Slice Of Life #68 - Merry Christmas!!! - Tuesday 26th, December 2017 - 26/12/2017

Merry Christmas!

A note from the author:

    As you can see from the title up there, Merry Christmas! Even though I don't celebrate Christmas, I still want to wish those of you that celebrate Christmas 'Merry Christmas!' Here in Malaysia, today is boxing day. In America, it should still be Christmas. Now, lets get on to the blog post.

Opening Presents:

Like I said before, I don't celebrate Christmas. Still, I have some presents to open because some people still give me presents. I received a present from my cousins, one from my robotics teacher, and another 2 from a Christmas 'party' for my dad's clinic. First I opened one from my dad's Christmas 'party', which was sponsored from a sales rap. They were just some towels. Next I opened one from the 'present trading activity' at the 'party'. It was a picture frame. After that, I opened the one my robotics teacher gave me, and that one was good. It was a geometry set. In there, it had a 180° and a 90° angle ruler. It also had some really complicated, detailed notes, but using the metric system. From my cousins, I got a big box. Well, yeah, that was practically it.* Inside the box, there was lots of junk food, which was vegan because of my allergies. I think that it is quite weird that in Scotland (where my cousins are)**, you can find vegan food easily in supermarkets, but in Malaysia, it is not as easy. They also gave me some clothes, which were nice of them. I actually liked how the clothes looked. They also gave me some type of toy and a salt water powered robot, which I loved. I still have to build the robot, bad thing is, but I still like it because I love challenges.

My salt water powered robot - how it looks like after assembly
(even though I have not assembled it yet)

What I am doing to pass the time:

Since I have to classes to go to, and I now am having holidays, I don't really have anything to do. My friends are all gone overseas, and it's either they don't have internet connection, or they can't access Google because they are in China. So, to pass the time I am reading books and watching YouTube.

Books that I am reading:

I recently have finished a book that I have borrowed from my homeroom teacher. It is part of the survival squad series. Drum-roll please...

I PRESENT TO YOU...

THE BOOK SURVIVAL SQUAD NIGHT RIDERS!!!

I got pulled into this book because I am a Cub Scout, and I have experienced a lot of fun throughout my whole scouting experience. From learning new things to watching rocket launchers blow up, the things that you experience in scouting is really crazy. This book is about some scouts going on a adventure to earn a badge, and at midnight, something bad happens. Helping would be a really risky idea.Will they be successful or not? Read on to find out!

Author: Jonathan Rock

Survival Squad Night Riders -
Highly recommended!

*Not really...

**Click here to see the time when I got to meet them for the first time!

And... That's about it for this post! Thanks for reading. Keep reading, keep writing, and have fun! What books are you reading? What Christmas presents did you receive? Hope to hear from you soon! Thanks For Reading My Blog!!! Please "Give" Me Any Comments You Have In The Comments Section Below!!! Stay Updated Some Other Good Posts!!!  

Slice Of Life #67 - HOLIDAYS!!! - Tuesday 19th, December 2017 - 19/12/2017

Holidays!!!

Now that it's a holiday, we get to have lots of fun. Some of my friends are already overseas. It's been a great holiday so far (for me), and I'm looking forward for it to be getting better!

Watching Movies!

We plan to go watch the movie 'Wonder' this Thursday.
I finished reading the book.

Today, me and my mom just went to see the Star Wars movie that just came out, 'The Last Jedi'. We want to go watch 'Wonder' with my dad because he wanted to see it also. Today he was busy working, so we plan to watch it on Thursday. We really need to watch it before it stops showing!

Texting Friends!

Now that we have holidays, I'm actually getting a little bored because we don't get to see our friends. We don't live very close to each other, and we both have really busy schedules, so I spend part of my time texting them. I have their email accounts, so I then text them on hangouts. Because my parents are friends with my friend's parents, we got to meet not so long ago. We had dinner together. We had many nice things to eat such as ice cream, noodles, etc. Right after I finish writing this post, I plan to call my friends and chat.

