Account Compromised

It was about four days ago that I noticed that I couldn't access my email account— I simply couldn't log in because my password was incorrect.

At the time I didn't worry much because I was using a computer that I have never used before, and I thought that it was just a problem with the browser or the Internet files. Also, I didn't really need to check my email at the time, so I simply forgot about the matter.

Then, today I finally decided to check my email again, and for once more I saw the your-password-is-incorrect message. This time I was more startled because I was using another browser, and I have seen my mother logging into her email using the same browser.

So after making sure that the caps-lock was off and re-entering the same password for about five times, I came to the conclusion that my email account must have been compromised. It was the only logical explanation to this problem because the password was never changed by myself.

Anyway, for the next ten minutes, I was on the password-retrieval process. I was required to enter my alternate e-mail address, and it took me about six tries before I entered my actual alternate-email address because I have registered too many email accounts that I could not remember which one was chosen as my alternate email.

After that, I saw a message saying that for security reasons, I had to wait for at least 24 hours before I could go onto the next step in the password-retrieval process. Great. Now I can't do anything until tomorrow.

So, hopefully when I go onto the next step tomorrow, I will be able to successfully get my account back. I have quite a lot of valuable information and contacts in that email account, and it'd be very inconvenient if the account is lost. Also, the account name of this email is the best name I could possible get, so if I lose this account I would have to take a name that is not as great as this one.

Ahh! I don't want to lose this account!

All Done!

Just this morning I wrote my math exam, which means that school is officially over for me. Yay!

However, this doesn't mean that I will have an empty schedule. During the next two weeks, I am going to be on vacation, and when I come back I will have to attend a summer school for one month.

Anyway, I am glad that grade ten is done and that it's summer vacation now. I can finally take a good rest and not worry about school at all! Actually...no. I still don't know my exam marks as well as my final marks for math, chemistry and history. However, I don't think I did too bad on the exams, and even if I didn't do well on them, grade ten marks don't matter. So these are not a huge concern for me.

In the mean time, I am excited for grade eleven. In grade eleven almost all courses will be enjoyable because almost all of them were chosen by myself (and my parents). Also it'll be a fresh start so that I will be able to set new goals and (hopefully) achieve more. I hope that this summer will allow me to recharge myself and get me prepared for the next school year.

Also, if anyone happens to visit my blog regularly, I probably won't update it during the next two weeks because of the vacation that I'll have.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians

The fifth and last book of the series

A few days ago, one of my classmates saw me reading Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Eragon is a book about dragons and dragon riders, and since it's a fantasy book, she asked me if I have also read other fantasy novels.

I said no. Well, it wasn't entirely true, because obviously I have read the Harry Potter series before. However, usually when people ask you about the fantasy books that you have read, they are looking for fantasy books other than Harry Potter because Harry Potter is simply too famous.

Anyway, since I have read no other fantasy book, I couldn't talk about them, so I asked the classmate about the fantasy books that she read.

So she started talking about Percy Jackson & the Olympians, which is a pentalogy related to Greek mythology. She explained the settings and general background of the series, and described the story of each book in detail.

Since it was a few days ago, I couldn't remember what she said exactly. However, I do remember that from her description, the books didn't sound bad. Therefore, I decided to make this post so that I won't forget to read them in the future.

One more thing, I looked up the books on wikipedia, and was glad to find that their covers weren't ugly at all.  And since I quite liked the cover arts, I decided to include them in this post.

Ugly Thoughts

Yes, I know the title sounds very appealing and it sounds very intense. However, the information is quite personal and the thoughts are pretty ugly, so I don't feel that I should openly post in onto the Internet. Therefore I have encrypted this post.

(In case you want to know what this post is about, it's about me being mad at one of my classmates. That's all I can reveal)

Note: This post has been encrypted.

Encryption Program

For the posts that contain things that I don't want others to see, I have encrypted them with my special encryption program so that only I will be able to decipher the code.

However, if for whatever reason I lose the code of my encryption program, I will not be able to decipher my posts. So I decided to post my code onto my Blog as well. So yeah, this post really is just for me...

