There are two obvious differences between these two children. One is relatively rich, and has a lot of stuff, and the other is poorer, judging on the patched pants. The natural assumption would be that the kid with more stuff would be happier. However, he is throwing a tantrum because he can’t watch the TV. He has enough stuff to do something with other than watching television. He has become habituated, and he just expects free stuff. The other kid takes less for granted, and is perfectly happy playing with a wooden toy car. He deserves his happiness. It’s all about perspective. Humans are habitual creatures.
This week I started focusing on the upcoming project, rather than ping pong lessons. I found photos and videos to help me on my trifold, and began sketching out the design. I wanted to give myself somewhat of a head start on the big project. I drew out a diagram of the ping pong table with all the serves and hits that I had learned over the course of the project. I labeled it appropriately, with colored arrows marking the direction the hit would go. I spent an hour on YouTube videos and online resources to help get a general idea. My trifold would have the detailed diagram on the right, the main writing in the middle, and pictures on the hand grips and moves on the left side. I meticulously planned out every inch of the project, knowing that this will be an important part of the presentation. I found a website called (https://blog.decathlon.in/articles), which greatly helped my thought process. In conclusion, I spent this week gathering crucial information.
There have only been three major times when I haven’t been choking on boredom in middle school. The first time was the very first day of school. The teachers seemed nice and the homework was light. My pet died on the third day of school. The first day of September is when school started to be dragging painfully along. The second time was winter break. Two whole weeks of no school, and I got presents as a bonus! The only times school isn’t stressful daily is lunch. I get to relax and eat my lunch. Without lunch in school, I would explode with stress. There are sometimes when school gets too boring and painful, and I need to calm down. I use lunch as my tension-relieving time.
Week four was a slight gain. I only learned one major thing, how to set a spin on a ball. With the paddle going up vertically, red side facing the opponent, flick the handle, and lightly brush the ping pong ball perpendicular to the table’s surface. This makes it different from the serve because the paddle in the serve is near parallel to the table’s surface. You can get a massive amount of spin from this move, but it only works in certain circumstances. The opponent has to serve a low ball, which is easy to brush. This trick also has a low accuracy rate, and only works roughly a third of the time. It is extremely effective, sometimes curving up to 30 degrees, making it nearly impossible to counter. This technique is useful to distract and your opponent’s “tempo”.
The book I read during the month of April was The Fowl Twins Get What They Deserve. It is the eleventh book in a currently expanding series including the eight books of Artemis Fowl, and the three current Fowl Twins books. The book is about a pair of twins, named Beckett Fowl and Miles Fowl, who face various hardships including a power-hungry duke and a secret society called ACRONYM. They make several friends along the way, including a toy troll named Whistle Blower and a pixel(Pixie and elf combination) named Lazuli Heitz. Similar to the Artemis Fowl books, their main goal is to save the world.
My favorite thing about this book is the originality. Even though ten books came before it, each book is completely unique, with new conflicts. Every even numbered book of Artemis Fowl features Opal Koboi as the antagonist. Book one of the Fowl Twins series has ACRONYM as the main antagonist, and in books two and three, after ACRONYM’s downfall, Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye, the Duke of Scilly, is the main antagonist.
My favorite character in the book was Lazuli Heitz, the fairy parole officer to the twins. A pixel(Pixie – elf hybrid), she has the unique talent of random, explosive magic. Although her magic powers are unpredictable, she is a good friend to the Fowl twins. One of her character traits is compassionate. She helps her friends, human and fairy, often at the expense of herself. A quote to prove this is, “This is crazy, she thought, as she prepared to launch. Taking off in broad daylight. Her career was most likely over, if she didn’t end up in prison. But there were perhaps three things she could think of off the top of her head that were more important than her career.”
My favorite quote from the book, and possible ever is, “There are those who believe true love is mankind’s greatest motivator. Those people are sweet but completely wrong. Certainly true love is a powerful force, but the actually greatest motivator of all is undoubtedly revenge. Humans will climb the highest tower for love but then murder everyone inside that tower for revenge. And then possibly demolish the tower.” I like this quote because it gives a clear indication for what kind of book it will be.
Week 3 was full of successes. After I managed to open one side of the ping pong table, I practiced against a wall. (Better than not being able to play at all, as was the previous week) I learned 3 new ping pong moves. The first was the spiny serve. You tap the ball lightly with the edge of your paddle in order to make the ball spin off course. The second was the smash. If someone serves you a high ball, you can smash it down on their side for an easy point. Thirdly, I learned a lower grip. You press your thumb and index fingers together above the handle and hold the paddle with the handle pointing upwards. This leads to better serves, rallies, and exponentially increases the power of the smash. Week 3 was a huge success. One minor drawback was that our ping pong lesson was cut short because as my dad demonstrated the smash, the ball ricocheted and smacked me in the nose. There was an actual dent in the ball. It took a lot of hot water and time to recover the ball. This week was good overall.
