In which Pearl suffers from embarrasment

Konbanwa, minna-sama.

I'm feeling tired and lethargic, as usual. I think I'm getting more and more irritable as the months progress; and by doing so, I'm annoying my friends, family and acquaintances/colleagues. Hopefully the Winter Break will allow me to recover. Only one more week! And the countdown to Winter Break begins...

Today we had our second programming test. There were a few people who were spazzing out because Mr. Arkin never told us when the exact date of said test was, only that it was (and I quote from the Daily Log) "On the week of 13 December". I actually found out second period, because my class (homeroom) was right next to the Lab in which I have ICS. Personally, I was more worried about other subjects like Science and English. (See, I have a lot of trouble with the former, and a huge essay is due this week for the latter.)

I thought that test itself was pretty easy. There were only two questions that I had difficulty with, and I had figured out one of them in due time. That one was the first question on the back, where you had to write what would be displayed on the run window. At one point, the code said something like this:

p := anchor
s := website

p (index (s, "s"))

I was incredibly confused, because I had focused directly on the second part of this...um...statement. I actually thought the correct output for this part of the statement was "4" (because 's' was the fourth letter of "s" [the string]). Then, when I went over it again, I realized that I had to put the fourth letter of "p" [the string], which was h. I'm glad I figured that out!

The other problem I had was with Question 3, which I'm positive I got wrong. I know a function is a subprogram that returns a value; and a procedure is a subprogram that performs a defined task. However... I'm not sure about when it is legal to call them.

Now... Mr. Arkin had told us that we cannot hand in our test in the last five minutes, so when he called out "five minutes left", I started to panic. But... no one else handed it in yet, so I assumed that I should get up and give it to Mr. Arkin. His response to my getting of the chair: "Sit". *cries tears of embarrassment*

*ahem* Yes, well, anyways! After the test, he gave us an introduction to graphics. I think it's in preparation for culminating... *spazzes out* I...really need that break.

That's all for today! Until tomorrow~!

In which we review programming in groups

Kon'ichiwa, minna-san~!
Tonight was International Night, so Zarin-dono and I stayed at Maryvale library (at Parkway Mall) until around 5:30, when we walked back [to school]. (God, it was cold!)
Anyways, the entire show (concert?) was amazing! I'm so glad I decided to go. *smile*

Last night, Zarin-dono and I went through the Skills Inventory, briefly going over certain aspects of it and taking note of the concepts we didn't understand.

Anyways, yesterday I mentioned that we got into groups to help each other catch up/fully understand programming, right? We continued doing that today!

It was sort of funny, because I had no idea that there were two kinds of loops. When Mr. Arkin and Zelin tried to explain it to me, I got even more confused, and was like "ne?" *cue cute head tilt*
But eventually I understood! And when I did, I felt extremely stupid.

I think that my group made good progress today! We're going to continue doing that tomorrow. By Monday, I'm sure my group and I will be "Level  4" Computer Science students!

In which we learn about procedures

Konbanwa, minna-san!
I...get obsessed with different series very easily. Sometimes my love for a certain series dies out. (For example, I used to adore Hot Gimmick, but now it's...meh. It's not like I don't love it anymore (I mean - who can resist Ryoki-sama? *wink/fangirl squeal*), but it's just not as important to me.) But at other times, I will continue to love that series forever and ever... Like Inuyasha. I started watching it, what, six...years ago? I still adore it. And FullMetal Alchemist, which I started watching at around the same time. Of course, I absolutely cannot forget Detective Conan/Case Closed~! I'm a huge mystery/detective fan, so I love this one. Right now, I love Durarara!! It has a really unique/amazing/epic/addictive storyline and even more unique/amazing/epic/addictive characters. I don't want to stop loving it...



From left: Izaya Orihara, Anri Sonohara, Mikado Ryuugamine, Masomi Kida, Shinra Kishitani, Shizuo Heiwajima. The figure in the moon is Celty Sturlson, a dullhan.
Durarara!! (c) Ryohgo Narita

 Ah, but these are simply the ramblings of a crazy fangirl/writer. To get back on topic...

