July 13th News

U.S wins over France in World Cup Semis
EA buys Popcap

Netflix raises prices
Netflix used to have 3 prices. One is 7.99 for streaming only. Second is 9.99 for streaming and 1 dvd at a time. Last is 14.99 for streaming and 2 dvd's at time. Now, they are raising their prices to 15.98 a month for streaming and 1 dvd at a time, and 19.98 a month for streaming and 2 dvd's at a time. This is not what the customers wanted. One customer posted on the Netflix blog, and wrote: "You're a bunch of idiots. I love your service, but it is not worth $16 a month." The customers really don't like this, but Netflix is not going to change. The new prices will start as of now for all new customers. The prices will change for existing customers on September 1st.

July 12th News

Popular youth coach dies at 39
Farmers feel drought pain

Cisco ready to cut 5000
Cisco will announce layoffs next month, and a San Jose tech giant says that there could be as many as 5000. One reason for this is that there was a 32.5% fall in Cisco's stock in the last 12 months. An undisclosed number of workers has already left because of an early retirement offer that Cisco had to save $1 billion in operating costs. The CEO, John Chambers, will talk about some of his networking strategies at an event in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Cisco stopped selling flip cameras which resulted in 50 people losing their job. Cisco will stop useless businesses and people will lose their jobs. Cisco is not making as much profit and they need to have some people lose their jobs.

July 11th News

U.S women soccer go to world cup semis
Transformers top box office last weekend $47 million

Data plans not unlimited
AT&T and Verizon do not have unlimited data plans anymore. They will have data plans that cost according to how much data you use. These plans are called the tiered plans. If you go over the amount, then it costs a lot more. If you are under, it is less. The reason that they are doing this is because many people are using too much data and the carriers have to use too much money in response to this so they can keep the speeds fast. With these new plans, it will no longer be a problem for the carriers and they will probably get more money. AT&T's plans are a little lower than the unlimited ones, but if people go over the caps, then it will probably cost more for them than the unlimited. Verizon's plans are the same as the unlimited data plan, so they will get a lot more money when people go over the caps. 80% of people are on Verizon and AT&T, so they will not get much competition, and will probably get away with this to get a little extra money.

July 10th News

Percentages about Jobs
First, 68% of people that work have little to no anxiety when they are on vacation or miss work, according to a survey by Aerotek. That is a lot of people not really caring about their job when they miss it. People should have more care for their job, or there will only be 32% of people that actually want to work, and there won't be a lot done. Next, is 65 % of people have no qualms about using their given vacation time. They just use it to thee fullest, so they can get out of work. This is another fact that shows that people don't care that much about their job. Some people probably just want the money, and don't care about the work getting done. Last, is 52% of people disconnect from work when they are on vacation. This is not much of a problem because employees are not supposed to work on vacation. But, this number shows that 48% of people work while on vacation. That is weird, because people should be happy to get out of work, and they should totally disconnect from it.

July 9th News

Jobless rates are higher
Hackers steal credit card info

Verizon iPhone 4
Verizon has now got 32%, almost one-third, of iPhone 4 users on Verizon. That is good considering that AT&T started with the iPhone 4, and had it selling 8 months before Verizon came out with it. AT&T has also been selling the iPhone, iPhone 3g, and iPhone 3gs for a very long time. A reason that this is happening is probably the connection. Verizon is known for a lot better connection than AT&T who was known for the dropped calls and bad connection when the iPhone 4 first came out. They did fix the problems, but some people still did not want to buy it because they thought the iPhone 4 would have on the iPhone 4. Then, the iPhone 5 will come out. The iPhone 5 will probably come out for both Verizon and AT&T, so Verizon will have a fair start this time. Verizon may have more customers than AT&T for the iPhone 5 when it comes out this fall for both Verizon and AT&T.

July 9th News

July 7th News

Netflix is going to go global
verizon will have 10 gb data plans for $80 a month

Nintendo is coming out with the Wii U
Nintendo will com out with the Wii U next year, 2012. It is the next generation of the Wii. The Wii wasn't very good, and didn't last long, but the Wii U might be a lot more appealing to users. the controller will be touch screen, and it will have buttons. It will be fun to use with the touch screen. It will be like a Nintendo DS that you are playing on a TV, but better. It should be a lot better, and get a lot of customers. Nintendo put their attention and focus on creating new experiences for the players rather than focusing on the quality of the graphics. Nintendo says for shooter games, it is important, but for their games, the quality doesn't matter as much as the experiences of the game. They say that EA will work with them and create games for the Wii, because that is the oppurtunity they want. EA may not be as good of a choice for other counsles like the PS3 and the Xbox 360 because they have many other games like Call of Duty. The controller will be more intuitive and the Wii U might become more popular than the Wii and stay popular for longer than the Wii.

July 6th News

Casey Anthony was accused for killing her 2 year old daughter, Caylee, in October of 2008. On Tuesday, July 5th, after many days in court, she was found "not guilty". She was very lucky to get out not guilty because the prosecutors did not have enough evidence to prove her guilty. She avoided a possible death sentence. Even though she got out, she will be scorned by people every time she goes in public. Most people think that she is guilty, and it will be hard for her to go anywhere as a regular person.

