Memorable Experiences

Contagion Review

2011-10-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

I told you, didn't I? I told you this blog would be late! Shame on you for thinking I would write it on time! That is so incredibly presumptious and evil! TARNISH NOTTE THE MAJESTY OF MY TOWERING PILLAR OF HATS! I watched Contagion on the day I celebrated my 13th birthday, and it is a great movie. One thing I found I liked the most was that, you know, if an evil, deadly pandemic of death hit the world, this is how people would act. Everyone trying to get a chunk of the pharmaceutical market. People abusing evidence and faking cures the earn enormous amounts of money. Politicians saying that everything will be fine. Doctors prioritizing themselves and their family. One reason it is kind of scary is that it tells the truth. Contagion is NOT nearly a horror movie, at least in the conventional sense. But every time a character goes outside, you fear for them. Contagion's characters are mostly likable, and sometimes that ends badly and sometimes well. It's really a test of your judgement skill. The shifting between character removes the traditional "main character", but instead makes them all important. No SPOILARS here, so I won't go into specifics, but sometimes you're just angry when you are betrayed.Contagion ended in a happy way, and yet, one of our favorite people was mourning the loss of his wife, and even more so, his six year old son, both dying very quickly. That really makes you miserable, when you see that dead little boy. And yet, you have to hate his wife, she was a scumbag who brought apocalypse on everyone through her idiocy. But anyway, this guy never does get his life back after that.The ending is truly scary and a stirring moral. Again, no SPOILARS, but day one was disturbing.

2011-09-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

The 12th of September was my 13th birthday, and it was awesome. Don't you hate how every multitude of years, your birthday is on a Monday. A Monday, of all days. Not, I dunno, a "normal" Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday. Not a "good old" Friday. Not an "amazing" Saturday. Not a "slightly disappointing but still not a weekday" Sunday. A Monday. The cursed day. The day on the ubiquitous "I Hate Mondays" mugs. Sure, none of this matters if your birthday is in a summer, but mine is just on the edge: September. Doesn't matter this time though.I celebrated the night before with family. My mother and grandmother made my favorite foods, and my sister helped my mom make a homemade cake. It was delicious. The next day, I got gifts in the morning. If you don't know, I ALWAYS wore my old watch. Even when I slept. 23.75/7. Where's that other fourth of an hour? The time when I'm taking a bath. I got my watch specially 2 years ago, and I got a new one on my birthday. It was the iWatch: the only product that ever came from Apple that isn't just an inferior product with a sticker on it. Some may say: it still costed a bit. To that, I say, Have you SEEN the price tag on a Rolex? The iWatch is a watch with an iPod Nano. It's NOT an iPod Nano, it's a WATCH, DANGIT! It just has a Nano in it. I also got Rock of Ages and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (thank god, it's actually good, as opposed to Invisible War. Hand the mind-bleach, I thought about it again). The Saturday after, I had a celebration with a small group of friends. We talked, had some pizza, etc. etc. watched Bashcraft: The Legend of Hobo. Did I ever mention that that serial is awesome?Episode 1:"WHO. ARE. YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!""I think you already know who I am...""Oh no!""I am the burning lake!"Episode 2:"SHOW ME YOUR POWERS, YOU FOOL!""Well, if you insist... LET THERE BE CREEPERS!""SsssSSsSs BOOM!"Enough quotes from the creator of the universe. We went to see the movie Contagion, a review of which shall be forthcoming in the next days. Let's just say that it's a good movie. Also, I'm a weak and pathetically paranoid bugger. We had cake on our return. I enjoyed being able to talk to my friends at home, two of which had never been here. Overall, I had a great 13th birthday. I'll be talking to my loyal readers again soon with the movie review (which, hopefully, doesn't get delayed to the bowels of the earth like most of my blogs do :)

My Summer Vacation

2011-07-27T07:18:00.000-07:00

Heyo, guys! Haven’t updated in a while! I’ve been on vacation to India. I’ve been playing TF2 for the last few months too (how many of my readers understand THAT acronym? /facepalm). At any rate, here’s an account of my summer.

Fun fact: I just got back yesterday from India. It was a great trip, but unluckily enough, it was only 3 weeks long. My mom only had 2 weeks. My parents were also having a book release, which they were constantly stressing over.

After arriving in Bangalore, we took a few days rest. My sister and I actually saw a rat on a night we couldn’t sleep. Anyway, what’s so important about a rat? It’s not like the black plague exists anymore.

Our first visit was to my cousins, Hamsini and Shreyas, in Mysore. Sadly, we had 1 night and 1 morning there only. That day in Bangalore, there was actually a function for my great-grandmothers death. I got sick that day, too, and for the next week and a half, I had nasal congestion. Let me say this: for me, nasal congestion is the new ear infection! (thumbs up u getz taht rfence /YouTube comment scrubbery)

The morning after we arrived in Mysore, we went to Beligiri Ranga (BR) Hills, a Jungle Lodges and Resorts reservation. Turns out that we were the ONLY ones there. We were taken to a large, clean wooden cabin. We relaxed for an hour before we went to eat. What did we eat? Ve aTEZ wut me dun rmember! I CANZ GRAMMARZ! But seriously, what do you care? We went on a jeep safari and saw about a metric tonne (oh yes… I went there… British spelling) of deer… and deer… and deer… and monkeys. It was really enjoyable though, especially for me. Afterwards, we watched a movie on tigers.
The next morning, we went on another safari, and did some trekking as well. We saw some tiger and leopard paw prints on the way back. After that, we headed back to Bangalore. On the way, we went to the temple at Nimishamba. It's a popular place (I don't see why: it's a modern temple with no historical value, is too cramped, and is very small. Still it's nice to see the idols, very spectacular). Last time we went there, a dog pooped in my sister's shoes when they were off and she wasn't looking. This year, another pair got soggy and worn. To go with the tradition of going to Nimishamba if something good happens, I'll go to Nimishamba if, the next time we go to Nimishamba, my sister doesn't need new shoes.

We stayed there for the weekend, and on Monday, we traveled to Hassan to see my paternal grandparents. That weekend, there was a big function at my grandparent's house. A lot (I mean a LOT, it's a big house, and still full) of family came. Hamsini, Shreyas, and their parents even came all the way from Mysore. We did a lot of talking and played a few games (like Jenga) together.

I went around the city with my dad and grandfather, and I really enjoyed it. We went to Kowshika on one of the days for a puja. It was quite a distance, but it was enjoyable. The highlight: seeing my sister eating curds (oh how I hate that word, almost as much as my sister hates the food) that she hates. Ok, I lied, that was not a highlight, that was entirely boring. But I like the rest. That day, my mother and sister went back to Bangalore. Turned out that there was an auto rickshaw strike, and my dad, mom, and sister had to go on one scooter to the bus station. My mom and sister said that the buses were very good luckily, and they had a good journey. My dad and I left the next day with my grandparents and one of my dad’s relatives. They were coming for the book release. We went to My older cousin’s, Chandana and Nandita, house for a few hours and then got back to my maternal grandparents home. Nice story, on the way there, my mom, grandparents, and sister spent 45 minutes going 50 kilometers, and then an hour and a half for 1 kilometer. On the way back we got a flat tire, and we were delayed for a while. My dad’s laptop also died, so bad things ensued.

That weekend was the book release. My dad’s was a collection of poems in Sanskrit translated to Kannada, and my mom’s was a book of short stories. At the release they got a bunch of media coverage and a number of famous guests of honor came. And for those who have been following this blog for a while, my “Ocean of Knowledge” poem was read there as well.

The next day was the celebration of Chandana and Nandita's parents' 25th anniversary. It was in a big hall, and there were about 200, 250 people in there. Hamsini and Shreyas were also there, and I talked with them. The function went on from about 9 to 3, and there was breakfast and lunch. I liked the entire function.

The Monday after the book release, my mom went back home. One day in Bangalore, we went to Bannerghata nature preserve for a “safari”. It’s not a nature preserve, it’s a zoo. That many tigers don’t live in such close proximity, tigers and lions don’t live so close together, and no place has that kind of white tiger concentration. It’s a zoo, with imported domestic animals. It was fun to go through, though. After that, we saw the part that was actually declared a zoo. We saw hippos, peacocks, miscellaneous birds, snakes, turtles, and tortoises. I’ll never forget the mad dash of one of the baby turtles, it was hilarious. It was literally running at the speed of… of… of more than 0.5 mph! Well, I would have forgotten it, but now I’ve written it down, and since it’s on the internet, I’ll never lose it. Unless someone attacked the Google data center with an EMP. Then I’d be screwed.

Another day, we went to Bangalore’s tech museum. In the hall of engines, we learned about the history of machines in transportation. Next, we saw a “science show”. What it had to do with science, I’ll never know. But we can do anything with the MAGIC OF VIDEO EDITING! It was still entertaining. We looked through a hall of random science paraphernalia, a puny dinosaur exhibit, an electricity and power generator hall (it was great, we saw LIGHTNING!), a space exploration hall, a hall on circuits and modern tech, and more. The next day (technically the day after… or was it the day after that? I don’t remember), we left. It was a really fun trip, and hopefully, we can go again next year.

This year, I really liked being with my grandparents. In Bangalore, we went to museums, zoos, etc. etc. In Hassan, I went around with my grandfather on his scooter to see the city. I really liked being with them, and I hope they come visit us this or the coming year.

So here I am, writing this in a word doc. Hopefully, this was interesting. If not, HATARS GONNA HATE! (I’m joking, knowing the internet, they’ll be on me like hounds. HOUNDS, I TELL YOU!)

The Definition of Shardenfroyder

2011-05-07T13:11:00.000-07:00

I am SICK and TIRED of no one giving an English definition for shardenfroyder, the German word for "enjoying another's misfortune." FOR GOD'S SAKE, IT'S SADISM!

That is all. RAGE FACE!

Internet Society

2011-04-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

Internet Society

What do most people know about the internet? It is the biggest hotbed of xenophobia, racism, and idiocy man has ever known.

Who here has seen YouTube comments. Yes, everyone, I thought so. And who here knows that the vast majority of them have bad grammar, spelling, and include bad language and are there to simply spam the comment box and enforce the writer’s own ideas with no respect for anyone else’s. I knew it. YouTube comments have long been the bane of the internet and are widely known around the world as the biggest representation of internet user’s sometimes colossal lack of knowledge. Not everyone on the internet is like this. Sadly, the vast majority are. Let’s look at why:

The internet offers unparalleled amounts of anonymity. People can say anything they want and have ways of cov-ering their tracks. The only way to really track someone requires lots of powerful technology. The stereotype is that it’s always a twelve year-old hiding from his parents that exhibits all the symptoms of internet idiocy (incredibly prominent use of language, racism, etc. Read YouTube comments for more examples) because he can’t be found. I object to that,though, being twelve myself. A good few of them are adults and don’t have to hide anything.

The modern sense of humor is also a problem. Most people have a twisted, puerile sense of humor that is ex-ploited by famous YouTubers like Smosh. They make racist songs, puerile jokes, and other twisted, sickening things that don’t belong in this world.

The biggest group of people with internet idiocy are gamers. Ever of CoD nerd rage? Oh, yes, when people start screaming random profanity on voice chat for games like Call of Duty, Battlefield Bad Company 2,Halo Reach, and more. The vast majority of gamers with these anger problems play shooters. The other group plays MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. They are the whiners. They can’t deal with losing, so they go to the Blizzard forums and complain about how the company made a horrible game and how they are bad developers and that they’ll leave if the game isn’t nerfed (made easier). They think they are the most important people ever. The final group is the “meme hounds.” Granted, they aren’t the worst. They constantly make references to funny quotes. Sometimes these are profane and racist, but most aren’t. I myself am one, making only references that are not profane or racist. Examples of good memes are “IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZ0R”, “KAMEHAMEHA”, AND “his power level is OVER 9,000!”

While the internet is full of idiots, some people aren’t really bad. Hopefully one day there will no longer be the idiots that swarm the internet today.
See you next time in Self-Reflections

My Vacation to Florida

2011-04-16T18:10:00.000-07:00

On 4/9/11, my family and I went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter part of Universal Islands of Adventure. Wizarding World is the newest addition to Islands, and is only about one year old, if not less. It’s a replica of Hogsmeade and includes a disproportionally small Hogwarts Castle. You enter in front of a steaming Hogwarts Express in a snowy Hogsmeade. Never mind that it never snows in Florida, especially on days like that one. After about 20 pictures of the Hogwarts Express, we entered Zonko’s Joke Shop and Honeydukes sweet shop. We bought some Honeydukes merchandise and then watched a wand show after a long line. I bought myself a hawthorn wand. Why? Because it looks amazing. We skipped the Dragon Challenge roller coaster because we valued our sanity. Bypassing that, we went to perhaps the best theme park ride I’ve ever seen (yes, I hate roller coasters. BRING ON THE FLAMETHROWERS!), Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, a moving simulator. After a line that moved quickly (but was a mile long) through the herbology greenhouse (lots of twists) we entered Hogwarts Castle. And OH JOY, there was a half mile line in there, too. This was made nicer by the very nice set pieces such as video portraits and the like. I think I even heard Rowena Ravenclaw chastising Salazar Slytherin for critiquing the riders. On the actual ride itself, amazing things happened. We flew out of the castle at ridiculous speed and were suddenly chased by a dragon. Then, when we escaped that, we got stuck in the Forbidden Forest and attacked by acromantulas (Aragog’s colony, or whatever it’s supposed to be called). We got rid of them, but were nearly bludgeoned by the Whomping Willow in the process. We got to a Quidditch game and flew around at breakneck speeds, but, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, we got attacked by dementors. Frikkin’ amazing, right. We finally got back to the castle and saw another video portrait of the Hogwarts staff and other important characters congratulating us. When we got outside, we went on the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster and ate some of Florean Fortescue’s ice cream. After that, we went to the rest of Islands of Adventure, which, I note, has significantly less advanced technology than Wizarding World.
On the second day of our vacation, 4/9/11, we went to the Everglades. The Everglades is a famous national park. It’s a swamp that’s widely known to be covered in alligators and crocodiles. We were not disappointed. We went to the West Palm Beach part’s visitor center, first. There, we went with a group of people on the Anhinga Trail, named after a bird that lives in the Everglades. There, we saw a number of vultures, alligators, anhingas, and cranes. My sister did the Junior Ranger program and became a Junior Ranger. We moved on to the next trail, which went through pinelands, large areas covered in many, many thin, tall trees. They kind of looked liked juvenile redwoods in size. If you don’t know, for the first few decades, maybe even a century (or however long it takes), a redwood only grows straight up. Once it’s reached maximum height, it will keep growing fatter and larger for the rest of its (hopefully) 2 millenia long life. But redwoods aren’t the focus of this post, now, are they. After walking through the pinelands, we went to an overlook where I took a number or pictures. We then reached the end of the road: the Flamingo side of the Everglades. The Flamingo visitor center looked like an ugly, FLAMINGO pink high school building. It’s right on the coast and has a seaside café. We ate some food before leaving to an alligator farm. Sadly, we got there late and weren’t able to do what we were going to. The next day, we did go, though.
On the third day of vacation, 4/10/11, we did an assortment of water activities. First up was jet skiing! Incredibly fun thing to do. We went pretty far out to sea off of the coast of Miami. My dad was going very fast and the water was flying. We stopped over a sunken boat and went snorkeling. I saw about a million fish, which is lucky, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a live fish. BRING ON THE FLAMETHROWERS! But while snorkeling, I learned an unpleasant fact. If you accidentally swallow seawater, it tastes bad. Very bad. Very, Very bad. So bad that I want a little green monster that wants hugs and says SsSsSsSsSs… to make a hole in the ocean. Afterwards, we went around Miami Beach and saw the houses of famous people. I’d want an artificial island mansion, too. Finally, we got back to the harbor. Next, we moved onto the alligator farm. Yes, they exist, and I don’t like them. Why? It’s a nice place to go to; it’s that it’s like every other farm: they breed gators, and then they chop them up and sell the bodies to make worthless purses, belts, and other frivolous objects. It’s like Megamind’s “Custom baby seal leather boots.” That’s probably the most evil thing he ever did. Baby seals are cute. Anyway, now that I’m done with my mini-rant, we saw many alligators there. We went to a snake show as well. I was the first volunteer and I held up a constrictor. It tried to crush my arm. It failed. Next, we went on an airboat around the place. Really, all it was was going around at very high speeds in a swamp. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun.
On the last day of our vacation, 4/11/11, we went to the Kennedy Space Center. We’d heard it was amazing, and boy, those reports weren’t exaggerating. First, we went to the launch pad viewing gantry and saw the enormous crawler machine. It carries up to 9 MILLION pounds and can maneuver to about 1/8 of an inch. And of course, it costs $400,000 to fire this baby for twelve seconds. Er, I mean to drive it. At the gantry, we saw a show about space shuttles and saw an actual engine for one. Next, we moved on to the Saturn V rocket launch facility. Saturn V’s were the size of skyscrapers, and were widely used and incredibly powerful. They are famous today for their role in the Apollo missions, though they have been retired. At the facility, we learned the entire, long story of the Apollo missions: why they started (the Russians might attack), why they were delayed (the deaths of three astronauts), and their successes. We saw a mockup of the launch featuring the ACTUAL CONSOLES that were used at the launch. Afterwards, we went on the space shuttle simulator, which can’t compare to the Forbidden Journey, but was still fun, if not exactly intense. Finally, we saw an IMAX presentation of Hubble. It was a great movie, what with the astronauts breaking the fourth wall in zero gravity and the information about the Hubble space telescope. After that, we left to the Orlando airport and went home. Today is 4/12/11.

Some Layam

2011-03-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

Today my mridanga teacher asked a simple question. Where should the sol
7 (1) Tha. Kita Thakita thom.
7(1) Tha. Kita Thakita thom.
7 Tha. Kita Thakita thom
start in chaturashra madhyama adhi tala. By this point, I should have known it, but instead, I just gave nondescript answers like “1” and “7.” I completely missed the point. I was supposed to say where in the talam it was in mathirais.
I said that “The sol starts after the 7 mathirai of the utharangam.” That was completely wrong. My teacher said it was akin to saying “A mridanga is made of the same things that go into tables and chairs after the mridanga is made.”
Then he talked about how we should just subtract 23 [(7+1)x2+7] from 32, the number of mathirais in the tala. I said it was 9 aksharams, which was completely incorrect. My teacher told me that I should NEVER get confused between the two. He said it was nine aksharams after the samam. Then he asked where the the sol started. After many more incorrect answers, I said that you had to push 1 mathirai after the 3rd laghu. We did some more examples, like-
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
Since it was the same as
8
8
8
It took 6 aksharams at madhyama kalam (4 mathirais/aksharam). My teacher asked where the sol started. I correctly stated that it started at the 3rd laghu.
The next example was
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6 Tharikitathaka
I started saying all sorts of things, like “between …” and “… after samam.” Finally, I understood and said that you pushed 2 mathirais after the 3rd laghu and then said the sol.
Another example was
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5 Thadhinginathom
This time, I correctly said it started after pushing 3 mathirais after the third laghu.
Then we got back to the original question. Both me and the other student said that you pushed 1 mathirai. We then said all the examples.
We did some last few examples. The first one was
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5 Thadhinginathom
I said we push 3 after the samam and I was correct.
The next example was
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6 Tharikitathaka
I said 6 mathirais before samam, which was correct, but my teacher told me that when you have to do math like this in a fraction of a second, it has to be after something, not before. Then I said 2 after the first aksharam in the last dhrutham. We then said it.
The last example was challenging. It was
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
5(3) Thadhinginathom tha..
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
6(2) Tharikitathaka tham.
7(1) Tha. Kita Thakita thom.
7 Tha. Kita Thakita thom
The class ended at that point and we have to say that next class as a challenge. It was a very productive class.

Gnomeo and Juliet- Don't Just Look at the Name

2011-02-26T14:15:00.001-08:00

On 2/21/11, my sister forced me to take her to see Gnomeo and Juliet. I protested for hours, seeing it as a movie for small children that would be stupid and incredibly boring. Well, I was wrong.

Summary:

The blue garden gnomes and the red garden gnomes are at war. The protagonist, the blue gnome Gnomeo was on a commando mission to get revenge on the reds when he met the wandering gnome Juliet. They fall in love but have to keep it a secret. They find an old garden with a slightly senile, but nevertheless, friendly parrot who tells them as they argue how other people ruined his love, just like what was threatening to happen to theirs. However, Gnomeo's tiny friend Benny sees Gnomeo and Juliet and starts running back to tell the other blues. However, the antagonist, the red Tibolt, shatters Benny's hat, the supreme blow to any gnome, especially one with such a large hat. Then Tibolt and Gnomeo engage in a duel, which ends with Tibolt shattering into tiny pieces. However, the reds are angry and they push him on to the street, where Gnomeo apparently meets his death. I won't spoil the rest, but let's just say Gnomeo has a run-in with Shakespeare and the story starts following Romeo and Juliet's storyline. However, ultimately, this movie can turn the ending around.

Other:

While Gnomeo and Juliet doesn't use 3-D as effectively as Tangled, it is still used fairly well. Also don't just read the name and think it's a bad movie like I did. It might seem gimmicky, but a certain movie about toys coming to life and having adventures was pretty gimmicky when it started, too. Y'all get what I mean, right? And when did I become a redneck?

Bollywood

2011-02-21T17:43:00.001-08:00

A few days ago, my mother said I should try Bollywood dance. I have two responses: I am not interested in dancing, and, BAH!

Bollywood. That is what most people think about when they think of India. It makes me sick. Bollywood is a miserable attempt to cash in on western pop culture. Just look at the name Bollywood Western pop culture is terrible enough as it is, with people like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Katie Perry. When Justin Bieber first sang, I felt a disturbance in the force… like 10 billion beings suddenly cried out… and then were silenced. If you get that reference, you get a cookie. I’ll explain it here: in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, when the Death star fired its laser (“I’MA FIRIN’ MAH DEATH STAR LAZOR!” If you get that reference, you also win a cookie) and destroyed Alderaan, Yoda said the same thing about all the people on Alderaan. And, of course, the Death Star’s power level is OVER 9,000! If you get that last reference, you get a cake. But of course, the cake is a LIE! Okay, enough references. Bollywood is simply seeking to make India like America because America is a global superpower. So it either casts aside or completely ruins the religion of Hinduism and causes the pathetic stereotypes of India. It’s not real Indian dance, music, culture, or anything else. It’s like the accents of those bad Indian actors who want to pretend they have an American accent. Or the accents of bad Indian actors and comedians who exaggerate their accents for comedy or advertising (also causing pathetic stereotypes).

The people who come up with Bollywood ideas are on… well, I don’t want to offend anyone, let’s just say that it is not good for your mental health. They’re ALL stupid love story musicals. Just about EVERY. SINGLE. FREAKING. MOVIE. Including I Hate Love Stories. I mean, have you SEEN the trailer for the Bollywood version of the Halo movie? They turned Master Chief into a Spartan with a bad accent who sings bad songs and talks too much. THEY turned a FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER into a LOVE STORY! Now, how does THAT work?!?!?!?!?

