Dobby 9's EXTREME BLOG OF AWESOMENESS!!

This is a mythical creature that may or may not exist in the future. It is called the Serpentorus Ignitis. The unique thing about it is that it can blend in with other snakes, one may mistake it as a common rattlesnake. Its fire can leave massive burns to the human skin, and it will keep burning. There is currently no cure for the burn. Scientists are now deeming it the “Snake of Death”. It is very dangerous, and IF somebody controls it and uses it for the wrong reason, the world will be in chaos.

Questions for G6 Blogs from Mr. Steiner

Students are to write in their own words or video themselves (using their laptops) answers to the following questions related to our central idea for team games – “Success in games depends on skills, rules, strategies and sportsmanship.” Students need to post these answers on their blog. The words in red are possible ways to start your answers. Students are encouraged to comment on each other’s answers in a positive/constructive manner.

What does sportsmanship mean to you/look like to you? Give some examples.

Sportsmanship looks like people encouraging each other, even when they win or lose. For example: 2 teams are playing CTF. 1 team wins. The team that wins will say encouraging comments like “Good game!” “You still did an awesome job!”

Why is it important to follow the rules of a game?

It is important to follow the rules of games because it is simple manner. If you don’t play honestly, both teams will be upset and it would start a conflict, and sometimes it might even cause injury.

Why are good team strategies important to success in team games? Give examples of strategies for team handball?  How would you create and/or deny space in team handball?

What is a strategy you/your team used in “Capture the Flag” to be more successful?

Team strategies are important because it is key to success. You won’t get very far with just individual successes.

You create space by blocking people who are trying to attack your teammate.           You deny space by blocking the person who has the ball, or blocking people who the person who has the ball is trying to pass to.

Describe why having strong skills helps your team be more successful? Give some examples of skills with a specific team sport in mind.

Having strong skills are important because, for example if you have strong skills in basketball, like in passing and 3-point shooters, your team will have more points with those 3-pointers, and the opposing team will find it hard to retrieve the ball as your passing is so great.

Why does a team that is very physically fit have an advantage over a team that is not fit?

The team that is physically fit has an advantage(s) because if we are playing handball, the team that is not fit will have a hard time moving around because in the first place, they already have trouble moving around, and they even have to chase fast players. And the team that is physically fit will have a breeze of wind.

Today, 6B, 6D, and 6E came together and started up the Marshmallow Challenge. The Marshmallow Challenge was where we used a bunch of material, like spaghetti and tape, to make the tallest free-standing tower possible, with a marshmallow on top. We split into different groups, into a mixed-student class group.

My team was the winning team out of the 20, where we made it as tall as 40cm high!

But at the end, Ms. Kinsinger said that this activity sort of linked into our Exhibition, and I guess you could say it did. Because in the exhibition, you will have to split into a group with people you might not know that well, but you will still have to learn how to cooperate and do a good job. Just now my class and I had a brief brainstorm on, “What makes a good team?”. Well, a good team includes trust, cooperation, and respect. In my opinion, those are the, let’s say the “Key 3″. Without trust, there can be neither cooperation or trust. Without cooperation, there can be neither trust or respect. Without respect, there can be neither trust or cooperation. You see, these 3 work as what we call the “Domino Effect”. One fails, the others fail too.

Overall, I think my team and the “Key 3″ in place and we executed it with success, and that’s what made us the winning team!

-I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

Thomas A. Edison

So, Ms. Holm is now making a daily schedule to come and talk to us every possible day she can, which I think is great. She usually talks about things related to the exhibition, but today she was talking about “Concepts”.

At first I had no idea what concepts were, but after Ms. Holm explained it to us, I had a much better understanding. Here’s what is considered a “Concept”:

-Timeless – it can’t change

-Broad and abstract

-Universal

-Not touchable; you can’t see it, hear it, or touch it.

——————–

So, you might think everything is impossible to be a concept, since even the most basic “information can be touchable, books contain information, correct?”

Yes, which is why information goes into “concepts”, and books go into another section called topics. Why? Because information is a broad, open thing. It would take years to argue where it goes. But books, on the other hand, would go into the topics sections, because it is a specific thing, and it will almost always have new information for you, and you can see, touch and somehow hear it.

Overall, I learnt that “concepts” will be very important to understand for the exhibition, so we were lucky to have Ms. Holm over to explain to us.

There was a funny topic we had to choose for “concept”, and it was China!

The other day, Mr. Humphrey asked us to write a passage on the following quote:

“Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select the more enjoyable.” Amos Brosman

I disagree with this quote. Good friends are there just there; like good books, but it just depends how you see it. There might be a lot good friends in your perspective, and a lot good books. I guess you can say the “chosen” part of it can be agreeable, but nobody says that they are “few”.

On to the “more select the more enjoyable”. Yes, the more good friends you have might give you the feeling of warmth. But, on the other hand, what you should be targeting is a great friend. A friend that would make sacrifices for you, and stand up for you. I think only 1 great friend would be equivalent to 50 good friends.

And for good books, if there were tons of good books, you wouldn’t learn to enjoy them and cherish them. It would just be “books”.

And that, my friend, is something you can’t deny.

                                -Bryan

Ok, I’m going to write this as fast as I can. Five 2012 events! 3, 2, 1….. Go!

