When Memory Fails

I'm not sure if I've always had such problems with my memory, but ever since grade 9 or 10, I have had trouble remembering things.

Of course, it's nothing as severe as not remembering my name or address (actually, it took me a while to remember my new address when I moved...), but it's significant enough to be noticeable. For example, when seeing the titles of books that I have read just a year ago, I would sometimes be unable to recall anything about it and would have to search up the plot summary to evoke any memory of it.

Stapler- My New Friend

Until grade 11 semester 2, I have never really used my stapler. Not only did school not require a lot of stapling, I also did all the stapling at school whenever I actually needed to. 

However, everything is changed. Now, everyday I have to use the stapler twice or thrice. To staple my math notes/printouts, my data management homework, and my economics handouts. And there hasn't been a day in a past week when I didn't use my stapler.

So, in a way, the stapler has become my new friend. I now become attached to it, feeling anxious whenever I don't see it around. =D

Magnesium Oxide?

Today, when cooking lunch, I accidentally turned the wrong knob on the electric stove. As a result, in the few minutes that I was away, a cooking pot cover was being burnt.

A Convenient Mistake

Occasionally, when I check out items from the library, an item would not be properly scanned and would appear on the library system as "in library" even though it is actually in my bag.

 Usually when such an event occurs, I would still return the book in a week or two, depending on when I finish it; I wouldn't intentionally not return the book just because I don't have to.

Today, however, is different. The novel in question is the novel that I will use for my English final project, and I will need it until the end of December. This means that I can just conveniently "forget" to return the book until three months later!

I am so fortunate that the staff has made this kind of mistake at the right time.

Too Busy

Grade 11 is much harder than I had expected. Not only does it have a lot more assignments and tests than grade 10, each individual assignment is also a lot more demanding. As a result, three weeks into school and I am already struggling to finish everything on time!

With this kind of work load, I don't think I'll be able to update this blog very often. Besides posting my study notes (to prepare for quizzes or tests), I would probably only update this blog at most once per week.

So yeah, I hope things wouldn't get any worse.

Random Memory?

Ever since I started using the new computer, I have been carefully watching the available memory of my hard drive. Therefore, I can confidently say that during the past week or so, the amount of memory left has always been about 405 or 406 GB.

Then, today I downloaded some software needed for my printers, so naturally the amount of available memory should only decrease. However, when I checked the number, it actually increased to 411 GB!

I know, this increase in memory probably didn't have anything to deal with the printers. Still, it was strange that it had just suddenly increase. Perhaps it was because some temporary files got deleted, or...?

Fatigue

I've only been to school for four days, yet I'm already feeling great fatigue from it. Everyday during the fourth period, I would start feeling sleepy, and this feeling would continue to intensify until I arrive home (at four o'clock) from school, at which point I would feel so tired that I would not be able to concentrate on anything at all. Then, it wouldn't be another three hours until I finally feel more energetic.

I'm not sure, but I don't think it has always been like this. I certainly remember having this kind of feelings during last year's second semester, but before that, I can't recall ever feeling so tired after arriving home from school.

Big Mouth

Some people just can't be trusted with secrets, for they simply can't control their mouths. Even if they have promised that they wouldn't tell anyone about the secrets, they eventually would.

I personally had one very unpleasant experience with one of these people.

About a few months ago, one of my friends suddenly asked me what my previous name was (I changed my name when highschool began). I didn't want to tell him— or anyone— about it, because I simply didn't like the name and didn't want people to associate me with that name. However, he kept pressing me about it, so eventually I told him, under the condition that he wouldn't tell anyone else.

But then a few weeks after, he suddenly started telling people what my previous name was. I gave him a warning glance, and simply denied what he said. However, he didn't take my cue, and kept telling people that he was sure what my previous name was. I was furious. If you could remember my previous name so clearly, why couldn't you remember your promise?

A Reading Log

(Check out my  new Reading Log!)

I have been wanting to have a reading log for a long time now, for it'd be nice if I could keep track of all the books that I have read. However, I have always been reluctant to actually start one because of the enormous energy that I would need to spend to come up with the list of books that I have already read.

Yesterday, however, I finally made up my mind and spent 4-6 hours working on my reading log, which  I made a page for accessibility reasons. So how come it took me so long? Well, the hardest part was definitely the part where I had to come up with all the books I have read. I had to search for their titles, and try to remember the approximate time when I have finished reading them. Also, besides coming up with all the books that I have read, making the actual table was also a difficult task. At first I coded the table manually using HTML. However, at the end it didn't look very nice because the table looked very squished together. I then transferred the table to Google Docs, and magically the layout looked much nicer.

That wasn't the end of the problem, however. I then had to spend about one hour fixing the HTML code of the table from Google Docs. At first it was simply too long (300,000 characters), and it kept causing my browser to lag. Then after I turned it into CSS, it started changing the layout of my whole blog. I had to look through the code and debug it myself.

Fortunately, it's all done now. Not only does it look nice, it is also very easy for me to edit. So in the future, whenever I come up with a new item for the log, I will edit the page. I am sure it will be useful at some time in the future

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!

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.

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...

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.

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.

APA Bibliography—Complete Guide From the American Psychological Association

As we all know, it is essential that we cite all of our references so that we would not be flagged as plagiarists. However, not only is it important that we have a reference list, it is also important that we do our referencing properly. While this may not sound like an extremely difficult task, it actually is because it is very hard to find a correct formatting guideline. This is especially true for today where thousands of different guidelines are floating on the Internet, and it's simply impossible to determine whether a guideline is correct. 

Fortunately, there is a simple way to cope with this problem. For references in the APA style, the guidelines from the American Psychological Association (APA) website will never be wrong— the APA is the organization that makes up all the rules! Therefore, by formatting our reference lists according to the actual APA guideline, we can ensure that our reference lists will correct.