Trends in the Periodic Table

There are many trends in the period table for you to predict a property of an element, and in this post I'm going to talk about four of them.

Atomic Radius

Atomic radius is the mean distance between the centre of the nucleus to the boundary of the electron clouds. It increases as the group number decreases, and increases as the periodic number increases.

Ionization Energy

Ionization energy is the amount of energy that is needed to remove an electron from an atom. It increases as the group number increases, and increases as the periodic number decreases.

Electron Affinity 

Significant Digits

By definition, significant digits are digits in a number that are meaningful. They are digits that contribute to the precision of a number. Consider these two measurements:

• 5 cm
• 5.000 cm

The two measurements may seem the same. However, the second one is much more precise because it has three more significant digits than the first one. For the first measurement, it can very well be 4.51 rounded up to 5, or it can be 5.49 rounded down to 5. On the other hand, the second measurement can only range from 4.995 to 5.005, and it has much more precision. 

In the second measurement, the three 0s are significant because they contribute to the precision of the measurement. 

So when is a digit insignificant? Well, the zeroes in this example are insignificant:

• 0.01 m

The zeroes in this number are insignificant because they are merely there to show that the number is less than one, and if you express this number is scientific notation, you'll get 1×10^-2 metres: the zeroes will be gone!

Rules to determine whether a number is significant:

Exam Review

Note: This is not me...

I am finally going to start studying for my exams... (yay for me)!

I have my history and chemistry exams next week, and a math exam the week after next week, and these are the topics that I am going to study:


History:
- Immigration at the turn of the 20th century
- Everything from 1900 to the Second World War

Chemistry:
- Stoichiometry
- Chemical Compounds and Bonding
- Acids and Bases
- Gases

Math:
- I don't really need to study for math


Even though the above list isn't very long, it's still quite a lot a material. And to ensure that I know everything, I am going to study for my exams using the other way of studying. I am sure that if I make blog posts about the things that I study, I will have a better memory of them.

So during the next few days I will be making a lot of posts about the things that I have learned in school, mainly chemistry or history stuff. I hope I will do good on the exams and  I also hope that these posts will not be annoying.

Causes of WWII— Treaty of Versailles, Failure of the League of Nations, and Policy of Appeasement

The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles made at the end of WWI was a major cause of the Second World War. The Treaty of Versailles had severe conditions and demanded Germany to pay a huge amount of money for the damages that they had done to the victorious countries. The treaty also demanded Germany to give up a fairly large amount of industrial land, making it harder for Germany to earn the money that it needed to pay the victorious countries. Germany could not pay off the enormous debt, and was in economic ruins. As a result, there was political instability, and this allowed the Nazi Party to rise because the socialist party seemed to have had the solution to hunger and economic problems. Also, one of the clauses in the Treaty of Versailles was that the Germans had to accept full responsibility for the First World War, and this was a huge humiliation for the Germans. As a result, the Nazi Party—a party that made calls to the German pride and blamed the problems on minority groups—gained more support from the proud Germans. In short, the Treaty of Versailles created a context in Germany in which the Nazi Party was able to gain more support from the people. And by allowing the Nazi Party to rise, the Treaty of Versailles had planted the roots of the Second World War.

The Failure of the League of Nations

The failure of the League of Nations also contributed significantly to the Second World War. After WWI ended, countries such as Canada, France and Britain

Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

It has been a long time since I last read a book. In fact, I don't think I have read any book last month!

Anyway, Mini Shopaholic is a comedy novel written by Sophie Kinsella and is the sixth book in the Shopaholic series. Once again, it features the life of Becky Brandon, except that this is the first book in which Becky is a mother.

----------------spoiler alert-------------------

Funny System of Equations

When I was searching for a picture of a person studying, I found this:



I laughed quite hard when I saw this...

Pulling a Lawnmower

Lawn mowing requires quite a lot of energy, especially for a city kid like me who doesn't do a lot of exercise. However, what I find even more physically demanding is starting the lawn mower in the first place.

