

6/23/10

Yesterday, we started a road trip to visit Zion, Kolob, and Bryce Canyons. We left for the city of Bakersfield at 7:30 P.M. At 10:30 P.M., we arrived there. On the way, I looked at clouds, read, and slept. Today, from 7:30 A.M. (CA time) to 5:30 P.M. (Utah time), we drove to Zion Canyon. I repeated my routine from last night. On the way, my dad forgot how to open our van’s gas tank and how to use a car wash. I made up a spoof song about it:

He lost it!
He lost it!
Dad really lost it!
Which made us sad...
Because he was bad...
But then...
He found it!
He found it!
He found it!
Dad finally found it!
And luckily, the trip was free (because for the car wash, we were given an extra wash because the first didn’t work correctly)
Dad finally found it
Because of ME!

Once we arrived at Zion Canyon, we explored it by shuttle bus. Our first stop was the “Court of the Patriarchs”, home of the landmark the “Three Patriarchs”. After taking a few pictures, we got onto a new bus. Our second to last stop was the “Temple of Sinawava”. There was a river there, in which we did a little wading. Then we got onto another bus to go to the Human History Museum. Sadly, it was closed. At that point, we left for our hotel.

6/24/10

Today, we went to Kolob Canyon in the morning. We took some pictures and were back in our hotel for breakfast in two hours. Then we went to the village of Marysvale and went to on an ARK (Always Rafting and Canoeing) rafting trip. It was an awesome experience to go rafting. Our guide was Don, the owner of the company. My family was the fastest team of rafters, even though we had the smallest team and my sister and I were the youngest rafters. Going through rapids was really fun since we got soaked up to our HAIR in pitfalls known as “waterfalls”. During the trip, Don pointed out mountains like Big Rock Candy Mountain (WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!?), beaver dams, and vague faces in the mountains. I EVEN SAW KING KONG AND LORD VOLDEMORT (albeit Voldemort possessing Professor Quirrel)! Then we went to Bryce Canyon. We took a few pictures there and I made a poem about it:
Oh!
Bryce Canyon!
What a wonderful place to be!
All the things to do
And the sights to see!

You can see a mountain
Far, far away!
Up at Rainbow point,
You can see stuff and say
HEY!

Oh!
Bryce Canyon!
You’re so neat and cool!
Let me tell you,
You’re really a jewel!

6/25/10

Today, we went to Zion Canyon again for horseback riding. My horse was Chalkboard. He was a little slow at the beginning of the track until I was given a whip to whip him with. There was a lot of treacherous footing and we moved unsteadily, but I got used to it. However, once, the horse in front of me pooped. And my horse stepped in the poop. And a bunch of times, the horses peed, and we were in close contact with the alias of “Rocky Mountain Lemonade”. It was really fun, but very hot and somehow just as tiring as going on the same track on foot. We all got a drink and snack afterwards. Then we went to the Human History Museum and learned about Zion Canyon’s history. Then we left and went to Barstow, CA. Tomorrow, we will get home before noon.