In which we return to school

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a safe, enjoyable holiday.

Today was the first day back to school after a long, two-week break. The truth is...I had...a very small breakdown the night before, because I was so nervous. But! I recovered! And I'm honestly glad to see everyone again.

In ICS, we got the first part of our Culminating Activity - the Mosaic Project. It's not so much a mosaic as a...puzzle, sort of. Each of us must write a professional article on some aspect of computers (there was a list of possible topics given). I chose to do Trojan Horses in general at first, because the actual idea is genial! I give credit to the Greeks for thinking it up. Of course, Trojans can do a lot of damage to your computer, as well as your privacy! Moreover, I had, for some reason (most likely because I watched too many crime shows) an affinity to the technological side of solving crimes. So! This was, without a doubt, the perfect topic for me!

In the end, I narrowed it down to Remote Access Trojans (RAT), which gives the creator of the Trojan access to your computer. All the information saved on your computer will be available to him or her - which, as you know, is a blatant breach of privacy.

This is a very interesting topic, though I have qualms about finding a suitable picture.

Nevertheless, I look forward to it!

---This next part is about my Winter Break, so you don't have to read it. It's just me rambling on about how great RF2, Durarara!!, and Baccano! are, really.---

Speaking for myself, I didn't get to finish my notes. It's my own fault, though. I had held off playing video games for so long I couldn't help myself, so I took advantage of the break to catch up on those long five video-game-less months. It was fun, because I was playing Rune Factory 2, a JRPG about living a life on the farm in a world with caves filled with monsters. It has a four-month calendar, and - surprise, surprise - I was nearing the end of "Fall". With "Winter" quickly approaching, I set a goal to celebrate New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in the game on the corresponding days in real life! With a lot of non-stop gaming, I managed to do it! Yes!



Natsume makes the best games! RF2 is my favourite game, and RF3 came out in English last January. I have yet to play it, though. I'm planning to start either during March Break or Summer Vacation.

And...this is huge. I finally finished watching Durarara!! (animated by Aniplex). It's amazing. I would definitely recommend it to you. See, the story is told, in a way, backwards, so that all the events in the first 23 episodes will make the last (most epic) episode make sense. After watching the final episode, I can summarize the entire series (probably) - something I couldn't have done before. As I'm sure I've said repeatedly, my absolute favourite character is Shizuo Heiwajima, the "Strongest Man in Ikebukuro". He's the tsundere type, that's probably why. *smile*

Durarara!! (c) Ryohgo Narita
This is a pretty good cast picture - the best one I could find, actually.

Anyways, I was so completely enchanted by Durarara!! that I decided to watch another anime that was originally a light novel written by Narita-san: Baccano! This one is about a "Cure-All Elixir", a potion that grants the drinker immortality. Most of the characters aren't on the side of the law, but very likable. For example, Jacuzzi Splotz, a petty thief, who pulled on a large amount of courage to rescue the passengers of The Flying Pussyfoot (a train). Then there was Chane Laforet, the woman who would do anything - even kill - to protect her only family, Huey Laforet. And finally, we come to my favourite characters (in order): Firo Prochainezo and Luck Gandor. They are part of different mafia families situated in New York, but they're also childhood friends, so the families are on good terms. Firo is so innocent, loyal, kind and amiable; but he can be very dangerous when he needs to. Luck is also sort of tsundere (not really). I can't very much elaborate on his personality, though, because he wasn't featured much in the anime.



Firo Prochainezo is at the very bottom right, in the green suit. Beside him, with the reddish-orange hair, is Ennis, a homunculi. In the middle, with the sword tattoo on his face, is Jacuzzi Splotz. In front of him, the little boy in the brown suit, is Csezlaw Meyer. To his left, the woman with the blond hair, is Nice Hollystone. The woman in the black dress beside Nice is Chane Laforet.
On the top, starting from the left: Miria Harvent, Isaac Dian, Vino, Lua Klein, Ladd Russo
Baccano! (c) Ryohgo Narita



Baccano! was so amazing that I cried at the end, because it had, well, ended. It's unfortunate that the anime only had thirteen episodes, plus an extra three episodes for the OVA. Aw, man, now I'm sad again.