News June 29

1. Google +
2. Apple is making TV's in 2012
3. 4 robberies in San Jose in 16 hours

Google + is very interesting. It is invite only right now, but will open up soon to everyone. It is going to be like Facebook and be a online social network. It will be hard to get everyone from Facebook to come to google +, but google is trying. Facebook is very big right now, and I don't think anyone wants to change to Google + unless it is a lot better than Facebook or any other social network. There are millions of people that use Facebook, and google + is going to have to be great to become more popular than Facebook.

NBA draft

Kemba Walker won the NCAA College Basketball Championship with the UConn Huskies in the 2010 -2011 season. That was his third year at UConn, and his second time in the final four. He is a Junior, and he had to finish his academic work to graduate, so he could go to the NBA. He was very determined and finished his work after the National Championship. After that, he started to prepare for the NBA and did some long and tedious workouts to get better than he already is. This is a video of Kemba.

How I became rich

Once upon a time, there was a guy named Rishub, who was a guy that wanted to start his own company. He was very indolence, so nobody thought he could engender anything of his own. He wanted to make an invention that let kids not go to school, but still learn. He would make a helmet that you would put on your head once, so you can learn everything known to man. Then, everyone could be smart, and get any job they wanted.
The only problem was that he dearth the ability to make anything. Rishub had no idea what to do. So, he hired some nerds to do this job. He was very rich, so he could pay them a lot. They got to work, and finished it in a few weeks. All he had to do was get it approved, and start the business.
But, there was a very stupid guy named Shivaum who thought he could make something of his own. He needed to stop Rishub, and sell his first. So, one night Shivaum sneaked in, and he vitiated Rishub's design. Rishub saw Shivaum destroying everything, so he pacified him, and told him to leave. Shivaum pretended to calm down, and left because his job was done, and he destroyed it already.
Then Rishub started his company, and sold his product, but it didn't work. He realized that it wasn't functioning because of Shivaum. He went to Shivuam, and told him to fix the problem. Rishub did not want to spend his own money, so he told Shivuam to. Shivaum hired the nerds to do the job. Rishub's helmet worked, so he started the company again. He was successful, and became the richest man on earth. Shivaum was taught not to mess with others, or he will be punished, and not get what he wants.

Vocabulary Words to know

engender-cause to exist
vitiate-make impure
pacify-to calm someone down
dearth-lack
indolence-lazy
marred-damaged or bruised
supercilious-haughty
squander-waste
ardent-passionate
beset-harass
countenance-appearance
cursory-hasty
charisma-attractiveness
demagogue- rabble-rousing leader
placate-pacify
indigenous-native
labyrinth-maze
exacerbate-make worse
incense-make very angry
Amorphous – having no shape
Apathy – lack of interest or caring
Conflagration – widespread fire
Conventional – traditional, mundane, ordinary
Detrimental – causing damage or harm
Abridge – to shorten
Abstemious – sparing in the use of food or drink
Abhor – to loathe or detest
Aesthetic – pertaining to beauty
Ambiguous – unclear, having more than one meaning
negligence-carelessness
innocuous-harmless
lax-careless;not diligent
precipitate-cause to happen abruptly
equivocate-say confusing things
impartial-fair
precedent-earlier example
figurative-based on figures of speech
reiterate-say again
prudent-careul
rudimentary-basic
credulous-eager to believe
lucid-easy to understand
sacrosanct-sacred
docile-easily taught
daunt-make fearful

Redwood Middle School @ President Obama's Inauguration

This is a High Resolution video of the media coverage and actual video snippet from CNN. Click on the video to go to the YouTube Source

Pictures here
http://picasaweb.google.com/barryc/InaugurationParade02?authkey=sBZL9ZADOBk&feat=embedwebsite#slideshow









A practice:


Some photos from before they left Saratoga, when they were interviewed for the radio:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kqedradio/3198178338/in/set-72157612371651626/

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=6614740#

http://cbs5.com/video/?id=44859@kpix.dayport.com

Media Links - check it out!

Click HERE for live raw footage.

• Bay Area middle school band going to D.C. - ABC Channel 7 - 1.18.09
• KQED radio - 1.16.09
• KQED photos - 1.16.09
• DC-Bound! South Bay groups head east for Obama's Inauguration - Mercury News, 1.15.09
• Middle School thrilled to be marching on Inauguration Day - 12.11.08
• Bay Area groups to perform at Inauguration - 12.10.08

Xebra Electric Car

This cost $11,700 - got 25 miles on a single charge. Reaches upto 40 mph.

California Native Plants

Thanks to Deyana Leni for helping me put together this California Native plant list

Sticky Monkey Flower (Mimulus Species)

Manzinita (Arctostaphlos Species)

Lilac Verbena (Verbena Lilacina)

Coffee Berry (Rhamnus Calafoncia)

Malva Rosa (Lavatera assurgentiflora)

St. Catherine Lace (Buckweed Eriogonum)
Eriogonum giganteum?