I despise Bollywood for all it has ever done. There are TWO good things from Bollywood. One movie, called A Wednesday, the only movie that isn’t a love story. It’s about terrorism. And there is a song from some movie called Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year. I can’t remember its name, of course. All Bollywood has ever done is make Indians look stupid and eschews our culture for its bad imitations of America.

There are a FEW well done Bollywood movies, if they have decency and are actually accurate and don’t TRY and cause stereotypes for marketing.

Well, this was a good rant. I might even put it in Self-Reflections. You guys will learn what that is later.

*Twirl around, disapparate in my awesome cloak, opera mask, and top hat, and explode into black smoke, for I am the CYNICAL DEATH LORD*

*DISCLAIMER: I am Indian and my parents like Bollywood. It's only me who thinks it should go die in the fire for being terrible.

Tooth Extraction

2011-01-22T12:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, 12/21/2011, I got 2 teeth extracted. The procedure is called profiling. If too many teeth are in the mouth, it causes the lips to move forward. By removing 4 bicuspids, this problem can be fixed. It really has no use besides making you look better- which I really think is not needed- but if my parents say so, I guess I will have to lose another 2 teeth. *Sigh*. Anyway, I got rid of 2 of them yesterday. I was given a numbing agent in about 10-13 shots in the mouth and lost feeling in the right half of my face. Still, it did hurt a lot when the teeth were being loosened. When my teeth were removed, I could only drink liquids for a day and had to eat soft foods only for a week. I got feeling back in my mouth after some 4-5 hours. I feel a little sore right now, but nothing actually painful.

Christmas Show 2010

2010-12-20T22:19:00.000-08:00

This year, at Merryhill, the Christmas Show was a bit different than it used to be. Originally, it was all the grades singing this song. This year, however, we performed a play version of A Christmas Carol.

In A Christmas Carol, a cheap and cruel old man named Ebenezer Scrooge is taken to the past, present, and future by ghosts who try to teach him the error in his ways. He learns to be generous and kind, etc. etc. I’m sure you all know this already.
In the show, I was Ebenezer Scrooge. I had many, many lines to learn in about two and a half months. I had to practice the actual speaking, as well, i.e. the projecting, volume, etc.

We had many months of practice, but we were still having trouble until the last week of the play. Over 20 hours of regular school was lost for in rehearsals during the school day, as well as many after-school sessions. We also only had one day to get all the costumes in order. Some people still made errors in their lines that made strange holes in the dialog, and I had a lot of trouble remembering my lines, my cues, and what my movements were supposed to be. This was probably the biggest problem, and it was very difficult because it was changed almost every day. Once I had gotten it down, I learned that we would have no headset microphones on the day before the play, drastically limiting my movement. On the day before the performance, Monday, December 6, 2010, we went to the place where we would do the play to practice it. This was our last rehearsal, but we still had a few problems. A few characters had not been cast and were not cast. The movements were still being learned, as well as the transitions between scenes. The previously mentioned messed up dialog still existed. However, we did mostly well.

On December 7, 2010, we had the performance. There was no emergency rehearsal, which surprised some teachers, considering how there normally is one. We still had no hunger and ignorance, and we were all tense because of the possibility that the play would get messed up. There were still the problems, but they went unnoticed, and the play was a huge success. Many people, even strangers, told me I was a great actor. This went on for the next few days. I actually had to do one extra bow after my two bows because of the length of the clapping for me during the bows.

All in all, it was great experience, and I hope we’ll do a play next year, too.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 1-Review

2010-11-28T20:12:00.000-08:00

I’m not even going to introduce it this time. Where is your home-rock if you haven’t ever heard about Harry Potter. The beginning of the end has started. I watched the movie on 11/26/10, and let me tell you, it’s great.
First things first: we all know just about every book-based movie has some inaccuracy. Just like with the other Potter movies, if you want a comprehensive, word for word, reiteration, go read the book. I know some fans will rage (don’t call me ignorant, I read the book, I know what happens), but at this point, I don’t give a darn. It’s a good movie, and that’s what we’re here for.
I know no one wants spoilers, even though the book is a gigantic one. If you haven’t read it, stop reading. If you have, what do I have to tell you?
It’s a serious movie. It doesn’t have the slight comedy elements of Half-Blood Prince and, to be a bit unoriginal, it sets a darker tone. But there is one funny bit. Sorry if I mess it up.

Dobby:*Knocks down chandelier on top of Bellatrix*

Bellatrix: YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!

Dobby: Dobby was not trying to kill… perhaps maim or… seriously injure.

By the way, there’s new Dobby voice acting, and it’s not as good as the old one. Also, that text was not in the book, but who the frik cares, it’s hilarious.
Some say that the movie follows the story too much. Have you read the book? I would use a snappier line, but I’d rather not offend my readers. In any case it is different, and skips large parts of chapters and skips some medium-important things. You can find an excuse for this, though. What you can’t find a excuse for: THEY MESSED UP THE DATE OF HARRY’S BIRTHDAY!
Yeah. The movie’s awesome. Watch it. I COMMAND YOU, FOR MY POWER LEVEL IS OVER 9000 BECAUSE I HAVE FALCON PUNCH ON MY SIDE! Hooray for references to references I don’t understand.

Deepavali 2010

2010-11-20T10:49:00.000-08:00

This year, we had a lot of fun at Deepavali (A.K.A. Divali).

On Thursday, 11/4/10, we celebrated the first day of Deepavali. Wee lit some lamps, made some chalk drawings, and best of all, USED FIREWORKS! We used Colored Snakes, garlic firecrackers, Flowerpots, and the most terrifyingly fast of them all, the one I gave a name myself, the HYPERSPEED!

The Colored Snakes were these little pill shaped things reminiscent of lamp pills that you put on fire. When set on fire, they slowly made a snake shaped structure out of ash. These were pretty bad snakes; it looked like the fire was pooping something, and smelled like it, too.

Garlic firecrackers are little packages of wood shaving inside paper. When you throw them at a hard surface, they explode with a pop. They’re always a nice way to begin or end a session of fireworks.

Flowerpots are these huge, mini-versions of regular fireworks. First it spit up color, then multicolored missiles into the air. There are explosions all over the place, blowing up like real firework missiles. These are probably the best fireworks on the non-pyrotechnic market.

“Hyperspeeds” are little spinners. They look like flowerpots, but act nothing like them. There are other types of spinners, but these are probably the most magnificent. After a short time on the fuse, it seems to have stopped working. Then it explodes, moving really fast, throwing multicolored sparks, and changing colors. They are quite epic.

We didn’t do anything on the second day, 11/5/10, but on the third, 11/6/10, we invited my uncle and set off… guess what… MOAR FIREWORKS! Yes, MOAR, because only epic people misspell stuff like more. The third day of Deepavali is the day when you celebrate brothers, so we invited my uncle and his family to set off fireworks. We used multiple types of sparklers, spinners, a Magic Trick, party poppers, a supreme party popper, and all the other ones we used before.

Sparklers are sticks that, when set ablaze, explode in beautiful arrangements. Some spat red sparks. Others exploded in yellow stars. And some shined white.

Normal spinners spin around, hurling yellow sparks in a small circle that they spin in once the fuse burns down.

Party poppers are these little canisters full of confetti. Pull the string, BOOM, a whole bunch of confetti flies out.

Supreme party poppers are much, much bigger, shooting out much more, bigger confetti. We were ripped off, though: there was barely any confetti in ours.

And magic tricks, somehow, are even better than Flowerpots, if MUCH more terrifying. Put it on fire and hold it, the ends explodes, sending down more stuff that explodes randomly over and over and over again, making a huge cacophony. We set off only one because it made a lot of noise. We wouldn’t have even bought them if we knew what they were.

Deepavali this year was really great, and I hope next year’s will be just as awesome.

Leadership Retreat 10-1-10

2010-10-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

Today, we had our first leadership retreat. A leadership retreat is a special day at Merryhill when advisory groups learn teamwork. Today was the first for this year. I was in the purple advisory group. Purple, the color of the void, evil, and gigantic floating eyes with tentacles. Marvelous, isn’t it. Also, NUCLEAR SOAP!

This morning we walked *cough* ran against the rules *cough* to Cardoza Park. The place was quite entertaining, really. We waited for some 15 minutes and then started the day. We had 5 activities, which will be described in the next paragraphs.

The first activity we did had to do with concentration and memorization. Well, actually, with our strategy, it was just remembering a number and touching 1 to that number. We had to run around as fast as possible and touch a number stuck to the ground. The next person had to touch that number and touch another number. It wasn’t really difficult, just time-consuming, but maybe that’s just because we were a good team.

The second was slightly more difficult. By that, I mean THE MOST DIFFICULT THING EVER! We had to toss a balloon between one another, tell the person we’re throwing it to’s name and the body part they must hit it with. The problem: the balloon is full of air, it’s windy, and hitting a balloon doesn’t send it very far. We failed this challenge because we didn’t finish in less than 10 minutes, the limit.

The third was the most entertaining and delicious thing I’ve ever done. You placed an Oreo on your forehead and had to move it into to your mouth without your hands. If you wanted to, you could eat it. But drop it too many times in the grass we were doing the challenge in, and was the last person, dropped it tens of times. The whole team was giving him advice, but he kept dropping it. Finally, he got it into his mouth. Then he spit it out. What a horrible waste of an Oreo. Well, it did look disgusting at that point, so I guess it was okay.

The next event was uncomfortable. We had to move a banana across a line with only our feet. The uncomfortable part? The grass was very, very, wet. We had a lot of exasperation, but it was done fairly quickly.

The last challenge was kind of like that “minefield” challenge from TV. We had a blindfolded partner and guided them through an obstacle course. It took quite a long time to do.

Next was lunch. We had pizza, chips, and bad tasting juice juice.

Afterwards, we had a tug-of-war. Three people from each team played. We lost in both our games.

After returning to school, we ate ice cream and watched the movie The Blind Side until school was over. It was a really great day.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow-Play Review

2010-09-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ah, we’re back to Rainbow Theater. Ready to hear my scathing review? Tough luck, chumps, because this was actually a good play. My sister even had a part in it: the Indian Chief Phantom.

Overview:

You should ALL know The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving’s scary story. EVERYONE at least knows the Headless Horseman. If you don’t, you are a disgrace to people everywhere (I kid... but maybe). The rural town of Sleepy Hollow is full of ghosts. And the worst of them is… the Headless Horseman! I think you saw that coming. No? EPIC FAIL! But ‘nuff of that, let’s move onto the main guy: schoolmaster Ichabod Crane. “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” Yeah, most of you won’t get that reference, but it doesn’t really matter. He’s the (HUNGRY) new schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow. He falls in love with Katrina the moment he arrives. The problem? Brom Bones, Katrina’s evil so-called boyfriend (even Katrina hates him). He doesn’t like it when guys like Ichabod come and like his girlfriend. So, anyway, a bunch of random, unimportant (but funny) stuff happens, and Ichabod finds out about the ghosts, and we learn he is a chicken. Check that. He’s an ostrich. Check that, that’s an insult to ostriches everywhere, especially the strong ones. Let’s just call him a fraidy-cat. Check… Oh just forget it! And then, a bunch of more random, unimportant (but funny) stuff happens, and Ichabod finally proposes marriage to Katrina. Of course, previously, we learned he only liked her money, though he did think she was beautiful. Anti-hero, anyone? Yes, I know, that’s an insult to anti-heroes like Darth Bane, who are completely epic, but I’m too lazy to type it. But I just… DANG YOU PARADOX OF EVIL READERS! And of course, Bones knows of this. He runs Ichabod out of the joint and into the graveyard, only thinking of his bad luck, and not the ghosts he was terrified of. AND OUT COMES THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN! And Ichabod disappears, his clothes still on the rack, one moment at a party, next moment gone, never to be seen again in Sleepy Hollow. The only thing left is Bones’s Heschan coin, and no one knows it’s his. YOU decide what happened to Ichabod. I’ll blame it on Bones, who is actually the Headless Horseman.
Other:
I didn’t feel much emotion, but the humor was LOLWTHOMGBBQ (Laugh Out Loud What The Heck Oh My God BarBeQue) worthy. But there is something faintly unsettling about seeing a headless actor with a stump on his head clap during the credits.

Rating:
I must say, it was a good play. What about LOLWTHOMGBBQ OXSOM? In other words, funny and good.

Our Home Concert

2010-09-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, 9-17-10, we had a concert at our house. It was so exciting! Two days previous, we had set up our entire downstairs for the concert. We brought in all our rugs, moved the furniture, and even set up a monitor for people who couldn’t see the musicians. My dad made a slideshow all about the temples of Karnataka, the topic of our concert, and used a projector he was lent to show it on our wall. All the songs were composed by great composers in those temples.

Jayanthi Umesh, my mom’s music teacher and expert bay area singer, was the singer. Ravindra Bharati was the mridangist and Lakshmi Balasubramanam was the violinist. They were all music experts.

Over 100 people came to the concert. We were packed! I had NEVER seen that many people in a house!

There were 13 songs, each referencing a great temple of India. The songs were Matte Malaya Dhwaja Pandya Sanjate, Vaatapi Ganapatim Bhajeham, Ubhaya Kaveri Ranga, Hatakesshwaram, Sri Chamundeshwari, poetry of Putina and D.V.G., Trigunathmakale, Kandu Dhanyanade, and more.

The temples situated in Chamundi Hills, Mysore, Badami and Tiravarur, Srirangapattana, Nanjanagoodu, Melukote, Kolluru, Udupi, Sringeri, Dodda Malooru, Koodala Sangama, Beluru, and Devarayana Durga.

After the concert, we had dinner.

It was really, really, REALLY cool to have a concert in our house. If we hadn’t moved, we would never have even been able to host the concert because our old house was smaller. Our new house was another thing celebrated at the concert. Anyway, I think, and hope, that we will have more concerts.

My 12th Birthday

2010-09-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, 9-12-10, I turned 12. I was waiting FOREVER for my birthday this year, and it was one of the best days of my life.

I woke up at around 8:30 in the morning. My parents told me to stay in my room while they set up for my birthday. I stayed in bed and watched videos on youtube on my dad’s phone until 9:30 in the morning. I then brushed my teeth, took a bath, and went downstairs. I got my presents. I got the new, AWESOME laptop I’m now typing this on, an Amazon Kindle with 5 books on it (I retract my opinion I posted on a previous blog about eBook readers), and 3 physical books as well. My grandparents gave me a card with $25, and the rest of my family gave me a LOT of cards and a $25 Gamestop giift certificate. My sister also gave me a lot of special stuff. She gave me origami, hand made bouncy balls, and other cool art stuff, and smelling stickers. My aunt and uncle and younger cousins also came too, and they gave me some money as a gift.

At 11:00 in the morning, my friends started coming. Sanjana, Sanjana, and Ankith all came, and we played Mario Kart Wii until it was time for lunch. We had pizza and orange cake. We then started watching the Karate Kid. However, a few minutes into the movie, we switched to Bedtime Stories. We also made our own personal ice cream sundaes.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, Sanjana and Sanjana left. We dropped off Ankith at 3:00 in the afternoon at his house. I spent the rest of the time watching videos on my new laptop and downloading an FPS until we had to leave to go to some houses for a religious festival. We left at 6:30 in the evening and got back at 10:00 in the night. I played the FPS I downloaded, Alliance of Valiant Arms, until 10:30 in the night. It ran really well on my laptop.

Like I said before, yesterday was one of the best days of my life.

eBooks-Oh the Delicious Irony

2010-08-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

In science, in my first week of school, on 8-20-10, we talked about technology. One point that was raised was that one of the negative things about technology was that it made us lazy. And we stumbled on eBooks...

eBooks. What are eBooks.A ridiculous type of book with the letter e before it. Of course it isn't. It's a ridiculous type of electronic book. Electronic book, you say? Heresy, I say. BLASPHEMY! And the irony, don't get me started! Books created irony, and where do they go? Out the window when all sorts of newfangled contraptions like Kindles and Nooks, and the greatest evil, THE IPAD come to the world!

eBooks require the internet to get any books at all. Where's the accessibility in that, eh? And they are so EXPENSIVE! $200 could go so far. You could buy 10 nice, big, interesting books with that kind of money! And what about the libraries? Well, two things, of course! First, there is no "eBook library", and the creators wouldn't spend the money or time to code it, as it is difficult. And money, of course, is the other issue. Think of all the libraries the government is spending millions of dollars on! That's millions and millions, maybe even BILLIONS of dollars lost if everyone gets an eBook reader. And all the librarians will lose their jobs, and the billions of dollars spent on them will be lost too. There won't be any book signings anymore, either. What're you going to do, sign the eBook? *sigh* Better get a new Kindle, permanent marker won't come off... And where is the ambiance of scrolling your hand across a piece of plastic? There is no smell of fresh print, or yellow parchment, or hand-drawn pictures in eBooks. Isn't it so satisfying to flip a page in a book and learn a crucial part of the story. *engage stupid and unrealistic voice of girl who can't speak in complete sentences* OMG, like, flipping is, like, so, like, old. You must be, like, 30 to, like, flip a, like, what do you call them? Pages? Those are, like, so, like, old fashioned. And they use, like, legible and, like, complete, like, what are they? Sentences? OMG! Argh, typing this absolute garbage makes me cry. And if we keep advancing, eBooks will read to US, and no one will be able to read. People will get rid of books, and authors won't make physical copies of their books. What a dystopia. Another dystopia I heard about was when, a few years ago, I saw the back of a book called The Last Book in the Universe, and that book was the last book in the universe. Why do something as mundane as reading when you can just take a shot that tells the whole story, as if you were living it, in a millisecond. OH THE HUMANITY, WHY!

But, as much as I dislike eBooks, there are some good points. Making them is eco-friendly, compared to making millions of pages of paper. Still, plastic isn't bio-degradable... And jobs are also made by eBook manufacturing. And you can have a 3,500
book library in a 10" by 10" piece of plastic. And maybe libraries could still exist and lend books, since you can't buy every eBook.

We shouldn't let technology make us lazy, but we also shouldn't stagnate and never make stuff easier for ourselves with technology. A balance must be struck.

Well, I'm done here. I only have a certain amount of cynical wordplay and skeptics I can dispense in a day. But the dislike of eBooks is real. Think on it.

Iron Hills Triathalon

2010-08-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, 8-21-10, I went to the Iron Hills Youth Triathalon. A triathalon is a athletic race in which competitors bike, swim, and run. At Iron Hills, I was in the 11-15 age group, so I had to swim 8 25 meter laps, bike 6.6 miles, and run 1.4 miles. People participate in triathalons because it is a good test of endurance and speed, as well as good exercise.

In the morning, I woke up at 4:30 A.M. and we left for the triathalon at 5:55 A.M. The triathalon was2 hours away, at El Dorado Hills, so we had to get up early to get there before it started at 8:30 A.M.

I registered 1 week before the triathalon. I had gone to 4 weeks of swim camp, coincidentally, and I was riding my bike most days in the summer as well. In my one week, I ran 2 days and did much more biking for 3 days.

I was in the 5th heat of swimming. In swimming, I was 8th, I think. Then we went biking in our swimming clothes. Real warm guys, real warm. The last bit was running. I went the whole way, and I was the slowest, but at least I didn't give up like some people. The triathalon was meant to be a "friendly, non-competitive challenge", so I didn't care what place I was in.

All the people who worked on the triathalon were very good. They encouraged me a lot even when I going really slowly and was having a hard time. When I finished, they applauded my endurance.

At the award ceremony, they called me up for third place, but then told me that it was a mistake and I was fourth. But in the girls list of times, I was number 3. I guess that that's okay, since I was one of the younger participants in the 11-15 age group, and the even younger kids started earlier and had less to do, so I guess I did well. I'm just happy the I finished the race, instead of giving up. Some kids did give up, I'm just happy I wasn't one of them. Finally, my family and I were happy. My parents thought that I wouldn't finish, which they told me after the triathalon. Thanks for the confidence, guys. Thanks...

Learning HTML

2010-08-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

This summer, I have been learning HTML. At first, I couldn't even get it to register as HTML, but my dad helped me figure it out. FYI, a notepad HTML file has to be in All Files. Anyway, I kept learning it from davesite.com! Visit DaveSite! That was a link! I made it with HTML. At first, I did easy tasks like bolding, italicizing, making horizontal lines, etc etc. Then I started my website, Chez La Homei. It's based after our Christmas feast, which you can read about in a previous post.At first, I just came up with simple words. Then I added a few fonts and a little color. The I made some unordered list for a simple menu. The next thing I made was pictures. I had to debug it a lot because I kept messing it up. I now know that to make a picture, I have to use an "img src" tag with the web address of the picture, the EXACT address. Then I turned the pictures into thumbnails. It took me a longer time to figure that out because for that, the internet was absolutely useless. I had to crop pictures in paint, put them in a different page, put the "a href tag" with the real pictures address and "img src" as the address of the cropped picture. I then added staff biographies with a lot of color and fonts. Then I put up a video and added even MORE colors and fonts, as well as splitting the menu and adding some new items. Then I had to web host it. At first, I thought Yahoo hosting was just a text editor. Then I tried to make a page with a different thing, but the page got butchered for no apparent reason. I kept trying to fix it, but my first choice couldn't be edited, and the second wouldn't show up. Finally, I figured out that the code had to be in Index.html. I had posted all the pictures on this blog and put the pictures up with them, since the pictures wouldn't show up if I didn't bring it from the Internet. Then I had to get rid of them and instead used the code. Turns out the addresses stayed the same when I put them up on a virtually inaccessible part of my website that only I can access and I linked the pictures. Finally, it's done, and I got $20 for making it! I'm going to continue fixing up my website and by next year, I'll be studying Java. Go visit Chez La Homei! BTW, both links in this post were made by me using HTML.

P.S. School starts tomorrow

Despicable Me Movie Review

2010-08-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

Intro:

Yesterday, 8/9/10(oh wow), I went to see Despicable Me. I've wanted to see for the whole summer, and next Monday is my first day of school, so I had to see it. And I wasn't disappointed.

Overview:

In Despicable Me, the pyramids are stolen, and the greatest villain in the world, Gru, becomes number two to Vector. Now he wants to steal the moon and reclaim his throne, but the Bank of Evil(formerly Lemen Brothers) won't fund him. He has to steal a shrink ray, which is stolen by Vector. Then he tries to steal it back... and fails miserably. But then he sees Vector's weakness: cookie selling orphan girls. He adopts them and he is very negligent. But he learns to like them. Watch the movie to learn how to heist of the century goes.

Other:

I felt a little sad about Gru's unkindness, but eh. Nothing much. I rate it an excellent. Make a Despicable Me Too(a name like Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) and add some emotion and I might just rate it Phenomenal.

Treasure Island- The Musical Review

2010-08-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Intro:

My sister was in a musical based on the book Treasure Island, and I think you all know what that is.