I can't say which one is better - Durarara!! or Baccano! I just know that they are both very good stories. I even compiled a playlist of all the openings and endings of these two animes. If anyone's interested, here it is:

• ROOKiEZ is PUNK'D - Complication [DRRR!! OP2]
• Yuuya Matsushita - Trust Me [DRRR!! OP1]
• Theatre Brook - Uragiri no Yuuyake [DRRR!! ED1]
• On/Off - Butterfly [DRRR!! ED2]
• Kaori Oda - Calling [Baccano! ED]
• Paradise Lunch - Guns & Roses [Baccano! OP]

Guns & Roses is a really nice song, even though there are no words to accompany the instruments. Calling is a beautiful, slow song. It's very lovely, and I do recommend it to anyone who's interested. The others are addictive, but they're more on the rock/pop side.

I plan to read the entire DRRR!! and Baccano! light novel series. There's over fifteen books, but I'm commited to it. Seriously. This is why I love Baka-Tsuki.

On another note, I finally found time to reply to my good friend on FF. I also started a Kuroshitsuji fic for Zarin-dono. I've turned Sebastian into an assasin and Ciel into the second-in-command of a mafia family. Please don't kill me.

Ah! Well, that was the longest blog post I've ever written, I think. I'll shut up now. *sweat*

Good luck with culminating, minna-san!

Mata ne!

---

Translation Notes:

tsundere [t-soon-dae-ray]: A term used to describe a person who acts tough, but is actually very kind on the inside.

yandere [yahn-dae-ray]: The opposite of tsundere. A term used to describe a person who acts nice, but is actually very mean. An example of this is Yuno Gasai from Future Diary (Mirai Nikki).

In which Pearl gets a shock

Aw man, Mr. Arkin is hilarious.
"Some of you used special character entities for characters that are not special!"
Today was a great day.

We got our Printer Comparison marks today. Let's just say (again), I'm extremely happy with mine.

He started the less on by giving us a review on absolute and relative links (which, for me at least, was very much needed). An absolute link starts with a protocol, and can be used on any web page. A relative link does not start with a protocol, and can only be used on web pages that are in the same (root) directory as the file it links to.

An example of an absolute link is http://chibikarin22.deviantart.com/
(This links to my deviantART account.)

An example of a relative link is /EC/ICS2O/assignments/printer_comparison.html
(This tells the computer to start from the root directory and look for a folder called "EC", then look for a subdirectory in that directory called "ICS2O", and so on.)

Then he continued on by telling us about how we should properly write our HTML code. (Like the special character entity problem.)

After he finished his spiel (when I say "spiel", I don't mean for it to offensive, so please don't take it that way!), we went back to our computers and worked on Repetition Assignment 12. Not soon after, the bell rang, and I got a huge shock: I barely got twenty lines down! Grah...

Even after I got home, it took me at least half an hour to finish it. Zarin-dono Zarin-chan even pointed out that I got the GST and PST wrong. Heh. I guess I'm really tired today. And I have to write it out. The code is 104 lines...*cries*

On another note, I still have to finish that poem for the Lit section, write my News and Events article, and finish inking that birthday card for my friend from middle school. That's gonna be easy!

Ahem. Yeah, so until tomorrow, minna-sama!

In which Pearl kicks herself for making stupid mistakes

I did forget it at home.
By "it", I mean the code for the Modified Repetition Assignment Number 8.
...*depression*

And what's worse...is that I embarrassed myself in front of Mr. Arkin today. (But Zarin-dono was there with me, so that's okay! *shot*) Yeah... Trust me to display my terrifying math skills in front of a math teacher. Grah...