St. Catherine Lace (Buckweed Eriogonum)

Ceanothus (Julia Phelps)

Silver Bush / Lupin (Lupinus Arboreus)

California Needle Grass ( (Nassella pulchra)


Western Redbud (Cercis Occidentalis)

Tsunami in Bay of Bengal - A short story authored by me

Raj and Sanjeev, were two brothers who lived in a small village in coastal Bay of Bengal. Their dad was a fisherman who had perished in one of the many cyclones that lashed their coastal village so very often. They only had their mom Chandra, who lovingly took care of them. They lived in a small hut made of dried palm tree leaves and dried up wood. The village was one happy close-knit group and everyone made sure that they took special care of the two boys.
Life was fun for the two boys, but not so for Chandra. Chandra, with the help of the villagers just grew enough rice for the family. It was still hard work for her to do that. Chandra, painstakingly ignited a new fire everyday, that they had to keep burning till the evening cooking was done. Chandra would go to the Sunderban jungle to collect wood to keep the fire burning and she was always wary of the Bengal tigers that roamed the jungle. But she was brave, knew her way in the jungle and even got back firewood for some of their neighbors.
The two boys hardly helped her though. They enjoyed playing at the beach and jumping into the cool waters of the Bay of Bengal. They played pranks on the villagers and other kids. They spent hours showering in the cool waters of the Ganges river. Sometimes they would swim all the way down to the Bay of Bengal from the Ganges. Life was fun and they didn’t seem to have any responsibility or care for the rest of the world. Unfortunately, they never understood the pains of their mother, nor did they think of the future, they just enjoyed being in the present.
The villagers were kind, always helped them out and even shared their meals. Sometimes, they would drop off fish they had caught and Chandra would put some home ground spices on it and put it on the fire. Raj and Sanjeev would wait eagerly for the fish to be done and enjoy every morsel, taking very tiny little bits with the rice and dipping it in the gravy that Chandra prepared by grinding a few leaves into a paste. They would then take a nice nap under the palm trees by the sea, with the sound of thrashing waves.
One day, Raj and Sanjeev were playing by the beach. It was a bright sunny day and monkeys were jumping from tree to tree. Raj and Sanjeev loved imitating the monkeys and today the monkeys were imitating Raj and Sanjeev. Suddenly, they saw the monkeys scampering away from the beach. They looked at the sea and now noticed that the sea was in low tide. They had never seen the water this close to their home. Sanjeev said, “Wow, that’s so cool. Lets go swim”. Suddenly, the sea went into high tide. They had swam a few hundred yards into the waters when Raj saw a huge wave coming. Raj squealed in delight. “This will be fun”, Raj shouted. “Look at that giant wave coming at us. Let’s go jump into it”. As the wave got closer, they realized that the wave was much taller and unlike any wave they had seen in their lives thus far. Little Sanjeev got scared, “Big brother Raj, let’s go back to the shore. I am scared”. Raj readily agreed. They swam as fast as they could back to shore, but alas, it was too late.
They were completely engulfed by the giant wave as it crossed them and headed for the village. Raj and Sanjeev were shrieking at the top of their voices, “Maa, run. There’s a giant wave coming”. But their voices were drowned by the sound of the giant wave. There was white froth everywhere around them. Raj and Sanjeev were really scared now. They looked for Chandra and they saw her being swept away by the giant wave. They could see the huts breaking down like a pack of cards with the ferocity of the giant wave that lashed against them. They saw bits and pieces from what used to be their home floating away. The boys were almost at the shore when the giant wave started receding and the boys were being carried away. Raj shouted to Sanjeev, “Try to hold onto any tree.” Luckily, they got entangled onto some branches of a palm tree.
Sanjeev asked Raj, “Where is Maa?” Raj didn’t have an answer. He had a heavy heart and his eyes peered into the water. Raj said, “Let us pray to the Goddess of the Sea. She will help us find Maa”. Sanjeev tried to, but all he could do was look into the horizon just as Raj was.
The sea had gone back to its original distance and some more. The world seemed to have stopped in its tracks, there was a deathly silence that was suddenly broken by the wailing of Sanjeev. “Where is Maa? I want her now”. Raj held Sanjeev in a tight embrace. Tears welled up in his eyes. “Maa is gone. The Goddess of the Sea has accepted our mother and she is finally with our Baba”.

The boys descended from the tree and the sight was a disaster. The village had completely disappeared, as if it never was. Not a soul was in sight. They started looking all over for survivors, shouting loudly, “Is anyone there?” Raj considered swimming back into the Bay of Bengal thinking they could rescue someone. Sanjeev, just held Raj’s hands tightly not wanting to let go. Their hearts were numb as they walked around in the rubble that the wave had left behind.
Sanjeev suddenly felt a rage rise within himself. He shouted, crying at the same time, “Why did such a tragedy have to fall upon us? Why us?”. They didn’t get an answer. Raj spoke, “There is no point crying. Why don’t we seek some help. I am sure there are people who still need help. The neighboring villages must be hit too”. Raj remembered Emperor Ashoka who he had never seen but heard good things of. The Emperor was known to be kind, just and caring. “Lets go find Emperor Ashoka”.
They had to cross the Sunderban Jungle in the dark, but urgency was the key. Raj remembered Chandra telling them not to ever venture into the jungle. Raj felt himself tear up when he remembered how Chandra had gone into the jungle all by herself to fetch firewood for their cooking needs. “Our Maa was a brave woman”. Sanjeev just knew what Raj was saying and nodded his head. This just increased their resolve to be brave and help others, just like Chandra would. As they got deeper into the jungle, it grew very dark and ominous with many animal sounds. They had never been this far into the jungle.
Suddenly, they could heard something slithering in the foliage right in front of us. “What’s that?” Sanjeev shouted, his heart beating very fast. Raj abruptly stopped, “Shhhh!” he said. They hid behind a rock. They could see something moving and coming towards them. Sanjeev said, “I think it’s a tiger, can you see it?” Raj’s mind was racing, thinking of what he could do. All of a sudden, there was a huge commotion. There were drums and conches blaring and people shouting very loudly. The tiger turned and looked around and darted away into the bushes. The boys were saved.


