Hello. I’m Eric. Grade 8. Northern Manitoba. Remember me? Maybe not.
Yes, I’m in Mr.Fisher’s class for the second year in a row. That means more blogging, more computers, and more Apple Mac’s exploding. True story.
Welcome back. Season Two.
Nov
07
Conflict is natural. It happens everywhere, and is inescapable. People in a crowded space for weeks on end will get bitter and fight for authority. In schools, peers will bully the odd one out. The weakest. The one with all of the answers. War is a conflict on a massive scale.
With all of the conflict that is happening, all of it seems the same. It’s not. There are actually four very different types.
-Man Vs. Man
-Man Vs. Himself
-Man Vs. Nature
-Man Vs. Society
An example of a man versus man conflict would be two people fighting somewhere. Or a group of people fighting against someone. Or a group of people fighting with another group of people. One thing that you have to realize is that fighting isn’t always people beating each other up. It could also mean verbal fighting. Fighting with words.
The next conflict, man versus himself is like you challenging yourself to do something. Like doing a huge 100 Km bike ride. Think of yourself climbing up a sheer mountain cliff, risking death with every foot fall, just because you challenged yourself to. Sound crazy? Alternately, this conflict could mean you doing something that you really hate, just to see if you can do it.
Man Vs. Nature. Nature Vs. Man. Thorny branches come to mind. Raging waterfalls, tall cliffs, not to mention large rabid bears. In some cases, challenging nature is not a good thing for your health and sanity. On the other hand, it can be great exercise, and you can see some pretty cool things. Like sunsets. And sunrises. And that rabid bear that’s following you. The most famous example of this conflict is the TV show SurvivorMan. There is another one like it, but I can’t recall what it’s called. The star of the show has to venture to dangerous places in the wild (or escape from them), in some sort of time limit usually. What people do to amuse themselves…
The last conflict is a harder one to describe. Man Vs. Society. Think of it this way. You are living in a happy little country. Suddenly, one day it’s attacked and taken over by an equally small country. While most people are happy for this change, you lead a small group of rebels who want the other country to leave your country alone. Would you fight or fend of the other country if you had the chance? Would you change society? I know of two fictional characters who had the chance and took it. One is Tally Youngblood, member of the Smoke. The other is Katniss Everdeen. Winner of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. Both of these fictional girls had amazing chances to change how the way their society and government was run, and they took it. Their worlds will never be the same again. In Tally’s case, she simply over-turned her government, changing society. But for Katniss, she did a lot of small, unrelated things, that all added up to a rebellion against the government.
- Man Vs. Himself In A Very Different Way
I incourage you to try the above chart. It’s way harder than it looks.
Nov
02
Ok. I want you to add to this list with things that irritate you. This is my top 15.
-bumping my head on the door frame of the car
-forgetting to call in sick
-people staring at me when I’m eating
-losing my house key for the third time
-hearing crinkly candy wrappers in the library
-waking up forgetting what I was looking forward to
-people interrupting me in the middle of my story
-retelling my story because people weren’t listening
-hearing repetitive tapping sounds during tests
-people trying to talk to me when I’m playing a video game
-having to go to bed when you’re at the good part in your book
-having to tell five salesclerks that I’m just looking
-people chewing gum with their mouth open
-looking up to find the whole room of people looking at me and not knowing why
-having 13 people in a day ask me ‘What’s wrong?’
I might just add more here, but I will keep you updated on the Hello? post. Give me your thoughts on what irritates you. I might just add some of those things to the list. (With thanks to whoever sent me them)
Oct
30
Smoothwall. What do you know about Smoothwall? It seems to be a kind of site blocker. Smoothwall has been installed at our school. The horror. No, really.
Let me explain. Here’s the picture before Smoothwall…
“A kid Named Yoshio Naru* skips merrily along the path to the local school. Grinning to himself, he thinks of all the fun he is going to have at the public library. And the school library. You see, his town is so small, it’s school and public library are one. Soon, Yoshio will be chatting with his pals on Facebook, looking at cool pictures on Flickr, or even playing the latest RPG’s (Role Playing Games). Yes, the town library was a place filled with adventure, drama, instant messages, e-mails, and, of course, the odd book stuffed in the back. Upon reaching the library, our chum Yoshio Naru is pleased to see that he is not disappointed. Things are still the same, and it would never change. It couldn’t. Why, even the thought of it changing was unthinkable!”
*Yoshio Naru was just the first name that came to mind.
