In which Pearl tries to better her Superpower Assignment

Aw, man, trying to convince my mom to let me go to Anime North is hard. *wince*
But I'm going to do my best! I really want to go - it's that important to me. I'm even willing to pay for it out of my own pocket! ...If I even have that much money...

On another note, Mr. Arkin was away today. So, we cleaned up our Super-power Assignments. Or, well, I did. And, God, did I strain my eyes. I feel really stupid...because I forgot a lot of important stuff about HTML. Like, for example, where to find the "Website Design" page. *shot*

But it should be fine now. I made sure I corrected every aspect of it (that I could find).
I still can't believe I put "were" instead of "we're".
DAH. I'm a shame to all Grammar Nazis! *cries*

Well, on the weekend I have to write my Programming Glossary and upload it. Fortunately, it's not that hard - just time-consuming. Then again, it means I don't have to work on my Science, so I'm okay.

There's not much left to say... We didn't have Studio 218 (again). Is it because there was a supply teacher? I still don't know.

Hallowe'en is this Sunday! I'm going trick-or-treating. Yes...it never gets old. Besides, I like Hallowe'en because I get to dress up (and people won't give me strange looks if I walk around with cat ears on!). Ha...I can't wait until it's May. Anime North! I still have to convice my mom to let me go, though...

I want to write a Hallowe'en fic/story and draw a "spooky" picture. No, scratch that, I can't draw scary stuff. But hey, I write angst, so the writing part will be easy! (Self-promotion time!) Look for me on deviantArt: my username is chibikarin22. Or click here. That works too.

Well, I'll shut up now. Have a Happy Hallowe'en, everyone!

Ja ne~!

In which Pearl feels overwhelmed

Ne, ne! I'm so busy these days!
Today I was away for the science trip (we went to Rouge Valley! It was awesome! I saw a swan~!) so I missed...yet another...day...of school...*feels incredibly guilty*
But I heard that we didn't do much, so I feel a little better. Then again, I still haven't called Zarin...so...
Grahh...I'll get to that as soon as I'm done...other stuff.

At this moment, I'm simultaneously writing this blog and typing out my English script (for the debate). I also have to call Zarin and Jessie, prefereably before 9 P.M.

Anyways! For homework, if I heard correctly...it was to finish the rest of the Selection Assignments. Well, lucky me! I did all of them last night in case this happened! Now, I only have to do my English and Science...

Well, this is a short blog post. *blinks* I guess I don't have anything else to say.
Apparently Mr. Arkin will be away tomorrow. I wonder what will happen to Studio 218? I guess I'll find out tomorrow...

Anyways, I'll be going now!

Ja ne, minna-san!

In which Pearl feels awkward

Well, the X-Country season is now officially over.
All of our meets were in October... That was short.
On another note, I'll still be away tomorrow for a science trip. We're going to Rouge Valley Conservation Centre.

So, yesterday I was away due to a X-Country meet (again!). To my dismay, my class had a test. I missed a test. *cries in agony*
Unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) I didn't write the test because apparently, I already knew the question.
And I had taken so much care not to talk, read or hear about the test in any way. *wince*

We took it up today. I felt strange, since I didn't have a test in front of me.
I still copied down the correct answer, though, just in case I needed it for future reference.

I don't want to miss the next test! *cry*

After we reviewed the test, Mr. Arkin taught us about the if ladder. It's fascinating, really. You do learn from mistakes. I mean, after I stated the incorrect answer, I understood what he was talking about.
Funny, ne?

We spent the rest of the period working on the Selection Assignments. I got through two of them before the period ended, and I finished the rest at home. To be frank, I decided to finish all of them, because of my already-known absence tomorrow. However, I'm ready to alter the code at any time if I did something incorrectly.

Well. It's 10:13 P.M. I should probably work on my other homework now.

Ja ne!

In which Pearl runs out of breath.

Okay, so today I missed yet another day of class due to (yet another) X-Country meet.
I feel bad, because my science teacher seemed to be a little mad at this. *wince*
Moreover, I didn't place well...at all.
But! I'm proud that I even made it to Metros. I didn't make it to OFSAA (no surprise there!), but I'm still content with how far I got.