Raj came running out and saw Emperor Ashoka’s men, the familiar saffron flag of the four-lions of Ashoka. “Please help us, there was a giant wave that came from the sea and took our village away”. The Commander-in-Chief walked up. “I am Senapati Shatragupta Maurya. Don’t worry, you are in safe hands. We would have killed the tiger easily to save you, but our Emperor has vowed to not kill. What are you two doing here anyway?”
Raj explained the situation. Ashoka’s army rushed back to the site of the giant wave. The soldiers spread around and managed to find a lot of injured people, who were still alive. Many doctors called “Vaidyas” arrived with their magic potion and paste. Emperor Ashoka’s men knew what was needed in a disaster like this.
The next day, the boys were woken up when they heard a lot of noise. They got up when a soldier arrived and asked them to follow him. Raj said, “Where are we going?”. The soldier curtly said, “Emperor Ashoka is here and wants to see you”. The boys were awestruck and afraid. They were going to see Emperor Ashoka.
There was no need to be afraid. Emperor Ashoka was a calm, generous face. They were instantly at ease. Emperor Ashoka said, “You boys are heroes! You have saved many lives. Here is my diamond necklace as reward for your bravery. I also want to adopt you two. Our kingdom needs brave boys like you”. The boys nodded dumbstruck.
The next day found them at the Vibhajjavada school of Buddhism. Raj realized that a tragedy can have some positives too. They had lost Chandra, which was an irreplaceable loss, but the Goddess of the Sea had opened new doors for them.
The boys moved on and put their troubles behind them as they embraced their new life. They missed the beach and the carefree life, but had discovered an inner energy and a new bounce in their attitude with the tragedy. They exhibited lot of passion, hard work and intelligence. They learnt the official language of Magadhi, Sanskrit and the Brahmi script. They learnt about the Bhagvad Gita, the holy book of the Hindus. They got to learn mathematics, medicine and metallurgy.
Raj and Sanjeev impressed the Emperor enough that when Raj finished his education he ended up as the Prime-Minister of Emperor Ashoka’s Kingdom and Sanjeev the Chief Accountant. They were good citizens of the Maurya empire and did a lot of good for the kingdom.

My 11th Birthday

PLAY VIDEO of cake cutting

MY TRIP TO INDIA

Ajmer Fort

View of Kedar Peak in the Himalayas (22,000 feet) behind Kedarnath Temple

My trip to India


India was a fun trip. The plane ride was 24 hours long and it was really boring. All I could do was sleep and play gameboy. We stopped once at Seoul and then were on the way to Bombay. We stayed there for 4 days and then left for Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. There, the hotels were very nice and the food was also pretty good. We stayed there for 5-10 days. Then we went to CharDham Yatra. It was in the mountains and I got car sick. To make things even worse, the car was a new car. So when we entered we smelled the leather and I hated the smell. The cars in Delhi, Jaipur and Agra didn't smell at all. We went to four places in the mountains, Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. First we went to Yamunotir. This is where the mouth of the Yamuna river is. We had to go on a horse there because it was too small of a path for cars to go on. Then we went down the mountain and stayed in a hotel overnight. The next day we went to Gangotri. This is where the river Ganga is. I splashed some water on myself because it was holy water. Then the next day we went to Kedarnath. This was very long. So we had to stay up there in the hotel overnight. The next day we came down. Kedarnath was Lord Shiva's place. Our final destination was Bardinath. This was Lord Vishnu's place. My parents said it was good to go to the chardham, but I thought it was kind of boring. After that we drove to Delhi and took a plane to Bombay where we stayed for 7 more days. Then we left India and took another boring flight back to San Francisco.

At the Johns Hopkins CTY program (Stanford, Palo Alto)

I attended the CTY Johns Hopkins summer camp at Stanford. I picked Math as my subject. I stayed at Stanford for three weeks. Everyday, except weekends, we did math for 5 hours. We did have breaks but only about half an hour. We woke up at 7AM and had half an hour until breakfast. Breakfwas was 45 minutes. We had a meal card and used it for every meal. We swiped the card to get into the cafetaria. There was a line and we went through the line to get to our food. Then we sat down in a table together and ate. From 8:15 we had half an hour to get ready fro class and have a little free time. Then we got picked up by our teachers and we started class by 9AM. We had class until 11:30 with one break in the middle. Then we had lunch until Noon and break until 12:30PM. Then we had class until 3:45. After that we had something called Enrichment. We had word problems that were very tricky and we usually solved them in groups of 2 or 3. Then we went back to our dorms at 4:30PM and had free time until dinner. DInner was at 5:30PM.

Then it was the fun part. We had activities. We chose them by room numbers or birthday or some random thing. The activities were fun. We had about 10 different activities with different RAs leading the activities. My two favorite activities were soccer and quiditch. On some days we had socials (usually on Friday). Everybody got together and we had free time. There was a movie and we had food and drinks. In my opinion, the social on the last Friday was the best.

Weekends were a whole different thing. We had no class and had two activities every day. We had a talent show once and it was fun to watch everyone do their part. My favorite activitiy on the weekend was the RA fashion show. We got to dress up our RA and there were two judges who picked the RA that was best dressed. We didn't win but it was still fun.