Overview:

As is obvious, this is based around the book Treasure Island. It is a bit simplified, but that happens with every musical. I feel that the actors were a bit nervous as they started, but soon gained more confidence. At first, they were a little quiet, which made it difficult to figure out how the story began, but as it went on I gathered more info. A boy finds a treasure map when a ship captain dies next to them. He gets onto a ship and meets a group of sailors and pirates. After learning of the treasure map, the pirates start a mutiny and kidnap the boy and the map. The pirates go searching for it on an island, but find that a tribe of natives already used it. But after the pirates were captured, they learned that the treasure hadn't been used and the natives had lied. They take back the treasure and the boy decides to become a seaman.

Other:

There were a few casting errors, such as one of the shortest girls was an older sibling. The younger one was a full head taller. The actors gained confidence as time went. While the story seemed a bit vague, there was more to it than at first glance. The songs were a bit quirky though. To see why, think of this: a song about eating apples that goes like this: An apple a day keeps a doctor away. Some of the better actors were Long John Silver, the ship capatain, and my sister. They talked loudly and were very clear. I thought my sister's character, Alana, was a bit like her. Overall, it's a nice, solid good. Everyone in my family loved it.

(Please pay no attention to what's below this, I just want to remember it)

MAGICAL PEANUT BUTTER THREE TREE!

Manoj's Visit

2010-08-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

On 7/29/10, my cousin Manoj visited us. It was years since he last came. He was 16 and was here because he needed to see some colleges. He was really nice to me and my sister. We went to Stanford University,UC Berkeley, San Fransisco, and a few other places. On the 30th, we went to Stanford in the morning(look at my Stanford blog) and watched Harry Potter 5 at night. Sadly, we didn't finish. The next day, we went to San Fransisco. We were there from noon to 6. Then we went to UC Berkeley by my parents' friend. Afterwards, we went home. The next and last day, Manoj was leaving. In the morning, I played Spore Hero with him and he taught me about some of the biology he was studying. In the afternoon, we went to Baskin Robbins and got ice-cream. After that, we went to Barnes and Nobles and my parents bought him a e-book reader called a Nook. Then we went back home, ate, and dropped him off at the airport. I really miss him because he was here for only a few days, but we had the same interests.

The Pun Punk(now alternating with Wisecrack Wizard and Cynical Sorcerer)

2010-08-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

Intro:
I now will be alternating with a new name: Wisecrack Wizard. And I came up with another one right now: Cynical Sorcerer.

8/4/10

(Airline) Soap Operas.

Intro:I was complaining about my parents HORRIBLE soap operas when I made this.

Pun:
I wish they at least used BRAND soap in your soap operas, but NOOOO, they have to use that garage they give on airliners.

Wisecrack Wizarding!

Sue the Writers!

Intro:I made this pun a long time ago because my parents were so good at guessing what would happen next.

Pun:
You should really sue those writers, because they keep stealing your ideas! And we should get someone to EMP our house... it'll kill all our electronics, but at least we won't be bugged by secret cameras.

Wisecrack Wizarding!

-Pun Punk, Wisecrack Wizard, Cynical Sorcerer

Stanford

2010-08-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday 7/29/10, my cousin Manoj came to see us. He is looking at colleges because soon he’ll have to go to one. Today we looked at Stanford University. Stanford University is a really nice place. All the classes are after 9:00 A.M., so it is not like you have to wake up at 7:00 in the morning and go through classes groggily. The libraries are really good. They have a lot of books, but they also have other things. There are libraries for different subjects, one is basically a place for studying, and there is also a media library. They have a DVD collection second to only Netflix (which is pretty ridiculous, seeing as Netflix is a VIDEO-RENTING OPERATION) and every single videogame console and just about every game you’ll ever want. It’s really nice to go there and do “research”. There is also free electronic equipment for students to rent. The campus is utterly enormous, second only to a college in Moscow, if my memory is correct. Biking is the prime mode of transportation. Students also get 21 meals a week, but can optionally cook for themselves. If the eat less than 21 meals, they get credit to spend at the auxiliary eateries. Overall, it is really nice.

My Dad’s Birthday

2010-08-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

This year, my dad turned 41. I wanted to do something different than normal, and so I took a leaf out of my sister’s book and made food. I made smoothies and stuffed dates. My first smoothie was absolutely horrible. It was strawberry milk with grape juice smoothefied. It was tasteless. Next, I mixed ice-cream with milk and strawberry syrup to smoothefy. It was SO much better. Then I made stuffed dates with cashews and grapes. I shaped them as a 41 and made a frame of 6 grape kebabs. It was a really
messy day, but the end result was good.

The Pun Punk-Episode 1

2010-07-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-16T17:41:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

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.

Pomeroy, 6th Grade, and Graduation

2010-06-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

This year, I was in 6th grade, my last year at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School. In 6th grade, I had a lot of fun. We went on great field trips, worked on great projects, and just had a lot of fun.

On Thursday, June 10, 2010, we had our graduation. It was the last day of school and my last day at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School. We had practiced three times for the ceremony a few days before it happened.

Upon starting the ceremony, we went to our seats with our partners. Then we listened to a speech by our principal, Mrs. Berman. It was also her last year at Pomeroy. Then we listened to our classmates make speeches. And then we started getting out graduation certificates. I was one of the first people to get the certificate. After giving everyone their certificates, Mrs. Berman made a second speech. And then we went and ate refreshments. It was an AWESOME day that ended an AWESOME year.

Back in class, we watched some episodes of the old 1930's cartoon, The 3 Stooges. It was EPICALLY funny. We went outside and played for a while after that. Finally, we came back in, stacked up desks and chairs, got our report cards, and left at 12 o'clock A.M. At home my parents gave me a GRAD(uation) balloon and we ate a small celebratory cake and some pasta.

I've been going to Pomeroy all my life. Actually, the majority of my school life was spent there. 7 out of the 13 years(kindergarten being the first) were spent at Pomeroy! Every year, I enjoyed myself immensely. In kindergarten, I learned to socialize and how to use motor skills. In first grade, I learned how work independently on projects. In second grade, I learned relatively advanced reading and math. In third grade, I did a LOT of reading that was truly advanced, such as the first six Harry Potter books. In fourth grade, I learned science, history, math, reading, and other subjects. In fifth grade, I learned art, drug awareness, and very advanced math. And finally, this year, In sixth grade, I learned art, creativity, advanced math, language arts, and poetry. I shall sorely miss my great years in Pomeroy.

The Exhaustion Song

2010-06-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

This one is from couple of weeks ago:

This is a parody of a Doctor Seuss poem (it had something to do with brains in your head and feet in your shoes). I wrote it because I was EXHAUSTED after school on 6/4/10. I made it when I told a friend I had blisters on my hands, I’ve got bruises on my knees. It sounded poetic, so I made this poem:

I’ve got blisters on my hands
I’ve got bruises on my knees
I’m trying to be poetic
But I’ll ruin it with a sneeze

LAWL! Funny!

Open House and my Term Project

2010-06-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post a while ago, but posting now as you can see!

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This week, on May 19, 2010, I presented my Term Project. Every year, students have to study something that interests them and make a presentation about it. I made a video and a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. My Term Project was on neurosurgery, a very difficult research topic. I went to the library one day and took out some books that could help me research. Then I started typing my presentation with the books and some help from the Internet. Finally, when I finished typing, I started practicing my presentation. When I presented it, my classmates said it was well researched. Here is a link to the small video I made from pictures from the Internet.

The next day, May 20, 2010, we had Open House. Open House is a HUGE event. Every year, in the days leading up to Open House, teachers clean up their rooms and get all sorts of stuff to show parents. There is also a barbeque (I didn’t attend because I’m vegetarian, and there was no veggie stuff), an ice-cream social, a book fair, an art fair, and classroom visitation.

First, we left at about 6:00 P.M. At 6:10 P.M., we arrived. The first thing I did was getting our pre-ordered ice-cream social tickets. Before I had ice cream, though, I went to the art fair to find the picture I drew for it. It wasn’t there. I had some ice cream.

Then we went to the book fair. This year, my sister bought Harry Potter 6 (we lost our last copy) and a Judy Moody book. I bought a book called N.E.R.D.S. and a book on paper airplanes. Then I visited my classroom and presented my Term Project again there. No one listened! I then went with some friends and we talked and raced. It was a lot of fun. Finally, I went and saw my 4th grade teacher, Mrs.Downey, just before Open House ended. After I visited her, we left.

This is my last year at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School. I really think I put my last Open House to good use.

My Grandmother

2010-06-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

This year, my grandmother came to visit us from India. She had also been here in September of 2009. We really enjoyed her company.

Once, a two days before she left, on May 29, we went cherry picking with her. First, we went to the Livermore temple after getting some food for a picnic we were going to have with our cousins. We met our cousins once we got to the cherry farm and started picking and eating cherries.

Funnily enough, it was the black cherries that tasted best, contrary to the generic red cherry. During the picnic part of our trip, we ate angel food cake, Hawaiian buns, and drank CapriSun Roaring Waters juice. I also *cough, cough* tried to skip stones. If you didn’t pick up the hints, I failed miserably.

My grandmother also made great food. Every day, she made something new and exciting. She showed me “allu muttar” and I REALLY liked it.

My grandmother left on June 1, 2010. On the day before, I made her a picture showing our whole family together. We wished her a happy journey before we left for school and she left for the airport.

I really miss my grandmother and hopes she comes back soon. Luckily, soon, my other grandparents are coming. I can’t wait!

Merryhill: Shadow Day

2010-04-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

Today, April 21, 2010, I went to a shadow day at Merryhill Middle School. I followed around a sixth grader at Merryhill for a day! The first thing I did after arriving was meeting the principal, Mrs. Quinn. She told me that I was going to follow a sixth grader named Henry.

First, there was an assembly for the quarterly Honor Roll. There were Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels. After that, I followed Henry outside to the Music Room. I watched the students practice their yearly dance. Every grade has a different one. Halfway through, a person came and told us he had to set up something where they were practicing. It turns out that it was a giant bouncy slide. The students had to move somewhere else. Then, the Mega-iHome (at least I think of it like that) ran out of charge, so they had to listen to the music teacher’s iPhone. Next, we had math, also known as Home Room. The students were studying about regular polygons, a subject my class had finished studying a few weeks ago. I shared some of my knowledge and fully completed a worksheet, which was not actually due the same day.

Next, we had lunch. I thought the kids were just fooling around in class for a while before I learned they were actually eating lunch. It was very early, at only 11:00 am or so. Then, we had the official lunch. I had already finished and asked Henry some questions about the schedule. Today, we were going to have history, language arts, science, and P.E. So anyway, after lunch, we went to history. I basically didn’t do anything because they were working on projects and had a quiz on a book I’d never read. Then they read a handout I didn’t have. I thought the history teacher was very funny.

In language arts, I was given the book the sixth graders were reading, Animal Farm. It was an allegory about communism. I voiced some of the opinions I had about the small amount of the book that I read. Then, the teacher read us a story about a future where everyone was equal. It was HORRIBLE! All the people with ANY skill at all were badly handicapped by the Handicapper General. At the end, because two people wouldn’t be handicapped, they were killed. Afterwards, we had a short ten-minute break.

At science, we learned about ocean ecology. We also did a project about ocean food chain in which we made a food chain with note cards. Finally, we were supposed to have P.E., but since it was raining, we just stayed inside and had a break for and hour or so. After about half of the time, we had to move from the science lab to the cafeteria because there was a meeting in the science lab. Anyway, during the P.E. time, Henry and me became good friends. At 3:40, we were dismissed. I was picked up at 4:05.

All in all, I really liked the shadow day, and since I liked it so much, Mrs. Quinn offered to let me come again. I will be going for a half day tommorow.

A New School

2010-03-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

Next year, I’m going to a new school for 7^th grade: Merryhill school! It is a private school. My parents decided to send me to Merryhill instead of Thomas Russell Junior High, which we had planned to go to. I’m going to Merryhill to prepare for high school and also to learn more.

A few days ago, my parents told me a little bit about Merryhill. In the summer, they send some test prep books where you do a few pages a day. This is so that students don’t forget what they learned. However, since I’m going to be a new student at Merryhill, my parents are going to get a lot more test prep so that I can get up to speed with the other students. I was FURIOUS when my parents told me this! I got really angry and so did my parents. However, I realized my mistake after 1 hour. They also showed me the schedule. One thing that stood out was lunch: 10:35-11:00! Next year, they will change it to 11:00-11:30. I still think that’s early.

At the end of the day, we will learn something like Spanish or music. The day ends at 4:00 after some questions about the days work. Some time in April, I am going to shadow a Merryhill student to learn about the school. All in all, I think that even though Merryhill is a strict school, I think it will be a great learning experience to go there.

The Poetry Slam

2010-02-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

On February 3, 2010, I went to my first poetry slam. My dad told me that the Milpitas library was having a poetry contest. When I got there, though, I learned that it was a HIGH SCHOOL VALENTINE’S DAY poetry slam. Luckily, I wasn’t the only non-high-schooler. Before the poetry slam, I grabbed a chocolate cookie and a Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Candy Heart to eat.

When the slam started, my recitation was the second-to-last recitation. After 2 recitations, I grabbed a few tostitos and some salsa to eat. Some of the poems, like one about procrastinating, were really good. Others were... “ish*”... but the judges loved them.

I had chosen this poem to recite:

The Ocean is Formed by Many Rivers

Sometimes you learn from a person
That is one important way
Sometimes someone needs to help
Guide you on the learning highway

Sometimes you need written records
Something made by someone learned
When you need to learn that way
Do it, or you'll be burned!

Sometimes you learn through watching
A person doing something
That is also an important
And easy way of learning

Sometimes you need knowledge
And then you need to see
When done right
It is a cup o' tea

Sometimes company helps you
Being surrounded by those who are good
If you know great people
Use this way! You should! You should!

Do these all
Every way to learn
If you study hard
All knowledge, you shall earn

And so you can see
Many rivers create
A vast ocean
Whose thirst no amount of knowledge can sate

By: Abhijit Ramaprasad
(Translated from a 13th century Kannada poem from Someshwara Shataka)

I got a 27.3 out of 30 for my score. After the last poem, we had a brief intermission in which I ate a few snacks. And then the awards were given. I won the participation prize: COCONUT M&M’S[COCONUT M&M’S(!!!!)], a Fool’s Gold CD, and a certificate. One good thing was that the toughest judge, the judge who gave the director of the Poetry Slam the lowest score of all the judges, complimented my poem! He said,"Good Job".

*: The 1-4 place poems were “ish” but they won everything in the participation prize AND cash. I’m pretty sure I came in 5th. After the slam, my sister and mom went home. Me and my dad got some books before leaving. The slam was pretty cool.

Hi Bob

2010-01-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

This is a poem I wrote during a 15-minute free write time a few days ago. My inspiration came from when I was just thinking,” Hi Bob”. I made rhymes and then I went along to completely unrelated stuff using them. Here is the poem:

Hi Bob
You robbed
Mr. Joe
Who went on a row
boat
Next to a slow
boat
to China
Where he stole from
Ms. Tyna
Who hated
Ms. Lina
And stole all her stuff
And got a huge fine-a
While sitting next to Dina
Who robbed Bob
Who hates Steve Jobs
And sells what he robs
From his gobs
Of money
And Honey
Made by bees
In the trees
Swaying in the breeze
Until the wind stops
And they freeze
Until they hear Bob sneeze
And they get back to work
Inside murk
And marshlands
Of the harsh lands
Called Ireland
Where Bambi on steroids kicks
A tick named Mr. Hick
Who frolicked with a dust mite who became huge
And stopped all the trouble
By eating
Bob

Avatar

2010-01-07T20:51:00.000-08:00

Intro

On December 31, 2009, I watched the hit movie Avatar. This is a review of the movie.

Story

Crippled ex-marine Jake Sully is taken to Pandora for a special mission to collect $20,000,000 rocks called unobtanium to be sold on Earth. However, there is a problem. Indigenous people known as the Na’Vi have their village right over the largest deposit of unobtanium on Pandora. Jake is paired with a scientist named Norm. Because of this, a professor named Grace created the Avatars. She mixed human and Na’Vi DNA to create them. Some humans would remotely control the Avatars, which looked like the Na’Vi. The Avatars were supposed to gain the trust of the Na’Vi and get them to move. However, Jake gets lost in the Pandoran jungle on his first mission. A Na’Vi woman named Eteeri saves Jake’s life when he is attacked by a pack of wild dogs/hyenas/wolf things. She is about to kill him when a group of seeds from the Na’Vi’s sacred tree cluster around him. Eteeri then takes Jake to the Hometree village of the Omethicaya Na’Vi. Jake learns from the Na’Vi, but he is telling everything he learns to his boss. At one point, after learning about the Na’Vi and becoming one of them, Jake falls in love with Eteeri. However, on the next day, bulldozers come to destroy Hometree. However, when Jake disables and destroys the outer steering cameras in a fit of rage, a group of bombers, led by the insane, trigger-happy head of security, goes to destroy Hometree with missiles. Hometree is destroyed and Jake is removed from the tribe when the Omethicaya learn that he knew the gun ships were coming. Then the head of security takes Grace, Jake, and Norm to the main section of the base and imprisons them. However, one of their friends, a gunship pilot, saves them. But during their escape by gunship, the head of security shoots Grace and gives her serious injuries. They leave with the link center used to control the Avatars. An ensuing war (battle would not be able to describe it fully) causes many things to happen, and I won’t spoil the surprises, so see the rest of the movie yourself.

Pros

1.Good special effects. It didn’t look like some CGI image. It looked like an actual 10-foot tall person.

2.Good, understandable storyline.

3.It just looks good.

Cons

1.Lots of swearing.

Rating:

10 out of 10

Chez La Homé

2010-01-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

Location:
Ramaprasad Home, Milpitas, CA, U.S.A.

Staff:
Waiter: Dad
Head Chef: Mom

Menu:*

Appetizers:

Idli Sambar---FREE

Main Meals:

Anna Sambar---FREE
Paper Dosa---FREE

Deserts:

Sugaar a la Coookie---FREE
Hallbai---FREE
Gulab Jamun---FREE

Drinks:

Water---FREE
Hi-C---FREE

Food:

A delicious vegetarian menu filled with nutritious and tasteful foods. The deserts are also simply splendid and sweet.

Service:

The waiter came in seconds after being called. He also picked up garbaggio quickly and washed plates nicely. The chef made food very quickly but management gave the food only when I was ready to eat.

Ambiance:

Good lighting, starry sky filled windows. Not noisy. Peaceful.

Rating**: 5

*As of January 1st, 2010. Daily Different Menus*** full of South Indian cuisine are there for each different meal.

**Out of 5

***Daily Different Menus include Chana Bathura, Pau Bhaji, Masala Dosa, Chomai, and etc. etc.

The Ocean is Formed by Many Rivers

2009-12-31T17:22:00.000-08:00

(Translated from the following Kannada poem from Someshwara Shataka - A work from 13th century - as explained to me in simple words by my dad)

ಕೆಲವಂ ಬಲ್ಲವರಿಂದ ಕಲ್ತು ಕೆಲವಂ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಂಗಳಂ ಕೇಳುತಂ |
ಕೆಲವಂ ಮಾಳ್ಪವರಿಂದ ಕಂಡು ಕೆಲವಂ ಸುಜ್ಞಾನದಿಂ ನೋಡುತಂ ||
ಕೆಲವಂ ಸಜ್ಜನಸಂಗದಿಂದಲರಿಯಲ್ ಸರ್ವಜ್ಞನಪ್ಪಂ ನರಂ |
ಪಲವುಂ ಪಳ್ಳ ಸಮುದ್ರವೈ ಹರಹರಾ ಶ್ರೀ ಚೆನ್ನಸೋಮೇಶ್ವರಾ ||

Snow-mobiling

2009-12-28T19:46:00.000-08:00

On December 25, 2009, my family and I visited Lake Tahoe. But that is not what this is about. Anyway, at Lake Tahoe, on the 26th, we went snow-mobiling. My parents filled out driving forms while my sister and I grabbed safety gear. We had large helmets and sunglasses that see in yellow. The gloves were hard to control. The jackets were cozy. But I had no trouble with any of those things. I had trouble with the BOOTS! At first, when I stepped out on the snow, I thought that the snow from the ground was so cold that it went through my boots. But when my mom got her gear, I made a startling revelation... ALL THE BOOTS WERE FILLED WITH WATER!!! And in this cold, water becomes ice. So we had to live with that. We bought some hand warmers too. Sadly, I didn’t feel their full effect through my gloves. Anyway, when instructions were given, I listened carefully to every word. My dad drove with me. It was quite dangerous, with sheer drops on one side. At one point, my dad accidentally crashed into a small snow hill a little bit ahead of another crashee (is that a word?). I saved us by screaming,” THE REVERSE BUTTON, THE REVERSE BUTTON!” Someone would have come backed anyway, but hey, I did it, didn’t I. Anyway, when we stopped the halfway point, I was almost knee deep in snow. My mom recommended that we put our heat packs in our boots. I guess I was too numb to feel anything (and what a PAIN, my toe hurt so much), but it heated up my mom’s entire leg. By the time we hopped on our snowmobiles, I was almost crying from cold. I just envisioned warmth, like my mom recommended, and my toes didn’t break off because of frostbite. I got rid of my equipment when we were finished, and fortunately, I survived until we reached the heated car. I loved the experience and all, but let me make a point of the cold of Lake Tahoe, CA:

I AM A CALIFORNIAN. AND IN CALIFORNIA, WE CALL THIS SUPER-ULTRA-MEGA-UBER-HORRID COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Swathi’s Birthday Party

2009-12-27T17:17:00.001-08:00

December 7 was my little sister, Swathi’s, birthday. Her celebration was on the 20th, though. I was the party’s official videographer (A.K.A. The guy with 2 cameras). My motto was: (drearily) Smile. Say cheese. Also, I got paid 25 bucks! Anyway, as people came, they heard my motto: Smile. Say cheese. The adults were discussing their recent social activities. My video camera caught everything... in a blurry, spinning, unprofessional way.

The party kicked off with my mom teaching the visitors how to make cookie bouquets... with real live cookies (advertisement: Cookie Bouqets: Tasty tidbits that look like flowers)! Sadly, the flowers burned.

While those bouquets were slowly burning, the girls went and made dolls. 1 camera disappeared (Dad...) and the other one ran out of power, so my job was toasted and roasted.