Going Overseas!

We're going to be going overseas soon, but only for 4 days. We will be going to Krabi, in Thailand. There, we plan to go white water rafting, zip-lining, and many other fun stuff. I am very much looking forward!

Krabi island, in Thailand

What would you like to do if you had a holiday? Are you having holidays too? Did you watch a movie? Any recommendations? Hope to hear from you soon! Thanks For Reading My Blog!!! Please "Give" Me Any Comments You Have In The Comments Section Below!!! Stay Updated Some Other Good Posts!!!  

Semester 1 Reflection

My class:

My class

We have a friend called Hannah leaving us, going to China.

What were the highs (Good things) - 

My reading, writing, and math. 

Reading:

Ida. B Applewood - Our book club book

I improved a lot in my reading because my fluency is now better and my group mates have been helping me with my vocabulary that I didn't know. I also liked my book club book - Ida. B Applewood was really good. My book club partners were Leo and Aurora.

Writing:

I improved in my writing because I learned a lot of new good powerful words to use in our writing and I also improved in my post-assessment.

P.E - Physical Education

I like P.E because the games that we played were really fun like Danger Zone, The Grinch That Stole Christmas,  and Star Wars.

Using Technology

Now my typing is way faster than before because, in 3rd grade, my typing speed was 45 WPM (Words per minute) - 50 WPM, but now my typing speed is 60 WPM - 78 WPM (my highest speed). We (our class) won a pizza party because our class had the fastest typers. We had a tiebreaker with 4HR.

What were the lows? (Negative things) - 

Social Studies

Social studies for me at first was a little boring because we had to complete some worksheets about culture, but now we have science, and I am ready for what we have next semester. 

Swimming Lessons

I also didn't really like swimming because we didn't focus on diving, but as it got to the more "higher level swimming lessons", it got way better because we got to go on races according to your level, and we also learned to dive. I was in the yellow group in swimming.

P.E

When we had P.E, one of our units was the dancing and skipping unit. We had to come up with our own dance with our group members, and we had to come up with a skipping video with our partner. At first, we were doing well with the skipping video, making good progress. We practiced our moves, but when it came to moving, we had some problems because my partner kept messing up and sometimes our ropes would hit each others'. In our dance video, we started out really bad because our partners were not collaborating. Then we slowly got better and better, and it was great.

Science

In science, I at first was stuck, but when my teacher, Ms. Kerr let us do research for my project, I was doing great. I had problems installing a wheel and axle onto a pulley, but I realized that it could have been done in an easy way. Finally, when everything was done, I had 4 simple machines in my project.

How did you improve on in math, science, social studies, reading, and writing?

Math

I improved a lot in my math because now I know how to do multi-digit multiplication. I also improved a lot in my subtraction because, in the beginning of the semester, my subtraction was not too good, but I slowly improved in my subtraction, and I can do my subtraction quickly now.

Writing

Me commenting on other people's writing

My writing has improved a lot because I did not get as much extendings as last year. I write very good essays myself now. It doesn't take a very long time, but I do it faster if I am on the computer, and I think I write faster on the computer than on hand.

How was your teacher?

Our teacher was the best teacher in the grade - obviously. She lets us play fun educational games on the computer during our free time.

Ms. Kerr, our teacher

Slice Of Life #66 - Going To Siem Reap - Day Four (Our last day) - Happened on 21/10/2017 - Tuesday 12th, December 2017- 12/12/2017 - Rewrote on 13/12/2017 (someone deleted my post until I had only one paragraph left)