**Excerpt from www.fuzzyglove.wordpress.com
Now, lets take a look at the scene, a few months later, just when Smoothwall had been installed. Actually, it was on that exact day…
“Hearing the bell that marked the end of class, Yoshio Naru quickly left the classroom and ran down to the library, where he went everyday to check on his e-mail. He did this, because his house didn’t have very good internet access. The school library was the only place his family (and many others), could safely use the internet without fear of a sudden connection loss. Quickly logging in to his blog, he finished typing the blog post that he needed for school, and pressed save. Suddenly, he heard a cry of anguish from the computer around the corner. It was the school librarian. She was helping her daughter log in to her favorite site: WebKinz. “A message just popped up! It says that “This site has been blocked because the content has been deemed unsuitable by the administrator! It says that it’s reason is that the site is categorized under ‘Games!’ ‘
Quickly saving and logging out of his blog, Yoshio quickly went to his favorite game sites: blocked. Facebook: blocked. Flickr, YouTube, Addictinggames, G-mail, Hotmail, MSN, Google Images, Google Docs, even Mariowiki. All blocked. In shock, Yoshio quickly went back to his blog write a post on it, and that was blocked too. Stumbling out of the room, Yoshio Naru walked home in a daze. He never set foot in the library ever again.”
See what I mean? Smoothwall is an unnecessary evil. Our school already had a site blocker! Now we have this one. What you fail to see is that my town has a lot of contractors and people away from home in it. Most of those people are just renting rooms with no computers. Their only connection with the people they love is the internet in most cases. Some people still have the telephone, but not all. Now that Smoothwall has invaded, their last connection with their beloved family has been severed on the jagged rocks of the wall that is smooth. Smoothwall isn’t so smooth after all. But there is hope.
Our classroom work is mostly on the internet. We do 60% of our work on Google Docs. Our G-mail accounts are our life line. Now that that’s gone, what do we do? Our teacher talked to our principle for a very very long time. In the end, he made a list of sites that he needed unblocked immediately. That included Google images, YouTube, Flickr, our blogs, G-mail, etc.
The good news is that almost everything on the list that our teacher made got unblocked. The bad news is that they would not unblock any web-mail. That is really bad news. Almost everyone in town comes to the library to check their mail. Some chinks are opening in the Smoothwall Defense System, but there is still a long long ways to go.
The decision is unmistakeable: SMOOTHWALL HAS TO GO!
Oct
07
You might not be aware, but talking piano’s are not new. Even my kinda old digital piano talks to me. But this is not pre-recorded talking that happens when you push a button. The speach and the piano music are intermingled together. If you want to see for yourself, please watch the below video. I found it on Make’s website. Just make sure you watch to the very end.
Just like at the end of the video, with a bit of practice, of even sub-titles, you can hear the voice in the music. To prove this fact, watch the whole thing, then watch the first five seconds again (the part with no captions). You should be able to understand the words, even though there are no sub-titles for you to cheat off of. Very cool. Very odd.
Oct
05
This is a really weird but cool video about Mindstorms RXT. It is made with the Robotix stuff we are going to be using in an extra lunch-hour class. It said as a side-note on You-Tube that this airplane factory took 8000 Euros, and 2000 man hours to create.
If you look closely, you can see that the machine is actually building an airplane, and you can see the pieces it uses over and over again. I didn’t get it at first.
Sep
18
So, like everyone else in my class (or at least half of it), I have to write a post explaining how the first eight days of school went. Unlike most everyone else, I’m going to try to be different.
Right now, I’m sitting at my lonely little table, writing a blog post. Or so everyone around me thinks. I’m actually sitting at my lonely little table, in the outer reaches of the classroom… writing a…blog post.
Actually, I’m not alone. Sitting beside me is Daniel. Across from me is Sumari. The only girl here. Sitting across from Daniel is Blaise. In the only two spots left are Aaron and Parker. All of these people play a part in my story about the first eight days.
When I walked into the classroom. I stopped. All of the tables were changed, and there was a whole row of desks. Desks that weren’t there last year. I swallowed. The newly titled grade sevens must be a big class. There were twenty seven spots, and only ten grade eighters.
I immediately went to my pre-chosen spot. In the corner farthest away from the door, but close to the white board. Soon after, some people I don’t quite get along with came, so I shifted two seats to the right, so I was still against the wall, but at a different set of two pushed-together-tables.
So, now I’m alone, but for Daniel who’s sitting next to me, Daniel who welcomed me as I shifted from one possible beginning of the school year to another. It was Daniel who said ‘hi’. Then I said ‘hi’, and then we were silent as other people drifted in the dream-like way of those who just came off of vacation.
