"Think, Then Think Again…"

The book The Sea of Monsters is the sequel to the book The Lightning Thief.  As I have written in my last post when you read the first book you have to read the second.  Now I’m on  the search for the third.  I suggest for you not to read this post if you haven’t read the first one yet because it might tell you the ending.  I think the second one was even more exciting than the first.  In this book Percy becomes friends with a cyclops.  He also sees weird dreams with Grover in them.  When he arrives at the camp, Thalia’s tree is dying and everything in camp halfblood hill is falling apart.  Will Percy succeed on saving Thalia’s tree?  Will Tyson betray Percy?  Will Grover die?  And much more questions will be answered.  Please read the book to find out. 

Yesterday, I just finished reading the book The Lightning Thief.  Personally, I think it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life.  Once I started I really just couldn’t let go.  It’s about a boy named Perseus Jackson who is a troublemaker at school.  He has been expelled six times.  One troubled day, his mom brings him to a summer camp for halfbloods like him.  A halfblood is somebody who is half human and half god.  Percy’s dad was Poseidon, the king of sea.  Percy is sent to a quest to the underworld to retrieve the lightning bolt.  If he doesn’t retrieve the lightning bolt in ten days and bring it to Mount Olympus the three gods Hades,  Zeus, and Poseidon will create world war 3.  Will Percy succeed on his quest to retrieve the lightning bolt or will they have war?  Will Hades kill Percy when he gets to the Underworld?  When he retrieves the lightning bolt will it be too late?  Find out more when you read the book.  I really suggest for you to read this book if you like adventure and suspense.  Another reason I love the book The Lightning Thief is because it teaches you a little about Greek Gods which makes it a good fiction book and at the same time a nonfiction book.  After reading this book I’m sure you will definitely want to read the second book right away.  I hope reading this post has made you want to read The Lightning Thief.

For me fractions are parts of a whole. 

A fraction is an example of a specific type of ratio , in which the two numbers are related in a part-to-whole relationship, rather than as a comparative relation between two separate quantities.

Each fraction consists of a denominator, numerator, and the fraction bar.  The denominator is the number at the bottom which represents the whole and the top number, the numerator, is the part of the whole being shown.  The line separating it is called the fraction line or the bar line.  That represents the word divide.

For example, the fraction ³⁄₄ could be used to represent three equal parts of a whole object, were it divided into four equal parts. Because it is impossible to divide something into zero equal parts, zero can never be the denominator of a fraction .   A fraction with equal numerator and denominator is equal to one and the fraction form is rarely, if ever, given as a final result.

If you want to learn more about fractions you may go on these websites:

http://www.aaamath.com/fra.html

http://www.visualfractions.com/

http://www.mathleague.com/help/fractions/fractions.htm

This is a really fun and entertaining video about fractions.  It’s really funny and I really suggest for you to watch it: 

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/V96_PjlrVQc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I like playing basketball a lot and I think I’m actually pretty good at it. In this post, I’m going to tell more about the history of basketball. I hope you like it!!!

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by throwing a ball through a 10 feet high hoop (the goal) under organized rules. Basketball is one of the most popular and widely viewed sports in the world.

Points are scored by shooting the ball through the basket above; the team with more points at the end of the game wins. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it or passing it between teammates. Disruptive physical contact is not permitted and there are restrictions on how the ball can be handled.

Through time, basketball has developed to involve common techniques of shooting, passing and dribbling, as well as players’ positions, and offensive and defensive structures. Typically, the tallest members of a team will play center or one of two forward positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed, play the guard positions.

I hope you have learned a little more about basketball. For more information, you may go on these websites:

http://www.nba.com

www.foxsports.com/nba

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_court

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_basketball

Thank you for reading. I hope you come back next time to view other post about sports, if you are a huge sports fan.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/G2q0TEje0D0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

The other night my mom called from Hong Kong telling us to get our homework done early and to sleep as soon as we were finished.  She also told us that she had a surprise for us.  I was really looking forward to the surprise so I followed like an obedient child, did my homework and went to bed right away at 6:30.  The next thing I knew my mom was shaking me awake and it was midnight.  Usually when someone wakes me up at a time I don’t want them to I get grumpy.  But since she had a surprise for me and my brother, I wasn’t grumpy at all.  When I went out as if on cue my dad automatically handed me a box.  At first, I wasn’t really sure what it was but after a couple of seconds of pure thinking I found out that it was a … laptop.  It was the laptop that I wanted since 3rd grade.  Yay, I thought.   My brother on the other hand got the new DS with a camera.  After doing some exploring we thanked our parents and went to sleep.  It was the best Christmas present I’d ever had and I will ever have (I think).

Have you ever thought of where the weird word dozen came from?  Well, honestly I’ve never really thought about it a lot until today at math when one of my classmates asked that question.  In this post, I have decided to answer that question and tell some information about the word dozen.