Next up: group skits. My group had my 2 friends, Sanjana and ditto (I mean, literally, Sanjana and Sanjana). We were supposed to pretend to be making a teacher luncheon. I... err... improvised a bit. Our dialouge:

Student 1: Come on, we’ve got to finish this picnic
Student 2: Yes, yes, yes
Mr. Idontgotaname: (comes out) Get into History class!!!!!!
Students 1&2: Yes, yes, yes
(Mr. Idontgotaname leaves)
Student 1: Hurry, hurry, hurry
(2 seconds later)
Mr. Idontgotaname: Get into History class!!!!!!
Students 1&2: Yes, yes, yes
(Mr. Idontgotaname leaves)
(2 seconds later)
Mr. Idontgotaname: Get into History class!!!!!!
Students 1&2: TADA! Your very own luncheon!
Mr. Idontgotaname: Get into History class!!!!!!
Student 2: You’re supposed enjoy this.
Mr. Idontgotaname: (Softly) Yes, I’ll enjoy this once...(YELL) YOU GET INTO HISTORY CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Idontgotaname (geddit): Abhi Ramaprasad
Student 1:Sanjana
Student 2:Other Sanjana

It was very humorous. I changed things a bit onscreen... I couldn’t stop laughing! And, as my mom always says I write: We ate. They left. We slept.

P.S. I still got paid!
P.S.S. Keep on going to see Swathi’s birthday poem

9

Swathi, you’re ‘Nine’
You should feel better than fine
It’s your time to shine

I wish you a great birthday
On a special Monday
It’s going to be a super fun day

You are always so cute
Your cheeks look like they’re filled with fruit
And you are chubby, to boot

You always talk to me
‘Sooper’ nice, ye be
And that is something anyone can see

You always are mega smart
As sharp as a dart
You always do your part

December 7th is a special time
You should feel sublime
I really can’t find another rhyme

:-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
HAVE A GREAT DAY!!
Love,
Abhi
(and Mr. Smiley :-))

Monday, Dec. 7th, 2009

Happy Birthday Ma...Dec 10th , 09

2009-12-27T17:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Ma
Ta-da...
You're a great mom
Always really calm
You always do everything
Before we can even say 'Ding'
You're full of good advice
And constantly really nice
Ultra Smart, Super Cool
Mega Awesome Ma
Happy Birthday Ha-Ha

My Sister's Silly Picture

2009-11-23T11:43:00.001-08:00

On November 15, 2009, my mom, my sister Swathi, and I were looking through a picture album from when I was in pre-school. We found a really funny picture of my sister from when she was 1 year and 2 months old.

Here’s a poem describing the picture.

Less than 2 feet tall
She’s so short, you’d think someone couldn’t be so small
With a big pack
That covers her entire back
A water bottle in her hand
Which looked like a fat white band
As if she was in a cartoon
About the good ol’ Looney Tunes
Really chubby, really cute
With a huge suit
That.......
Makes her look fat!

I thought it was hilarious. I made up a tune for the poem, and sang it. Click the play button to listen.

Sick Day

2009-11-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

Today, November 13, 2009, I skipped school because of sickness for the first time in 2 years. Last year, I didn’t have a single sick day. Two days back, I got a cough. I had eaten some popcorn. By 3:30 P.M. after school yesterday, it had developed into a fever. I had a headache, my sinuses were clogged, and I had a horrible cough. I had to skip school because I felt even worse this morning. I had wanted to go because we were starting a report, but I couldn’t. By noon I felt better. But halfway through the afternoon, I got a fever again and I had to skip my laya class. However, right now, at 7:46 P.M. on November 13, 2009, I think I’ve made an improvement. I think it was good to skip school today because I could have made others sick and I might not have improved so much, but I still wish I hadn’t been sick at all. I really hated getting sick, but I got a lot of reading done and I finished the book The House of the Scorpion, which I had for less than 2 days. I really, really, really hate the feeling that I’m missing things because of some coughs. But I’m happy I’ve recovered.

My Science Camp Experience

2009-10-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Science Camp - Day 1
October 19, 2009

Today, we left to Science camp. All the 6th graders in our school came late at 8:45 am to school. We packed all out stuff in a luggage truck. At 9:00 am or 9:15 a.m. we left for the science camp. We arrived at the Semperviren's Outdoor School located at Boulder Creek around11:10 a.m. This is where we were to spend the next five days.

I ate a lunch of 2 potato sandwiches. Then we were put in our cabins. I was in the Garter Snakes cabin. Then we went on a hiking tour. We saw banana slugs, newts, and salamanders. Then we had recreation time. I sat and relaxed in my cabin.

It is 5:20 p.m. right now. We are going on a night hike and have a campfire tonight. Dinner is in 10 minutes.
Science Camp - Day 2
October 20, 2009

Yesterday's night hike was kind of scary. We got separated from the trail twice.Today morning. had pancakes for breakfast. Then our group went to Natural Bridges State Park. We went on the Monarch Trail and through a wetland. We then climbed a rock wall and waded though the water to get to the beach.

We had a lunch of apples, pretzels and custom sandwiches. We then played 'Crab Tag' on the beach. Then we created our own animals in sand. Mine was called the Titan Dragon, formally known as "Draconius Aquarius Ursus". It could spit poison, fly, swim, walk, camouflage itself, eat anything, live in Carribean coral reefs, and kill many things in many, many, ways. We went into water for five minutes. Then we went back to camp. At teacher time, I got a letter from my sister and mom. I was really happy to get the letters.

For dinner we made delicious burritos. We are going to the "Town Hall Meeting" now. It is now 7:12 p.m.

Science Camp - Day 3
October 21, 2009

Yesterday at the 'Town Hall Meeting', I played the role of a Semperviren teacher at camp. I helped make an important decision about a marsh. Today morning, at breakfast
I ate a bunch of potatoes with ketchup. Today my group went to a hike that promoted co-operation and solitude with "Turtle Tag' and the 'Solo Hike', respectively. Then we got back to camp from the forest. The only change in today's lunch was that, instead of pretzels, we had gold fish crackers.

Then we headed off to the garden at the camp. I did some weeding and chopped up some tomato plants. At the chicken coop, I overcame my fear of chickens, and caught the fastest one, Roadrunner. And at the goat pen, I played with Willa and Tracy, the goats. Frankly, I liked Willa more. I walked (well..., more like ran!) her down the camp's hill and I fed her a lot of acorns. We then had some cookies to eat.

It is recreation time right now. Tonight we're having Pizza for dinner and the 'Barnyard Boogie'. It is 3:50 pm now.
Science Camp - Day 4
October 22, 2009

Yesterday's 'Barnyard Boogie' was okay. However I had lost my voice so when we limboed, danced the polka, and sang, I did not enjoy it much. Also, I got a letter from my dad and grandmother. I also sent a reply letter to them.

Today I went to Big Basin State Park. To tell the truth, it was kind of boring. I also joined the 'Hardcore
Club' by eating every part of an apple. We also met Marble, the corn snake. I really liked her. I also played with the chickens during recreation time. Tonight is 'Skit Night'; I wrote our cabin's skit. It was about the life cycle of a Garter snake.

It went like this:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Life Cycle of a Garter Snake

(5 snakes appear on stage.)

Narrator: This is a small family of Garter Snakes. Normally, they live in families of 16. This looks like a peaceful day in the forest... or is it....

Owl comes on screen and eats 3 Garter Snakes. 2 Garter Snakes hide. Garter Snakes find and eat baby Bullfrog, Red-Legged Frog, California Newt, and Pacific Tree Frog.

Narrator: As you see, Garter Snakes eat baby Bullfrogs, Red-Legged Frogs, California Newts, and Pacific Tree Frogs.

(Summer comes. Garter Snakes sleep.)

Narrator: In summer, Garter Snakes estivate, or enter dormant periods.

(Winter comes. Garter Snakes sleep.)

Narrator: They also hibernate in winter.

Narrator: The 2 Garter Snakes have grown old. They are having a peaceful day in the forest. But something’s coming to finish what it started....

( Owl comes. Owl fights and eats both Garter Snakes.)

THE END

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Credits:

Nathan Graham: California Newt

Raymond Doug: Baby Bullfrog/ Pacific Tree Frog

Donnovan : Red-Legged Frog

Rayshan Rayner/John Mappala/Ryan Bunyard: Snakes eaten in the beginning

Tyler / Jacob Hernandez: Main Garter Snakes

Abhijit Ramaprasad (Me): Writer/Narrator/Owl

Everyone at camp thought it was good!

Sadly, tomorrow we leave.

Science Camp Day 5 - Going home

October 23, 2009

Today is the last day at the Science Camp. We woke up at 6:35 am and packed up all our luggage. We had a breakfast at 7:30 a.m. It was cereal and milk. We had only 4 oz. of food waste! Then we headed off to our cabins to clean it up. BTW, on Thursday, we won the Golden Dustpan Award!

After cleaning up, we went on a hike and read the story "The Table Where Rich People Sit". Then we signed our cards for our counselors. At the graduation ceremony, we talked about memories, sang songs, and ate a lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches. Then we went to the bus for the trip to go back home.

Home:

October 24, 2009

Now, don't het me wrong. I loved the Science Camp and wanted to stay. But it was comforting to sleep in my own bed last night. But no matter what, the memories I sealed in the camp's memory stick (an actual stick), will always be with me.

My 11th Birthday

2009-09-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, September 12, 2009, I turned 11.

I had been waiting for a week. My parents told me a few of the things that would happen.

Any way, first of, I got awesome gifts. I got the 5 books I wanted, which were: The Search for Truth, The Sea of Monsters, The Titans Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. I also got the new WII Sports Resort. I also got a cell phone. It is a LG Neon.

My friend, Stephen, came at 10:00 A.M. My other friend, Ankith, came at 10:30. We played on the computer for some time. At 11:00, my other friend, Sanjana, came. We started talking. Later, a few other friends came. We ate some cake, which was delicious. Then we played a few games with lemons like the Lemon and Spoon Race and Lemon Basketball. Then we ate some pizza. Then we created our own ice cream. We got delicious Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream, strawberry syrup, cashew powder, and M&Ms. It was delicious. Afterwards, we watched the movie Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

In the evening, I had a birthday feast with my cousins, aunt, uncle, and family. After eating, I played WII Sports Resorts. I skydived from a plane, flew into a volcano, and fought hordes of swordsman.

Anyway, I had an awesome birthday. I hope my next birthday is just as good. I’ve been using my phone every day and I’ve been really happy.

My Mount Madonna Adventure

2009-09-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

On September 7, 2009, my sister, mother, my grandmother, two cousins, my uncle, my aunt, and I went to the Mount Madonna Center. It is a kind of Indian resort/retreat. It has a temple, a picnic area, cabins, a yoga area, a cafe, and more! It was really new, too.

We left our house at 10:00 A.M. I don’t know when we arrived. I was kind of skeptical about mountains since we went up and down a horrible one called Mt. Hamilton sometime ago. We got mountain sickness, headaches, hunger pains, and more there. I just crossed my fingers and hoped Mt. Madonna was nothing like that. And it wasn’t. It was covered in beautiful greenery. It was much safer there, too. The turns were gentle as well. I knew right then that it was going to be a great day.

The first thing we did was go to the temple. It was new, clean, warm, and shady. It had huge shade-like thing at the top. The floor was a mixture of carpets, tiles, and rugs. They were all soft and warm. The mixture of all the different colors of the rugs and carpets was incredible! There were also little statues everywhere. I really liked it.

Stop # 2: The Anjaneya Cafe. It was a little, comfortable place. It was also near

some private picnic tables.

Moving on. The next place we went to was the picnic area. However, most of the tables were reservations only. However, I found two tables with no reservation required. I ate some chitraanna, madurvade, and potato chips and drank some pink lemonade. It was delicious.

Next, we had a photo spree at the picnic table. We took a picture of everyone climbing on tree stumps and moss and a lot of other things.

Finally, my father, sister, cousins, uncle, and me went on a 1 mile hike. We saw redwood trees and huge, fallen, moss covered logs and one of the less nice aspects of the hike: HORSE DUNG! It echoed all around and I made a few noises exploiting the echoes.

Finally, at 2:00 P.M. we went home. We took one of our cousins with us and my sister played with her on the way back.

We returned home, tired but happy, at 3:30 P.M.

Mt. Madonna was an AWESOME place. My family has even decided to stay there for a day in spring. Anyhow, I LOVED our trip picnic at Mt. Madonna. It was GREAT. I hope we go there more times.

Complete works of Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle - A report

2009-09-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

For my book report, I read Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The publisher is Bantam Classics. It doesn’t seem to have a copyright date, or at least inside of the book, probably because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who died over a century ago, never copyrighted the stories. It has 1,059 pages.

Sherlock Holmes is the main character of all the stories. He is very tall and has very keen powers of deduction and observation. It can even seem as if he can read minds because he can observe the expressions of a person. He uses these powers to solve various mysteries that would never been solved without his help. He actions show how he is felling at the time, though only his friends would be able to understand them. One example is that when a case is going badly, he is always running around, smokes incessantly, eats at strange hours, and does many other strange things. Holmes also has a brother who is 7 years older and named Mycroft who has even keener powers of observation and deduction.

The setting is between the late 1880s to the early 1900s in London, England.

This book has many different stories about Sherlock Holmes. It is divided into 4 parts. It starts with the story A Study in Scarlet, where Dr. Watson is introduced and meets Sherlock Holmes. They solve their first mystery together. It is a very strange mystery, because a rich man was killed, but nothing was stolen. The word RACHE was written above the body in blood. However, there was no injury on the body. A Sherlock Holmes point out that rache is German for revenge. However, Holmes solves the mystery. The next story is The Sign of Four. When this mystery is solved, Dr. Watson gets engaged to Holmes’ client.

The next division of the book is The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Most of the stories in this division are mysteries that Holmes’ solved before he met Dr. Watson. Some of the mysteries are such as The Yellow Face and The “Gloria Scott”. The last story in this division is The Final Problem. In this one, Holmes’ appears to die, but takes the biggest crime lord in London, Professor Moriarty.

In The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson discovers that Holmes didn’t die, but was hiding from the late Professor Moriarty’s crime empire, which saw him hide after killing Moriarty. By the end of the first story in this division, Sherlock Holmes is safe from the gang because he captures the top member of the leftover group.

The last story in Volume 1 is The Adventure of the Second Stain, where Holmes averts an international crisis.

This book is like Agatha Christie’s books because both series are about strange mysteries and Christie’s characters Poirot and Miss Marple are like Holmes.
*Read page 781

I recommend this book highly to anyone who likes mysteries. On a scale of 1-5, I rate it a 6.

Return to California...

2009-09-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

On August 11, 2009, at 2:00 (India) in the morning, my sister, grandmother, and I were in Banglore International Airport preparing to go back to California. We had arrived in India a month ago on July 5, 2009. We had a lot of fun in India, but now we had to go.

We were flying on Dragonair Airlines. Before we left, we had some issues with luggage weight. I was already tired when we got into the plane. The flight was delayed because of paperwork. I decided to sleep because it was taking so long. I slept for about 2 hours. I didn’t do much during the flight besides sleeping and having a light snack.

When we got to Hong Kong, it was lunchtime. My sister and I ate our brunch and we got ready to go to California. I also did a short Sandhyavandanam. After our luggage was searched, some complications were aroused that almost made us miss our flight. I’m not going to go into detail of the events because I don’t think any of us would want to be reminded of those grueling and terrifying 45 minutes. Luckily, we got to the plane in time.

This time we were flying on Cathay Pacific Airlines. Since I had already gotten a lot of sleep, I wasn’t tired at all. Anyway, for once, the plane left without delay. I watched some TV and a few movies during the 12-hour trip. My sister and I ate some pasta for our Lunner (like brunch, except a mix of lunch and dinner instead of breakfast and lunch). We also drank a lot of apple juice.

When we got to San Francisco International Airport, we were really happy because we would be able to see our parents again, who had left India 2 weeks earlier. It didn’t take long to go through customs because my sister and I are U.S. permanent residents and citizens. We picked up all our suitcases, and right when we went out, our parents came.
They told us they had just come. It was good to see them again. We went home, I did my Madhyanka, we ate lunch, our parents returned to work, and me, my grandmother, and my sister relaxed for the afternoon.

Today is August 17, 2009. We have been in California for 6 days. I have no jetlag, aside for the fact that I didn’t get a second of sleep on the first night back. I already miss India, but I’m having fun here. On the 20th my 4th cousin (my cousin’s, cousin’s, cousin’s, cousin) Vignesh is coming to visit from Dallas. I only remember him from when we visited his house last year. School is starting on the 24th.

I had a really great visit to India.

My Munji experience

2009-08-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

(Some posts are out of order due to internet unavailability from time to time)

At a certain age, boys of some Hindu cultures have a 2 day celebration called the munji (upanayana or sacred – thread ceremony). Different families have it at different times. It is a number of rituals to a help a boy attain spiritual enlightenment. A special mantra is taught as well, called the Gayathri Manthram. They also give the boy a Yajnopavitam (or sacred thread) to symbolize his right of passage. This year, I had my munji.

The first day of my munji was July, 12, 2009. I woke up at 4:00 A.M. I dressed up in panche early in the morning. We went to the temple where I would have my munji at around 7:00 A.M. I recited a lot of mantras. They were all prayers to the gods to give me good fortune. My parents and the priests at the temple also did many things. We had many homas, which are fires used to pray to the Gods. We also put things like fruits and clothes into the homas to give a fragrant smell. My eyes burnt because of the smoke though. We had a break sometime in the afternoon. After that, we had a music concert (flute) & Mahabharata epic singing.

On the second day of my munji, July, 13, 2009, we did some of the same things as we did yesterday, such as making homas. That day, I was given the Gayathri Upadesha by my dad & the sacred thread was put around my body. I memorized some of the mantras I would need to know. I got some money, Wee game, a few board games, a cool watch, and a few books as gifts

Today, July, 14, 2009, was the first day after my munji. I did my sandyavandana, a bunch of rituals I have to do every day, my madhanka, which is like a sandhyavandana, and today evening, I’m doing the rituals again. The mantras I memorized went like this:

Keshavaynama
Narayananamaha
Madhanayanama
Govindayanamaha
Vishnavadanamaha
Madhavayanamaha
Trivikramenameha
Vamanyanamaha
Sridharayanamaha
Rishikeshayanamaha
Padmanabyanamaha
Dhamodarainamaha

My munji was complicated, but rewarding. Looking forward to practicing it all.

My Experience at Cubbon Park

2009-08-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

On July 29, 2009, my sister, grandfather, and I went to a place called Cubbon Park. My sister was really excited and said there were motor boats and roller coasters, but said I was a baby just because I don’t like speed and heights (And I’m older than her by 2 years!). My first thought at arriving at the park was that this was either a city in a metropolis or it was a township in a city! The park was at least 10 acres long and wide! The trees were huge and the place had a playground, a train, at least 3 ice cream parlors, a planetarium, an aquarium, and I think there was even a Museum of Industry, among other things!

We went on the 3:30 train ride around the first area of the park. We ate snacks along the way. My grandfather and I thought it was fun, but my sister said it was stupid. Then my grandfather bought us a small cup of vanilla ice cream, which we ate. Then my sister started complaining because there were no roller coasters and things like that and there were only swings, slides and monkey bars. Honestly, I don’t know why she expected what she expected. Anyway, my sister said it was boring.

We went to the aquarium next. We saw lots of fish, small sharks, albino goldfish (albino!) giant gouramis (which are quite ugly), and even a tank full of small, deadly tiger sharks! I thought it was interesting.

Next, we went to the planetarium. We heard there was going to be a celestial fireworks show at 4:30 PM. While we waited, we checked what our weight, in kilograms, would be on different planets. My sister told my mom when we got home that I weighed 109 kilograms and that she weighed only 2.2. But she said what my weight would be on JUPITER (which has a lot of gravity) as if it were mine on EARTH, an, she gave what her weight would be on PLUTO (which has very little gravity) in the same way! Anyway, at 4:30, we went to the fireworks display. It was actually an IMAX show about outer space. However, it was very realistic. We saw supernovas, black holes (simulated, because in real life, it is impossible to see a black hole because not even light can escape a black hole because of its immense gravitational power, and light is needed to see things), and what effects an asteroid’s impact would have on earth (which is bad, bad, bad!). We thought it was really cool. I know my sister even thought that. But she still complained.

I thought my experience there was really fun. We will go again to the other parts of Cubbon Park soon. Until then, stay tuned!

My Visit to Halebidu Temple

2009-08-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

On August 3, 2009, my sister & I went to the Halebidu temple from Hassana with our grandparents. It is a very important ancient temple. It is gigantic! There were statues of giant bulls and hundreds of rock carvings!

We left home at about 10:00 A.M. on a bus to Halebidu. It was a bumpy ride. I actually flew a few times!

We got to the temple between 11:00 and 11:30 A.M. My sister and I were hungry, so we ate a small snack. Then we went to the temple. We saw the two giant bull statues. They were the size of elephants. We also looked at the stone carvings on the temple walls. They depicted ancient gods and stories. Sadly, most of the temple’s carvings were damaged beyond repair. The gods were missing a number of hands, and it was rare to find an elephant, tiger, or horse with there head, tail, or legs all still stuck to their bodies.

The inside of the temple was dark. It was very small and plain compared to the outside of the temples.

At between 12:00 and 12:30 P.M., we ate our lunch. We had bhath and mosrana. We gave the leftovers to 2 dogs.

Then we went to the archeological museum. Everything was damaged. You couldn’t find a single peacock statue with its head still on its body. There were Hero Stones and inscribed slabs, as well as statues and archways. My sister and I asked our grandmother to read the slabs, but she said they were in old Kannada, and that she couldn’t read it.

We went to another mountaintop temple. However, it was very small. It took us 5 minutes to see the whole thing.

Then we went home on a bus. My sister and I took some short naps. We got home at 3:00 P.M.

Mysore visit

2009-07-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

On July 14, 2009, we left my grandparents house in Benglur and went to my dad's older brother's house in Mysore to visit our cousins. We took about 4 – 5 hours to get to Mysore.

At around lunchtime, we stopped at a really cool restaurant next to a swamp to eat our brunch. We ate idlis wrapped in leaves. We got back in our taxi after about 10 – 15 min.

About 1 – 2 hours later, we stopped near the Kauveri river to see the Nimishamba temple. I did my Madyanka next to the Kauveri river. (My sister accidentally stepped in some dirt and had to leave her shoes behind.) Me and my sister both ate chocolate bars.

When we got to Mysore, we stopped at the famous Mysore Palace. Mysore used to be the capital of Karnataka (now Banglore is), which is why the palace is situated there. It has five gigantic temples next to it that are all the size of a mansion! The palace itself is at least two acres large! Inside the palace, we saw statues made of pure gold, silver and bronze. The doors had ivory carvings on them, and they were worth millions of U.S. dollars. One door was made of pure silver and worth more than $10,000,000. We also saw million dollar paintings and two thrones for dignitaries made of pure silver. We only saw the two thrones (one for elephant back and one normal one) in pictures. They were huge and made of solid gold! My parents also said that the government hid thousands of diamonds, emeralds, and rubies to keep them from being stolen. We bought silk clothes as well. We also saw the residential quarters of the royalty. There were antique phonographs, teakwood beds and roofs, and pure gold scepters and swords, and high class rifles. My parents also bought me an ice cream choco – bar. Sadly, it melted within a minute.