Today we continued working on our Repetition Assignments. Zarin-dono and I worked together on Question 9, which we ultimately finished with about ten minutes to spare. Why, you ask? That horrible math problem...
Zarin-dono's so good at it - she figured out the problem so quickly; whereas it would've taken me...hours(?) to solve it. Zarin-dono, I bow to your amazing arithmetic skills! *bows down*

Question 10 was started, but I barely got anything done on that part. I finished it at home, though. I also finished Question 11, and am in the process of writing out the code.
[Edit]: Nope, I'm done now. *cheers* And I put it in a folder that I always bring to school, so I won't "forget" this time! Ha!

On another note, I finished the Printer Comparison Assignment right before 10 P.M. last night, because I was afraid Mr. Arkin would change the FileZilla password. But he didn't, and I felt incredibly stupid. *cry*

I want to start on Question 12, but I need to leave soon. Plus I have Science, French and English homework as well.  Derr.

Ano, oyasumi, minna-san!
Soshite...mata ashita!

---

Trans. So, um, good night, everyone! And...until tomorrow!

In which Pearl works on Repetition Assignment 8

Huh...I almost forgot to write this...
After I got back home, I started reading Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian, since it is due on Monday. I wanted to finish it tonight, so I could spend the rest of the weekend working. Unfortunately... I almost always read lying down, and most of the time I fall asleep either in the middle of doing so or right after I finish. And lo and behold, I woke up (just in time) to do this! *sweat*

Although today is Thursday, there's no school tomorrow, as it is a PD Day. Mr. Arkin calls it our "undeserved" long weekend. Heh.
I wonder why they call it a PD Day? In middle school it was called a PA Day, which stood for Professional Activity Day. I think. So what does the "D" stand for? Hmm...

Anyways, back to computer class. Today we were assigned a new project, one that (surprisingly) has to do with HTML. Because we all had problems with getting our codes printed on time, Mr. Arkin is asking us to do a research project on at least two different types of printers and present our findings in a table. Of course, it's much more elaborate than how I just explained it.

The web page with the instructions makes the aforementioned assignment sound pretty easy, but - and yes, I'm speaking from experience - I know this will probably be what I'm working on for the majority of the weekend. *sigh*

On another note, we were supposed to do a modified version of Repetition Assignment 8, but I finished that in class. And I managed to print out the code - just before school ended, too!

Ah! I just realized...because tomorrow is a PD Day, we aren't going to have Studio 218! What a sad thought...

Have a good (long) weekend, everyone! I won't be writing again until Monday.

In which Pearl finally gets to print out her assignments

Today was a tiring day. I felt so lethargic...
I must've yawned at least ten times in French class, too. I hope Mr. Vretranos wasn't mad. *wince*

Well, today we had Computer Science first thing in the morning, so I got to print out my assignments before class officially started. I just have to say, the format Turing prints out code in is awesome!
I'm really weird like that...I just... To me, it's fascinating, okay? *cry*

On another note, today was yet another catch-up day. First, we had a Q&A section (as usual) about HTML. Then, we were sent back to our computers to work on the Selection Assignments in partners. Zarin and I reviewed Question 6, and she showed me the correct format to put it in. And just in time, too! I was about to print it! And that would've been a waste of toner...

We wanted to review Question 9 as well, but just before we were about to do so, Mr. Arkin told us we were going to take a note. As a class, we went over Questions 12 and 13. Personally, I had absolutely no problem with either of them, though, apparently most of the class did. It was slightly annoying to have to sit through that. I wish we could've done Question 9 instead...

That's about it. Hmm... My blog posts are getting shorter and shorter... Ah, whatever.

Ja ne~!

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~!

Mm...I'm experiencing a case of forgetfulness...
Maybe it's because I actually slept for more than seven hours last night...
Yes...that must be it...I always feel sleepier in the day if I get more sleep at night...

CS was last period today. (Ah, a funny story - at my expense: I actually thought that the schedule for today was D, C, B, A...so I ended up standing outside the wrong classroom for ten minutes. Thank God it was a late start!) It was sort of nice, because today's class was very laidback and relaxing.