    That day was going to be the last day of our holidays in Siem Reap. Of course, we still could eat in the Damnak Lounge because we were staying on the privilege floor - the 4th floor, but we chose not to because there wasn't much to eat in the Damnak Lounge, except for the fact that the juices they serve there are fresh, and you get more privacy. We had went to eat at the ground floor restaurant for the whole time we stayed here. We went down to the ground floor restaurant, like the day before and started to get our food. I got lots of rice, some vegetables and some hash browns. The hash browns were not like normal hash browns that you would normally eat, because the orange was lighter than it normally was. 
    After breakfast, we went to the main lobby. The tour guide was there waiting for us. The tour for the day was shorter than usual. Normally we would be coming back at 6:00 pm, but we were supposed to come back at 12:00 am. We got into the tour guide's car, which was just a normal, average car that people drove everyday, but it was at least better than going on a tuk-tuk.
    The tour guide took us to the local village. It didn't take us very long to get there. We were just driving into different roads in the city, until we made a turn into the local village. The local village was not very poor. There were people selling things by the sides of the road.
    The tour guide took us to see a local school. He thought us the basic numbers, and I also took a picture there. The classrooms were also quite dirty, but the tour guide told us that they would clean the classrooms when school started again (it was the school holidays for them). There were also students there in the playground playing. I have to admit, but their playground is actually quite good.
    After going to the local schools, the tour guide took us to a local village. When he told us that we were going to have a ox ride, I imediately felt bad because that was straight up torturing. We went to get a drink of cold water, and beside where the car was parked, there was a kid (probably helping their parents with business) selling some fruits. The people also brought a really big ice cube, which the kid helped cut with a really big knife. I had realized before that the ice cubes that they used there were really big.
    When the oxes came, we took a picture with them, then got onto the cart. I could see the whip in the "farmer's" (I think he was a farmer) hand. When everyone was on, I thought that he was going to whip the oxes hard, but he just lightly tapped the oxes with the whip, telling the oxes to move.
    We stopped by the local market to see how it was like. The smell of the fish that they selled was really bad, but my mom said that the vegetables that they sold there was really good. She bought quite a few, and we left.

About how the local market looked like (sorry if you can't see the picture - search it on the web - I use google)

    On the way out, there was a kid that had a big stick in his hand. He would not hit you, but he kept trying to hit his brother, who always would manage to get away just in time before his brother hit him.
    Getting on the carriage, the "farmer" "told" the oxes to move. He "told" them to use the long way to the village. The big, bright, and yellow sun was shining like it was determined to get us to sweat. Sweat was dripping down my head like crazy. The long way to the village involved going through a small part of the village, and the road there was really bumpy. Surprisingly, the oxes knew to look out for trucks, cars, and motorcycles. Every once in a while when trucks, cars, or motorcycles came, they would move aside about 5 seconds before a truck, car, or motorcycle passed. In my opinion, that's pretty good for a ox.
    After the ride, we went to get another drink of water (staying hydrated - very important). We were going to go that a pottery class now. We waited for a while for the teacher to come. The teacher had 2 very loyal dogs. We were very lucky our class didn't get canceled. The teacher got bitten by a snake a few weeks (or maybe days) ago, and she was admitted to the hospital. She had to stay in a really expensive hotel that was close to the hospital, but she did that because she always took life first, unlike other people don't in Siem Reap. Her children were playing in the pool that very moment.
    I got to use a machine that I had never used before because in my school, we did the shaping with our hands, not with a machine. I got to make a small vase, pot, and a small container. After I was done, I got to carve some designs. We had small very detailed stone carvings of Angkor Wat, elephants, flowers, etc. We put some clay on top of them, took them off, and there we had the marks on our clay. We could put the clay on our pottery, which made them look very nice. I used all the artistic skill that I had, and even carved my name in a cool way that I like to write my name in. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep my pottery because we were leaving the next day, and we didn't have enough time to let the pottery dry. The teacher gave me a Angkor Wat necklace to keep, which I still have sitting on my table.
    After the pottery class, the tour was basically over. The tour guide sent us back to the hotel. I had learned a lot that day. I also felt bad for the people living in Siem Reap because when you need to go to the hospital or a ambulance comes to help you, the first thing they ask is "do you have money". If you didn't, they would just leave you alone, and you would need to wait for the government ambulance to come.
    The tour guide sent us back to the hotel. We went to our hotel room and started to chilax. We watched a pool competition, while my mom was browsing around with her phone. I started writing a little bit in my story, which I hope to get published in the future (I don't write how I normally write here because even though I type fast, this takes me some time to finish writing. Normally, I use lots of vivid vocabulary - maybe way too much).
    After lots of chilaxing, we went to eat dinner. I we went to Viking House 2 to eat (I couldn't find a picture for all you readers out there. We took a tuk-tuk there. I really liked the food there. It was a indoor shop and had lots of air conditioning. Most people could afford the thing, because you didn't need to be really rich to afford it (as long as you were working, you could afford it). I got some tofu and rice. There was a lot of rice in the middle (just enough for me to eat), and surrounding it was lots of tofu. I slowly chewed on the tofu, tofu being my favorite food.
    After finishing my tofu and rice, we got some coconut ice cream that we had ordered. The ice cream had milk in it, but my parents let me eat it even though I was allergic to it.  They wanted to see what would happen. I ate lots of ice cream, but I knew to limit myself because I didn't want anything bad to happen. My allergy's could flare up at anytime, and my dad, who was a doctor, cured everyone else, but not me.
    We payed for the bill and got on the tuk-tuk that was waiting for us outside. After a while, I felt like I wanted to vomit. After eating the ice cream, I could feel a weird, bad feeling in my mouth. I resisted until we reached the hotel. I dashed to the elevator and desperately smashed the button again and again. Can't this elevator go any faster? I thought in my mind.
    Back in the hotel room, I grabbed a sanitary bag and prepared to vomit. It took a while, but it finally came out. Despite that, I was great, nice, and fun day.