The lawnmower that my family has is the type which you need to pull a cord to start. Pulling it will create heat energy, and that heat energy is supposed to ignite the gasoline and make the lawnmower start. However, you need to pull the cord quite hard for there to be sufficient heat energy to ignite the gasoline. And for me, this is extremely difficult because I simply don't have enough strength.

So when my mom told me to mow the lawn today, I wasn't too happy because this may very well become an embarrassing situation. I grudgingly walked into the back yard and pulled out the lawnmower. Then, I tried very hard to pull the cord.

Once. Twice. Thrice. It didn't work. After about 10-15 tries, I still couldn't make it start, and my hand was beginning to hurt because of the shape of the handle. Just as I was going to give up, I tried it one last time. Miraculously, the engine started!

I felt so proud at that moment. It really made my day!

I hope that the next time, I will be able to do the same, except with fewer tries.

Naps

I have got to stop taking these naps!

Three weeks ago, in the post Drowsiness, I mentioned how almost everyday I took a one-to-two-hour nap at home and how these naps made me felt drowsy afterwards. After making that post, I actually stopped having those naps because I had so much homework that I couldn't afford to take them, and because I started to drink a bit coffee.

Unfortunately, the habit is coming back again. I just slept for two hours! This must not continue because it not only makes me drowsy but also messes up my daily schedule. It basically takes off one to two hours off my day (I sleep at similar times everyday, regardless of whether I have taken a nap earlier in the day or not)!

After much deliberation, I have arrived at the conclusion that to avoid having those lengthy naps in the future, I must have desk naps. In the past, I have always taken my nap in a bed, and I believe that this was the reason why I failed to wake up in a few minutes—the bed was too comfortable. However, if I only take desk naps in the future, then it may be more difficult for me to fall asleep and as a result I may be able to wake up before I have actually fallen asleep!

Starting tomorrow, I will take a desk nap when I feel very tired. I hope that these naps will only take about 5-15 minutes, and that they won't make me feel drowsy.

Chemistry Presentation

Today I got my chemistry presentation mark back, and unfortunately it was quite low—it was a 79.5%.

To be honest I was extremely disappointed in this mark. Okay, I know that I rarely do well on presentations anyway, but in this presentation I have tried my best not to repeat any of the mistakes that I have made in past presentations. I stood straight, did not stutter, made appropriate pauses, and memorized my part (and therefore made a lot of eye contact). I really paid attention to all the things that my teachers have pointed out during my past presentations. 

Unfortunately, my chemistry teacher pointed out another problem in this presentation —I was not loud enough. She said that she almost couldn't hear me, and for this reason I got 12% off of my presentation (the other 8.5% was lost on the content of my presentation).

I really wonder how severe the problem was. I mean, even though I am not a very loud speaker, no other teacher has ever told me that my volume was too low during a presentation. And from the way that she was listening to my presentation, it didn't seem as if she was trying hard to hear my voice. Anyway, I am guessing that I just happened to be a bit quieter on that day and that the distance between me and the teacher was too large (she sat at the very back of the room).

I hope I didn't sound whiny. Yes, I do think that I could have gotten maybe 5% more on the presentation and I do think that her marking was a bit harsh. However, it's not unreasonable at all, and I really have nothing against her.

On the bright side, I am sure that this failure would be beneficial to me on the long run. I have definitely learned another thing that I should pay attention to during a presentation, and I will definitely not repeat the same mistake.

Exam Time

Finally! School is almost over, and there is no more tests, quizzes, projects or assignments! Now, exams are the only thing that I need to worry about for school.

So starting from today, I will be quite free. During the time at home, the only thing that I really need to do would be studying for my exams. And since I am not going to spend every moment at home studying, I will be able to do other things such as playing games, reading books or updating this blog.

Hmm... I hope I will be able to make a good use out of this free time, and I hope that I will be able to do well on the exams.

Note: This post was created in the second semester of grade 10.

Extremely Busy

Ahh, I have so many things to do today and tomorrow! Today I have to make an artefact for my history presentation, practice for my history presentation,and study for my history test. This may not sound like a lot, but I spent the whole afternoon finishing my history poster and it's already eight o'clock!