At about 6:00 P.M., we got to my dad's brother's house. We played with our cousins, Hamsini and Shreyas, until midnight. Me and Hamsini had a very uncivilized quiz for an hour.

On July 15, 2009, we went to Sri Chamundeshwari temple high up in a mountain. Sadly, it was too crowded there due to a special event and we couldn't go inside it. We went to the less crowded Nandi temple in the mountains. Shreyas had gotten an appendicitis surgery only a month ago, so he got really tired. We went to a bakery when we got home and bought cake. When we got home, Shreyas had to sleep for some time. We had quizzes and played a little more. At 3:00 P.M., we tried to make a video, but me and my family had to go to my other grandparents' in Hassna. At about 6:00, we got there. Today is July 16, 2009. Tomorrow, we are going to visit the village Kowshika and Hamsini and Shreyas are going to visit us and their grandparents.

Reaching Benglur.....

2009-07-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

On July 3rd, 2009, I was going to go to India. The week before, my mom had gone. My sister, dad, and I boarded the plane around 1:00 P.M. PST. The plane was delayed for an hour before take off. We were flying On Cathay Pacific Airlines. We were on the plane for 15 hours. We got sick of it after 3 hours. By the time we landed in Hong Kong, my feet were sore, my ears were pounding, my back ached, my stomach growled, and I had a runny nose. In Hong Kong, my dad bought me and my sister a slice of chocolate cake and a bottle of lemonade. We got onto another plane three hours after landing. This flight was on DragonAir Airlines and was 7 hours long. We reached Banglore International Airport in India at a very late hour. By the time I got to my grandparents house, it was 4:00 A.M.! I ate 2 gulab jamuns and went to sleep. Monday, July 6th, 2009, was our first day in India. Nothing extroardinary happened. On July 7th, 2009, we went shopping, saw our house (the one we've rented out), and we visited one of our relatives for dinner. Today, July 8th, 2009, we went to a relatives house for breakfast and we're visiting another one in the night.

(posting og this blog got delayed since internet connection was broken for a while)

5 Ideas that will Revolutionize Science

2009-07-04T00:41:00.001-07:00

Idea 1: Spider Silk

It is a known fact that spider silk is 5 times harder than steel of the same thickness. If spider DNA and blue whale DNA were merged, it would create a spider of gargantuan proportions that would make colossally thick silk. This silk could be used to make cars, planes, houses, and many other things (cars and planes would have to have solar panels). People wouldn’t have to cut down trees or mine for metal and oil. The spider would be placed far from humans and be fed flies that have shark DNA in them.

Idea 2: Mega Weather Farm

1 hurricane could power the U.S. for six months. The power of a hurricane can be harnessed with super durable wind farms. Hurricanes would be trapped on remote, abandoned islands, where the wind farms would use the hurricanes wind to make electricity. Robots could create hurricanes and the wind farms could be controlled remotely.

Idea 3: Garbage Incineration

Burning garbage in earth’s atmosphere damages the ozone layer. However, nothing would happen if the sun burnt the garbage. Giant satellites could be sent in to orbit and garbage could be sent regularly to the satellites. The satellite would propel the garbage towards the sun in smaller satellites. The garbage would be incinerates and nothing would happen to the ozone layer. The satellites could also remove dangerous space garbage.

Idea 4: Evergreen Weeds

Trees create oxygen, a very important gas need to survive, and take away a harmful gas called Carbon Dioxide, or CO2. However, trees are lowering in numbers because people are cutting them down. Thousands of trees are cut every day. However, weeds, plants that impede the growth of other plants, are known to grow very quickly. If weed DNA were added to evergreen trees, the trees would grow like mad. This would create more oxygen and reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Idea 5: Ozone Anatomy

The ozone layer is a layer of chemicals in earth’s atmosphere that protects earth from the deadly rays of the sun. Without the ozone, earth would melt. However, recently, the ozone layer has been weakening because of harmful chemicals, such as Carbon Dioxide, that are created by humans. These chemicals are known as greenhouse gases. If scientists could study the ozone layer, they could duplicate its chemicals and protect it from greenhouse gases. If duplicating the ozone layer’s chemicals becomes a tradition, earth could survive for at least 1 billion years, when it will inevitably melt due to the suns aging.

Will continue on this....

5th Grade: The Final Frontier

2009-06-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

The 2008-2009 school year ended on 6/11/09. I was in 5th grade. After the dismissal bell rung on that day, I was a middle-schooler. This year, I've done many things inside the classroom.

We had second grade buddies this year. We went to their class about once a week and helped them with reading, writing, art, and many other things. Me and my friend Tiffany's buddy was a second grader named Kyle Wu.

I ran for Vice President in the Student Council of our school this year. I made posters and wrote a speech. Last year, I was unsuccessful in my campaign to become school treasurer and my friends older sister won. However, I still became 1 of my classes representatives. This year I was also unsuccessful and another 5th grader named won. However, this year, I couldn't even become a representative. Another 5th grader who campaigned for Vice President, and a sixth grade classmate of mine became the representatives.

I was also a student valet this year. During some weeks, I had to get to school at 8:00 A.M. instead of 8:15 A.M. I would help people get out of there cars and to school on time. I did it for both sessions this year, went to two student valet pizza parties, and got an award for being a student valet for both sessions.

This year, I was also in the Pomeroy School Newspaper Club. The teacher-in-charge was my sister's, Swathi, teacher, Mr. Gabe Roldan. We each wrote articles for the newspapers. However, there were very few, out-of-date issues. I did 4 articles and 1 interview.

In December, on the day before Christmas Break started, we had an all-day Christmas Party. We had a gift exchange for those who brought gifts, we ate snacks, and we watched a movie. We also celbrated with our buddies. We ate treats, watched the movie The Polar Express, and helped our buddies with some work.

In February, we celebrated the 100th day of school by reading for 100 minutes.

Sometime in March, our teacher, Mrs. Jennifer Grist, had a baby! His name was Aidan Walker grist and we saw him multiple times. We had a substitute teacher named Mrs. Amy Colvin for the rest of the year.

We had a number of field trips. We went to the San Jose Technology Museum and watched a movie about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We also went to see the play version of the Nutcracker and my dad was one of the chaperones for that field trip. We went to an Oakland A's game as well. I support the A's. The A's were in a baseball game against the Texas Rangers. The Rangers lost miserably. The A's even scored a grand slam! Since the scored a grand slam, if we took our game ticket stubs to a participating Round Table Pizza, we would get a free personal pizza. However, I lost my ticket stub. We also went to the San Francisco Zoo. We also had a picnic with our buddies at Albert Augustine Jr. Memorial Park. Since we had a lot of leftover field trip money, we had pizza, juice, and cookies. On the next day, the 6th graders in our class went on a 6th grade picnic. My class' 5th graders and Mrs. Armstrong's class' 5th graders had nothing short of a party. We watched the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop , did special art, played board games, watched a taped Oprah Winfrey episode about immigration, and had about an hour of free time. On that day, the 4th graders were also gone for a 10 ½ hour field trip to Columbia State Park in Sacramento from 7:00 A.M. To 5:00 or 5:30 P.M.

We also had an open house on 5/21/09. My family and I went to the ice cream social, my sister's 3rd grade square dancing performance, and some of the school's classrooms.

This year, I was in the Pomeroy School Chorus. I was also in it last year. We sung 6 songs and practiced them for about a month. We also studied our lines for about 3 weeks. Our musical was called Pirates!: The Musical. pirate ship but the pirates laughed at him and kicked him off their ship. However, he stows away on board the ship, gets caught, and must do some things to avoid a watery doom.

I think last year's musical was better, but I still liked this year's musical. We performed in front of our school on May 27, 2009. It was actually a dress rehearsal. On the 28, we performed in front of our parents. On the second of June, we had a pizza party. I thought Chorus was really fun.

We had a Field Day on 6/2/09. We played games, ate ice cream, and had a lot of fun.

On the day before the last day of school, my grandfather was supposed to go to India, but his flight got canceled and he stayed for an extra day. I made him a card. At school, we saw the 3rd (I think) annual yearly 6th graders V.S. Teachers softball game! I support the teachers every year. The 6th graders lost like the Texas Rangers did during our Oakland A's game field trip. We had a party as well and ate snacks while making personal memory pages.

I got many awards this year too, like last year. I got the O.D.S. award which is the most important award at our school. Only students who try their best, behave well, and help people for at least 5 hours get the award. A number of times, I got Student Of the Month awards (Decision making, Responsibility, Education). I also got 5 principal awards this year at the end - of - year awards ceremony. The awards I got were: Outstanding Effort, Outstanding Language Arts, Outstanding Social Studies, and Outstanding Science. I got the DARE most inspirational student award & medal & a medal for Reading is cool program of SJ Sharks. I really wanted to get them.

I woke up at 6:00 A.M. on the last day of school. We said goodbye to our grandfather on the way to school. We were late on the last day of school! We saw the 6th grade graduation, cleaned up the classroom, and then we watched the movie Bedtime Stories. When the dismissal bell rang, I had some teachers and people sign my yearbook and I went home. When we got inside, I half expected my grandfather to come and congratulate and talk to me like he always did. Then I remembered that he left.

It's been a great year! I have one more year at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School! It will be full of great memories like this year! Right now, I'm officially a

Middle-Schooler!

Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

2009-06-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

On the 2009 Memorial Day, my family and I saw the new movie Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

It starts quite some time after the events in Night at the Museum. Larry Daley, the old night guard, is now the rich CEO of the company Daley Devices. When he goes to the New York Museum of Natural History, he finds that it was closed for renovations. He learned that only the Teddy Roosevelt, Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, and the magical tablet of the pharaoh Akhmunrah are staying and the rest of the exhibits were being sent to the National Reserve under the Smithsonian Castle in Washington D.C.

He heads home when he gets a frantic call on his cell phone by a miniature cowboy friend of Larry's named Jedediah. He says that Dexter, a cappucin monkey stole the tablet and the were being attacked by Akhmunrah's older brother Kamunrah, who was trying to take the tablet. Larry rushes to get to Washington D.C. With the help of his son, he is able to sneak into the depths of the Federal Reserves and save the tablet. However, just as Larry got it, it activated and Kamunrah captured him. Larry was forced to give Kamunrah the tablet. However, he tricks Kamunrah and says he thought Kamunrah was after the Cube of Rubik, which he said turned all who opposed the user to dust. Larry then opens an octopus exhibit he had stumbled upon and distracted Kamunrah. He escapes with the help of American General General Custer and woman pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart.

Will Larry escape?
Will they win the battle?
Will he and his friends be killed?!?!?!
All this will be answered by watching the movie.

Rating: 10.0

My Grandfather

2009-06-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

My grandfather – ‘Viswanath Ajja’ is visiting us this year. He came during the 2009 Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School's winter break on February 17, 2009. It was the first time in 4 years that he came. Since then, he has helped us a lot and we've had a lot of fun with him.

Ajja keeps us working and always encourages us to work hard and always listens when we want to show him something. My mridanga(drum) teacher says that I'm improving. I think Ajja is affecting this because he is praising & encouraging me. He always tells us that we could do better and always keeps us on task. He can also cook very well. He makes delicious French fries for us occasionally.

Ajja also plays with us when we've done our work. He plays tennis and badminton occasionally We like to challenge ourselves by playing with him.

We also celebrated his birthday on March 12, 2009. He turned 63. I made him a card, poem, and word search. We also celebrated his anniversary on May 12, 2009. I made him a different poem and card for that.

We went to James Lick Observatory on top of Mt. Hamilton with him as well. We have done many things with him, such as helping him take care of my baby cousin Avinash. We played games as well. One of the more recent things we did with him was taking him to a really good restaurant called Saravanaa Bhavan. We ate our lunch there and he said he really liked the food.

Sadly, Ajja is going back to India on June 10, 2009. I'm going to feel very sad. However, at that point, school will almost be over. My grandmother is coming after Ajja leaves. My entire family and I are also going to India for the first time in 3 years. I can't wait for July 3rd so that we can go and visit all our relatives in India.

From February 7th to June 10th, Ajja has helped us achieve our goals. He will be a constant inspiration. I will miss him when he leaves. I want him to visit us again.

June 11, 2009

Ajja left for India today, June 11, 2009. His flight yesterday was canceled. It was me and my sister's last day of school. Ajja left in the morning. However, when we got home, I half expected him to come and congratulate and talk to us like he always did when we got home from school. When he didn't, I remembered he had left. I feel sad, but also a bit happy because he is going to see ajji and the rest of his family in India again.

My Mother's Day wish....

2009-05-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

My mom is helpful, nice and intelligent

As well as understanding, whole-hearted, and patient

My mom is a great cook

And she doesn't need help from a book

As well as that, she always cleans

And about it, she is never mean

Another thing my mother does is teach

Even when I think the subject is out of reach

Sometimes, when I'm angry, I think she doesn't do anything

But really, I know that she does everything

Sincerely

Abhijit

D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program

2009-05-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

D.A.R.E. is an American program that all 5th graders in the U.S. do. It is a ten – week course. Some responsible people teach the students about drugs, how to avoid them, how to avoid violence, and peer and personal pressure. The students graduate after D.A.R.E. is over.

I took part in D.A.R.E. this year. My teacher was a Milpitas police officer named officer Kevin Jackson. He taught us a lot of things. One of the things he taught us about was the D.A.R.E. Decision-Making Model and how to use it. He also taught us about tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, and another drug called meth. He told us about how you knew someone was your friend. He also told us about laws regulating drugs. We had D.A.R.E. on every Thursday. Officer Jackson was a really nice and funny instructor. He also let us see his police car.s

We had to make two things for D.A.R.E. The first was an essay and the second was a poster. I made my poster really colorful. I also put some short phrases on it. I typed my essay. I wrote a five paragraph essay. The body of my essay was made of three main things. This is a copy of my essay:

******************************************************************************
DARE Report

This is my DARE report. I’m going to write about 3 things I learned during DARE. I will write about peer pressure. I will describe some harmful drugs. I will also describe a few of the dangers of harmful drugs.

Peer pressure has many forms. Sometimes, it is positive. Sometimes, it is negative. Peer pressure can come from anyone. Your parents can positively pressure you to do your homework. A stranger can negatively pressure you to buy harmful drugs. In most cases, though, it doesn’t matter about who pressured you to do what, because your decisions mostly affect only you.

There are many types of drugs with negative effects. Some, like marijuana and tobacco, contain ridiculous amounts of poisons. Some, like alcohol, are extremely addictive. Some, like meth, are toxic and volatile. All the drugs I just mentioned destroy every major organ in the human body and cause certain death. No one should use drugs that have this many negative effects.

Using drugs attracts many dangers, such as the two I just mentioned to you. They cause cancer and coma. You can get addicted to them. You die the first time you use a dangerous drug. You can get addicted to a dangerous drug the first time you use it. You can even die before you use a certain drug. These are just a few of the negative effects dangerous drugs have.

I’ve learned a lot during DARE. I’ve learned about some harmful drugs. I know about peer pressure. I know about some negative effects of harmful drugs. I make a pledge to never use harmful and potentially dangerous drugs and I will educate others on why not to use those drugs.

******************************************************************************

We also had to learn a song called the D.A.R.E. Song. We sung it at our DA.R.E. graduation.

The D.A.R.E. graduation was really exciting. Still I was a bit sad because we would be done with D.A.R.E. We were the last graduating school of the year. The D.A.R.E. graduation even got televised. It was a really exciting event.

There were 4 awards given to each class at the D.A.R.E. graduation. They are the Best Poster Award, the Best Essay Award, the Most Inspirational Award, and the D.A.R.E. Top Student. I was really excited and surprised when I got called up for the Most Inspirational Award. I really wanted to get it. I was given a medal and a certificate. I thought it was a huge achievement and an ultimate honor.

A few days later, I got a personal, handwritten letter from Milpitas, my town's chief of police, and the father of one of by schoolmates, D.A.R.E. graduate, and acquaintance (Nathan Graham), Chief Dennis Graham!

It congratulated me on earning the award. I was really happy. I've never got a personal, hand-written letter. It was a great honor to get the letter. On the whole it was a great experience and life lesson.

Interview with my beloved teacher

2009-05-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

For the end of the year edition of the school newspaper, I got to interview a teacher of our school. It really felt good to interview my former teacher, Mrs. Main. She taught me 2 years ago. For the interview, I had to schedule a time. Then I had to go to her classroom after school. I had to ask her some mandatory questions and some questions of my own. I wrote this interview report for the Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School Newspaper.

A Quick Interview With Mrs.Kathryn Main
By: Abhijit Ramaprasad

Abhi: Mrs. Main, can you tell us about your profession?
Mrs. Main: I’m a 2nd and 3rd grade teacher here at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School.
Abhi: How long have you been teaching?
Mrs. Main: I’ve been teaching for 39 years.
Abhi: What are your responsibilities her at Pomeroy School?
Mrs. Main: I have to teach students academics and important life lessons.
Abhi: What skills do you need?
Mrs. Main: I have to be patient and motivate, lead, and inspire my students.
Abhi: What are some positive parts if your job?
Mrs. Main: Getting to teach children things they need to know for life.
Abhi: What are the negative points about your job?
Mrs. Main: I don’t think there are any negative points.
Abhi: Would you recommend this job to others?
Mrs. Main: Absolutely.
Abhi: Why would you recommend this job to others?
Mrs. Main: I think it’s is a great thing to do. It needs commitment and enthusiasm, and it rewards you with happiness.
Abhi: Can you tell us about your education?
Mrs. Main: I was in college for many years. I have a bachelor’s degree in teaching. I also have the required teaching credentials. I also took many extra classes in college.
Abhi: Can you tell us about some travel experiences?
Mrs. Main: I’ve been to Seattle, Washington, South America, Europe, and Mexico.
Abhi: Tell us about one of your interests.
Mrs. Main: I enjoy seeing my grandchildren, Atticus and Sebastian.
Abhi: Can you tell us about some other family members?
Mrs. Main: Other members of my family include my sons, Jeremy and Andrew, and my daughter in law, Bethany.
Abhi: How do you feel when an old student comes and visits you?
Mrs. Main: I really enjoy it. Once, a student of mine came to show me his report card. I really liked it. I like remembering the past.
Abhi: Do you want to say anything to the students here at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School?
Mrs. Main: “Pomeroy is excitement personified”.

Mrs. Main is retiring this year, many years after she started teaching in 1970. Many of us, especially her old students, will miss her. Pomeroy staff and students would like to wish her a peaceful and active retired life.

March Madness

2009-03-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

Many things happened in March. I will describe them in this blogpost.

On March 1, 2009, my 2 year old cousin, Avinash, got ready for his first haircut. It was called his juttu. It took place at the Livermore Temple. We came a little late, but we were still the first visitors. The first part was short, and after it, we had a very long break. During the second period, many people showed up. I even sold some chocolate to get funds for my school's 6th grade science camp program. I was present most of that time. However, some of the time, I was looking for my sister and 4 year old cousin (also Avinash's sister), Aditi. After the ceremony, we had lunch. We had finished late and we ate at 2:00. It was a good lunch but we had to leave early because of a conflicting arrangement.

On that same day, I had to go to my mother's music teacher's house for a music meet. It was called a musical potluck. It was a celebration of the teacher leaving and going to India. We had prepared to sing 1 song, but instead, we sung 2. I sang the songs with my sister. There were about 20 students who performed. We were probably were chosen to perform somewhere in the last 7 performers.

On the 12th of March, 2009, my grandfather turned 63. I wanted to make something very special. I wrote him a poem. This is how it goes:

Ajja, Ajja (grandfather)
You're 63
It's a great thing
We're as happy as can be
You love us and we love you
When somebody asks
We say,”We do!”
It's the 12th of March
It's a special day
Wonder why
It's your birthday

I also made him a word search because I wanted to do something original and new instead of just drawing a picture. I put in things like happy birthday and best wishes.'

For my Laya (rythym) class, I was getting ready for a really big test. I couldn't make a single mistake or use my notes. If I didn't pass, I would get kicked put. I had to practice 10 things everyday. I was really scared, but I got ready. It was rescheduled many times, but I wasn't going to take chances. I practiced and I am still practicing.

This year, my sister is in 3rd grade. She had to write a report, like every other 3rd grader, about our town, Milpitas. Part of it was writing a poem. I wanted to help my sister. Instead, I decided she would be cheating and I decided to send it to our mayor to put in a Milpitas brochure, the Milpitas Post, our town newspaper, and my school's (Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School's) newspaper club. I have posted the poem in another post.

One other thing that happened in March was getting our progress reports. I got really good grades and my teacher said I was getting better at writing.

One last thing from March was when I kept coming home angrily. I kept saying I was getting bullied. I still am, but some people have stopped

I also went to my friend Sanjana's birthday party and bowled there.

One last thing happened a week after the exact date that spring started, March 27, 2009. It was Ugadi. It is the Indian New Year and the first day of spring on the Indian calender. My family and I went to the Livermore temple. The trip took about 3 hours. On that day, I also got the learning student of the month award. Ugadi was a spectacular day with many treats. It was a fitting end for this magnificent March and a fitting start for the new year (Indian).

I also interviewed my former 3rd grade teacher. Her name is Mrs. Main. I interviewed her for the school newspaper. I really enjoyed the interview.

March has been an exciting month this year.

It has been awesome and I hope that Every month is like this.

Milpitas, Milpitas

2009-03-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

I wrote this poem about my town, Milpitas. I got the inspiration because my sister had to write a poem and I decided to also write one. I wrote it for my school newspaper an tried to get it published in the local newspaper, the Milpitas Post.

Here it is:

Milpitas, Milpitas
What a great place to be
All the wonderful places
And people to see

Chip engineers and the Great Mall, oh my
If you want to see everything, you’ll be on the fly

Most don’t know us and call us insignificant
Yet, truly, we’re actually very magnificent

Our education is the greatest
We’re the best at tests
Wonder what our grades are
They’re A+, A+, and A+ by far

Milpitas, Milpitas
What a great place to visit
If Yoda were here, he’d say
More than you can chew, you have bit

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sankethi Koota

2009-02-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

On February 14, we had the first Sankethi Koota of 2009. It was on Valentine’s Day. I had volunteered to help out and perform in to skits.

The first thing that happened was an invocation ceremony. Some people sung a song and there was a short speech. Very few people were there at that time. To me, it wasn’t the most interesting thing in the world. Plus, I was doing a skit and I was already all ready to perform. I was getting very restless.

Next came the interesting part. The first skit took place after the invocation. It was called Karnataka Vaibhava, or Karnataka’s Glory. It was about important people from the history of Karnataka. The oldest person lived some 1,400 years ago. The lines were organized from oldest time to youngest time. The first person was my friend, Sanjana K. She was acting as a sort of timeline. Between times, she would speak up.

The first person to go up was me. I was acting as a king called Pulikeshi. My lines were:” Pallavarana solisi, kanchi nagaravannu vasha padisi kondi dsayithu. Harsha Rajanannu solisi, idée dakshinapattaka arasa enisikondidyathu. Nama rajyada hirimay, yella deshaku hubide. Jay Kowshikambe!”