Dozen is another word for the number twelve. The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the moon or months in a cycle of the sun or year. The dozen is convenient because its multiples and divisors are convenient: 12 = 2 × 2 × 3, 3 × 4 = 2 × 6, 60 = 12 × 5, 360 = 12 × 30. The use of twelve as a base number, known as the duodecimal system (also as dozenal), probably originated in Mesopotamia (see also sexagesimal). Twelve dozen (12² = 144, the duodecimal 100) are known as a gross; and twelve gross (12³ = 1,728, the duodecimal 1,000) are called a great gross, a term most often used when shipping or buying items in bulk. A great hundred, also known as a small gross, is 120 or ten dozen (a dozen for each finger on both hands). A baker’s dozen, also known as a long dozen, is thirteen.

The English word dozen [1] [2] [3] comes from the old form of the French word douzaine, meaning “a group of twelve” (“Assemblage de choses de même nature au nombre de douze” as defined in the eighth edition of the Dictionnaire de l’Académie française). This French word [4] is a derivation from the cardinal number douze (”twelve”, from Latin duodĕcim) and the collective suffix -aine (from Latin -ēna), a suffix also used to form other words with similar meanings such as quinzaine (a group of fifteen), vingtaine (a group of twenty), centaine (a group of one hundred), etc. These French words have synonymous cognates in Spanish: docena [5][6][7], quincena, veintena, centena, etc. English dozen, French douzaine, German Duzend and Spanish docena, are also used as indefinite quantifiers to mean “about twelve” or “many” (as in “a dozen times”, “dozens of people”).  

Thank you for reading, I hope you learned a little something about the word “dozen”.  (My source is Wikipedia.)

  The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is an endagered specie but for some reason it isn’t on the Endagered Specie list.  In the rest of this post I will talk about where it lives,  what it looks like, why it’s endagered and some other important facts about it that you should know.

  The highly endangered Octopus paxarbolis also known as the “Tree Octopus” is said to live in land and sea in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America.  Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent (next to) to Hood Canal.  The rainforest there is a very moist and humid place that’s why they like it.  

  This”Tree Octopus” looks exactly like most octopus.  These octopuses are about (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm in size.  “Tree Octopuses” have suction cup like tentacles that make it easy for the “Tree Octopus” to climb.  They also come in various colors.

  Amazingly this “Tree Octopus” isn’t endangered because animals/people are eating them or because people are killing them.  It’s endagered because it has low breeding.

  If you think this post about the ”Tree Octopus” was interesting, good for you.  If you also think this ”Tree Octopus” is a really fascinating animal then take a deep breath because this might upset and surprise you.    Well, here’s the life changing sentence about the ”Tree Octopus”, …… IT’S FAKE!!!  It really was an internet hoax in 1998 made by Lyle Zapato.  I think my teacher Mr. Hossack knows that because he made us (my class) write this post about “Tree Octopus”.  I think we’re going to learn about internet hoax for our next unit in the who knows what subject.  If you want to know more information about the ”Tree Octopus” please go on the following website:

http://askville.amazon.com/SimilarQuestions.do?req=Pacific+Northwest+Tree+Octopus+found

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_Tree_Octopus_real&alreadyAsked=1&rtitle=The_tree_octopus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_northwest_tree_octopus

Thank you for reading.  I hope that I have taught you the lesson of not believing everything on the computer.  Next time you find something odd on the internet check on another source or two.  If it says all the same information then believe that piece of information. 

Even though I’m not American and the U.S. Elections don’t really affect me I’m still happy that Obama won.  I think the American people made a really good choice because:

1. I don’t like McCain.

2. McCain is old and if he dies I don’t like the woman that’s going to take over.

3. America hasn’t had a democratic president for a long time.

4. Obama is the first African/American president in the U.S. so they can experience a change.

5.  Obama is younger so he is more dynamic plus he has a different point of view regarding the Iraq war.

And that’s all the reasons I think why America made a really good choice picking Barack Obama for president.  Congratulations to him!!!

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) also known as North Korea has a totalitarian/dictatorship type of government. The leader of North Korea built a gate blocking people to get out of the country. Yes, they do have an airport but it’s only for the leader and the more important people. Lots have tried but most have failed and if you do succeed chances are you’ll never see your loved ones ever again. This type of government is very secretive. For example, no one knows for sure if the current leader Kim Jong IL is alive or dead. Some people say that he died five years ago because of diabetes and the people they say are him are really just his fakes. They do have a couple of clues that that is true like, he isn’t coming out as often, he used to drink and smoke a lot and he has already missed several important public affairs. But it still might be true that he is alive because the North Korean government hasn’t made any official announcements yet. Not much is known about this government but they spend a ton of money on nuclear weapons instead of helping the people. That’s why most of the people in this country are very poor. It’s very difficult for countries to develop when the power is all controlled by one person especially when that person is very evil. I don’ t really understand why they include a democratic in their government’s name when they’re not democratic at all. I hope reading this has increased your knowledge about North Korea.

At school, we are learning about space.  Part of this unit in science includes writing a poem about the night sky.  Mine is a short haiku one.  A haiku poem means the first line is five syllables long, the second line is seven syllables long and the last line is five syllables long.  There are also other kinds of poems besides haiku like limerick, sonnets, ballads, carpe diem and more but I chose haiku.  I hope you like it!!! If you see something that I could do better on or I did good on please comment.  Here’s my poem:

The Dark Night Sky 

Dark eyes wide open,

Waiting for the world to rise,

But never seeing…

-Isabelle Lao