The next person to sit down was Sumari. Little was she to know that she would be the only girl at that table. Maybe for the remainder of the year. Next was Parker. He shuffled over to the table, looked around, and sat down with a kind of grunt sound. Or maybe it was Marty at the other table. The one I left.
In fact, the people at the table I just left were kinda beating each other up. Hence the grunt.
Anyway, Next was Aaron. He was always considered a nerd, but he is a great guy. He sat down with a sigh. There was one space left. People were still pouring into the room. No one was sitting down. The tension was rising. It was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. In fact, the air was so thick and hot, you could have used the same knife to cut that, too. (Always remember, though to wash knives well between useage)
Finally, after much waiting, Blaise comes and sits down. I think that he was the last person to come into the room. Looking warily around, he kinda shuffles toward the last seat in the room. Then he spots Daniel, and he smiles again, as if hope had returned to his existence again. Daniel has that effect on some people. Other people think he’s weird.
Finally, with everyone in some sort of order, our first three day week began. The people at the table I first went to only lasted until 12:45. then two of them moved. The all boy table got two girls drafted into the mix.
Everyone in who didn’t have a blog last year (grade 7, in other words), got one. We did a reading assessment, and wrote until our hands fell off. Our teacher called in Mr. Deighton to come with some super glue. (just kidding).
Our hands being fixed marked the end of week one. Week two, enter stage left.
One Monday, we got the horrific news that the Artist in the School was delayed. He was flying in from Winnipeg. He is a dance teacher. A hip-hop dance teacher.
That day, we did the usual Mr. Fisher classroom stuff. Silent reading, Home Ec, math assessments, etc, etc,etc.
On Wednesday the Sixteenth, September 2009, our beloved friend and mentor Green-Screen the Black Projector, gave up it’s life trying valiantly one last time to teach us in the way of blogging.
Oh, we always knew Green-Screen had a problem. Once in a while, it would project everything in a slightly green, very annoying tint. The only way to stop that was to wiggle the connection cord going from Mr. Fisher’s trusty MacBook Pro into the projector itself.
Finally, the strain was just too much. With the last electron in it’s circuits, it went green for old-time’s sake, and died. It might just make a comeback, but no-one really expects it to.
Sad deaths aside, I am very sore from trying to do hip-hop. In about five minutes, we are going to do our routine to the whole school. I’m going to have to leave you hanging when that happens. Oops. looks like it’s almost time to go. Very very soon…
Anyway, I’m back now. Our classes hip-hop routine went kinda well, but I was an epic fail. Everyone elses routine went really good. Ours was sad. People seemed to like it though.
So far in school, I like all the classes except math and gym. Gym, because I am sore from hip-hop, and math, just for old-times sake.
After school, I just found out that every fun web-site has been blocked by whoever has the rights to do so. That includes Facebook, Flickr, Addicting Games, Webkinz, and every Artix Entertainment game except Mech Quest.
I don’t even like Mech Quest.
The person who did that is going to have to answer to a lot of contractors. A lot of them use Facebook to get connected with their family members back home at public library hours. There is also the large community of kids that like to come and play games…
I am kinda angry.
Gotta go now.
Bye.
Jun
09
How do you spell random? To find out the answer to this question, you should go to this T-Shirt website. They make the awesomest T-Shirts in the world. Go to the main page of Threadless to see even more T-Shirts.
May
20
So, you might have heard that our class is doing a project in school called Smart Set. You had to choose a place outside of North America, and then explain why that place was the best to open the fictional office company called Smart Set.
As you can probably guess, I chose Shanghai. The first thing we had to do was to create a Wiki page explaining a whole bunch of predetermined facts. My Wiki page is in our class Wiki, Creativecities.
Our next task (this sounds like a modern-day Hercules story) was to make a presentation to share with our class. This could be made on Google Presentation, on Photostory, or you could just get up in front of everybody and talk. I chose Photostory. As our class had all ready worked with Photostory earlier this school year, it was a breeze.
The dead-line for the latter task is on Monday/Tuesday. Some people will be doing them on Monday, and some, as you can guess, will do them on Tuesday. My presentation is the third one on Tuesday. Lucky me.
Because you are not in my class (at least, I hope not), you will not get a chance to witness the horror of 23+ kids doing presentation, I have kindly uploaded my to YouTube, so you can share the pain with me. If you are too lazy to go to YouTube, kindly look down.