Since all we had was free time on weekends we went places on the weekend. Once we went to Jamba juice. We also went to a icecream place called COldStone which they say is the best icecream place. I didn't think it was that good. We also went to the Stanford bookstore where I bought a few things. Jamba juice and Coldstone were off campus and were a very long walk. We went to Pizza My Heart once and they also said this place was good. This time it was actually really good and I liked it. One time during our walk a palm trees branch broke off and we carried it all the way there. This was a good camp overall except I think the food was a little repetitive.

Video




Pictures

My weeklong camping trip at Camp Chawanakee

Camp Chawanakee

During the first week in summer I went to Chawanakee, a boy scout camp. I spent the week there. It was a lot of fun. The first day Sunday, was basically free. All we did was find out what classes we had and their timings. We learned a lot about the camp. We also tried out for swimming. I didn't pass but only one of my friends did, so I didn't feel so bad.

The next day we started our classes. I had five classes. I had trail to Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class as my first three classes. We did not get merit badges for it but we did do the requirements for them, so we could finish the three. The two other classes were basketry and art. Basketry was just a class that taught us basket weaving. This would get me a merit badge. I got a partial since I didn't finish it. This means I got some requirement done, but not all. I had one left which I could do next time.

After basketry we had lunch. At lunch we had stewards who got the food from the cafetaria to our camp. We ate it at the tables near our tents. There was tons of food but I didn't like it. In my opinion it wasn't very good. Then it was time for my final class Art. In Art, we basically used clay and made pots and other things. I finished this and got a complete. I was happy to get my first merit badge. After class we had free time until dinner.

After dinner, we had a campfire. It was either with the whole camp or just our troops.

THis was our schedule until Friday. We left Saturday morning. I think it was fun overall and I certainly recommend this camp to anyone wanting to go.

THE MISSING PRINCIPAL

“Have you realized that our Principal, Mr. Sid, hasn’t been here for a week?” I said.
“You’re right,” said Tom, “I wonder where he is.”
“There was a rumor that he had been kidnapped by the person living at the house at the end of his street. He did it because he wanted to steal money.”
School had just ended and Tom and I were walking back from school. There was a house at the end of the street that had an ugly face on it. The windows were broken, the door looked like it hadn’t been painted in years, and I couldn’t imagine how old it was.
We rang the door bell and a spooky; ghost looking person opened the door. His face was wrinkled and he looked very old. He did look very nice until I saw the stone in his hand! The second we saw the stone, we ran. He threw the stone at us and it just barely missed hitting us.
We ran all the way home and told our parents. They were shocked and warned us never to go to that house again.
The next day at school, I remembered we had a school detective named Detective Jim.
“Can you bring some people and try to spy on the spooky house at the end of the road?”, I said. “Sure, I can do that.” Detective Jim said.
So the next day Tom, Detective Jim, and I went to the house. This time it was unlocked so we quietly went in. The staircase was almost broken and it was very dark in there. I couldn’t see anything clearly. But I could see so many spider webs that it was hard to walk around.
I heard a noise somewhere but couldn’t find out where it was coming from. We were downstairs and looked everywhere but couldn’t find anything, so we knew it was coming from upstairs.
We went upstairs and peeked into the room. We saw an evil villain named Mr. Crocker and standing right next to him was Mr. Sid. We didn’t go in because he looked very scary.
“TOM, DON’T GO IN,” I heard Detective Jim scream.
But it was too late! He had already gone in and we couldn’t stop him. In a few seconds we were all at home after dodging a stone.
The next day we tried again. This time we all brought some stones with us. We went in and peeked into the same room and Mr. Sid was there.
We made a plan to throw all the stones at once and save Mr.Sid. So we tried the plan. We threw the stones which knocked Mr.Crocker unconscious. In this way, we saved Mr. Sid right in time and ran away.
When we got back to school, Mr.Sid was so happy and gave us extra recess. I was very happy after saving him and lived happily ever after.

The Post Office Fiasco

The Post Office Fiasco

by Ajith and Rishub

March 2007 (Spring Break)

I hate this Post office. It is just like sitting idle. I would rather be at club house. But Balvihaar is worse. I wish I had a DS, WII, TV etc that I could play with here. I would really be happy here if those things were here and I would not complain then. I feel like I am being tortured here. I would be happy to get out of here. This place is only comparable to jail of Balvihar. Overall, this place is boring, stupid and not active.

I see a lot of people and the second I got in into this post office, I knew it was boring. I also knew that we would be here for a long time, as there was such a long line. This place is so dull. All I can see here is stamps, computers, lockers and people. The people here also think that this place is boring. For example, we saw two other kids that were bored like us. The people here probably thought the same thing as me when they walked in. We were so shocked when we were told that we may have to stay here for another hour.

One purpose of being here is to mail stuff. My purpose of being here is to get another passport. Also, people come to buy stamps and envelopes. There is a nice computer here to help buy stuff without standing in line. The computer has 3 options.. First to mail a letter, second to buy stamps and lastly to find information. There is a stamp machine also. It has 16 kinds of stamps and they are regular priced. You get 20 stamps for about $7 or $8.

I heard about Bob ….

