Plastiki

Plastiki......plastiki... it's the hot topic these days. But what exactly is the Plastiki? Guess what it is! Yes, it reminds you of the word plastic...c'mon, use your imagination, people! You can't guess? *Huff*. Fine. I'll tell you. It's a boat made out of plastic bottles. Right, it sounds like a tacky little sailboat but no-no-no! It's a super high-tech boat with solar panels, propeller turbines and a bike generator for backup. Cool, huh? The plastiki is made out of 12,000 plastic bottles, full with gas. It took 3 years to build the actual boat from the sketches. What is this boat for? It's on a mission, of course! David de Rothschild, and his team are planning to sail off from San Francisco(March 20th,2010) all the way to Sydney. They It's a long journey, all on a boat.

So why are they doing this mission? They planned this mission to notify the world about the plastic waste we are throwing away this minute. They want to show people that if they can sail around the world in a boat made from plastic, then plastic can be recycled and turned into household appliances as well. To sum it up, they want to stop throwing away plastic waste and recycle it. Help planet Earth!

It'd be very, very cool if Project Plastiki worked. It would leave a great message about recycling all over the world, since the Plastiki is world-wide famous now.

Cross my fingers-hope they can make it!

Picture vocab #10

1. Godsend

2. Probation





3. Despicable

4. Melancholy

5. Melodramatic

6. Primitive

7. Ambivalent

8. Impeccable

9. Beckoning

Overbooked agenda..

Wow...it's already February...already 6 months of school! For the past couple of weeks, I have not enjoyed school. Life has been miserable, miserable and you know what? Miserable. I had a Spanish test(Which I aced but I still had to study long and hard!), Geometry Summative(I finished already), Science Plate Tectonics presentation with poster, Pacer, The Mile, Sit-ups and Push-ups, Sit and Reach. I now have a Spanish culture project that I haven't even started and it's due in 2 weeks, a Math project(building a house. I am now making the roof and writing Paragraph 4 and 5. I have not started on costs. So that's on my agenda), and a Formative Science this Friday. I am going crazy. I stay up until midnight these days, and have only 6hr. 30 mins. of sleep because of all this homework. My Math lesson teacher piles me a whole load too, while I have to practice my cello and piano as well. I'm tired and crabby everyday,and all I can think about is sleep. It's not very nice. I am very tired right now as well. My head hurts and I have stupid String Chamber Music Society after school. I think I will sleep at midnight today. Again.Ugggghhhh. Here, let me show you my overbooked agenda.

2:40 p.m. class ends
3:00 Strings Chamber starts
3:45 Strings Chamber finishes
4:00 I get home
4:00-5:30 Piano practice
5:30 Leave for my Cello lesson
6:00 Cello lesson
6:30 Finish cello lesson
7:00 Come home and eat dinner
7:30 Finish dinner and start Math homework
8:30...Oh, well, you get the idea!

10 Vocab List #7

1. Cask-A wooden barrel usually to hold drinks like wine and beer.

2. Cynical-A negative attitude, uncooperative, serious whining.

3. Provisions-Supplies, usually meals like microwavable food and drinks.

4. Subvert-Sabotage, make things not work.

5. Accumulate-Build up, collect.

6. Congregate-Everybody/thing come together, a cousin of accumulate.

7. Ominous-Signal that something's going to happen, mostly negative.

8. Contradict-Go against, disagree, talk back.

9. Adversary-Opponenet, enemy

10. Flabbergast-Bewildered, but in an amazed way like "You got to be kidding me!"

Projects and Tests

The second month of 2010 has unfolded! Which also means the big pile of projects and tests were starting to leak onto our shoulders. Right now, I have a Math project, which is building a house. I have to design the rooms and furnitre, pick the materials and find out the cost of my dream house. It also has to be eco-friendly and I have to write a paragraph for each step. Where should I build my house? I want it to be a hot place, so the solar-power panels can work and but I also want my house to be in a cold place, so it will be useful for my spa and gym I am trying to install. *Huff*. I was thinking of Switzerland at first, because I wanted a big modern house somehwere clean, but...I guess my solar-power panels don't really work there. Hmmmm.......what should I do?????

Mountain Hiking

I am now reading a book called 'Peak'. It's about a boy named Peak, who gets caught climbing a skyscraper. The trouble starts there. He goes to Juvenile, and a boy who read about him tries to climb a wall but falls off and dies. Peak is in hot water. Uh-oh...then Peak's dad, Josh, whisks him away to Kathmandu and gives Peak a chance to hike Everest. That's all I'll say for now. But it's a really good book, so I am on the waiting list for the book in the Library. I wonder how I'll feel, hiking? I have never really hiked on a mountain before. Well, at least not properly with gears, eight-hours-a-day hike like Peak. The longest I've hiked was about 2-3 hours? I was tired, tired, tired then. So I guess I wouldn't be able to reach the summit of mountains, like Peak. But if I'd given the chance, that'd be great, I guess. Exhausting, yes but it would be so cool! Hiking boots and clothes, cooking your own meals, sleeping in a tent, hiking, reaching the summit! Although climbing now sort of creeps me out, because you gotta have great lung capacity and stuff, and as you get up, you get oxygen issues and I hate oxygen issues. I can barely hold my breath under the water for 30 seconds. And especially that sickness Peak mentioned, how your lungs get filled with fluid and you die if you hike too fast. Ugh. Imagine dying while hiking. Nora has gone trekking in Nepal, and it seemed cool. But another problem that probably will bug me is the bathroom. There are no proper bathrooms while hiking! And even if there is, it's dirty and not-so-clean. And it's probably made with trees and holes and stuff. I hate dirty toilets. And how about taking a shower? You probably cannot take a shower while hiking! Nora trekked for 6 days. But she had a shower. I guess Peak doesn't. Ew. Sweating, sweating, sweating, and then no shower. Blecchhh. So...I guess I'm not a hiking person. Even it would be cool. I think I'm more like a lie-on-the-couch-with-a bag of Lays-with-hot shower-and Wi-Fi and T.V person. Oh well.

Haiti History & Why so poor?

Haiti History

1. Before Haiti was discovered, Taino/Arawak Indians were settled in Haiti. They were the original people of Haiti.

1. Haiti was discovered by Christopher Columbus, December 5th, 1492. Colombus declared Haiti as Spain territory. Then Spain killed almost everybody living at Haiti.

2. In 1697, the Spanish gave some of Haiti to France. Haiti was fashioned a new name: Saint Dominigue.

3.  The French brought the first 100 African slaves to Haiti, making them work day and night and treating them harshly. 

4. In Jan. 1, 1804, Haiti declared independence, becoming the first independent black country. 

5. Jean-Jacques Dessalines named the new nation Haiti in 1804. 

Why so poor?

6. To get a good job, you must be well educated. Haitians are rarely educated, not being able to read or write. So they can only get poor-paid jobs, earning one or two dollars a day.

7.Haiti was once the richest colony in the world. Haiti was once called the Jewel of Antilles, due to the fortune they made by exporting sugar, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, cotton and lots more.

8. Haiti chops off lots of trees to make charcoal to export for money, but when hurricanes and storms hit, it destroys the houses and buildings, especially without the trees, which sometimes help stop disasters.

9. One reason Haiti is so poor is because Haiti was forced to stop exporting some of their goods. Haiti used to export coffee until the 1960s when the price of coffee had dropped lower. Haiti couldn't compete with the rest of the coffee exports so they had to stop exporting coffee.

10. Another reason Haiti is so poor is because two-thirds of the citizens earn money farming crops, which could be destroyed easily by a storm or a drought. Which leads to no money.