Week 2 was a train wreck. No improvements at all happened to my form and I actually deteriorated. The first problem was that the ping pong table near our house actually broke down and couldn’t be unfolded. I had to practice on a table facing a mirror. The second problem was that my mentor for ping pong, my dad, was too busy to help me on my project. I had to practice completely on my own. The third and final problem was my form. I couldn’t make a single serve that spun. My finger grip on the paddle switched, and I started swinging with my wrist rather than my arm. Near the end of the week, I managed to repair one side of the table, so on the last day, I practiced against a wall. In conclusion, this week was a definite negative and my ping pong skills dulled.
The book I read in March was, The Queen of Nothing, by Holly Black, the third book in the series I read in the past two months, TheCruel Prince, and The Wicked King being the first two books. The book is about a human girl named Jude, who is living on the isles of Elfhame, in a faerie society. After being betrayed by Cardan, she hides in exile in the human world. The story follows her continuing struggles with her romance with Cardan, and difficulties ruling Elfhame as the new queen. What I liked about this book was the diversity of the characters. The main antagonist, Madoc, Jude’s father, is a redcap, who thirsts for blood. Only humans can lie in the faerie world, making them obviously different. Faeries from the Court of Teeth and the Undersea are cold and vicious. My favorite character from the book is Taryn. She fell in love with Locke, one of Cardan’s former friends, and married him. However, he ignores her, saying her life has become dull. Filled with emotion, she murdered him, only to discover that she is pregnant with his child. She struggles with emotions throughout the book, and comes to terms with herself. She is turbulent. A quote to prove this is, “I don’t know what to do!”
My favorite quote from the book is, “ ‘I was alone, and my instinct was to lash out. I was perhaps not entirely an animal, but neither was I myself. I could not reason. There were only feelings—hatred and terror and the desire to destroy.’ I start to speak, but he stops me with a gesture. ‘And you.’ he looks at me, his lips curving in something that’s not quite a smile; it’s more and less than that. ‘I knew little else, but I always knew you.’ And when he kisses me, I feel as though I can finally breathe again.” It is my favorite quote because it is the last in the entire series, and ties up all the loose ends of the plot. A picture of the cover of The Queen of Nothing.
This is my free writing piece, and my choice was a story about my trip to Korea.
We had been in the car to the airport for close to two hours now, and we were nearing our destination. As I stepped out into the noisy airport check-in area at LAX, I stared out at all the ads. There was even one for the LA aquarium! We had to reserve a spot in the line for my dad, who was finding a spot to park the car for the week we had to spend in South Korea. When he arrived, we checked in a hour ahead of the departure time. As my mom, sister, and I were chatting, dad came to us with news. “Apparently you have to get permission from the Korean government before entering their country. We need to fill out a form for you two, and hope that the Korean government approves us before our flight.” After my dad filled out the application, we waited. My mom had gone on ahead on the flight in the case that we wouldn’t get approved in time. Forty minutes later, the attendant at the desk told us that my sister Lena had been approved, but not me yet. We waited until noon, which was the departure time. My approval didn’t make it. We had to skip this flight, and go on the next one, leaving at midnight, with our mom separated on the day flight. As we whiled away the hours at a sandwich diner, my approval came at about 3:30 PM. We spent the next eight and a half hours eating two sandwich meals. At 11:30 PM, we tiredly boarded the plane, and slept for most of the way. Airplane meals are tastier than one might think, especially if you order the meal that sounds the most like fast food. I watched a total of two and a half movies and slept for seven hours on the roughly eleven hour flight. Once we landed, we embraced my mom, who had been suffering from tiredness after landing and waiting for twelve hours for our plane to arrive. The rest of the week passed quickly. I was too jet lagged to appreciate the first two days, and I spent the next five visiting with my relatives. After the week of spring break was up, I headed back home, thankfully with my whole family.
In order to eat a sandwich, you must first procure the ingredients to make a sandwich. You need three things, bread, meat, and cheese. (Lettuce is optional, but not for me) First, the bread. You can manually slice the bread, or you can buy the bread sliced already! The best invention since… well sliced bread! Second, the meat. Don’t eat meat that has expired and/or has been processed too much(same for almost every food you can eat). Thirdly, cheese. Cheese can be created manually, but that takes months, and it’s too slow. Just buy cheese. Once you have all the ingredients, you can stack them. Try any combination, but always put the slices of bread at the bottom and the top(trust me on this for once). Thanks for reading about how to make a sandwich.