The next person to come up was a boy name Sudanva. He acted as Saint Basavanna. Basavanna was a great teacher and thought about many things. He was born in the year 1131 AD. Next, my other friend, Sanjana M. went up. She was acting as Saint MahadevI. Mahadevi was a great poet. She didn’t have a very long life and most of it is unknown. After Sanjana recited her lines and sat down, another boy named Gagan came up on the stage. He acted as Saint Purandaradasa. Purandaradasa was a famous Indian musician. He made many compositions. However, he was most known for making the system of beginner songs. He is still celebrated and his system is still used today. Gagan sang one of Purandaradasa’s compositions. Then he prayed and two very young children appeared as gods and stood in front of him. Then they went off - stage.

After Gagan sat down, my younger cousin Aditi came on – stage. She was Rani Shantala. Rani Shantala was a queen. She was also a very good Bharatnatyam dancer. She was also quite intelligent. Right after Aditi sat down, another girl named Prisha came up. She acted as Onake Obavva. She lived in the 18th century and fought the forces of Hyder Ali. She was the epitome of Karntaka women pride. The next person who came up was my sister. She acted as Kitturu Chennama. Kitturu Chennama was a queen. She opposed British rule in India and refused to pay taxes. Finally, last of all, an acquaintance named Aniketh went up. He was Sir M. Vishveshveraya. He was an eminent Indian engineer and statesman. He also received the most prestigious award in India, the Bharat Ratna, and was knighted by the British for his contributions to the public good.

After the skit, a guest speaker spoke. I didn’t catch many of the details because I was put on guard duty. I had to guard all the food. However, the other group made us move. After the move, I had to perform another skit.

The second skit was called the Valentine’s Day Skit. It was about some kids on Valentine’s Day. The setting was in a classroom. One girl had just come from India. Her name was Smitha. She didn’t know about Valentine’s Day. The other kids talked about Valentine’s Day. When the teacher came in, he talked about Valentine’s Day. At the end of the skit, Smitha finally knew what Valentine’s Day was all about. I was myself. My sister was herself. Sanjana M. was Sanjana. Sanjana K. was Smitha. Sanjana K.’s dad was the teacher, Mr. H.

I went back to guard duty in the new location until a dance was done. Then I played with my friends until dinner. I helped serve the food. After dinner, I talked with my friends and we left.

I thought all the children performed very well. Particularly my sister.

On a bitterer note, before the Sankethi Koota, one of our props broke. I lied about it. On a lighter note, I was excused and we got a new prop.

TheatreWorks Workshop

2009-02-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

Recently, the G.A.T.E. 5th graders in my school have done an activity called TheatreWorks. A TheatreWorks expert comes and teaches us some basic things about theatre and then they teach us a poem that we enact. Our teacher was Vera Sloan and she taught us how to be actors. She told us how to do some basic warm – ups, tongue twisters, what the actor’s toolbox is (it is the three things you need to act, which are: voice, body, and imagination), and the meaning of the word ensemble and the essentials to be an ensemble. We also learnt a special game about being an ensemble called Pass the Clap or The Clap Game. It had 3 variations and we were the first class that our teacher taught the third variation to.

It was a 2 - week program. During the second week, the teacher brought a poem called “All the World’s a Stage” by William Shakespeare. We were divided into 4 “clumpy clusters”. I was in “cluster” 2. The taller people were in the back and the shorter people were in the front. The front row people had to kneel while the back row people had to stand. Each group got certain lines, which we had to recite while we made gestures associated with that line.

On the day of the performance, some parents, TheatreWorks officials, and most of the 4th grade, 6th grade, and non – G.A.T.E. 5th grade students came to see us perform. We did our warm – ups, then we recited our tongue twisters, and then we stated what the actor’s toolbox was.

After that, we played a game called Machines. We had to make a group scene that made us look like we were a machine. We each had to make a different sound, perform a different repeatable activity, and have a different level (height) from everyone else. We also got two parent volunteers for this game. The volunteers were my friend my friend Divyesh’s mom and my mom. After we finished, someone in the crowd was supposed to name the machine and its use. Someone called it the Funny Machine. It had done what it was supposed to do because everyone laughed.

Later, after we played Machines, we played Pass the Clap V (variation) 1 and V2.
The last game we played was called Pantomime. It was a little like Machines. However, there were a few differences. Instead of some random person starting of doing some random action, someone would be taken into a place called “The Cone of Silence”. They would be told that they had to act like they were in a specific place. Then that person would have to enact an activity you would do in that place silently. The other people would have to guess where you were and then raise their hand to be sent into the scene as well. They would be judged to see if they really knew where they were by the teacher by the look of the activity they were enacting. We also had 2 adult volunteers for this game as well. After the scene got crowded, someone in the crowd had to say where we were. Someone said that we were in the snow and they were completely correct.

Finally, we enacted “All the World’s a Stage”. After that we were lead outside and given awards. That was the end of the TheatreWorks workshop.

At first, I felt embarrassed about Theater Works. However, in the end, I had fun. I started to miss it a little bit after it was over.

And Then There Were None - A Book Report

2009-02-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

'And Then There Were None' is a story written by Agatha Christie. It is also known by the name 'Ten Little Indians'.

Eight people are invited to an island called Indian Island to meet two people who go by the names Mr. U.N. Owen and Mrs. U.N. Owen. The names of these people are Vera Claythorne, Anthony Marston, Justice Lawrence Wargrave, Phillip Lombard, an ex-Inspector of Scotland Yard named William Henry Blore disguised as a South African, and General Macarthur, Dr. Armstrong, and Emily Brent. A man named Fred Narracot takes them to the island. There, they meet the servants, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. Mr. Owen was not there at the time. They each went to there rooms. Each of them saw the children’s nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians. It goes like this (big hint)

Ten little Indians went out to dine

One choked his little self and then there were nine nine

Nine little Indians stayed up very late

One overslept and then there were eight

Eight little Indians traveling through Devon

One said he would stay and then there were seven

Seven little Indians chopping up sticks

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six

Six little Indians played with a hive

A bee stung and then there were five

Five little Indians going for law

One got in Chancery and then there were four

Fpur little Indians going out to sea

A red herring swallowed one and then there were three

Three little Indians going to a zoo

A bear hugged one and then there were two

Two little Indians sitting in the Sun

One shriveled up and then there was one

One little Indian all alone

That night, they were having dinner and found out everyone had a copy of the poem in there rooms. They saw 10 china Indians on the table as they ate. They suddenly heard a record accusing each of them with murder. They were all spooked. Mrs. Rogers fainted. Rogers said he started the record because Mr. Owen told him to. They asked him what this Mr. Owen even looked like. He told them that he had never me him. Mrs. Rogers came to and Dr. Armstrong gave her some sleeping pills. They started to want to investigate who this guy was anyway. Justice Wargrave asked everyone about the murders they were accused with and how they even got invited. They all got the stories from each other. They also learned Blore’s true name because the record said William Henry Blore and there was no Blore among them and that he was hired by Owen to watch the others. All the murders seemed accidental and/or coincidental in exception for the one for which Phillip Lombard was accused. They also said the invitations they got were either from Una Nancy Owen or Ulick Norman Owen, both U.N. Owens. After examining the pronunciations of the names, they found that U.N. Owen sounded like UNKNOWN. They deduced that there was no Mr. Owen and that a homicidal lunatic had lured them to the island. Anthony Marston said he was ready to investigate. He drank something in a toast and his face became purple; he choked, and then died. The doctor found some traces of Potassium Cyanide in the cup that Marston had drunk from. They thought it might have been suicide because everyone else’s drinks weren’t poisoned. However, they all thought it was hard to believe because he was so young and so full of life. They decided they would leave the island with Fred Narracott when he came tomorrow to deliver bread and milk. They all went to their rooms. Rogers stayed behind to clean up. He saw 9 china Indians on the table instead of 10 while he was cleaning. That struck him as odd. Upstairs, in her locked room, Vera Claythorne examined the poem in her room and said that this terrible murder was just like how the first Indian disappeared.

The next day, Rogers woke up Dr. Armstrong and told him that his wife wasn’t waking up no matter what he did. Armstrong examined her and declared that she was dead. Rogers told him that she hadn’t been sleeping well and that she hadn’t taken any pills except the ones that he had given her. He said she might have either done suicide or had cardiac problems. They started walking to the beach. They found out from the others who were already there that Narracott hadn’t arrived yet. Rogers said that was strange because he normally came quite early and he would send his brother if he was sick. Rogers went into the house, and came back and told Dr. Armstrong about last nights disappearing china Indian and said now there were only 8 of them on the table.

After that, the guests who slept longer came to the beach. It was breakfast time and everyone but General MacArthur went inside to eat. He decided he wasn’t going to leave the island . . . ever. After breakfast, Lombard, Blore, and Armstrong decided to see if anyone was on the island except themselves. While investigating, they passed General MacArthur. He seemed . . . strange. His eyes were out of focus and he seemed to be daydreaming. They went to see if there were any caves in the cliff on the side of the island. Blore said he had seen Lombard with a revolver. Lombard told him that he was really hired to watch the 10 people on the island. Blore went to get some rope for a little while. Lombard went for a few minutes to test a theory, which was incorrect. When Blore came back, Armstrong went down and saw no caves. He deduced no one but their 10 selves were on the island. While they were doing that, Vera Claythorne and Emily Brent were taking a short walk together. Emily told Vera about the murder she was accused of. She said that a girl who seemed nice came to her house but she turned out to be a sinner. Emily kicked her out of her house and the girl threw herself into a river. Vera seemed afraid of Emily now. The gong soon sounded for lunch. They all went to the house. They noticed General MacArthur wasn’t there. Armstrong went to fetch him. Soon, he ran back and exclaimed the MacArthur was dead. Rogers ran to the table but Vera told him what he suspected had already happened. There were only 7 china Indians.

They were all afraid now. Armstrong said that MacArthur was hit by something like a life preserver. Rogers said that someone had stole bathroom curtains and Emily said someone had stolen her wool. They ate lunch. Then Wargrave told everyone that the murderer had to be of them and that they had to be careful and that no one could be eliminated from the suspects list. They told each other what they had been doing. They learned from Rogers Fred Narracott still hadn’t arrived. That night, after dinner, they each locked their doors and slept.

The morning, Lombard woke up Blore and told him Rogers hadn’t come by yet. They woke up the rest and started looking for Rogers. They couldn’t find him. The fire wasn’t lit, the tea hadn’t been made and Rogers hadn’t woken them up. They made their own breakfast and saw that there were only 6 china Indians now. After breakfast, they found Rogers. He had been the tool shed chopping up firewood with the small cleaver when some one Must have snuck up on him and hit him with the big cleaver. Now Rogers was dead. They wondered who would be next.

That afternoon, they ate lunch. They finished and Emily said she would wash the dishes. Everyone else went to the drawing room. Wargrave stepped out for a second. In the kitchen, Miss Brent was getting drowsy. A bee stung her. She was dead. After a long time, everyone went to see how Emily was doing. She looked fine, but didn’t notice them. When they saw her face, her lips were blue and blood covered he face. They saw a bee on the site. There were only 5 china Indians.

Well, that’s the half - point. Oh, by the way, there are 2 - 3 versions of the endings. This is the end of my summary.

Who is the murderer?

Why have they killed these people?

Why does this homicidal maniac love his nursery rhyme so much?

Read this book and you’ll find the answers and more.

(Okay, okay, that last one might not be answered)

Recent Literary Activities

2009-01-09T21:22:00.000-08:00

In the recent past, I’ve had a number of literary ventures. One of them was being interviewed by an AP (Associated Press, the most prestigious group of reporters in the country) consultant.

The AP consultant’s name was Emily Fredrix. She was writing a report about businesses that have closed in 2008 and she stumbled on my Mervyns and Me blog. She posted a comment on my blogsite. I was extremely happy when I found out I was going to be mentioned in a newspaper and an online report by the Associated Press! She interviewed me by phone on New Year’s Eve, 2008. I told her about how I felt about Mervyns closing. I’d made a few notes on a scrap of paper for what to say. I also talked about my childhood and how much I used to enjoy going to Mervyns. That day, in her report, she wrote three lines about her interview with me.

Here is that article. Click on the image for a zoomed-in view:

Another literary venture was releasing my book, Potions and Portals for Dummies.

I started writing Potions and Portals for Dummies for my sister’s birthday. I was excited because I was making a real book. I dedicated it to her and autographed it on her birthday. My parents interviewed me about the book release afterwards. She read it out loud after 5 minutes. I had written 5 pages of potions, how to make them, and their uses. I also had printed some funny pictures. At her birthday party, I also gave regular copies to her friends. Three days later, on my mother’s birthday, I gave her an autographed and dedicated copy.

Now, time for another venture concerning my mother’s birthday and my sister’s birthday.

I gave both my mom and my sister poem cards on their birthdays. I had to use all my literary genius of the day for both days to think of them. I used a different format for each one. For my sister, I made a normal half - fold card. For my mom, I made a giant one – page poster card. These were the longest and best poems I have ever written.

Things that happened in the recent past & my expectations for 2009

2009-01-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

The old year of 2008 is almost over. I’ve done a lot of things during 2008. I’ve watched many movies. I’ve read new books. I started 5th grade this and turned 10 this year. My uncle got a new house. My sister went to 3rd grade and turned 8. I’ve made some new friends this year, too. I witnessed Barack Obama’s win in the U.S.’s presidential election. I’ve also written many blogposts on this website as well. I’ve written over 10 more blogposts than last year. It’s been an awesome and memorable year. Right now, at the end of the year, I’m sleeping late and watching movies everyday.

My uncle moved in to his new house on the first day of school. I woke up early and went to the housewarming party. I witnessed a lot of ceremonies to celebrate getting a new house at the housewarming. I also saw in a newspaper before I left for school that Michael Phelps had earned his 8th gold medal, giving him the most Olympic gold medal in history. Moving on, I have read new books like The Science of Harry Potter and Star Wars: Children of the Jedi. I’ve done book reports, book report projects, and a special project called the Holiday Budget in 5th grade. For the Holiday Budget, I had to evenly spend $600 over decorations, food, gifts, and other things for a holiday. It was a very difficult project. Now let me tell about other things. I’ve made new friends as well. A few examples are Wee Jin Koh, John Theodore M. Mappala, and Annete Tri. In December, I celebrated my sister's and mother’s birthdays. I made a card and wrote a poem for both of them. My sister, dad, and I also made special treats for my mom’s birthday instead of buying a cake. Right now, at the end of the year, I have watched a number of movies such as: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Pokemon: Jirachi Wish Maker, Camp Rock, and the Cheetah Girls: One World (please do not laugh at me). I will now tell you about what I think of each of these movies. The Cheetah Girls: One World is miserable. They kept breaking into stupid songs and phony dances every two minutes. They don’t even explain the storyline gaps between the beginning and end of each song. Now to talk about another movie, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. It’s an awesome movie. It explains a lot of things from Madagascar, like how Alex the lion ended up in a zoo. I t was also very funny. Now let’s discuss the next movie, Camp Rock. It was overall good. The storyline wasn’t flawed and the songs and dances were not phony and stupid. Now, let’s talk about the final movie, Pokemon: Jirachi Wish Maker. It was a good movie. It had a great storyline. Now, moving on, I feel great One year is over and I’m ready for the next. I can’t wait for another exciting year of life. I’m a bit sad that 2008 is almost over, but I’m also happy. It’s been one of the best years of my life, and I’ll always remember it.

Next year, I’ll be finishing 5th grade and I’ll be going to 6th grade. My grandfather and grandmother will also visit and I will visit the majority of my family in India. I’ll be turning 11 as well. I’ll be going to 6th grade and I’ll be learning new things. I don’t know everything that will happen to me next year, but I know it will be another awesome, great, and terrific year.

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-10T22:06:00.000-08:00

On the day before Thanksgiving, my friend Amogh came to my house. We had some pizza. While we ate, we talked about school. Then I showed Amogh around my house. We played in the garage later. When he left, I watched the movie Cats and Dogs.

On Thanksgiving Day, I went to my uncle’s house. We stayed from lunch at 12:30 to after dinner at 8:00. The day after Thanksgiving, I went to the Century Theater with my family and my younger cousin. I watched the movie Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa. We really enjoyed it. It was the sequel to the original Madagascar. The animals were on their way to New York City when their crashed plane crash-landed. They met their own kind for the first time. They each proved that they were different from the others.

On Saturday, I went to my friend Deepti’s house. There was a battle of boys against girls. We left at midnight. It was a fun get-together.

Mervyns and Me

2008-11-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

The store where I got most of my childhood clothes is closing. It is called Mervyns. Mervyns was a clothing store. When I was younger, my family and I used to go to Mervyns everyday. We knew many of the employees there.

Today, I kind of feel sad, happy, and weird.

I’m sad that Mervyns is closing, for several reasons. The first is that it had the best clothes for the lowest prices. Another is that it was the smallest clothing store in our area. It was never crowded, either. 75% of all the clothes I’ve worn have come from Mervyns.

I’m happy for one silly reason - no more cloth shopping. It was a clothing store. That was Mervyns’ fatal flaw in my view :-). I never loved it for that reason.

Today, Mervyns seemed different. New things were on sale. There was a new staff. An unnatural amount of people had come. There were too many On Sale signs. Prices were much higher than normal. It was as if it was a part of a mall. I miss the Mervyn's I knew. I feel sad for all the old and new employees at Mervyns because they lost or soon will lose their jobs. They will have to apply for jobs at larger clothing store such as Kohl’s, Sears, or J.C. Penny. Most likely, they will find work in due time.

The Monthly Music Meet

2008-11-10T22:20:00.000-08:00

Recently, I’d been to my mother's music school's monthly music meet. This was my first time there. First I listened to some of the students sing. My mom was one of those people. Another boy sang a song I knew and I quietly sang it to myself. During the second part, there was a rhythm test. I was in Group One. I was the youngest person in my group. I knew all the answers, but at first, my group didn’t trust. After they worked it out, however, they saw I was right. As I correctly answered more and more questions, I started to gain my groups trust. We got every question right. There was a tiebreaker for groups 1, 4, and 6. I answered the first one partially, so we did another question. It was a very easy question for me because I had known the answer for a long time. The question had a very long answer, but I did it correctly. Everyone in my group was offered M and Ms, but I was the only one who took them. Then everyone had a snack of cinnamon cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, orange juice, and M and Ms. I beat my sister and both my parents. My parents had a lot of knowledge on the subject, but I still won, so my mom made a sweet at home which we all ate.

Pomeroy Newspaper

2008-11-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

This year, I joined the Pomeroy School Newspaper. It is an after school activity which meets every Wednesday. I have many responsibilities. I like this experience because it will be very fun. It will also help me become better at writing. I have already written and word-processed my first assignment apart from giving my bio. Here is a copy of it.

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Room 15 5th Graders do Historical Skits
Byline: Abhijit Ramaprasad
10/15/08 Milpitas, CA

Recently, the 5th graders of room 15 have performed historical skits about explorers and Indians. The students were divided into two groups. Each of those groups were divided into smaller groups. Students wrote a script for each of their skits. They also made props and costumes to wear during their presentation. On 10/15/08, the students presented their plays. I think this was an exciting and exhilarating way for us students to learn about explorers and Indians.

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The teacher in charge of the newspaper says I have a writing talent, but I think I can improve. I think this experience will be good for me. I already think this is going to be a great year for the Pomeroy School Newspaper.

New School Year

2008-09-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

I have been in school for about 3 weeks. We have been learning about Indians, exponents, and other things. I’ve just started my first project. I’m making a continent. I’m also making a codex. My new teacher is Mrs. Grist, and she teaches in room 15. I’m also having a lot of fun in school.

I’ve been doing a lot of other things as well. I’ve been keeping a daily journal, going to a buddy classroom, and studying about my tribe of Indians, the Iroqouis. I’ve made a nation profile about them and I’m going to use that information to make a codex. In my daily journal, I write about a topic I’m given. I also do a small activity called following directions. We have simple things in a complex order to see if we are good at following directions. I’ve also written an essay about my elementary school years. Everyday during the first week, I did a timed math activity called beat the clock. I’m sure I got 100 percent on multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Everyday, I also have done an activity called mental math. We have to do 10 math problems everyday quickly without working out the problems.

Now for some of the projects I mentioned earlier. My first project is to make a booklet of definitions for 50 geographic terms. We also had to draw pictures of the geographic terms, which also had to be colored. The second part of that project was to make a new continent and use at least 35 geographic terms and color the whole thing. We are also doing a smaller project. We first studied about our Indian nations. We used the information we learnt to make nation profiles. Using the nation profiles, we have to make a codex and draw pictures for it.

I’m sure I’ll have a fun time this year.

Summer Activities

2008-08-18T22:55:00.000-07:00

This summer, I’ve done a lot of things. Most of them, I have wrote about in my blogs. However, there are some things I haven’t written about. This blog is a collection of all these things.

Tennis

This summer, I went to tennis classes. Our coaches, Coach Barry, Coach Warren, and Coach Lucy, taught us how to play tennis. I went in to match play at every class. I got better after every class. We normally started with something called running doubles to begin the class. Then we were divided for match play. At the end of each class, we normally played a game called around the world. On the last day, we did exactly that. The last shot of the season was a good one this year because we were trained by such good coaches. We had a potluck on the last day.

Swimming

Another thing I did this summer was swimming on a swim team. Every week Monday-Thursday, I had to go to a Mission San Jose High for swim team practice. We normally did what we had already learnt, but sometimes we did new things like Egyptian Freestyle and the Corkscrew. Near the end, we were faster than any other team of our age. During the last week, we had to do 20 laps of freestyle non-stop. One day, we swam 50 laps. On our last day, there was a swim team meet. I had to do everything, even though everyone else only did 2 short events and one long event. For the short events, we had to do 25 yards of freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly. For the long event, we had to do 50 yards of freestyle. During the half time between the two events, we had a belly flop contest. In 25yard freestyle, I was second, and for everything else, I was in the middle. Being in a swim team was a really fun experience.

Eragon
This summer, I also read a book called Eragon. It was written by Christopher Paolini. It is about a poor farm boy named Eragon. Eragon raises a dragon so he can stop an invasion of evil creatures. It’s a good book. It was more than 400 pages long.

Erec Rex And The Monsters Of Otherness

Erec Rex is an adopted boy. A few weeks ago, he had saved a magical world with a new friend named Bethany. He is given a dragon Eye from a dragon for his last challenge. The only problem is he was tricked. Still, he saved the world from an evil person bent on stealing his dragon eye. In The Monsters Of Otherness, He is hated, even though he does the right thing. In the end, he learns that everything he learnt about monsters were lies. He must save them from a terrible fate. He could only save them by using a special scroll that could only be used once. He also gets a second dragons eye and saves some of the all but 2 dragon hatchlings. He still has to do 12 quests to stop the evil person. He also learns that a secret the evil person was trying to solve was in the mind of his friend Bethany, even though she doesn’t know the secret.