So, I was told that my class had a pop quiz today. I'm wondering whether I should study or not...since it's supposed to be a pop quiz...
Nevertheless, I think I'll review my notes, just in case...>_>

On another note, I finally finished the Selection Assignments. I was having trouble with them until Cinye told me that there is a space in "endif".
*slams head into wall*
The webpage covering selection doesn't say that! Why is that so? *cries hysterically*
And I was spazzing, too...

---

Hopefully we'll have a DJ this Friday for Studio 218. I don't have a YouTube account, and I don't plan on making one anytime soon...so I doubt I can be the DJ. However, I suggested two songs! My friend has recently gotten me obsessed with Sweet Serendipity by Lee DeWyze - she loves him - and one of my favourite songs lately is I Like it ft. Pitbull by Enrique Iglesias.

If I were to be the DJ...then Class C would have to listen to japanese music for the whole period. And, though I prefer it over English music, I'm not sure if the rest of the class agrees with me.

Ah, well, I should review my notes now. Until tomorrow:

Ja ne!

In which we learn how to desk check

Oh, phew, I thought I forgot to write a blog entry on Friday. *wipes sweat off forehead*
Now that my fears are calmed...

We might actually get to go to Anime North!!!

*fangirls*
Let me have a moment to celebrate.

Okay! Back to computer science. Today we learnt how to "desk check" our programs. In other words, we would put ourselves in the place of the computer and do whatever it would do. (If you want a fancier explanation: "We are tracing the execution of the program") Although it's a pain to do, I think it pays off in the end. If, for example, you have no idea why Turing finds an error, you could do this yourself and it'll probably solve the problem. Useful, ne?

On another note, I finished the Table Programs quite quickly. They weren't that hard to do! Now, I have to preview "Selection". Heh...programming is fun!

Tomorrow, I'll be away for another X-Country meet. This time it's the Metros! I can't wait! Of course, I don't expect to make it to OFSAA. I barely made it to the Metros, anyways. Well, I'm off! I still have to email quite a few people, and I haven't even started any of my other homework! *cries*

Ja ne, and see you all on Wednesday!

P.S. Yes, Zarin, I'll use "in which" for a very long time. Karin influence! Go read Chibi Vampire, and you'll understand.

In which we learn how to add colour to programs

I realize...I'm going to miss five days of school this month. I was already absent for three days, all for X-Country meets. Then on Tuesday next week, I'll be away for Metros (also X-Country) and on Thursday of next week, the Grade 9 science classes will be going to Rouge Valley.
Now that I think about it, there's also a possibility that I'll miss school on November 3rd for Take Your Kids to Work Day.

Oh, and this is completely off-topic, but: in class today, after Zarin told me what happened to her, I realized that my chances of getting hit by a car are higher when I'm sleepy. For example, there was a time when I almost got hit by a car twice in the same day.
I space out when I'm tired.

Going back to the topic of Computer Science...

Today we learnt how to change the text and background colour in the run window, for Turing. There are two keywords we can use: colour, which changes the text colour; and colourback, which changes the run window's background colour. I have yet to experiment with these keywords, but I plan on doing so over the weekend.

We also learnt how to put in special characters. (And this is where ASCII comes in!) There are two keywords that we use: ord, which stands for ordinal; and chr, which stands for character.
For example, if you want to put the capital letter "A", you can write either one of these programs:

#1:
put ord ("A")

#2:
put chr (65)

And...I guess that's it. I've been listening to Canterella by Kaito Shion (one of the Vocaloids - computer-generated voices) for the past hour. I love that song!
I'll shut up before I start fangirling about Kaito.

Ja ne~!

In which Pearl feels incredibly stupid

Oh, it was so nice to spend some time writing a fic. Last night I finished another one: "How Gravitation Should Have Ended". It was a writing challenge for VP's Writer's Club. After finishing it, I realized that...I'm incapable of writing happy endings. Is it just because I'm depressing...or sadistic...? Grr...oh well. I guess I can specialize in angst. Hopefully, after I proofread it and give it a better name, I can put it up on my FF account, and maybe on dA too.