So here is APA style guide:
http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm

In the website, the first ten pages or so teach you about the other elements of the APA style, such as headings and reducing bias. Then, for twelve straight pages, you get a referencing guide! With this, you should be able to complete your reference list without problem.

Google Code Jam

Official Website: http://code.google.com/codejam

Google Code Jam is an online programming competition that starts in May and ends in July. It's completely free, and it's very convenient because you can participate in this competition at home (unless you get into the finals).

I originally wanted to do this competition to see how good—or rather, bad—I am at at programming and also to improve my programming skills. Its problems in the earlier rounds are considerably harder than the ones in school competitions, yet many of them are doable for me if I spend enough time on them. This year I my goal was to get through the qualification round.

Unfortunately, because of all the school work I had, I totally forgot to sign up for the competition! I just found out that its signup ended last Saturday, meaning that I will be unable to participate in this event this year. :(

I will, however, look at all the problems once I have more time at hand. That shall still give me the practice that I need.

Nose Bleed

Urgh I hate nose bleeds! Yesterday at about three o'clock, I suddenly woke up from my wonderful sleep and found that I was having a nosebleed. Not only did this disrupt my sleep severely, it also stained my pillowcase and my bed sheet.

 Nosebleeds are annoying and unfortunately I have them a lot. I think I have had more than seven this year! If I was lucky, I had it when I was using a computer and I could just continue using it while having my left hand pressing my nose. However, most of the time I was unlucky and had it in school, and I had to rush out of my class embarrassedly to go to the washroom.

 I looked up on guides that teach you how to prevent nosebleeds. Most of them basically tell you how to keep your nose moist. I hope that if I follow these guides, I will have a significantly lower amount of nosebleeds.


Guide: http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-Nose-Bleeds

Changing Functions of Keys!

In my previous post, I mentioned how the 'm' key on my laptop was half-broken and that I didn't want to type that key too often. However, since 'm' was a letter that was used relatively frequently, it was impossible to simply avoid using the letter.

Therefore I decided to find a way to change the function of my keyboard so that when I type another key, it would be as if I have pressed the key 'm.' Fortunately, I quickly found a program that could do the exact thing. The program was called SharpKeys (click here to download), and it worked perfectly. You would basically have to select (or type) one key, and then specify what key you want it to be turned into. After that, you would just need to re-login or restart the computer and the key should be changed.

In my case, I changed the "page down" key, located beside the enter key, into the 'm' key. The "page down" key was a key that I never used, and its location was relatively good. And yes, all the m's in this post are typed using the "page down" key!

Unfortunately, my right hand is feeling unusually tired right now, and I am suspecting that it's because I have to press the "page down" key when I want to type an "m." Maybe I will change the right alt key into an "m" too, and see whether it'd be easier for me to type.

Nevertheless, I am really thankful for this program. It has helped me a lot already even though I have only used it since yesterday night. Without it, I would have to type unusually slow to avoid damaging the "m" key, and  this would just be painful.

Thank you, SharpKeys!

Broken Key

Notice: If you actually have a broken key on your laptop, go to 
http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/03/20/key-fell-off-keyboard/

Yesterday I was cleaning the keyboard by tilting the keys and removing the dust. When I was cleaning the 'm', I placed too much force onto the key and it half-fell out, meaning that the cap was still attached to the keyboard but that it was permanently tilted toward one direction. This was nothing new, as I often cleaned my keyboard and I have encountered this a lot of times:


At first, I just pushed the key cap very hard, trying to get it in place. However, I never heard the "click" sound that I was supposed to hear, and saw that my usual method did not work.

I then examined the key more carefully, and saw the problem: the two parts of the retainer were not put together properly! I have encountered this several times as well, and during the previous occurrences all I did was tilting the key caps toward the opposite directions that they were leaning toward until I heard a "click" sound. This time I tried to do the same. However, the 'm' key was unusually fragile, and even the retainer fell out!

I knew I was in trouble then. The last time that I had this problem, I was almost unable to get the key back in place. And in fact, even though I managed to assemble it properly, the membrane was detached from the keyboard and today it still feels strange whenever I type that key.

This is the membrane

I was determined to fix the 'm' key though, for the obvious reason, and I began examining the parts of the retainer. And I saw this scary thing:

 

This meant that unless I bought a new retainer, it was impossible for me to fix the key properly. So I quickly assembled the key in a way that it would still be attached to the keyboard, but that it would be permanently leaning toward one direction.

Now I can still type the 'm', and in fact it feels quite normal when I type it! However, since there are some broken parts, the key can fall apart at any time and I don't want to type the key too much. 

I hope that my parents will never discover this broken key. If they do, I would be in a even bigger trouble...

Avogadro Contest

Official website: http://www.chemistry.uwaterloo.ca/outreach/avogadro-exam

Past Contests and Answers:  http://science.uwaterloo.ca/chemistry/outreach/avogadro-past-exams-and-solutions

I am going to be writing the Avogadro contest on May 19th. The Avogadro contest is hosted by the University of Waterloo, and is intended for students who have completed grade 11 chemistry. It is 75-minute long and consists of 40 multiple-choice questions, on topics such as "Structure of Matter, Bonding, Reactions, Solutions, and Gases, and a general knowledge of current affairs. "

Since it is only comprised of multiple-choice questions, it should not be too hard for students to get a perfect score if they know their topics well. However, many of the topics covered in this contest have not been taught in my chemistry class, and for me many questions are almost impossible to do.

This means that I have really need to study hard during these two weeks before the contest. I am really hoping to get a good score in it-- maybe 90-95 percentile? I don't know, but either way it's not going to be easy for me to study well for the contest, especially considering how much homework I have during these two weeks.