1.Barack Obama gets re-elected

2.Gangnam Style goes viral – biggest hit on Youtube yet, reaching 1 billion views!

3. Connecticut shooting; 20 children were killed; my heart goes out to each and every one of you

4. The 2012 London Olympic Games – I personally do not enjoy the olympics…. no offence!

5. While watching fireworks, 2 boats near Lamma Island collide and crash. 39 people were killed.

6. Kony 2012 – this was on the news for a while, but people have seemed to forget it.

There! I did this in 1 minute and 48 secs. I hope some of these weren’t too saddening Have a great year! Stay safe.

Gosh, it’s been a few weeks I haven’t checked my comments bar, and when I checked in, here’s what I found:

All I can say is, do NOT spam me any further!

I totally forgot to make a post about this! This little announcement is, as you can see, just saying that I was one of the BBB winners. The hard work paid off!

Here’s something fun to do before the new year:

Order a pizza 5-10 minutes before the new year, and when it arrives on 2013, you can say: “Gosh, how long did you have to take! I ordered this last year!”

Try it out! And have a happy new year!

Okay, so putting camp into a blog post is going to be tough, but let’s try sticking to just about 400 words max. 

For our yearly camp adventure this year, we went to a beautiful place in China, called Zhaoqing. Other than the 6-hour bus ride that was excessively boring and non-productive, the experience and activities were the opposite.

“The immigration was a smaller pain than last year”, says Ms.Kinsinger .

Well, if that’s the case, than I would not have survived last year’s immigration, as I am a very impatient person. 2 immigration stations to pass, adding on the waiting for problems that some students might have, add on to an hour and a half of constant boredom.

The border was interesting. Some people think that in that hallway we passed through to get to China and back was not governed by neither HK or China. The truth is, when the British took over HK, the hallway was separated into a half-half. Now, even HK is part of China, so the hallway is all China’s. At least, that is my theory.

After a gas station and constant highway driving, we finally arrived at the unofficial boat pier, which a ferry took us to the campsite.

We were then introduced to all the staff, and then we went to our color groups(mine was green)and we each got a number; but since our Dragonfly leader was from Spain, we got spanish numbers(mine was cinco – 5).

The rooms we got were fine; I was expecting it to be in much worse conditions. My roommates were Simon and Harrison, we got along great, and nobody had any conflicts.

 <———- The magnificent view from our cabins!

So! On to the activities. Let me just quickly go over them. They were: Inkstone carving, Chinese paintings, cable-way hiking, paper factory, and The Great Race.

They were all very entertaining, and most of them I haven’t had experience with before. The 2 most memorable activities were the paper factory, and cable-way hiking; in terms of interesting and exciting.

First off, let me talk about the paper factory. Now, don’t get fooled by the name. We actually only spent about 20 minutes at the paper factory, and the rest of the time we were back at a workshop room making our own paper. Let me tell you, making your own paper is not easy; it can be both disgusting while somehow fun to do. To make paper, we were going to use recycled paper.

We first had to rip them up into tiny square pieces, then soak them in water for a while. Then, we had to mix them(which at times can make you want to puke),and then put glue in it(while mixing)to allow it to stick together in the later process. After that, we had to use stockings as a sort of a net to put the recycled glob of mush on, and excessive water would go through the net. If you are still with me on this, you are a persistent reader, as this is the 888th word. Okay, so if you have finished putting the glob on the stocking, it’s time to dry em’ up!  Finally, bring your net to one of the Dragonfly staff, and he will steam it with and iron for you it for you(so now you know what the glue was for!).

The 20 minutes spent at the paper factory was fine, except the smell of the inside the factory was revolting! I found out that in the olden days, the Chinese used what was called a “pit”, and put layers lime powder on bamboo to make softened bamboo. Then they put the softened bamboo it in a shredding machine, and it made some fluffy brown stuff. Lastly, they put it in a rolling machine to squeeze out excessive water, then got it into a big roll and ‘sliced and diced’ it right in the middle, and Voila! You have really fragile bamboo paper. I don’t know the whole concept, but I have a good idea. The bamboo paper is also used for “ghost money” meant to worship ancestors.

There’s actually nothing much to say about the cable-way hiking, just that it was terrifically brilliant! It was just plain intense at the first few parts, where you had to walk “back turned to the stone crab-walking style”, without a rope! The other parts with the cable was less intense, but I could not express this enough, much more safe! I think what makes this activity so awesome is because of the fear from falling down to the aggressive waterfall, which I don’t think anybody said that they were scared, but the reality is inside, the adrenaline was rushing through ever part of their body. At some point, somebody dropped a shoe down the waterfall, which was hilarious! Luckily, the staff was able to recover the shoe. Ha!

The food was okay, except the dinner on the first day, which I think nobody got enough from the small portion we were given for the many people on our table!

All in all, I can just say that this camp turned out to be much more exciting and fun than I imagined it to be. The only improvement that this camp could get was time management. Think about it. We actually spent 2 days of extraordinary fun and laughter, while another 2 days we were going from HK to China and back. But aside from that, I did enjoy the camp, and I will miss the magnificent view of the lake!

Wow, a planned 400 word post quickly changed into a thousand. But thinking back, making a 400 word post on camp would not have been a quality post either. So, all I can say is, you are truly a persistent reader! 

-Bryan