I just finished revising the questions 1 through 7, and question 10 of the Input Assignment. They seem to be running well, so I'm happy with that. Now, I have to finish English (which I'm fine with - after all, it's my favourite subject) and Science (which I'm absolutely horrid at).

But before I do that, I'll stop rambling and start talking about what happened in class today!

Since a large number of my class (including me!) was confused about how to write the program for question 4 of the Input Assignment, Mr. Arkin reviewed it with us. When I saw his solution, I was shocked at how simple it was. The method I had used was completely incorrect! *slams head on desk*

It took the whole period to review this question, but it's cleared up a lot of things for me. Now...I'm hearing rumours about pop quizzes in CS. Hopefully I'll have enough time to study after I finish the rest of my homework.

I'm off now! Ja ne~!

In which our class was taken away

Hn. That title sounded dreamier than I intended it to be.
Nevertheless, I like it. *smile*

Well, we had CS first period today, which meant that instead of having a class, we were in the cafeteria for the Volunteer Assembly. The Grade 9 Rep candidates also gave their speeches, to try and persuade us to vote for them this afternoon.

So, I'll make this short. (Besides, I have a fic I want - er, need - to finish for Writer's Club tomorrow.) I'm pretty interested in volunteering at the library, and I can't wait to tutor others. See, I want to be a teacher, so it would be a great way to hone my skills. Though I'm aiming to become an elementary school teacher, not high school. Yep, so I'm going to the library tomorrow to ask about volunteering there.

The speeches that the candidates gave were excellent! This afternoon, in Period A, we filled out our ballots. We'll find out who our Grade 9 Rep is tomorrow!

That said, I'll take my leave.

Oyasumi~!

In which Pearl misses class...again.

Oh, the Cross-Country meet was awesome.

My team (midget girls) placed high enough to make it into the next round - the Metros! We even got a medal! It's so shiny...*gets distracted*
*cough* Ahem. Anyways! For me, that's a great accomplishment, and I'm extremely excited. Then again, that also means I'll be away again; next Tuesday. Luckily, it'll be a late start (again) - and while my mind is screaming "No! I don't want to miss my late start!" - I guess it's a good thing, since it would be a shortened day and I won't miss much. Hopefully.

On another note, Zarin told me that today the class reviewed Questions #4 and #5, since there was some confusion concerning them. (I was a bit confused with the former as well, but I managed to figure out a way to make it work...)

Tomorrow we'll be missing class due to the assembly reserved especially for the Grade 9 Rep elections. According to my agenda, they'll be covering Volunteer Hours as well, so I'm looking forward to that. Like a lot of other people, the candidate who gets my vote will be determined by the speech they make tomorrow.

Good luck to everyone who's running!

And on that note, I'll shut up and work on my story. (Yes, I write - did you know that? ...Do you even care?) But...yeah.

Ja ne~!

In which Pearl gets...hyper

Yep, I'm gonna start all my blog entry titles with "in which". Haha...Chibi Vampire influence...
But hey! After science class today, I realized that part of it is true! Different species give birth to infertile offspring...and that's true for vampires and humans, too. Well, according to Chibi Vampire.
Look it up! It's an awesome anime/manga.

To get back on topic...I really enjoy programming! Computer Science has become my favourite class! Well...English will always be my favourite subject, but...CS is more fun.

On the weekend, I did as many questions on the Input Assignment as I could because, well...I thought we were supposed to do the whole thing. *facepalm*
But! I had fun doing it, so it's okay. Besides, that means I won't have a lot of CS homework for the next few days, ne?

Today I learnt that we could substitute a constant for a set number. Huh. Maybe it was in one of those articles on the class website. Er...I read it, I promise! I just didn't...take...notes...*wince*
Um, anyways. I realized, after Mr. Arkin put it up on the board, that when I name the variables, it's too general. I made sure that mine were more specific after we went back to our computers...

On another note, I asked to go to the washroom today and, being used to saying "can", I said:

"Can I go to the washroom?"