What do you usually do when you are on holidays? Have you ever vomited because you ate something wrong? Hope to hear from you soon! Thanks For Reading My Blog!!! Please "Give" Me Any Comments You Have In The Comments Section Below!!! Stay Updated Some Other Good Posts!!!  
P.S Yesterday I replied to lots of people that commented on my blog. If you see my comment, sorry for the late reply!
P.P.S My post got deleted until I had only one paragraph left (I noticed that this morning)
P.P.P.S I am really exhausted after typing all this, because this was longer than the first edition.

Slice Of Life #65 - My Weekend + Friday - Happened from 1/12/2017 - 3/11/2017 - Tuesday 5th, December 2017 - 5/12/2017 - Written On 4/12/2017

Friday

Rattha Curry House

Friday was a really fun day for me. I didn't have school because it was Prophet Muhammad's Birthday. I missed my Chinese class because I had scheduled a play date with my 2 best friends, Toby and Tobiah. After eating our breakfast as a family at a Southern Indian restaurant. I ate some noodles with daul. After breakfast, we sent my dad to work, then I went to my friend's house (he actually lives in a hotel) - The Face Suite. When I got there, my 2 best friends were already there. We were at Toby's house, and Tobiah was my other best friend. Toby was there with Tobiah playing Bedwars in Minecraft. They did the hand-mouse-keyboard challenge, which Toby was mouse and Tobiah was keyboard. The sad thing was the fact that they didn't win. They thought me the controls because I didn't play video games, and I learned the controls pretty quickly. I wasn't that good with the controls at first, but I could do some basic things. We connected onto the same world on the Ipad, and we created a world which we named TZPRESTON. We did pretty well and actually found diamonds. One thing that I was not good at was building bridges. I kept forgetting to hold the "shift" key on the computer, so then I kept falling down. One of the best moments I had was  when it was almost time to leave. We were playing solo bedwars, which me and Tobiah started by playing the hand-mouse keyboard challenge. We was doing pretty well, so we decided to let Toby play by himself, so that way we would be able to win. Toby was the best in Minecraft out of all of us. We gave him some support because he didn't win a solo game ever, and we wanted him to win. At the end, everyone was eliminated until the last person was left. The person was on the white team - Dragon Cosmic. Dragon Cosmic was really good, but he probably was cheating for the whole time. Toby hit him 5 times with a diamond sword, each time at a different angle and he didn't take any damage or even move. We reported him for hacks (that might have just been bad sportsmanship). At the end, we got permanent diamond armor, a diamond sword, a iron pickax, some wool, and other important things in Bedwars. We had a potion of speed, jump boost potion, and invisibility on us. At the end, we didn't win, but it was still a fun day. I stayed there for pretty much the whole day, until it was night time and Toby and his parents sent me and Tobiah home.