We continued to work on our Class Glossary. My partner and I spent the first ten minutes or so brainstorming more definitions, then we set to work, progressing on our own glossaries respectively. Last night, when I typed out the skeleton, I hadn't put the terms in alphabetical order - I was rushing it, since I had needed to leave soon. So I did that during class today! Ha...it was easier than I thought it would be...I'm just happy I didn't have to retype everything. Now, I have to validate it.

Actually, before I do that, I want to look up formal definitions and add them into the HTML. Yep, that's my homework for tonight.

I find Dropbox amazing and incredibly useful. Now I can access my fics and stories, as well as my drawings (once I download Gimp) from any computer. It'll be so much easier for me to work on them!

Mr. Arkin also informed us about Lab 235, which is open every day at lunchtime. I plan on going there at one point this semester, because I normally have nothing to do at lunch except sit down and read, draw or write. (Which reminds me! I wrote a Durarara!! drabble this morning. I need to type it out and post it up.)

Hehe, sorry for getting side-tracked. I'll be going now. Mm...I smell dinner! Om nom nom...

Confusion...Yes...Lots of confusion...

Ah, well...today I told Mr. Arkin about my missing work.
He looked for it on his computer, and it worked perfectly fine...
Then I relaxed. It's a good thing I had CS first thing in the morning, or this would be bothering me for the whole day.

But...I just checked my website again. And...the link still doesn't work...
So I looked at the source code, and it was correct! I don't know why my superpower assignment won't show up. It's really frustrating. I'm so confused...am I going to get a zero?

At this point, I've gotten over my anger and I've just gone into resignation. I give up...though this really does give me a bad feeling. I don't like it.

---

Anyways.
Today we learnt about different HTML lists. There are three types of them: ordered, unordered and definition. Ordered lists use numbers, unordered lists use bullets and definition lists look similar to a dictionary. After the lesson was over, we got into partners and brainstormed definitions for the Class Glossary.

My partner and I were doing our best! We managed to get eighteen definitions, though there are much more. After I finish writing this, I'll type out a skeleton for the Class Glossary we'll have live on the web. I'll also have to create a Dropbox account.

Sorry about the length of this entry. I'm pretty busy tonight (so much homework!) and I want to leave by 6pm at the latest. Nn...

Ja ne!

"The first shall be the last"

"The first shall be the last"

That was the quote that Mr. Arkin put up on the board today. Why? Well, I was confused at first, too, but then he explained it to the class. Since today was Grade 9 Day, we were the only class he had the whole day! In other words, we were his first class as well as his last one! (Oh, oh, and did you know that it came from the Bible? I sure didn't!) Ha, well, enough of my rambling. Let's get to what I did today.

Mr. Arkin finally assigned a due date for our Superpower Assignment: Friday.

Ah, it doesn't affect me that much, since I pretty much finished everything a week ago. Now, I'm just putting the finishing touches on it. One thing that Mr. Arkin cleared up today that was incredibly useful for me was how to link to directories "above" the one the file I'm editing is in. (I'm referring to the hierarchical file structure) Nngh...I had forgotten that ".." means "one directory above" (or something along those lines). I feel so stupid...especially because I've used FileZilla pretty much every day, and have seen ".." every time I used it.

I spent most of my time today making sure I used special character entities consistently and appropriately. Then I made sure my spelling and grammar were correct. When I was absolutely positive that it was fine, I checked the marking scheme to see if I missed anything. Unfortunately...I did. Although I am, er, slightly confident that I will get a good mark, I'm missing something. My images aren't visually integrated.

This was a problem before, since when I first tried to do so, the HTML Validator claimed that there was an error in my coding. However, even Mr. Arkin couldn't figure out why, and suggested that I put each image in a paragraph of its own. And...it worked! Now...I'm not sure what to think, or do for that matter.

Other than that...I think I'll be okay. I'm drawing my illustrations at this very moment (literally!) and I'll be replacing the ones I currently have with my own pictures. Ha! Take that, stupid websites who don't indicate whether their image is copyrighted or not! (Oh...I feel sort of pathetic) Heh...anyways, back to work I go!