...Yeah. It's supposed to be "May I...", not "Can I...". So I felt...really awkward. But it was pretty funny! (Yes, I've made so many mistakes that I've learnt to laugh at myself.) A few minutes after I got back, someone else asked to go to the washroom and made the same mistake that I did! I burst out laughing...ha...

And since CS was second period, we had lunch after. Today's Monday, so there's Anime Club. I asked if they could teach us how to draw Shizuo Heiwajima from Durarara!!. (The name of the anime is "Durarara!!", so I'm assuming it's correct grammar to put the period after it.) I went into rabid fangirl mode, and got somewhat "drunk". Alisha and Zarin, who were sitting beside me got freaked out. Oh, it's so much fun freaking people out...


Shizuo Heiwajima & Durarara!! belong to Ryohgo Narita! If I owned Durarara!!...*nosebleed*

Ah, I have to go soon. Okay~!
Ja ne~!

In which I become engrossed in my homework

Okay, so it's past midnight.
Well, I still consider it Friday. It's not Saturday until I wake up.

I couldn't help it! I was engrossed in the assignment!

I never thought I would say this, but I find the homework really, really fun. Maybe it's just me and my simple personality, but I love it when you run the program. After typing something in and pressing enter, something pops up!
...Yes, I can have fun with that for a long time.
Just like Christine's flyer thing for Grade 9 Rep Elections. It's so shiny...OwO

I actually didn't start the CS homework until about 9 P.M. because I needed to type stuff out. The printer at my house is...broken...and I have to ask my mom to do it, at her office. Therefore, the documents that need to be printed are always my first priority.
Besides, I don't like asking people to print it out for me...I feel really bad doing that.

I'm so off-topic! Ah!
Well, anyways! I finished the majority of the questions in the Input Assignment. My favourite one is the address one - I think it was number 5. I don't know. I don't want to go check. But, yeah, that one was awesome. It could generate a mailing address! A mailing address!
(And yes, this is very exciting for me.)

On another note, it's already half past midnight and I have to get up early tomorrow for classes. Argh. So, I'd better go to sleep now.

Ah! One last thing:
Vote Lisa for Grade 9 Rep!
She'll be promoting her campaign Monday at lunch, so feel free to ask her any questions!

Or you can ask me. Apparently I'm her campaign manager. *cheers*

Heh. Sorry about that. I'll stop now.

Ja ne~!

Fascination and...surprise?!

I love the rain...it's just annoying when I have to walk home in it. Somehow, I get all soaked even if I'm carrying an umbrella. *can't hold an umbrella properly*

Well, last night's homework was pretty easy. Er...to tell you the truth, I forgot about Assignment 3. See, at first I was confused as to what we were supposed to do. But then I read a discussion topic on the Class Wiki and figured it out.
Then I forgot.

But! I did it today, before finishing the aterisk border. :]
It was fun! I...feel strange saying this, but it really was fun!

Today I was...er...well, let's just say I blanked out most of the time. Looking at my notes (huh, I can still copy down stuff automatically, I guess), we learnt that if there's not enough space in the run window to display all of the output lines, the topmost line gets pushed up out of the screen. To show this, Mr. Arkin taught us about the delay procedure, in which you can delay the action being done for a certain amount of time (stated in milliseconds).

For example:

% This program will locate row 15, column 63 and then output an aterisk
% after 1500 milliseconds (1.5 seconds)
locate (15, 63)
delay (1500)
put "*"

Isn't that awesome? That's too awesome for words.
If only you could see the program run...then you'd be even more impressed, I promise.

(Yes, I know I'm...overreacting. But that's my personality. Don't judge.)

On another note, we got new glossary terms and >dun dun dun< a skills inventory! (As in, the things we'll have to know for the test.)

Argh...no one even told me that there was going to be a test until today. Sometime near the end of school.

...
Yay~! I wrote a long blog entry today! I was worried I wouldn't be able to write anything long anymore. Ha...I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Then again, this means I have less time to finish all my homework And my -- Oh my God! My deadline's today!! Damn.