Bob's Time Machine

Once, there lived a nice guy called Bob. He wanted to mail a letter to his parents. He went to the post office but he was standing in line the whole day but never got a chance. He got really mad and his face became red. He went to the post office every day for two weeks but he still didn't get to mail it. He got really mad and he broke everything in the post office and ran around it a bit crazy. Bob also set the post office on fire. He owed the post office $1 Million. He didn't have the money and he got arrested and was sent to jail.

Alcatraz was the name of the jail. There, he made a friend. There were a lot of bullies in the jail and his friend saved him every time. In return he taught his friend to read. Bob and his friend thought they could get out. They broke a hole in the wall at night and escaped. They had to swim in the cold water but survived.

Bob and his friend started a business which basically made things that nobody could figure out how to make. The business was called Ban-Anas. They had a lot of customers and became billionaires. They made a time machine as their product. They also made a jet pack, flying cars, a shrink ray, a laser pen and a hover craft. Bob used the Tiime machine and undid what he had done at the post office. But he also made sure he went to jail at Alcatraz, made his friend to eventually become the billionaire.

When Bob became a billionaire, he had to give lots of money away. He was forced to give it to charity. Also, he gave it to the poor people. But he owed a lot of money to the bank and lost it all. He was poor now. But he was very happy. It was a life well lived.

Scoring Machine

Almost there....


No Goal and then..... goal



Goaaaaal

Video Games Rock

Video Games on Weekdays

Are you worried that America’s kids are not having enough fun? Do you think they study too much? The solution to this problem is video games. Every kid should play video games on weekdays.

First, playing video games on weekdays can make them take their minds off their homework. It will also let them take their minds off school too. If they play video games on weekdays, they won’t be pressurized and stressed. Some video games can actually teach kids something. For example, if the game is a sport game but a kid doesn’t know how to play it, it can teach that sport. Playing video games can have many benefits.

In contrast, video games can also be a bad thing. Video games can be fun yet can distract people at school. It can distract them because they could be thinking about video games while working. This is because video games are very exciting and addictive, and sometimes we can dream about video games even when we are not playing them. This could result in bad scores. Fortunately, this can be stopped if kids stop playing video games. They won’t be addicted and it won’t bother them at school. This problem has the same solution, don’t play much and you won’t be lazy.

Most importantly, playing video games will allow kids to have fun on weekdays when they have finished their homework. They will also have a nice break from homework and everything going on in school. Playing will make kids have good hand eye coordination. If they are allowed to play on weekdays, they won’t complain that they are bored or have nothing to do. At school they can also make friends with kids who might have the same game as you. You will learn how to cooperate and team with them, while exchanging tips on how to beat a level in that game. All in all, playing video games will help kids make new friends and also keep them busy on weekdays.

In conclusion, every kid in the U.S.A should play video games. Kids will have a chance to take their minds off their homework and also have fun.

Birth and Death of a Star

Birth and

Death of a Star

All stars are formed from Nebulae. Nebulae are clouds of dust or gas. The gas is mostly hydrogen with a little helium . The gas fills most of the volume of the cloud, but the dust makes it opaque. These clouds are the birth place of the star.

The formation of a star begins with a collapse. This collapse is triggered by a shock wave. The gravitational force now contracts the nebulae and this is the first stage of the star formation. After about 10 million years, the core gets hot and if enough material is present the temperature reaches 10 million degree C and a nuclear fusion reaction starts. With this fusion reaction, lot of energy is released. This energy then heats up the star and stops the collapse. Now the star is stable. An example of a stable star is the sun, considered at its mid life.

When all the hydrogen is exhausted due to the fusion reaction the star dies. The hotter and brighter a star, the faster it dies. Which means the fusion reaction is faster and has exhausted all the hydrogen. Once the star dies, it becomes a black dwarf, or black hole. Our sun is going to live 10 billion years. A star that is 20 times bigger than the sun will only live 10 million years.

Why does Uranus have rings?

Answer - Uranus rings go up and down (and not side to side as most rings of other planets). This is due to the weird tilt of Uranus (98 degrees). There are 11 dark rings around Uranus which were formed from broken up space objects creating dust rings. The small moons around Uranus help the rings stay together through the gravitational effects. The weird tilt of Uranus is due to a planetary collision which probably created a lot of dust that could not escape the gravity. This dust formed the rings.

Question - Why I chose the question? How is it relevant to the future?

Answer - I chose this question as I was interested in this topic and I didn’t know anything about it. Stars forming and then dying seemed interesting and I wanted to investigate it. I looked at the rings of Uranus on the internet and I wanted to know why they were formed.

This is relevant to me as it helps me understand the world. It shows me the vastness of the universe. I learnt that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second and the distance between the earth and the sun is 93 million miles. It thus takes 8.3 minutes for a light ray from the sun to hit earth. And the sun is the closest star to earth. There are lot more other suns in the universe. We have a lot of the universe that we have not covered yet. The world is huge.

It also shows me that even the largest things die.