Saturday

Saturday was a normal Saturday. My dad went to work, I went to my math class, and then I had my robotics class after that. After that, my dad had appointments just like every Saturday. He had to go to our brain training center (Your Brain Academy - Check it out here!).

The Kid From The Big Apple 2
(A Worthy Watch!)

Before going down the car, my mom asked us if we wanted to watch a movie. It was 'The Kid From The Big Apple 2' (AKA 'I am From New York 2'). We watched the 1st version, and it was pretty sad. The first movie won lots of medals because of how good it was. We decided to go and watch it. We watched it with my parents' friends. It was a great movie, and a completely worthy watch.

Summary of the movie:

The Kid From The Big Apple 2 is a very sad story about a kid named Sara and her grandpa. Her grandpa got sick with dementia, and now he is forgetting to forget stuff (that's what happens if you have dementia). They have to go through all the bad things that will happen, and maybe if there's a third edition, the grandfather will get better.

Sunday

Sunday was quite a boring day for me. I woke up at 10am because I slept late the last night. We went to eat branch with my parents' friends (that lasted until 3pm). At home, I watched some YouTube and read some books. I practiced some piano and did some Mensa questions. After that I had dinner, and that was about all the exciting bits of the day.

What did you do this weekend? Did you watch a movie? Did you have a playdate, or was it completely normal? Hope to hear from you soon! Thanks For Reading My Blog!!! Please "Give" Me Any Comments You Have In The Comments Section Below!!! Stay Updated Some Other Good Posts!!!  

Slice Of Life #64 - Cubscouts Pack Meeting - Happened on 25/11/2017 - Tuesday 28th, 2017 - 28/11/2017 - Written On 26/11/2017

The belt loops

   I got off the car. It was a nice, pleasant day. I was going to the studio for my Cubscouts Pack Meeting. I was going to get my badges that day. When I went there, the color guards were putting the flags in place. We did the scout salute, the pledge of allegiance (even though I am not american, so I just saluted). After that, we recited the scout oath and the scout law. We had some skits to see. The skits were all the same skits as the skits we performed at the camp out. Our skit was not really a skit because we launched a rocket. After all the skits, it was finally time for the badges. We earned a lot of badges, including fix it and many other things. I forgot to bring the thing that we put our badges on, because I had brought my belt with all the badges that I had earned in the previous years. Now that we were webelos, we had a special thing to put our badges on. I did not need my belt anymore. The people that earned their bobcat badge, which was the beginning badge for scouting got their badge, but I didn't get it because I had already earned it years ago. I started scouting when I was in 1st grade. It was my passion, especially because my dad was a king scout in Malaysia (which basically is a eagle scout). Those that earned their bobcat badge had to do a good deed to be able to flip their badge and finally sew it onto their shirt. After that, we had a small cubmaster minute, which was a time when the cubmaster would have a small speech. After that, the color guards took down the flags, and again, we did the scout salute, and recited the scout oath and law. The pack meeting was finally over. I went to collect my materials for the pinewood derby. I had a lego derby and a wood one. After collecting my things, I went to the playground to play with my friends for a while, and then went to find my water bottle that I didn't bring home that day. I went to ask my den leader how to recharge my cyberchip badge, which was going to happen very soon. It was a nice and fun day.


Are You Also a Scout? Hope to hear from you soon! Thanks For Reading My Blog!!! Please "Give" Me Any Comments You Have In The Comments Section Below!!! Stay Updated Some Other Good Posts!!!  