Studio 218 - What a surprise! (And a good one, at that)

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I DID IT!
I fixed that horrible problem I had yesterday!
I'm not sure how though. I just reuploaded the file I had backed up my USB.
Ha, sometimes I feel a little stupid...

Anyways, I'm working on centering everything now and (hopefully) making my images visually integrated. I heard that you have to include the source of the image as well, so right now I'm looking for the URLs of the images I used.

He also taught us about "special character entities". Apparently...we're supposed to use those. So, instead of just typing in the straight double quotes ("), we have to put in the code (“ or ”). Not that I mind, but it will get kind of tedious if I have to go over my whole super-power assignment...replacing all of them...
Nevertheless, I find them pretty cool. I never knew that there was a difference - I didn't really have a reason to notice!

Oh, before I forget! Today was awesome! Mr. Arkin told us that every friday from now on, our classroom is transformed into "Studio 218". What does that mean, you ask? Well, we get to do our work while listening to music! I could feel the smile grow on my face as he continued explaining this. Today, Mr. Arkin was the DJ, but next week it will be one of the students! The only rules are that the music must be legal and non-offensive to anyone in any way.
If I had my way, though, I would make a playlist containing only japanese music (even some from anime!). Unfortunately...I don't think my classmates would like that.
However, there's a page for Studio 218 (especially for my class!) on our Wikispaces page. I'm checking that out right now! Hmm...it seems that there are three options: have two DJs per week, have the class create their own playlist, or let Mr. Arkin be the DJ. Personally, I prefer option two. But...I wonder if my classmates would consent to music in other languages?

My goals for this weekend is to finish re-editing my Super-power assignment (on top of my other homework) and catch up on reading Mr. Arkin's blog.

Ah...I can't wait until next Friday!

Frustration!

Ah, yet another passive class.
We continued working on our Super-power assignments today. But, as I've already finished mine, I decided to add the valid HTML and CSS buttons at the bottom of my page. I ended up tweaking them a little, to make the web page look more presentable.

Mr. Arkin taught us some shortcuts today. I use the "Alt+Tab" shortcut a lot now. (Actually, one of my friends from my old school taught me how to do that, but I forgot) Ha, I admit that they're very useful!

Argh! I just tried going to my website, but it didn't work!
This is strange, because it worked before. It was perfectly fine yesterday!
My index page shows up, but when I click on the link to my Super-power assignment, it gives me a 404 (Page not found). I'm really frustrated right now. I also have other homework I need to finish, but if I have time after I'm done, I want to fix this problem.

Hopefully I can do that tonight. If not, then I'll be sure to ask Mr. Arkin about this tomorrow.
(Argh, it's so bizarre! I'm so sure I didn't do anything wrong...)

Mm, today's entry is quite short, isn't it? Ah, well, we didn't do much anyways.

Mission: Accomplished

I did it! I finally did it!
Remember how I said that there were still some problems with my super-power assignment HTML? Well, now it's fixed! And...all my HTML is valid! Both my Index Page and Super-power Assignment are valid!
I'd leave it as it is right now, but I want my images to be centered. I'll try using the the specification thing Mr. Arkin taught us in class today.

E.g.
CSS:
p.superpower
{
}

HTML:
<p class="superpower">

Except...with images. Hopefully it'll work! However, after I write this blog I will work on my English homework, then go back to school for Curriculum Night. When I get back, I'll try to work out the CSS needed to center images.

Oh! And there was something else, too...
In class today, I tried putting the little "HTML validated" icon onto my web page, but there was something wrong with the HTML for that! So, I just took it out. If I can't figure it out tonight, I'll have to remember to ask Mr. Arkin about it tomorrow.

The last thing I want to talk about is completely unrelated to CS, but I just really wanted to say this:
Silent Reading is awesome! Because of homework, I don't usually have time to read (unless it's during a meal). So when I found out that Vic Park reserves twenty minutes especially for reading, I was ecstatic!

Well, that's all I wanted to say for today. All we really did was work on our super-power assignment. Ah, anyways, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's class!

Validating HTML is a pain! But...it feels so rewarding when you succeed!