Sly 2:Band Of Thieves

A few years ago, I got a game for my play station 2 called Sly 2:Band Of Thieves. It was a difficult game. In the game, a master thief named Sly Cooper and his friends, Bentley and Murray, sneak into a Museum in Cairo. They were trying to steal the parts of Sly’s worst enemy, the giant ancient metal owl, Clockwerk. They find out that they were stolen the night before. They get caught my Inspector Carmelita Fox and her assistant, Constable Neyla. Carmelita believes Sly stole the, but Neyla said it might have been a Klaaw gang job. They had to pull a hasty escape. They discovered the first member of the Klaaw gang, Dimitri, had the Clockwerk tail feathers. Neyla helped them with there operation. Sly ran into a few difficulties, but he was able to get the tail feathers. They found that the second member of the Klaaw Gang was named Rajan. He was in possession of the Clockwerk wings. Once again, Neyla helped them. However, during the operation, Sly was dancing with Carmelita in disguise. Neyla secretly took a picture. Sly then found out that Rajan was plotting his revenge in an ancient temple in India. He was also in possession of the Clockwerk heart. Neyla helped them again, but just Rajan was defeated, Neyla double crossed them and gave them to the prison warden, the Contessa. She also showed the Contessa the picture she took of Carmelita and Sly. Carmelita was also taken into prison. However, luckily, \Bentley had not been captured. He had to save his friends. He learnt that the Contessa was also a member of the Klaaw Gang. When he rescued Sly and Murray, however, she escaped in her blimp. The Contessa’s secret alliance with the Klaaw Gang was revealed, however. Neyla was given money to hire tank and bomber mercenaries. The Contessa and Neyla were beginning a full-scale war. The Contessa also had the Clockwerk Eyes. She was trying to brainwash Carmelita with them. The Cooer gang still foiled he plans, but Neyla tried to take one of the eyes. Sly was able to get it though. The Contessa was taken to jail. The next member of the Klaaw Gang was Jean Bison. In the 1800s, he was frozen during a Canadian gold rush. He was thawed thanks to global warming. He did everything he could after that to destroy nature. He had the Clockwerk lungs and stomach. The operation wouldn’t have had any bumps in it if Neyla didn’t come in the middle with her mini-bomber to steal the pieces. Bentley was able to use his dangerous RC Chopper to destroy the mini-bomber. Jean Bison went to his secret logging camp to send something called the Northern Lights Battery to his partner Arpeggio. Jean Bison also had the Clockwerk talons, and Arpeggio had the Clockwerk brain. They joined Jean Bison’s woodcutter contest to win the talons. Just before they won, Jean Bison found them cheating and trapped them. Jean Bison then told them that he sold the Clockwerk parts he found in their hideout to Arpeggio. When Jean Bison was neutralized, they pulled of the old Trojan Battery trick to get into Arpeggio’s blimp. When they got there, they learnt Arpeggio was working with Neyla to achieve immortality. However, Neyla double-crossed Arpeggio and killed him. She joined herself with the Clockwerk parts and became Clock-La. They had to stop her before she became immortal. Carmelita and Sly had to work together to stop Clock-La. After they beat her, she destroyed Arpeggio’s blimp and kidnapped Bentley and Murray. They were able to beat her, but Bentley’s legs were crushed in the process. Carmelita then caught Sly, but he escaped. It was a great game.

Sly 3:Honor Among All Thieves

Sly and Bentley were reunited after sly escaped. A guy named Mac Sweeney told Sly that he worked in his father’s gang back when he was alive. He told him about the Cooper Vault. All of Sly’s ancestors put their wealth in the Cooper Vault. It could only be opened by a Cooper. When he got their, he learnt that a “Doctor. M” had built a fort. He secretly was part of the last generation Cooper Gang. He needed a gang of new, world-class team. He recovered his old friend Murray, his old enemies Dimitri and Panda King, and two new members named Penelope and The Guru. However, once in the Cooper Vault, Sly and Doctor. M got in a fight. Then the Interpol officer Inspector Carmelita fox came in. Sly, in a desperate attempt to save her lost his memory. It is unknown if he really lost his memory. Inspector Fox him he was Constable Cooper. They both escaped while the Cooper Vault caved in. Doctor. M died in the cave in. Sly left his cane, the key to the Vault on the island. It was worth millions. Murray became a racer, Dimitri became a celebrity diver, Panda King was in charge of screening all of his daughter’s would be husbands, The Guru started having to teach a famous rock group in central park. Penelope and Bentley performed world class jobs around the world. Bentley wrote in Sly’s book, the Thievius Racoonus, that he was building a time machine to find out if Sly, Murray, Bentley, and the rest of the gang will ever meet up again. It was super cool.

Badminton

This summer, I also played Badminton. I play against my sister. I’m really good at Badminton. Yesterday, I played one game against my mom. I lost 5-15. Badminton is really fun.

Politics

This year, I’ve been following the election. I followed the campaigns of Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain. Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama are both in the Democratic Party, while John McCain is a Republican. John McCain was the Republican nominee, and Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee. So far Obama is winning the election. In November, the next president will be elected.

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

This year, the Summer Olympics are taking place in Beijing, China. The United States has 12/13 gold medals. 8 of them are Michael Phelps’. He got the most gold medals in a single Olympics in history. He won a swimming race by 0.01 of a second. At the beginning, he was in 7th place, but he still won. I think the Olympics are an important event.

The GATE Program

Yesterday, I got a letter from the school district saying I was in the GATE Program. GATE means Gifted And Talented Education. I passed the Stanford Achievement Test. I’m really happy about it.

These are some of the other things I have done this summer. It was a great summer.Next Monday, August 25th, 2008, school starts. My uncle is also moving in to his new house on that day. My grandmother is also leaving on the 28th. I guess I'll be bored from that day on, but right now, I'm happy.

Canada Trip -July 2008

2008-08-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

In July 2008, I went on a huge trip through America and Canada. I had been waiting for this trip for months. It was a 8 day trip.

On 7/22/08, I went to Dallas, Texas. I took a plane at 6:00 clock Pacific Time. I also ate a chocolate chip cookie. While I was on the plane, I read a book called Eragon and took a nap. I was a 2 hour-long flight. It was 12:00 Mountain Time, which is 2 hours faster than Pacific Time when we got there. I ate my dinner when I got to my grandmother’s sister’s house. I felt exhausted, but when I tried to sleep, I couldn’t. I just stayed up until 2:A.M. Mountain Time.

On 7/23/08, I woke up late. I brushed my teeth, took a bath, and ate my breakfast before lunch. I played with my second cousin, Pranav, who is 1 and a half. In the evening, I went to Detroit, Michigan. I did the same things I did on the way to Dallas. It was late after I went to my third cousins, Vignesh’s and Anagha’s house. I just slept after getting there.

On 7/24/08, I played with Vignesh. We played in his backyard and on the computer. I had lots of fun with him, but at 12:00, we had to leave. We drove for 4 hours to Niagara Falls, Ontario. We went through the border between America and Canada. It was something I’ll never forget. It took us almost half an hour to pass. When we got to Niagara Falls, we went to the falls. We went behind the falls in Journey Behind The Falls. It was so rough I got blown back every time I went to the right side as well as getting soaked. After that, we went and saw Niagara’s Fury. First we saw a mini-movie about Niagara Falls’ history. Then we went on a 4-D simulated boat and helicopter ride around a simulated early Niagara Falls. At 10:00, we went to our hotel and slept.

7/25/08 was my dad’s birthday. We couldn’t buy him a cake, so we made him one and had a small celebration at the hotel. I made a card for him. At 9:00, we caught the second Maid Of The Mist VII boat. It was just like Journey Behind The Falls except it was even cooler. When it was over, we went on the White Water Walk, took pictures, and ate ice cream. We left for Toronto, the capital of Ontario, immediately after the White Water Walk. We took a bus tour of the city. We didn’t get down at a castle called Casa Loma because we couldn’t go inside. Casa Loma was built in the early 1900s by a rich man named Sir Henry Pallat. It cost over 3 million dollars to build. Right after he built it, he went bankrupt. To add to his troubles, his wife died as well. We got of at a building called the CN Tower. Until 2007, it was the tallest freestanding structure in the world. The view from up there was magnificent. When we left the tower. We went on a boat tour of the islands around Toronto. When we got of the boat, we found a place to eat pizza. The slices were a third the size of a normal pizza slice, but they were twice as tasty. After eating pizza, we went to a hotel on the outskirts of Montreal, Quebec. The trip took many hours & we reached there at the wee hours of morning (2.30am).

On 7/26/08, we took a tour of Montreal. One of our first stops was the church NotreDame Basquille. In front of it were some horse-drawn carriages. There was about 20 or more stained glass paintings. It was a very spacious church. It had many rooms. There were also a few statues. Some people have their weddings at the church. The waiting list for a wedding is two years. It seemed weird that such a big city like Montreal was so quiet. That was because most activities in Montreal take place underground. Our next stop was a short picture and rest stop near the Olympic Stadium. I took a few pictures of it. None of us went there, though. Our next stop was a huge church for all religions. I took a picture of it, the garden, a large building close to it, and a statue. We passed by one of the biggest graveyards in the world. It had over 1 million graves. Our final stop was on top of a huge hill called Mount Royale. I took pictures of my family with a view of the city in between them. I also took a picture of the whole city. We were on the opposite side of where the Olympic Stadium was. It was miles away.

We went to Quebec City, Quebec. Quebec city was the first French settlement in North America. All the street signs and names were in French. It really was like a European city. We saw a park that went on for acres and acres. There was also a beautiful fountain built by a clothing store in Quebec. We also saw a statue commemorating a French woman by name Joan of Ark. After the tour, my sister and I got soft ice cream. At night, we went to the outskirts of Ottawa, the capital of Canada.

The scenery and landscapes in Canada were beautiful. California was a desert compared to Canada. It gave a whole new meaning to the term greenery. The flowers were all sorts of colors. The roads there were thinner than the ones in the U.S. The flowerbeds on the side of the highway were extravagant, exotic, and colorful.

On 7/27/08, we went to the Museum Of Natural History. We started with pre-history. We saw the bones of ancient mammals, reptiles, and dinosaurs. We saw a mini-movie about how the dinosaurs went extinct. In room 2,we learnt about modern mammals. In room 3, we learnt about the ice age. In room 4, we learnt about birds in the bird gallery. We went to the gift shop afterwards and bought some books. We went to the Capital Building soon after. The Capital Building is where the Canadian parliament has meetings. We took a few pictures of it and left. We were headed for Detroit. At lunchtime, we bought pizza from Hot Fresh Pizza Pizza. It was the most delicious pizza we ever ate. It took us 9 hours to get to Detroit. We left Ottawa at 1:00 and got to Detroit at 10:00. When we got there, I played with my cousin for hours.

On 7/28/08, my grandmother, sister, and mom went back to California. Vignesh and me played with aircrafts in the morning. It was funny. We each had two planes. Vignesh launched 100s of heat-seeking missiles. The first time, I shut down all my power and they went to the sun. Luckily, my base was in Asia, where it was nighttime. At Vignesh’s base, it was daytime. His base got incinerated. The second time, I did the same thing and the missiles hit Destiny, a spaceship that was going to colonize Mars. Then I launched a space ship. It colonized Mars first, so I won the game. We also played Wii sports and built our own army camp.

On 7/29/08, I left for California at 4:00 am. When I got home, I did some math and found out we drove and flew for 36 hours during our trip. That’s 1 and half days. My trip was exciting and fun, but in the end, I was happy to get home.

Another Interesting Week: Week of July 12th, 2008

2008-07-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

I’d been waiting for July 11th for a long time because I was going to my friend’s house. I got up early to go to my mom’s company’s cafeteria because she is allowed to bring a visitor once a month. I had heard stories about it from my mom. I expected it to have lots of tasty things inside. We ate chocolate muffins, bagels, Fanta, and a croissant. I also expected it to look like a normal building, but it looked more like a tropical hotel. Later that day, I went to my good friend's house in Cupertino. There, I swam and played with my friends for an hour and had a water battle. I had never done those things before. Then we played on her Thrillville off the Rails on her WII, played Apples to Apples Junior, and played Super Spy. That evening she came for a sleepover at my house. We built warships and battle robots out of legos. I have a lot of spare parts and I made stuff out of them just for entertainment. After we had dinner with my friends’ parents we watched the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks. I fell asleep a little after it started.

After mridanga class today (July 12th), I went hiking at the Rancho San Antonio Reserve with my friends and family. We walked for 1 mile and took a break. When we sat down for a break, we ate fruit-rollups, grapes, and muffins. We spotted some deer just before our break. We walked for 1.7 miles and then started on our way back. We saw some geese on the way back. My friend and I also pretended to be the Mystery Hunters from TV. We went down a trail that was not part of the hiking trail. We found a very clear river and a tortoise and it’s lair. On the way back home, we ate Kit-Kat bars, pizza, Pepsi, and to cap it up, ice cream @ Baskin Robbins.

Tuesday was my grandmother’s birthday. We were going to a really good restraunt we sometimes eat at called Saravana Bhavan. It is a terrific restaurant. We went there with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Just before we left, we ate a small slice of chocolate cake. First, I had 15 mini idlis. I was starving, though. I wanted to eat a chana bathura. It was as wide as my stomach, but not as thick. I quickly finished it, and it was delicious. All in all, it was a great day.

On Wednesday, I saw a terrific movie called Journey To The Center Of The Earth, which is based on the Jules Verne novel. My grandmother, mother, sister and I went to a picnic in a park. We went to a picnic since my mom had taken the day off. We were going to watch Journey To The Center Of The Earth after our picnic. First, We ate some madurvade and chapatti. We played for a little while. My mom got me some ice cream after I ate my chapatti. It was delectable.

In Journey To The Center Of The Earth, a geologist named Trevor is losing his laboratory, and he is surprised to see his nephew Shawn when he visits from Canada. Shawn finds the fourth blip on Trevor’s world map because of a secret code found in his missing fathers copy of the Jules Verne novel, Journey To The Center Of The Earth. They go to a laboratory of a geologist whose name was in the secret code in Reykjavik, Iceland. The find out the geologist had died. They go with his daughter Hannah, a mountain guide. Just when Trevor finds what he was looking for, a lightning storm rolls in and lightning is attracted to the thing Trevor is holding. The lightning caused a cave in in the cave they were taking shelter in. They get to the center of the earth, and find an exit. On the way to the exit, they face giant, man-eating anglerfish, huge plesiosaurs, and finally, a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Shawn had gathered some diamonds while they were underground. They were blown out of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. They crash into a strawberry farm, but repay the owner with a diamond. Using the rest of the diamonds, Trevor buys a new laboratory.

I also saw another great movie called Kung Fu Panda a little while ago with my mom, grandmother & sister. In Kung Fu Panda, a panda who dreams of being a kung fu master named Po works in his father’s noodle shop. One day, his idols, the Furious Five, are finding who the legendary dragon warrior his. No one except Master Ugwe, the one who chose Po to be the dragon warrior, believes him to have what it takes to be a Kung Fu master. One day, however, the Furious Five disappear. They were secretly going to battle Tai Lung, an evil snow leopard. While they did that, Po learnt many skills. Finally, Po was able to defeat Tai Lung.

July 19th was my cousin Avinash’s second birthday. He had vanilla milk cake with Kung Fu Panda theme, strawberry and vanilla ice cream, and juice and soda. We stayed there 6 hours.

Tomorrow, might go hiking at Lake Elizabeth Park.

This week was a spectacular one. I’ve never experienced something like this and I hope that I will experience it again in the future.

My ‘Fourth of July’ Weekend Activities

2008-07-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

These three days, I’ve done many things. On the first day, I went to the Pichetti Ranch. I had a great time watching the scenery. On the second day, I went to Brentwood’s Smith Family Farm. I picked a whole bunch of tomatoes and 2 boysenberries. On the third day, I went to see a movie called WALL-E with my dad and sister. It was the best movie ever. I will now explain in extreme detail what I did at Brentwood and Pichetti Ranch, and WALL-E.

Pichetti Ranch:
On the first day, 7/4/ 08, I went to the Pichetti Ranch. We were going hiking there. We left at 9:00. it was a foggy time of day. When we got there, we saw a dancing peacock. A peacock dances during foggy weather. We took a picture of it. After seeing the peacock, we started hiking down the Zinfandel Trail. We hiked for about 0.5 mile when we saw a non-existent lake. It looked more like a very green field to me. Then we hiked for another 0.5 mile. We stopped and took pictures. I took 2 pictures and my sister took 2 pictures. We hiked for 1.5 miles after that. We were almost to the other side of the trail when my sister got hungry. We went back to the last trail intersection we saw. There we sat down and ate our brunch. We had idli and sambar for our brunch. It was the best brunch I ever had. Then we took the Bear Meadow Trail until the next intersection. On the way there, we saw a huge pile of horse dung. We took the Orchard Loop trail from the intersection. It had a huge, steep ascent. When we finally got back on flat ground, we were relieved. Then we had to go down a bunch of steep descents. When the ranch was in sight, we took the long way around it. We saw the peacock one last time and left.

Brentwood:

On the second day, I went to the Smith Family Farm in Brentwood. It was a huge place. It even had a fruit stand. The first things we picked were tomatoes. They were ripe, but really dirty. We still picked 12 pounds of yellow tomatoes. We felt like we walked for 2 miles before we got to the boysenberry field. There were barely any boysenberries there. Somehow, we still found 1 and half dollars worth of boysenberries. After picking fruits, we went to the fruit stand and got strawberries and a watermelon. I carried a huge watermelon all by myself. After getting fruits, we went to the P.W. Market and got the most delectable chocolate donuts we ever tasted. Then me, my sister, my parents and grandmother went to the Livermore Temple for prayer and lunch. After having lunch at the Livermore temple, we went home.

WALL-E:
On the last day of my weekend, I went to a movie called WALL-E, which was made by PIXAR animation. It’s about a robot named WALL-E. He is the very last WALL-E robot on earth. He was there for 700 years compacting garbage while the human race was living on a luxury space cruiser. WALL-E meets a robot named EVE who was sent by the humans to find life samples on earth. The only thing she thought of was finding life. When EVE goes into lockdown because she found a plant, a spaceship came down to Earth and takes EVE. WALL-E, however, hangs on to the ship. When EVE gets to the humans, a sinister robot programmed to make sure the humans never get back to Earth named AUTO steals the plant. WALL-E is sent to the repair ward with EVE when the plant is stolen. There, WALL-E frees a bunch of rouge robots that aren’t programming slaves. With the help of WALL-E, MO, EVE, and the rest of the rouge robots, the humans are able return to Earth. However, AUTO destroyed 99 percent of WALL-E. EVE rushes WALL-E to his room where he kept his spare parts and trinkets when they got to Earth after shutting down AUTO. She quickly rebuilds him. However, WALLE becomes a programming slave. Somehow, however, EVE is able to remind WALLE about his past. The human race was saved.

Fourth Grade In A Snapshot

2008-06-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

This was an awesome year. I've got a lot of experience that I will keep for life this year. Now I know school is fun. I've had to be very responsible ever since I became an intermediate.

I joined the Student Council for the first time this year. The Student Council is a group of students that makes decisions for the students of our school. I wanted to run for the treasurer. The treasurer keeps records about how much money the school has. I wrote a 3 minute speech with the help of my parents. I was going against a lot of people. Although, I lost for the treasurer's post, I became my classroom representative. We chose the winners of the Pomeroy T-Shirt Contest, the spirit days we would have this year, and we ran the Student Store.On 6/6/08, we had our last meeting. We had a pizza party at our last meeting. It was six days before the last day of school. I also had my Student Store shift on that day. My partner, Anthony, and I made a ton of money for the store.

I joined chorus for the first time this year. Chorus is a group activity for students who are willing to sing. 12 people participated in chorus. It was managed by Mrs.Stalder and Mrs.Woo. We sung 12 songs from around the world, and three from America. The foreign songs were from Ireland, Germany, Italy, Israel, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, and Cannada. All the girls except two quit chorus, but all the boys stayed to the very end. We also had to draw posters representing each country. I, with the help of my dad, drew the Red Square of Russia and the Leaning Tower Of Pisa of Italy. We also had several lines each. We had to memorize them. Thanks to the lines I had, chorus enhanced not only my cooperative singing skills, but my public speaking skills as well. We had three performances. each time we showed the same thing. First we performed for the 4th-6th graders, then to the kindergarten-3rd graders, and finally, to the parents of the chorus members. On the day after our last performance, we had a pizza party.

We had kinder buddies in our class year round. We helped our kinder buddies with art projects. My buddie's name was Vernon. We also did special things with our buddies. In November, we watched a movie about Thanksgiving. In March, we had an Easter egg hunt with our buddies. In May, we went with our buddies to the Oakland Zoo. On the day before the last day of school, we saw our buddies' graduations. They sung a lot of songs. After recess on that day, we saw our buddies for the last time. Everyone ate popsicles and played tag.

This year, we learnt about Missions. When we were done with the Mission unit, we went to Mission San Juan Bautista. My mom was a chaperone for that fieldtrip. We explored the mission. We had questions given to us and we tried to get the answer. We went to buy ice-cream after lunch. We also went to gift shop and bought some amethyst stones. My favorite place was the church. The church had a black cat in it. I also discovered a secret passageway outside the mission, but it led nowhere. We also saw many stage coaches in the mission.

I went to the District Science Fair for my second year running this year. My science project determined which over-the-counter antacid neutralizes stomach acidity most efficiently. I tested 4 antacids. I also took pictures and wrote a log about my project. It was also my sister's first time in the District Science fair. I did many experiments for three months. First I found some very acidic foods. Then we found 4 bases, or antacids. Then we measured how much the pH was. pH is how much hydrogen ion concentration is in a solution. Anything under 7.0 is an acid. Anything over 7.0 is a base. 7.0 is neutral. Water has a neutral pH of 7.0. I also learnt many formulas. My mom helped me do my experiments.

One of my greatest achievements this year is being the top reader in the school (1-6th grade). At the end of the year, I had more than 678 Reading Counts points. The people who got closest to my amount of points had 600 points. Last year, I wanted to get 500 points. I had the most points in all the primaries. I stopped at 510 points. I could have made 600. This year, I wanted to get 600. When I got to 600 points, unlike last year, I still had a lot of time until the end of the school year. So I decided to get 700 points. I was almost there on the day of the last Reading Counts assembly, but after that assembly, there was no more Reading Counts for the rest of the year.