March Madness

March Madness is coming up soooooooon. There are some very exciting basketball games I have seen in the last couple years.
Here is my letter published in the San Jose Mercury News last year - April 2006


Can't get enough

I am having a great time watching the NCAA tournament. I have a suggestion for the NCAA: After we have the winner of the men's tournament, we should have a final game the next weekend where the men's champions play against an all-star men's team. We could do the same with the women. We could even have the all-star men's team play with the all-star women's team the day of the NBA draft. Rishub Kumar Saratoga

Año Nuevo State Reserve - Guided Tour

Video of the Año Nuevo Guide Tour Did you know that their are only three places in the world that you can find elephant seals for viewing. All three are in California. Año Nuevo is the only place where we can watch Elephant Seals from as close as 25 feet away. We took the Elephant Seal guided tour yesterday. My dad had reserved the tickets two months in advance, as they are hard to get. People from all over the world join this guided tour. Remember to book them early. Details are here Female Elephant Seals come to theis places to have babies but males come because females are there. When females come to Año Nuevo they are 2000 lbs. but when they leave they are around 800 lbs. Males are 5000 lbs. when they come and are 2000 lbs. when they leave. They have Elephant Seals in various stages (infant, weaning etc). There were almost 4000 Elephant Seals when we visited. The park maintains an accurate count. There, it was very windy and the sand always got in my eyes. On the way back my brother was complaining that sand was in his eyes. Elephant seals are heavy animals and are fun to watch. I think you should go and watch them soon. Fifty-five miles south of San Francisco and the Golden Gate, a low, rocky, windswept point juts out into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish maritime explorer Sebastian Vizcaino sailed by the point on January 3, 1603. His diarist and chaplain of the expedition, Father Antonio de la Ascension, named it Punta de Año Nuevo (New Year's Point) for the day on which they sighted it in 1603. Today, the point remains much as Vizcaino saw it from his passing ship. Lonely, undeveloped, wild. Elephant seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals come ashore to rest, mate, and give birth in the sand dunes or on the beaches and offshore islands. It is a unique and unforgettable natural spectacle that hundreds of thousands of people come to witness each year. Año Nuevo State Reserve is the site of the largest mainland breeding colony in the world for the northern elephant seal, and the interpretive program has attracted increasing interest every winter for the past 19 years. People who hope to see the seals during the winter breeding season are urged to get their reservations early. The males battle for mates on the beaches and the females give birth to their pups on the dunes. During the breeding season, December through March, daily access to the reserve is available via guided walks only. Most of the adult seals are gone by early March, leaving behind the weaned pups who remain through April. The elephant seals return to Año Nuevo's beaches during the spring and summer months to molt and can be observed during this time through a permit system.

Crazy Frank's Desi Pizza

962 W. El Camino Real
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
(408) 736-7585
www.crazyfrankspizza.com/

This restaurant is very good and I liked it a lot.They have Indian pizza which is very good. It comes on a tray and you can pick a flavor and eat as much as you want. You can always ask for more or request a different one to be made. I ate cheese pizza and another that had corn on it. I liked them both.

There is also a buffet and you can eat as much as you want from there too. There are different subzees as part of the buffet and they will give you hot fresh roti to eat with all the subzee.

I recommend going to this restaurant.

On to Science camp

My Science Camp Trip - Click to view pictures

Video snippet (very short)

My science experiment - Egg Drop or Balloon Drop

Objective:

•The object of the challenge was to somehow get the whole egg into the bottle without harming the egg. (You can substitute the egg with a balloon.)

Play Video to see the experiment

Procedure: First get a bottle, an egg, a lighter, and a piece of paper.
Use the lighter to light the paper on fire.
Put it in the bottle and place the egg in immediately after.
The egg will slide inside with a popping sound.
Now blow all the smoke out.
Put your mouth on the bottle and blow while the bottle is upside down.
Then keep it upside down and the egg will fall out in a few seconds.

Tricks:
Put vegetable oil on the rim of the bottle so the egg will slip a little more easily.
If you wet the egg the egg will also slip a little more easily
Make sure the opening of the bottle is smaller than the egg but reasonable big.
Make sure you put the lit paper inside the bottle and the egg on top of the opening very quickly

How it works
The burning piece of paper heats the molecules of air in the bottle and cause the molecules to move far away from each other.
When the flame goes out, the molecules of air in the bottle cool down and move closer together.
This is referred as a "partial vacuum ".
Now the air outside the bottle would come rushing in to fill the bottle. However, the egg is in the way!
The "push" or pressure of the air molecules outside the bottle is so great that it literally pushes the balloon into the bottle.



Application
Weather Patterns - This tells me how the low pressure and high pressure areas impact weather. "nature abhors a vacuum."

Haveli Indian restaurant - Dublin

Haveli Indian Cuisine
Address: 4582 Dublin Blvd, Dublin, CA 94568
Phone: (925) 551-8759

We went to this restaurant on the way back from the mandir.
I liked their garlic naan and cholay.
The dahi batata sev puri was also very good - almost as good as chaat paradise.

My dad really enjoyed the Ooondhio (a vegetable dish). He said it was the best ever he has ever had. He said the srikhand (comes with the Ooondhio) tasted like home made, was very very good too.

This restaurant is definitely worth checking out.

Fusion Cuisine - Malaysian Banana Leaf

One of the restaurants we go to, Banana Leaf in Milpitas has this appetizer called Roti Prata. I love it.

We make this at home with Malaysian Frozen Roti and Maggi sauce + ghee. This works out almost as good as the one from Banana Leaf.

MY HERO - GUMPEI YOKOI

Gunpei Yokoi 1941-1997

A Different Kind of Hero

GUMPEI YOKOI - INVENTOR OF GAMEBOY

My hero is Gumpei Yokoi (1941-1997) who invented GameBoy in 1989. Gumpei Yokoi grew up in Kyoto, Japan. He got an Electrical Engineering College Degree and got a job with Nintendo. With his hard work and creativity, Gumpei became more and more important for his company. He is famous for inventing the Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System. His easy-to-play toys, his success and intelligence in developing these toys made him one of the greatest.