Now, today was a shortened day, so we only had an hour to work on our super-power assignments.

Yesterday I quickly wrote an Index page for my website. Today, I validated it. At first, I had a problem, but after I read it over, I found out that I had forgotten to put an arrow bracket! Then I felt stupid.
But I fixed it, and the HTML for my Index page passed the (dreaded) validation exam! (Ha, I'm exaggerating a little, but I got pretty frustrated trying to figure it out.

Now, when it came to my super-power assignment HTML file, I got extremely frustrated. I used the template, but after that, the validator kept saying that it couldn't check my file! I asked Mr. Arkin about it, and he told me that there was something wrong with Line 24 and how to fix it.
But even though I followed his instructions, it still wouldn't work! So, Mr. Arkin said that he'd help me figure out the problem, and to email the file to him via Wikispaces. Thank you, Mr. Arkin! Hopefully I can get it fixed and validated before I go to sleep!

Because of the validation process, my opinion of HTML went down quite a bit. But now that I understand the problems, I don't feel that way anymore. Of course, personally, validating my HTML is the most dreaded part of this process.

After I finish writing this, I'll check my Wikispaces inbox to see if Mr. Arkin replied to my message. I'll also update my Index page so it links to my Super-hero assignment (validated or not!). Then, of course, I'll have to revalidate it. I pray that it doesn't fail!

Oh, yes, another thing I have to do...is learn how to center images in CSS. I wonder when Mr. Arkin will teach us that...I hate how unruly the pictures look when they're not centered...

And I Go Live!!!

I'm finally live on the web!
Today we downloaded FileZilla at school, so we could upload our web site.It was very exciting,since all our work will finally be posted on the web for everyone to see!

Actually, our class was cut a little short today because of the assembly first period. The announcements also took up quite a bit of time.

I also learned that our "index.html" file is the one especially for our MAIN web page. I'm glad Mr. Arkin told us that (again) since I named the HTML file for my super-power assignment "index.html".
It's changed now, though. Ha, that's a relief!

I desperately tried to write the HTML for my main page in twenty minutes; but between trying to validate my super-power assignment HTML, figuring out what to download (for FileZilla), and making sure everything looks presentable, I had...some problems doing that.
I ended up with a very simple web page that had almost all the information needed (I think). The one thing I can't figure out is how to link to my super-power assignment. I mean, don't you need an URL for that? I...don't know. I must remember to ask Mr. Arkin that tomorrow!

Hmm...this has been my shortest blog post. But, I have to be somewhere in ten minutes, so I want to finish as much CS work as I can before I leave. Not that it's a bad thing! I'm not dragging on and on today, right? ;]

Time for some serious work!

Ah, there's not much to say today.
We continued working on our Super-power assignment. Since I was fooling around with different colour schemes yesterday, I didn't really decide on one. So, today, I looked up a list of HTML colour codes to create a design that I was happy with, yet still professional. I stuck with my original idea - using analogous colours. I just needed to figure out which ones! I actually wanted to use pink, blue and purple; but when I tried it out, it didn't look as good as it did in my head. I'm not a big fan of red, yellow, or green; so I decided to use blue as a base colour. I ended up using different shades of blue and purple. I'm glad I didn't stray too far away from my original idea.

Last night I typed about half of my essay out, so I copied the text into my HTML file (Index.html) in class. When I previewed my web page, it looked really nice! (Well, in my opinion, at least)
Then I checked the marking scheme to see if I needed to include anything else. And...surprise, surprise! Apparently we need to add in links and image(s) as well! I groaned, but eventually accepted this and moved on to find a decent picture for my super-power, teleportation. When I did, I saved it to my Home Drive and worked on creating internal links. I managed to get quite a lot done!

Tonight I will finish typing out my Super-power essay, and then apply it to the HTML spreadsheet I wrote. Then I will add external links and an image (or maybe more than one, if I can find another good picture). Hopefully it's not too late when I finish this. If it isn't, then I'll download Filezilla so I can upload my work onto the class website. (Argh! I better not forget the password!)