I got many academic awards in fourth grade. I had to work hard to get them. I got academic awards for science, the Science Fair, Social Studies, Math, and reading, but I didn't get the fine arts award & the physical education award. The reading award also had a key chain and Borders (book store) gift card with it. The rest of the awards came with coupons for restaurants. At the end of the year, I got 11 academics awards. I even got a special gift from my teacher for being top reader. And finally, I got my report card. I got a O (Outstanding) in everything except art. I still got an S in art, which is good. And my most important award is my ticket award. I got the most tickets in the class. My teacher gave me 2 free AMC tickets for any movie more than 2 weeks old. It doesn't even have a money boundary.I also got responsibility, caring, and sharing awards. In fact, I got 2 responsibility awards. I also got the O.D.S award (Order of Distiguished Service award).

I worked with Mrs Downey, Mrs.Stalder, Mrs.Woo, Mrs.Patner, Mrs.Anand, Mrs. Rasmussen, Mrs. Melinda Manalo, and Mrs.Brown this year. I did chorus with Mrs.Stalder and Mrs. Woo. I did O.D.S. for Mrs.Patner and also did Student Council with her. Mrs. Anand was my science teacher. Mrs. Melinda Manalo was my physical education coach. Mrs. Rasmussen was my buddie's teacher. I did O.D.S. for Mrs. Brown. Ms.Downey was my class teacher and I also did some O.D.S. for her. Mrs.downey taught me a lot of things. She is also my favorite teacher. She was also our temporary physical education coach. She also helped me make new friends. My good friends this year were Stephen, Tiffany, Rachel, Nicola, Vishal, Andre, Aniruth, Anthony, Christopher, Hannah, Miguel & many others too.

I started to play the mridanga, which is an Indian musical instrument, this year. I started learning in October. I'm getting better now. I'm learning from the famous mridanga player Sriram Bramhanandam. I'm now learning things to play for a rythym called Adi Tala. On the last day of school, I played in front of my class. I've been learning how to play the mridanga for almost a year.

I also started to play soccer this year. I'm not the best player on my team. My teams name was the Demons. We were all under 10. We lost lots of games, but we won a few. We still won our last game. But since we didn't beat the lions, the opposing team in our most important game, we didn't go to the finals. I got the most improved offensive player title.

I passed the gold level at Happy Fish Swim School and I'm going to be on a swim team through the summer.

I also learnt how to play tennis this year. I'm slightly better at tennis than soccer. I can keep balls in play and I'm pretty good at Running Doubles. My favorite things are Getto Tennis, Around The World, King Of The Court, and Running Doubles. I really like doing drills as well.

On the whole, this was a very eventful year & I miss school. I hope fifth grade will be as good. I'm looking forward for a terrific summer.

Reading Counts

2008-05-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I got 600 Reading Counts points. Reading Counts is a program for everyone at our school. For every 25 points, we get an award. My previous record was 510 points. 600 points was my goal. I read all the Harry Potter books, all the A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Leon And The Spitting Image, Henry And Fudge, Island Of The Blue Dolphins, Indian And The Cupboard, Return Of The Indian, Mystery Of The Indian, Zia, all the Guardians Of Ga’Hoole books, and The Misadventures Of Maude March. Now I am reading By The Great Horned Spoon, Charlottes Web, Sea Of Trolls, and Mystery Of The Cupboard.

Now I have 664 Reading Counts points. My new goal is 700 points. I learnt a lot from these books.

To My Mom On Mother's Day

2008-05-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

My Hand

My hand can
Hold so many things,
Like a pencil, book,
Or toy...
But holding
Your hand any day
Brings me the greatest joy!
I get joy from books and toys,
Sure I do,

But I get the most joy from you!

Happy Mother's Day!

Finishing the STAR test

2008-05-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

In early May, I finished my Star Testing. I had tested for four days. I was really happy because I would have to do no more practice tests. I did Language Arts and Math testing. It was really easy. Incidentally, I have to do the SAT test on the day after school ends. The upside: the district has identified me to be a fourth grader with better academic skills. Hope I can do well in that.

As soon as the SAT test is over, I can relax.

My Gold Ribbon

2008-05-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

A week ago, I passed the gold level in Happy Fish Swim School. I finished Happy Fish Swim School completely. I was surprised because I finished in the first session of gold I was in. I thought there was only a 40-60 percent chance of me passing. We stayed for almost half an hour longer so I could get a picture of myself with the gold ribbon. I felt really happy. I knew some of the people on the gold wall of fame, and finally my picture was going to be on the gold wall of fame. I was also happy because my picture was going to be the first one on the fourth gold ribbon wall of fame.

I am going to practice competitive swimming during summer break.

A Visit to the Planetarium

2008-04-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

"Hey, did you hear about the De Anza Planetarium, Bobby?"

"Sure I did, Joe. I heard they have an Infinium Star projector"

"Really, Bobby?"

"Yup, Joe"

"Wow, Bobby"

"They even have light shows, a domed IMAX theater, and a 50 foot tall observatory, Joe"

"David told me ge saw an IMAX movie there!"

"Hey, did someone call my name?"

"Hi Dave, Joe and I were just talking about the Planetarium. Can you tell us about it?"

"Okay guys. We had to wait half an hour to get in. It was an interactive movie. Some kid yelled out all the right answers for the questions. We learnt there was a series of catastrophic events before there was life on Earth. I learnt Mercury was bombarded with comets; Venus is the hottest planet; Earth might turn into a lifeless planet; Mars once had water; Jupiter has a one-hundred year old hurricane; Saturn is made out of gas; Uranus has a diamond core; Neptune had a short hurricanes and Pluto might be a large asteroid or a moon from another solar system. Finally, we had a tour of the stars. It was stupendous"

"We'll sure be going there sometime. Right Bobby?"

"sure. We will, Joe!"

-**-**--

(The kid who gave answers was yours truly)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2008-03-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

I wrote this report in July 2007, as soon as I read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

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J.K. Rowling started writing the Harry Potter series of books in 1998. The hero of the series is a boy named Harry Potter, who goes to study wizardry at a magic school. All the books in the series have become very popular. The seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in July 2007.

J.K Rowling has written 6 other books about Harry before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I have enjoyed reading all of them. They all lead up to the final confrontation against the Wizard Voldemort. Harry goes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he is eleven years old (first year), gets rid of Voldemort pretending to be a teacher,and gets rid of the powerful Sorcerer's Stone which could make anybody rich and immortal. Harry kills the Basilisk, the evil monster in the Chamber Of Secrets, destroys a diary that he doesn't know about. He learnt that he could speak parseltounge (language of snakes), learnt where the Chamber of Secrets was,and learnt about Voldemort's past when he was twelve (second year).Harry learns who really betrayed his parents when he was thirteen (third year).Harry learned what really happened to Barty Crouch Jr. and gets entered in the Triwizard tournament by accident and brings Voldemort back alive when he was fourteen (fourth year).Harry learned about the Order of the Phoenix a defensive group against Voldemort, stops Voldemort from gettting the Phrophecy that was supposed to tell what would happen between Voldemort and Harry. Finally he gets the Ministry of Magic knowing that Voldemort was back (they had been discrediting Harry for a long time and said Voldemort wasn't back) when he was fifteen (fifth year). He learn't about the Horcruxes ,saw Voldemort’s past,and learned what he had to do when he was sixteen (sixth year).

The book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is the story of Harry's seventh, and very last year at Hogwart’s. Harry, however has quit the 7th year since his favorite and only headmaster had died during the previous year. In this book, Harry gets rid of Voldemort, to free the world from evil. This year Harry goes camping, infliltrates the ministry of magic, steals something from the wizard bank, finds the sword of Griffindore (one of the school houses at Hogwarts), finds the horcruxes (worst kind of magic) that Voldemort needs to survive. He destroys them and finally kills Voldemort. The seventh book is the best but scariest book. I think it’s the best book of all time.

This book is famous. It’s more famous than the rest. It has absolutely horrible things, but still extremely mysterious. It is also scarier than the rest of the books in the Harry Potter series. There are hundreds of murders, but it’s still a classic. It will be famous for years to come. Almost everything is explained in the end. Harry finds out everything he has to do in the very end, when a teacher Harry hated dies. He learnt what everything meant in the very end.

The end is quite different from what the rumors said before the book was released. Harry doesn’t die. It has a very good ending. The story ends at a time after 19 years after Harry finishes his stay at Hogwarts. Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione are sending their children to Hogwarts too. Harry's son Albus told Harry that he didn't want to be in Slytherin (one of the houses at Hogwarts). Harry told him about the mean teacher Snape, who was dead for 19 years. After Harry told him that, Albus wasn't scared of being in Slytherin.They said good bye to each other .Harry's lightning scar hadn't hurt for 19 years. All was well.

Overall, J.K. Rowling has done great work on this book. I’d give her the best rate there is. I say these books are the best this century, millennium, and the best for all times. You should read it and treasure it

I really liked reading the Harry Potter books. It took me 4 days to read this one. I've convinced my parents to read these books. I encourage you to read too.

Wednesday’s Eclipse

2008-02-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, February 20, 2008, there was a lunar eclipse. Me and my dad had been waiting for it ever since we saw the newspaper on Monday, February 18,08 It started at 5:30 P.M. I started looking at the moon when half of the full moon was gone. I hadn't known it had started until then. I looked at it through binoculars. Slowly, the moon was disappearing. We were the only people outside.

My dad told me that an eclipse happens when the shadow of the earth covers the moon and he illustrated it with my sister by using the shadow of his hand. He slowly moved his hand across the light of a streetlamp.A shadow formed on my sister's face.Then the shadow left when he moved his hand away from my sister's face.

When the moon was almost completely gone, mist started to gather around it. After it was gone, we waited for about an hour inside. My dad told me about lunar and solar eclipses while we waited for the moon to be seen again . When we saw the moon reappear, we saw it reappear after half of it was already back.

It was the first eclipse I saw!

Sankethi get-together 2008 sankranthi habba

2008-02-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Sankethi Koota. It was at Sanathana Dharma Kendra. This was our Sankranti meeting.

I was in the art contest. I drew the Ganesha Yantram. The Ganesha Yantram is a geometrical figure that has religious significance. It represents the power of Lord Ganesha. Next year, I will draw it again on Ganesha Haba {festival}. I practiced drawing the picture a number of times. I didn’t want to be in the art contest at first, but after that I started to like drawing. I only had help once. We had 1 hour to draw our picture. Swathi did a Sankranti village scene. Sanjana, Sanjana, and Sanjana (threesome!) were also in the art contest. I didn’t think I was good at art until now. I finished with ten minutes to spare. Aditi, Aditi, and Ananya were some of the people I knew that were in the art contest. My drawing was the neatest, but I didn’t get a prize. Swathi won second place in her division.

Then I played with my friends. Soon after, I had to do a play. It was the Kannada version of “The Emperors New Clothes”. I had to practice the play every day for 2 weeks. When we started practicing, it was a bit difficult, but the more we practiced, the better I got. My dad made a English script for us. I was the raja{king}, Swathi was the darji{dressmaker}, and our younger cousin, Aditi, was the innocent child. Everyone thought I was a laugh riot. I had to come out in biking shorts and an undershirt in the last act. I also got chocolate.

Then I played army freeze tag with my friends for a long time. Then I served food in the cafeteria. Finally, after talking with my friends for a while, I left. I enjoyed the day a lot.

Song of Milpitas

2008-01-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

Oh, you may think I am small
But don't judge on what you see
I'll change my name if you can find
A better city than me

You can live in giant cities and tiny towns
But I'm the proudest of'em all
You can live in California Landing
Where the houses are really cool

You may live in the north
Where the very smart live
You can move to the south
Where the very kind an loyal live

I've parks, schools and a library
Something for everyone
You are in a good town
For I am the perfect one!

*************************************

(I am a Harry Potter fan. So I wrote this poem on the same lines as from a Harry Potter novel. I wrote it sometime ago, probably in February 2007, for my class project on the city of Milpitas, where I live, and where my school is located. Incidentally, this was published in Swarnasetu - KKNC magazine for the year 2007)

Dasara 2007

2007-11-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

Dasara is the day when people celebrate the victory of truth over evil. Legends say that a goddess slew a demon on Vijayadashmi day. Dasara has 9 nights and 10 days. In Karnataka, it is observed as the state festival. It is steered by the Royal family of Mysore. They do a special pooja on the occasion f Dasara.

our dasara gombe setup

On the first day, people get dolls and display them. All types of dolls are displayed. On the second day, it is girls day. The Sarasvathi pooja takes place on the seventh day of dasara, but we did it on the ninth. On the ninth day, we celebrate the materials from inside the earth that make life easier, like oil and metal and how we use those materials, like in bikes or cars. The tenth day is the last day we celebrate Dasara. On the tenth day, we put away the dolls. There is a grand procession in Mysore on the tenth day. It starts at the Mysore Palace and ends in Bannimantap.

I celebrated Dasara. First I put some flowers on Goddess Sarasvathi.I really liked it .I wanted to put them on the sides. Then I rang a bell. Swathi did it first. It was fun.Then listened to Anna and that was my least favorite part. I did lots of other things for the pooja. It was really, really fun. Then I played a little bit on the computer. Then I decorated my bike and squashed a lemon it. I watched Anna squash Amma’s and his own lemon. It was really cool and fun. It was the shortest pooja I ever saw.

I started my mrudunga{indian drum}classes on vijjayadashmi day.It is an auspicious day to start learning to play a musical instrument.

My Student Council Speech

2007-10-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

10/6/07

Speech

Yesterday,10/5/07,I had to say a speech in front of all the intermediates in my school.I had the most competition because I was going for treasurer against 8 people,more students than any other spot on the student council.

I listened to a lot of speeches.Finally,it was my turn.This is my speech:

Dear friends,

1. My name is Abhi Ramaprasad.I'm in 4th grade.This year,I'm running for the post of treasurer in the Student Council.

2. I would like to tell you why I'm very suitable for this position.First of all,I'm good at math and I can keep track of money very efficiently.I am very organised.I go by the rules all the time.This is my 5th year at Pomeroy and I'm very glad to say I've never been in detention.

3.When it comes to money,I am very careful.If I have money in hand,I don't spen it all unneccessarily because I know the value of money.

4. I'm a very responsible student.This applies to everything I do do.I'm very happy to tell you that I was student of the month in room 24 and 14 for responsibility in September 2007.

5. I am a very good team player.This makes me very suitable because I have to work with other Student Council members.I respect others ideas and put forward mine when I'm in a discussion.

6. I would like your support and vote for me in the Student Council Election.

7. Don't forget:

A:able

B:beneficial

H:honest

I:informative

That's Abhi.Vote for Abhi today.

Thank You.

I lost to Baghdeeps sister,Ramith, who was in 6th grade,but I'm still my class representative.I was nervous because I followed my mom and dad's instructions for writing the speech and for my prop banner.I thought what they wanted was crazy.But I got the loudest applause.Anthony,Simran,Austin,Nathan,Akshath,and I all lost the spot to Ramith.I said good job to her after school.She said she thought I was going to win and she said she thought my speech was the best.

My teacher,Mrs.Downey,really liked my speech.Lot of kids liked it.It was a great experience.On 10/8/07,Mrs.Brown,Baghdeep's 5th grade teacher,told my dad that she thought my speech was fabulous.

Summer Break 2007 in a Snapshot.....

2007-08-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

By Abhijit Ramaprasad

8/14/2007

As per plans, Lakshmi Ajji and Venkut Ajja came by the end of May. They were supposed to come in March,only,they got busy.I had waited a long time for Ajji and Ajja to come and when they came,I was really happy.

During the last week of June, we went on a vacation to southern California for 4 days. We went to Sea World on the first day.Wild Animal park on the second.On the last day,We went to Universal Studios.I liked Sea World most.We saw lot of animals,and I got my own blanket.Universal Studios was second best.I liked the Wild Animal Park least.We got ice-cream on each day,and on the last day at Universal Studios,we got a cookie.

I went to my first star party.We saw stars,moons,and Jupitar from different telescopes.We first saw them on a computer.Then saw them through telescopes.We also saw a space station/sattelite.We saw a few clusters in the end.

Amma went to India for two weeks for Manjula Ajji's birthday.She was there for two weeks.I missed her.Manjula Ajji came and went to stay at Mama's[uncle]house.Sometimes she came to our house.

I read the 7th Harry Potter book.I finished in 4 days.Harry didn't die for 19 years+.Voldemort died.I was happy with the end.It was a Historical day when it came out.It was more historical than the times the other books were realesed.Everyone was reading it.I think J.K Rowling[author]is the best writer of all time.She made the the best books about everything.Thats because the Harry Potter books had many different things.It had mystery,adventure,fantasy,and something that starts with a r and ends with e[I know I didn't make a spelling mistake.It is starts with r and ends with e].

I got my own blog website,started and finished my Harry potter report,and did Star Party blog and finished the Star Party blog in one night.I thought I was supposed to tell all of what happened for my Harry Potter report.Then Amma told me to type just the important stuff.

I registered and downloaded a really cool game.

I went to my first soccer class.I was pretty good for a beginner.I really liked it.I needed cleats,shinguards,and a size 4 soccer ball.We tried to beat the teachers,but we couldn't.

I became a super X-Guardian on 8/12/2007.I was celebrating 3 years of Adventure Quest.I got 10,000 extra gold, a 35 potion limit,and 10 percent more exp for every monster I kill.My sister gave me the money.

I might have some fun with Stephen and/or Andre[on different days].I also emailed them.I told them about my soccer class and my website.

Epilouge

Summer Break was great and I am planning to see Stephen and Andre.Avinash[my little cousin who is one] really likes my Sea World blanket.He was crying one day and Amma told me to get my Sea World blanket.He stopped crying when I gave it to him.I really liked the blanket,too.

Soccer class :-)

2007-08-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

By Abhi Ramaprasad

Yesterday I went to soccer class. It was my first time playing. I was nervous. When I found my teacher, I ran a lap. I was almost as fast as the other three people. Most of the players were on vacation. I had three coaches. There names were Tammy, David[maybe], and Danny[maybe]. Then we did stretches. Then we practiced passing .We weren't really passing,just kicking it to each other. I was good at it. Then we had to pass to our partners when the whistle blew. Then we had to pass against a coach and stop him from getting the ball. Then three of us had to keep the ball from getting to the coaches. We got some water. Anna[father] didn't bring any. He got some water but it was really hot. Then the four of us played a game against our coaches. We didn't score a single time. Whoever scored the last one in our game won. That wasn't really a soccer rule, it was just to help us. They won four to zero. They told me a few end of the class things and we left.

Star Party!

2007-08-06T21:40:00.001-07:00

By Abhi Ramaprasad Aug 6th, 2007.

On Friday August 3rd, 2007, we went to a star party @ the San Jose Astronomical Association. I expected to see lots of kids and adults. I also thought that I would understand what they said. Instead, there were a few adults. I couldn't understand some of it either. First we saw a lot of things in space on the computer. Then we went outside and saw Alberio. It was a double star. They were farther away from each other than the sun is from Pluto. One was blue, which meant it was really hot, and the other was orange, Which meant it was like the sun. Then we saw Jupiter. Every time, I saw a zigzag around Jupiter. We saw it differently each time we looked at it with a telescope. Then, we saw a space station. It went really fast. One person pointed a laser at Jupiter [or maybe a cluster]. He told me the laser was dangerous, though. Then someone told me why they were holding flashlights with red beams. It was because our eyes are least sensitive to red light and most sensitive to green light. Then we saw a few clusters. Anna told someone that I was named after Abhijit[star][otherwise known as Vega].We left after that. We might have seen one more cluster.

Abhi's Game idea for Sony PS2 :-)

2007-08-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

Canada airlines now boarding. The Cannadian National Airport was boarding Captain Abhi's plane.He was rich and famous.He was also a fighter.Everyone was on the plane. They were off. They were headed for Brazil. They were suddenly shot down.The captain's enemy did it. They used an escape pod and landed in a Mexican desert. Everyone was okay.- from here on out its your job.I want people living in the area to help,fight,and give jobs for you. They're stranded. After a year of being stranded,enemies,money,shops,,jobs,travel,night and day,weapons,equipment,hp,mp,skill,levels,exp,gaining a level after getting enough exp.more hp,attack power,mp,and a new skill to use in battle or to survive must be given when you level up.I want food and a tent thats upgradable to be in the game.In the end I want everyone to get to Brazil,the captain getting a new jet,and everyone gets back to Canada.

controls:x=jump,x in the air to double jump,and make choices.o=action.square=attack.triangle=talk.

payment:50 percent of your earnings for 20 years and the first copy of the game for free.

console:for now,just ps2.

adress:Milpitas,California

email address :captain@yahoo.com

p.s. There are no capitals in the real email adress.email me.

Abhi's San Diego- LA trip report

2007-08-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

June 27, 2007

On the first day, I played.Then i watched tv.Then Amma came home.I went to the airport to get Anna.We went home and ate oota.Anna packed and we played.Then we picked up Amma.then i sang.We ate pizza.then i did a few things.We reached Bakers Feild.Then we slept.The next day,we went to Sea World.We sang on the way.Then I watched a movie in the car.Then we got there.We went to the Dolphin Stadium.We loved the presentation.Then we went to the Sea Lion And Otter Stadium.We saw a funny show.Then we went to the Shamu Stadium.We watched a show called Believe.Then we went to Shipwreck Rapids.Iwas soaked to the inside of my pants,quite litterally.Then we went to the Cirque Stadium.We watched a show.Then we went the Haunted Lighthouse.It was a short movie.Then we went on Journey To Atlantis.Then we watched a pet show at the Pets Stadium.The we went on Wild Artic.It was cool but we wished it was longer.Then we went to Mama Stella's Pizza Kitchen.It tasted Italian.Then we went to the Forbbiden Reef.Me and Anna saw moray eels.Then we went to the Sea Lion And Otter Stadium.We were to late the.The stadium was full.We saw Shark Encounter and Manatee Rescue.We went to Shamu Rocks.Just before the show started,I got a blanket.I kept falling asleep in the middle of the show.Amma kept waking me up.Then we went to the car and slept.Amma and Anna took us inside the hotel because we were asleep.I got a nightmare.I called Amma.Then we woke up and went to the Wild Animal Park.We went on ZooWerks.Then we went in a hot air balloon.Then we took a tour.We heard some stories on the tour.Then we got drinks.We went to the Amphitheatre.We watched Eperience Africa and an elephant show.Then we ate ice-cream.We found the Hidden Jungle.We found a cave in it.We saw dangerous things in the cave.Then we went to Benbough.We had some time to go to the nearby Zambaru Jungle Gym.We went inside the Benbough Amphitheatre later.We saw a bird show,stayed in the Amphitheatre,watched a pre-show,did a quiz,watched a game show,and slept.We went to Universal Studios in the morning.We went on a tour and some special tour simulations.Then we went on Back To The Future.Then we went on Jurrasic Park.The end was scary.Then we went on Revenge Of The Mummy.Then we ate ice-cream.We watched a special effects show.Then we watched the Backdraft show.Then we watched Fear Factor Live.After that we,watched Waterworld.It was great.Then we watched Shrek 4-D.It was super.Then we watched Terminator 2:3-D.We ate a cookie and left.Our trip was over.

Just started

2007-07-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to create one for a long time, finally happened today.