According to my Programming Glossary, a procedure is a subprogram that performs a defined task. It is very similar to a function. However, a procedure does not have a result (because it's not returning a value) and it can have zero or more arguments. An example of a procedure with zero arguments looks like this:

procedure sayHello
     put "Hello!"
end sayHello

sayHello

This code outputs "Hello!"
However, you can "upgrade" it, using an argument. This code will output "Hello, Shizu-chan!"

procedure greetUser (greeting : string, userName : string)
     put greeting + ", " + userName + "!"
end greetUser

greetUser ("Hello", "Shizu-chan")

Simple, ne? *smile*
Of course, if this was Izaya-kun speaking, Shizu-chan would say: "Get out of Ikebukuro!!!"
D'awws, we love you, Shizu-chan~

You can also ask the user to give you the greeting and name. However, then you must make greeting and userName variables (within the procedure, if that makes sense).

procedure greetUser (var greeting : string, var userName : string)
     put greeting + ", " + userName + "!"
end greetUser

var greeting : string
var userName : string

put "Greeting? " ..
get greeting : *

put "Name? " ..
get userName

greetUser (greeting, userName)

Got it? *smiles again*

Well, I hope that explanation was plausible. I'm generally horrible at explanations (and you wonder how I'll ever become a teacher).

Anyways, after we were taught how to create a procedure, we evaluated ourselves on our understanding of programming. Then we got into groups based on our evaluation. By Friday, Mr. Arkin wants us to fully understand all the concepts of programming! With a bit of work, I'm sure we can do it~!

Ganbatte, minna-san~!

In which we learn about functions

Konbanwa, minna-san~!
I'm so tired... Luckily, I don't have a lot of homework tonight. I'm going to draw: something I haven't done in a long time. I need to improve my skills. See, one day, I want to draw a manga. Nothing too long - it'll be a oneshot. I already have a few ideas floating around in my head, but I don't want to get into them here...

So, as the title of this blog post mentions, we learnt about functions today. If you take a look at my Programming Glossary, you'll see that the definition of a function is "a subprogram which returns a value". The actual structure of a function is actually quite simple. Take this for example:

function sum (integer1 : int, integer2 : int) : int
     result integer1 + integer2
end sum

put sum (1, 2)

The program above will output the sum of 1 and 2, which is 3.

It is basically saying that sum will return the sum of two integers. integer1 and integer2 are parameters, and the : ints mean that those two parameters will hold integers. Parameters only exist locally, which means that they only exist inside the function body.

The last : int means that the datatype that sum returns must be an integer.
All function bodies must have at least one statement: the result statement.

Personally, I'm still a little confused about all this, but I'm sure I'll understand with time. I'm not a very fast learner, but with trials and tribulations (ha, did anyone catch the Phoenix Wright reference I made there? *wink*) I manage to "get" the concept with time.

For homework, I have to figure out how the nextConsonant function should look like, and modify some substring assignments so they have functions in them. Derr.

On an ending note (and no, this has absolutely nothing to do with computer science, but I really want to say this)...
If you haven't heard "Every Time You Kissed Me" by Emily Bindiger, go listen to it now!!! It's from an anime called Pandora Hearts, and it's a very pretty song. I happened to stumble on it by accident, when I found a piano instrumental cover for another song on YouTube. I went to the uploader's channel, and he decided to take a look at this song.
One day, I'd like to do a cover for this song...

Anyways!
Oyasumi, to mata ashita, minna-sama!

---

Translation:
Good night, and see you tomorrow, everyone!

In which Mr. Arkin returns!

Welcome back, Mr. Arkin!

You see, our (very much missed) teacher had been absent the previous week (Yes, all five days of school!) However, we have been working hard on our Substring Assignments. With Zarin-dono's (much-appreciated) help, I had completed all of them by Friday! (Thank goodness, because I slept in on Saturday and I went to a Christmas party on Sunday.)

So, today was an extremely shortened day. There was an early dismissal: school ended at noon! Because Mr. Arkin was away last week, he wanted to show us model answers for the Substring Assignments. Besides, we were expected to complete all of them and have all the codes printed out by today. It was sort of funny, because he showed us a model answer for Assignment #1, then realized that he hadn't taught us the for keyword yet.

And so, the lesson was postponed for another lesson: the for loop. There are times in which a programmer wants to repeat a loop a certain amount of time. In the event that he or she needs to do this, the for loop is used. (I was frustrated, because I could have used this when I was writing the Substring Assignments, and it would've saved me a lot of time.)