On a side note, the supply teacher for yesterday and today, Ms. Ecker, was incredibly friendly and kind. Although she didn't do much except supervise our class, I really enjoyed her presence. She had a great sense of humour!

A fun day of experimenting!

I have to say, today's class was the best one so far!
Mr. Arkin crammed three days worth of lessons into one period yesterday so we would know what to do today. At the time, I was feeling extremely overwhelmed and, well, not happy at all. But today's class made up for it - yes...I had a lot of fun today.

We were told to preview the Super-power assignment two days ago. When I did, I just skimmed over the main page. Last night I actually read the whole section on Website Design. I actually found it really interesting! I tried experimenting a little last night, and when I succeeded, I was so happy I jumped up and cheered! ...Unfortunately, it was 1 A.M. and my mom yelled at me for doing so.

Before I went to sleep, I conjured up some ideas about my super-power in my head, praying that I would remember them when I woke up.

Computer Science was my first class, so I (grudgingly) marched upstairs, dreading the amount of information I might have had to absorb today. (Since I was so tired, I had forgotten that we were actually going to work on the Super-power assignment) However, when we actually started working, I found it really fun to do!

At first I was feeling a bit crazy, so I chose random colours that would stand out for the text and background colours. As fun as it was, I think I might have made my eyesight worse, since the web page was blinding.
Ha, that was amusing. (Am I sadistic this way? I just said that I enjoyed making my eyes hurt.)

After my crazy streak was over, I set out to (seriously) write a web page for my assignment. I already created a format that I'm pretty happy with, so now all I need to do is write out the essay. Then I can copy + paste it onto my HTML file and upload it!
Which reminds me, I need to download Filezilla. (It's a free program that allows you to upload files onto the web, as far as I understand. I need to reread the FTP brief on our class website.)

So, after I post this up, I'm getting back to work on my super-power assignment! Let's see...first I'll write that essay, and then I can continue working on the HTML and CSS. After all, what's the point of a web page without any content?

On another note (which isn't really related to the assignment), my password got reset! *cheers*

A fast-paced, yet enjoyable class

And so, the second day of high school is over!

Today's class went at an extremely fast pace, since Mr. Arkin would be away tomorrow and on Friday. I was doing my best to follow along, but I think I might have missed a few things he said that were important.
He taught us some basic knowledge about HTML and CSS. Although I learned quite a bit, there were some aspects of the lesson that I was familiar with. For example, the fact that, although a start tag has no slash in it, the end tag did.

I took lots of notes (and hopefully I didn't miss anything). I'm exaggerating, but I was in quite a frenzy, and it wouldn't have been surprising if there was paper flying everywhere. Anyways, despite the fact that I almost went crazy trying to cram all this knowledge into my head, I really enjoyed today's class.

Like I said, I learned a lot. The thing that stuck in my head the most was that HTML was for the content of the page and CSS was for the format. I had worked with HTML before, but I had no idea what CSS was, so that really interested me.

Mr. Arkin also covered FTP. This was the part that confused me the most. (I think this is because he went over everything else so quickly, and my head was already spinning. At one point, I blanked out...I regret that, since I'm pretty sure what he said was very important.) I understand that we're going to have to create our own websites, but I didn't really understand anything about the Mirrors. So, I have a couple of questions for anyone out there who might be able to answer them:

1. What exactly is a "mirror"? I know that you do all your editing with your mirrored file (is that what it's called?), but I'm not sure what it really is.
2. Say you have a file up on your website, but you want to edit it. After you edit the file's mirror, do you just upload the whole file onto the website again, or do you have to change the parts you edited directly on the Production Copy?

That's all the questions I have for now, but being as computer-illiterate as I am, I'm sure I'll have more later on. Hopefully I don't inconvenience anyone.

On another note, I (regrettably) forgot my password to my Student Account, so I'm desperately hoping Mr. Arkin will reset them tonight!

Oh, and we got lollipops in class today! I'm so happy!
Ah, well, that's all I have to say for now! I'm looking forward to tomorrow!