Slice Of Life #63 - The 8th Steam Cup Malaysia - Happened on 18/11/2017 - Tuesday 21st, 2017 - 21/11/2017 - Written On 20/11/2017

    It was a very exciting day for me because of what I had ahead of me. It was a cool, breezy morning. I had a robotics competition ahead of me. My teacher gave me a clothes to change into because that was the official 8th STEAM CUP MALAYSIA uniform. I quickly changed into that uniform, passed my old shirt to my parents, and said a quick goodbye. My teachers' car was really noisy because there was already some of my friends on it. I gave my robotics kit to my teachers, took my backpack that was on my back. My backpack was so light, it felt like there were only some clothes in them. In fact, it had a book, a water bottle, and some food. We went to pick up another student at his house. After that, we talked about the rules in the science center. We also talked about some of the robotics competition rules.
    When we reached the science center, there were some photographers taking pictures of us walking in. We had some time to go to the bathroom. After going to the bathroom, we knew it wasn't time yet so we played some of the small games that were there in the science center.
    After a while, we went up to the competition area to register ourselves and to get ready for the competition. I only had one competition, and that competition was coded CG - creative game. We had to create a robot that could help us for doing things. After we registered by typing our IC (identity card) number in, we had to confirm that all the information that was given was correct. We got a yellow stick to put on, and after we put it on, we could go to set up our robots and presentation. I did not have a lot of things to set up because I only had my robot which took me 30 seconds to set up, and a TV, a table, and a sofa. After setting up our things, I went to see some of the things in the exhibits. Not everything was on yet because we had special permission to enter early for the competition.
    When the opening ceremony was starting, I went to sit down at our center's table. There was a speech by the chairman of STEAM CUP MALAYSIA, a opening ceremony, and a group photo.
After all that, it was time to present to the judge what we done for the competition. It was going to be the 7th person. I was very nervous, but I kept telling myself to calm down because I have had experience talking in front of 1000 people before.
When it was my turn, the came to me. There were video cameras in front of me. I really wondered why they needed to record the competition.
    "Ready?" One of the judges asked.
    "Yup," I answered.
    "Okay, no stress. 3,2,1, start." He said.
    "Good morning everyone. This is my cleaner-bot," I began. "I made this cleaner-bot for my mom because she is very busy with my housework." I went on and on and on.
    After my presentation was over, I was relived. I went to see other people's presentation, and I saw one that was really good. The girl had made a automatic machine to water plants. Of course, it didn't actually work that well because coding was not allowed, but still, I was quite impressed. After all the presenting, I went to see other cool robots that were practicing for the competition. There were robots that did bowling, and also some robots that could transport things. One of the bowling robots were really cool because it instantly knocked down all the pins in about 2 seconds, and a small part actually broke off.  When it was time for the real competition, I saw some even cooler things. A transporter robot actually managed to carry 60 batteries while making sharp turns.
    After that, it was time to give out prizes for my competition. I didn't win 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place, but everyone got a medal.
   It was then time for lunch time. We ate lunch at the 4th floor, but I ate my 2 red bean buns and some fried rice that my teacher had prepared for me because I was allergic to the food there.
    After lunch, we got to see some robot fighting. I gave some tips to my 2 friends that were participating in the challenge. I told them to not attack the slanted parts, because that was they could easily push you off the battle arena. There were also some seniors fighting, and most of them couldn't fight because of how the fought. They fought until one was on top of another, and that way they couldn't move. When it was time for the finals, there were 2 people from the same center and had the same robots fighting for the finals. It was a real battle of skill.
    After all the battling, it was time for the drone robotics challenge. We did really bad. Our transporter robot had a hard time turning, so we had to do last minute battery and wheel changes. When it was time for the real competition, our transporter robot did not even cross the take off line, so we couldn't let the drone to take off. We lost badly.
    Finally, it was time for the medal ceremony. The top three winners would get a drone. After the medal ceremony, we got ready to go back to the center. We stopped by McDonalds to get a small treat, and then I went with my parents to go get some dinner. It was a very fun day.