Doing all of these things will probably not leave me any time to work on my history essay, so I will most likely have to write the whole essay tomorrow. As I still need to do a bit more research on the essay topic, I will probably have to spend the whole afternoon and evening tomorrow to finish the essay.

If I had anticipated this amount of work for today, I would not have played computer games all day yesterday. Huh, I guess I am finally tasting the fruit of my procrastination.

What's the Point?

In Ontario, every student is expected to take the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) in grade ten, and passing this test is mandatory for a student to receive a high school diploma.

Since the OSSLT is so important, schools need to ensure that their students are properly prepared for it, and one way that my school does so is by adding a "literacy component" in almost every grade ten class. The literacy component is basically a small portion of the mark that requires students to practice doing things that may be encountered in the actual literacy test, such as summaries and short essays.

Last week in math class, I started getting a series of assignments that are part of the literacy component. These included a short summary, an informational paragraph, as well as a short reading passage. And today, I got another one, which is writing a news report.

Hmm, this seems as if we are getting well prepared for the OSSLT right? No. Not at all. We have already written the OSSLT three months ago, and all these assignments are simply given so that we could have some entries in the literacy part of our mark!

To me this is not understandable. Doesn’t the teacher know that these assignments should be given before the OSSLT? Doesn’t he know that if we do these assignments after the literacy test, these assignments will just be meaningless and irrelevant to the class? What’s more, he is giving all these assignments when he isn't supposed to! During this time, only culminating activities are supposed to be given, and clearing these assignments are not part of the culminating activity! Also, if we need some entries for the literacy component, wouldn’t one or two assignments suffice?

I don't think putting a literacy component into grade ten classes is bad at all. In fact, I believe that even though the assignments in the literacy component can be annoying, they are actually beneficial to students because they allow students to be more familiar with the types of tasks that they may have to complete in the OSSLT. However, if teachers only give out the assignments after the OSSLT, the the whole purpose of the literacy component is defeated. I mean, isn't the sole purpose of the literacy component to prepare students for the OSSLT?

Free Photo Booth Prank

Today during history class, my teacher showed us a video—The Free Photo Booth Prank. It was very funny, and I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt! After I arrived home, I decided to check if there are more videos like that, and it turned out that there are.

So let's waste no time at all and get to the videos.

This one was the one that I saw in class:

And here are the other three:

Hope you like them!

Watching My Mouth

A person is often judged by their speech, which includes what they say and the way that they say things. For example, a person who speaks slowly may be considered calm or obtuse, and a person who swears a lot would probably be considered less educated or more casual.

I find that when I speak, I sometimes sound very vain and/or egotistic. I often talk about myself and my achievements, which may be a bit inappropriate in certain contexts. Also, I sometimes speak in a condescending voice, which I hate and can certainly imagine other people hating. I guess this merely reflects the kind of person I am— inside, I believe that I am haughty, egotistic and vain.

Even though this may be the kind of person I am, this is certainly not something that I would want others to see myself as. Honestly, if a person is described "haughty, egotistic and vain,"  wouldn't you imagine that person to be obnoxious? And naturally, I wouldn't want myself to be someone who fits that label perfectly. Therefore, I must watch out the things that I say and the way that I say things, so that I won't strike people as a snobby person.

However, this is a lot easier said than done. It can be really difficult to control your mouth, and a lot of times I find myself just blurting out whatever that comes onto my mind. Also, when one restrain oneself too much, one may be considered by others as unnatural or phony, which are both words that have negative connotations. Therefore, I really need to be diligent so that I don't sound snobby, but at the same time sound sincere.

I hope that I will succeed in achieving this enormous task. This is something that is important to me right now, and is something that I will need to do for the rest of my life.

A Short Break

During the past few days, I have been particularly busy. I had several projects and presentations to work on, and there were many other things happening outside of school. I almost had no free time, and for this reason I did not update this blog at all.

Fortunately, I  should be quite free today and tomorrow, and so I will probably be able to make a few posts during these two days.

After two days, however, I will be busy again, as I will have to start working on my history project. And then I will continue to be extremely busy as exam time will be approaching. So unfortunately I probably won't be able to add a lot of content to this blog during June.