Gumpei realized that kids did not want big, expensive, complex toys that drained the batteries three hours after opening the gifts on Christmas morning. His formula for success was:

Small Size + Low cost + Long Battery Life + Ease of Use + Games that are difficult to stay away from = Mega $$$$$$

The GameBoy has 100 million units sold and is the world’s best-selling video game system. It is the oldest still being used game system (fifteen years).

What is a GameBoy? A GameBoy is a thing that you can carry everywhere. The GameBoy has many different games. These are removable GameBoy cartridges. My favorites are Pokemon and Super Mario Brothers 3.

I play with the GameBoy Advance SP. Every game has many levels and I have lots of fun in beating the levels. GameBoy is my single most favorite toy. I enjoy helping others in beating levels also. When I play the games, I concentrate and sometimes feel that I am inside the game. I feel very happy when I beat the level and my heart starts beating rapidly sometimes. My GameBoy helps me make friends with other GameBoy playing kids, especially at sleepovers. At sleepovers it is a lot of fun because we play with our GameBoys all night long. Sometimes when I get up at 2AM, I feel like playing GameBoy instead of going back to sleep, and going further to the next level in the game.

The GameBoy has given me lots of thrilling moments. The next invention could be a GameBoy with an umbrella to help you play in the rain. When I grow up, I want to invent a toy for kids that will bring fun to millions of kids worldwide. I want to invent the Game Pyramid, which is basically a projection headset. You put on the headsets and a pyramid will get projected in front of you, and you can use your fingers to play.

I am sure many 3^rd grader kids around the world will thank Gumpei Yokoi for inventing such a fantastic toy for us. He has done a lot to make kids like me happy. He is definitely my special hero!

Fusion Holiday Celebration - Diwali2Xmas

HOW I celebrate my holidays?

Our holiday celebrations is a fusion celebration with Indian and American festivitity.

It start with the Indian festival Dassara, usually in early October. We celebrate the triumph of good over evil by dancing a traditional Indian dance called the Dandia, which is dancing with short sticks with the Garba music. After Dassara, we celebrate Halloweeen, which is really fun, as kids get to go trick-or-treating and get lots of candy. We get to wear our favorite costume and put scary stuff around the house, carve the pumpkins. Soon after, we celebrate Thanksgiving with a vegetarian feast with family and friends. This is a formal sitdown lunch.

But before Thanksgiving, we celebrate Diwali, which is the Indian festival of lights. My dad decorates the outside of the house with lights. Our neighbors used to wonder why we have the house lit up, but now they all know. In fact one of them already knew about Diwali and he was not Indian. My cousin comes over to my house and we celebrate by lighting up July 4^th fireworks. That is really fun. We also light up lamps on the day of Diwali and put all around the house. We also worship the God of Wisdom and Wealth (Ganesh Laksmi), We wear new clothes and then after the pooja we get to eat sweets and a traditional Diwali dinner. This dinner is special, as we continue a tradition of eating a few things that has been done in our family for generations.

This is all building up to my favorite holiday, which is Christmas. We have been listening to Christmas songs in the van and my dad tells us stories from previous Christmases and we get really excited about December 25^th. We start looking forward to Christmas as soon as Diwali ends. We go to watch the Nutcracker sometimes. I was scared the first time as a three year old. We start turning on our diwali lights around first week of December and it makes me feel very happy to see the lights on every night. We bake the cookies and put some milk for Santa. I usually try to stay awake to see Santa bring up gifts, though I do get to see where he is on the internet. By the time he is on the East Coast, I am already sleepy. Next day, we get up to usually see many boxes of presents from Santa waiting for us. My cousin comes over and we rip the gifts and also exchange gifts. My aunts and uncles from all over send me gifts and I am not allowed to open them.

Aloo Paratha and Cookie Dough - what a combination

Do you have a favorite meal? I do! My favorite appetizer is garlic bread. The best main course is potatoes stuffed in Indian bread. The dessert I love is cookie dough. All together, they make a mouth watering meal that I enjoy.

My number one appetizer is garlic bread. I like it because it is crunchy and crispy. Even though you have to toast it for some time, it is worth it. It is not too hot or too cold, but just right. When it is crispy and crunchy I like it a little better, but it should not be too crispy. I usually sprinkle some red pepper to spice it up. All in all, my favorite appetizer is garlic bread.

Of all the food in the world, my favorite dinner is potatoes stuffed in Indian bread. I already liked potatoes and Indian bread. So I thought it might not be bad to try potatoes stuffed in Indian bread. When I tasted it, I thought it was delicious. It was warm and fresh in taste. It was mildly spicy. I like it better with side dishes like yogurt or pickles. Potatoes stuffed in Indian bread may be my favorite dinner for a long time.

My favorite dessert is definitely cookie dough. I like the dough more than the chocolate chips because I do not like chocolate much. It is delicious because the dough is so soft and chewy. I love soft and chewy cookies too. One day I tried cookie dough and it was so delicious that I wanted a lot more of it. From that day onwards, my favorite dessert has become cookie dough.

In conclusion, these foods make up my favorite meal. I like garlic bread as the best appetizer. Potato stuffed in Indian bread is my absolute favorite main entrée. And my most preferred dessert is cookie dough.