Here is the basic structure of a for loop

for control_variable : startValue .. endValue
     put value
end for

The control_variable will increment itself by one starting from the startValue, and it will stop when the control_variable is greater than the endValue.
The control variable is not declared - the computer declares and initializes it for you.

Simple, ne? *smile*

And that was pretty much all we got to do today!

Oh, and now it's "shameless self-promotion time"!
I wrote a poem!
It's up on my Fanfiction account because it can be linked to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (Actually, it is based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.)
And while you're there, please check out my other stuff, too~! (I got flamed twice in two weeks, so I've been feeling pretty down. Now, if those people had told me what I could improve on, it might not have hit me so hard. See, I'm very serious when it comes to my writing: I want to become an author when I grow up. So if there's anything you guys see that I could improve on...please tell me!)

Arigatou gozaimasu, minna-san~
Mata ashita!

---

Translation:
Thank you very much, everyone~
See you tomorrow!

In which Pearl swallows her pride

Before I do anything else, I'd like to apologize for being so pessimistic and depressing in my previous blog post. I was feeling very frustrated (at myself) for not being able to finish the last two Substring Assignments (23 and 24). And, well, I tend to lash out at everyone when I get pissed off, even if the person (or persons, in this case) didn't do anything. I have my anger under control more often than not, but lots of things factored into last night, so, again, I apologize for my behaviour. *bows down*

Ah, pride. If I haven't told you before, it's the sin that I'm guilty of possessing. If I am forced to ask for help on a subject that I am good at, my pride takes a blow. And I become bitter. So, I apologize to anyone I seemed angry/annoyed at.

From the left: Pride & Alphonse Elric from FullMetal Alchemist.
Pride is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Although he takes the form of a little boy, he can heavily damage Al, an experienced fighter very much bigger in stature than him. (Al's soul is in the metal suit because of an alchemic incident explained at the start if the series).
Disclaimer: FullMetal Alchemist belongs to Hiromu Arakawa. This picture was found here.

As for what happened in class today:

In essence, I finished the last two questions which frustrated me so much with the much-appreciated help from Zarin-dono. She let me take a look at her code, and asked me to explain it to her so I was sure I understood what was happening instead of simply copying the code. Arigato gozaimasu, Zarin-dono!

Mr. Arkin was absent yet again! When I first heard about this in the morning (before class started), I got extremely angry because I had a breakdown last night, not being able to finish the last two questions. (That, accompanied by my mother's constant scolding - "Why don't you work harder? Then you might actually  be able to finish it before midnight!" [Dear God, can't you see I'm doing as much as I can?] - just made me crumble.) I had so dearly wanted to show him that I could finish all the assignments, nevertheless with some help.

On the other hand, that meant that we didn't have a substring quiz today. Mr. Arkin has not mentioned when it will take place, but the Programming test is next week, so I'm not even sure if it'll even happen.

To end, I'd just like to say: "Get well soon, Mr. Arkin!"

Have a great weekend, minna-sama!
Oyasumi nasai!

P.S. I'm going to a Christmas party on Sunday, so if you need to reach me, make sure you call on Saturday. (Then again, I tend to use the weekend to catch up on my sleep, so don't expect me to be awake until the afternoon.)

In which Pearl gets extremely frustrated

Over the past few days, I've gotten less than 24 hours of sleep. And so, if you find me to be irritable or sound annoyed, please excuse my behaviour. I'm actually extremely stressed out, on the verge of exhaustion. It happened once before, back in Grade 8. Every waking moment felt like a living hell, and I could barely keep awake even if I'd gotten 10 hours of sleep the night before. It took all my energy to walk, too. So, if you find me sleeping during my spare time (or even in class...), you know why.

Today I made sure all my assignments were correct. When I got home, I started working on Assignments 20+. I got stuck on Assignment 23, so I ate dinner and took a bath. When I returned back to the computer, I was a bit more clear on what to do. Unfortunately, I've been working on it since 9:30 PM and I'm still not done. (It's pretty much midnight now) Hopefully I'll get a bit more done, then I have to finish my English.

Tomorrow is the substrings quiz. Wish me luck!

In which Pearl tries to simplify her codes

Argh! I'm going to keep this short, because I have yet to start my lab report, which is due tomorrow. My fault, I spent way too much time reading that White Pine book. Which reminds me, if any of you have any time, go to the (public) library and look for Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay. It's really good - I couldn't stop reading...until my friend, Keshini, called me. Yup.