Er, well, time to stop "procrastinating" (though this is also homework, so does it count as procrastination?). I'd...really rather not do science, so I guess I'll write my article now. 400 words...that's not hard. I hope I'll be able to fit everything I want to say into it...Grah...I hate word limits...

X-Country meet

I feel like I didn't push myself today. For X-country, I mean.
Nevertheless, it's just a qualifier and I had fun running. *smile*

So, yes, because of the X-Country meet, I missed the better part of today's class. Well...I got some definitions copied down, but I need someone (Zarin! ...please? *puppy-dog eyes*) to give me the rest of the notes.

...I'm missing Criminal Minds right now. *cries*

Okay! Well...um, I never knew that "concatenation operator" meant "+". I tried guessing last night, and I wrote down "addition operator".
Hey, at least I got half of it right! *sweat*

On another note, I finished the homework without any problems!
To tell you the truth, it was easier than I thought it would be. I actually had fun doing Step 2 of Assignment 2. I love ASCII art~

Okay! I'm going to see if I can catch the last half of Criminal Minds now.

Ja ne~!

Learning the art of programming!

Ah, nostalgia! I went back to MacMillan today and I saw my old classmates. I miss them...

Anyways:
Today we started our Programming Glossary with the definitions of "comment", "put", "dot-dot" and "skip". I find it awesome that there's a glossary term called "dot-dot". Probably because I love saying "dot dot dot".

Using Turing is easier than I thought it would be. I don't remember if I said this before, but: if I do well in this unit, I might try becoming a video game programmer. Since people have told me not to become a teacher or a writer; and that I wouldn't make it as a voice actress. (Why does everyone enjoy making me depressed?)

Our homework for tonight is to do the Output Assignment on the class website. It's actually pretty simple in a way, but it'll take a long time.
Unfortunately for me, I just had to have a science test tomorrow, too. *cries*

On a side note, I'll only be in class for a little while tomorrow because I'll be away for the X-Country meet. Wish me luck! :)

Party Over Here!

It's party time!

Today, all the Mr. Arkin's ICS2O classes had a party to celebrate the end of the HTML unit! It was awesome, because we got to relax and socialize for a whole 70 minutes!

In addition, Class C had CS last period, so we got to have the other class' leftovers - in other words, more food for us! It was great...I binged on chips and popcorn...

On Tuesday, we're going to go back to our normal routine. Good or bad, I'm not sure; but I know that I'm happy we had a party today.

Thank you, Mr. Arkin!

The "end" is the start of a new beginning...

Today was so dreamlike...I felt like I was still asleep the whole day...
It sucked, because I had cross-country after school. And I died after sprinting about 100 m.

The HTML unit is officially finished! Now we're starting the programming unit! I...have mixed feelings about this. Why? Well, my eyesight is probably going to get even worse than it already is (Darn those addictive video games! And that small, small DS screen...*wince*) and my fingers will hurt from typing so much. On the other hand, I'll get to learn how to program!

For a video game addict like me, it's...too amazing to describe in words. When I learn how to program, it'll open up so much more oppurtunities for me: I might have the chance to become a video game programmer! (Though, if I do, I'll probably be one of the only girls on my team. Girl gamers rule!)

Then again, I was planning on becoming a teacher-turned-writer. But...it's not definite. Not yet.

For homework, we have to go over the Programming Subsite on our class website. I just clicked on the link and...oh my gosh...There's so much! And I have to finish my science too...
Grahh...I'll shut up now.

On another note, we're having a party tomorrow to celebrate finishing our HTML unit! I'm so happy~! I can't bring food, but I can bring music or cards!

It's time to read all those...articles? *gasp!* Damn, I also have to finish my two PP articles. *shot* Anyways, I'm off! Wish me luck!

And I go back to being a "detective"

Oh, yes, another day where I got extremely hyper. And that email from the PP Lit section just boosted my happiness a few more levels! *dances around in joy*

Anyways, today's class was really fun - and tiring at the same time. Mr. Arkin gave us a worksheet on binary code. I loved trying to figure out which character is which. I always loved trying to solve codes - I had dreamed of being a spy or secret agent when I grew up, or a detective. So, naturally, I learnt as many codes as I could.

As soon as I finished the worksheet (which was, to my surprise, relatively fast), I went to my computer to find Mr. Arkin's last blog entry. It was completely written in binary code! Nevertheless, I always enjoy a challenge: especially if it's this fun and exciting!

I finished decoding it a few minutes ago. I desperately want to post the translation up here, but I won't. Because I'm a good girl~!

All in all, today's class was really fun and relaxing. It sparked my old desire to be a detective, and gave me a nostalgic feeling. I think I'm pretty familiar with binary code now. :)

01010100 01101011 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01110011 01010100 00100000 01100011 01101100 01100001 01110011 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101011 00100000 01100110 01100001 01110010 00100001

Another laidback class...

Ah, nostalgia...
I knew visiting MacMillan wasn't a good idea. Now I'm going to be stuck in this state for the next few days, if not weeks...

Anyways! What did we do in class today...? I can't remember...
Oh, yes! Today was a shortened day, so we didn't get to do much. Basically, all we did was take down glossary terms. Again.

Actually, most of the period was spent discussing the process of booting. It turns out that to boot up a computer, you not only need primary storage (RAM), secondary storage (hard disc), and a CPU; but ROM as well! Well, I didn't know that! You learn something new every day.

Speaking of which, Mr. Arkin taught us a saying: "lift yourself up by your bootstraps". I've never heard of it until today, but it's an...interesting quote. Besides, I love adding quotes to my collection! I'm sort of a English fanatic...so...yeah...

Well~! I'm off to finish my other homework now!

Ja ne, minna!

Time flies when you're having fun...?

It doesn't feel like a Monday today. More like a Wednesday, or sometime in the middle of the week. Hn.

Well, today we continued working on the Basic Computer Glossary. Mr. Arkin gave us more terms to add into our glossary, so practically the whole period was spent copying down notes. I didn't even get to log in! But...this made the period seem so short. I guess time flies when you're having fun. Though I'm not sure taking notes could be classified as "fun".

Maybe it was because I was still on a high from Anime Club.

Haha, anyways! Updating the BCG will be pretty easy, so I'm happy to say that I'll probably be done before 6 P.M. That's a change! Thank goodness I'm a touch typist.

Finding pictures for the glossary terms should be relatively easy, so I'm not worried about that. Plus, Google Images has a special feature that will filter out any images you don't want.

Over the weekend, there was a security breach (again!). To tell you the truth...I wasn't really aware there was a first security breach. Not until I read the email Mr. Arkin sent to us.
If I were him, I'd be reluctant to trust us with the password again, too. But hey, the third time's the charm, right? Besides, I do my best to remember the information, and I have the contact info of some of my classmates in case I do forget.

On another note, Randi's finally back from London! Welcome back!

I'm off to work now. After this I have...science...french...and english homework as well. *cries*
When will I ever get the time to finish watching Durarara!!?

Catching up!

Yes!!!
I made my deadline!!!
I'm so happy! I just danced around the living room!

Okay, I got that out my system. Back to CS!

Today, I caught up on what happened yesterday (because I was away for a X-Country meet). We got new definitions and had to create another glossary called the "Basic Computer Glossary". After sitting through half the class, I finally felt like I fully understood what was going on.

Of course, I might not be right.

But I'll deal with that issue when and if it comes up! (Yes, I'm really...optimistic...right now. Hn. According to Mr. Arkin, I should be asleep by now. No...I just finished my story half an hour ago, spent fifteen minutes jumping around celebrating, and then took another fifgeen minutes to calm down - sort of - before finally starting this.)

Anyways, sometime between the time I finish writing this blog entry and Sunday night, I'll have the BCG updated and live on the web.

I also have to find pictures for each of the words on the glossary...somehow I feel like I won't be able to get any anime or manga in this weekend.
...
There's always the next one!
And that's a long weekend too. *grins happily*

Ah, well, I'm off to work now!

Ja ne~!