We had a Spirit Assembly this morning! It didn't cut into this class, though. The X-Country team had to run out three times... Not that I mind.

Mr. Arkin was away again today - apparently he'll be back on Friday. I feel frustrated, because I still don't really understand the concept of substrings, and we're having a substring quiz on Friday.

I worked on simplifying my codes for Assignment 8 and 10 today. Unfortunately, it took the entire period for me to figure out how to do it. I feel pathetic.

That's pretty much it. In order to avoid writing out my science lab report, I'm going to finish a few more assignments now.

Oyasumi, minna-san!

In which Pearl goes into denial

Grahh!!! Why isn't FF working for me? *cries* And on the day when I can actually take the time to read some fics, too! Trust me (oh, hey, that's the name of the first Durarara!! ending! *grin*), not getting a sufficient dose of manga or anime really affects me. I mean, last week, I had completely cut myself off from anything other than homework just so I could get everything done well and properly. No MSN, no games, no drawing, no television (though I rarely watch it anyways), and no reading - not even manga! Ah, well, I was up one night (or morning, depending on how you look at it), typing something up for Science, when I felt sick. Like, I'm-going-to-throw-up sick. I decided to take a break and read some fanfiction, and it almost instantly got better. Well, I only read one. Usually I read at least five per week. So then...the next day, I felt even worse. My stomach hurt like crazy - perhaps a really bad cramp? - and every step I took made it worse. After I ate my lunch, I couldn't breathe properly and I was afraid I would vomit if I spoke. It was horrible. I read some manga when I got home, and it got better, so that was...good.

My conclusion: Manga is my drug. I suffer from withdrawal whenever I don't get my daily dose of it.

---

What I said up there is the truth and nothing but the truth; but I'll shut up about that and start talking about ICS now.

Mr. Arkin was away again today, so we had a guest teacher. She was the same person who came yesterday, and that makes me wonder if she'll be here tomorrow. Yes, that's right. Mr. Arkin will be absent tomorrow as well! In my head, I'm spazzing out, because I need him to explain Substrings to me properly. The web page doesn't help much. I can always ask Zelin or Hannah (in fact, today, Zelin helped Zarin and I fix/improve a couple of our programs), but whenever they explain something to me, I feel incredibly incompetent. And my pride takes a beating.

Ah yes, pride is my sin.

So, yes, today I improved Substring Assignments 3 and 4, improved Assignment 5, and worked on Assignment 6. I feel sort of ashamed, because I didn't get a lot done. I do, however, understand substrings a bit more now. Thank you, Zelin!

Ah, well, speaking of not understanding substrings... Zelin showed Zarin and I a way to make our code for Assignment 3 and 4 simpler, and I felt completely stupid because he used the star option, which I didn't (previously) understand. See, er, the only thing I really understood after reading the page were the length and index options.

So I hope to do better tomorrow! My goal is to finish up to Substring Assignment 10 by the time Mr. Arkin comes back. That means I have a lot to do! *sweat*

Wish me luck!

In which Pearl struggles with substrings

I'm exhausted mentally and physically... My fault, for staying up until 2:30 AM last night (this morning). And I didn't even get to drink tea this morning, so I had to trudge through the entire day without any caffiene in my system. By fourth period (French), I was falling asleep. Derr.

Today, Mr. Arkin was away, so we had a guest teacher. She didn't say anything, just let us in. (She made sure we were doing our assignments, though, so that was good).

So, I set to work, tackling the Substring Assignments. It took me a while, but I finally understood the concept. It took me about half an hour to figure out how to do Question 1 properly, but hey, at least I managed to do it, right? After that, things went really smoothly. I got to Question 4 and finished about half of it. I think I'll work on it a bit tonight, and either finish it or continue on tomorrow.

On another note, the programming test is postponed until next week - I just checked the Daily Log! I don't know whether to celebrate or be exasperated that I spent the better part of my weekend studying instead of doing other homework for other subjects.

That said, I just want to mention that I saw my classmates from middle school today. I'm so glad I went to the library (near my house). We stopped and chatted for a while, then went our separate ways. It's nice to see old friends. Over Winter Break, I plan on going out with friends from my old school - Eaton Centre on the 21st, and somewhere else later with a friend I haven't seen since Grade 5. (We still talk to each other every day on MSN, though.)

Mata ashita, minna-san~!