Computer Games: Good or Bad?

Obviously, since I'm a teenager, I think that computer games are very important to me, otherwise I would be bored everday of the summer. Once school starts, I probably won't be able to play too much computer, because of the potential massive amounts of homework I could receive.
So, computer games. Are they good or bad?

Pros:
-fun
-kills time in an entertaining way
-some games are educational, like physics games and puzzle games
-it's a good way to be entertained after work
-multiplayer games mean you can play with other friends or play online

Cons:
-too much can hurt your eyes
-not healthy to stay in front of the computer all the time
-may distract you from work
-some games have bad influences
-they can control the way you live

There are probably many more, but I can't think of them right now. Internet games might not refer to only "games", but maybe videos online too. Youtube is definitely important for me, because there are some people online that make really funny and exciting videos that are interesting to watch. People that are very popular on Youtube actually get paid for creating videos. The money isn't little either. It doesn't feel very fair, because the videos online don't look very difficult to make. It's just a bunch of people videotaping themselves and doing stuff. They may have important connections, which helps them promote their online "career".

Overall, I think that computer games are good, but only to an extent. I love Youtube though.

NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT!

I have nothing to write about! There aren't any particular stories that make me want to blog about, and I'm having trouble writing...
There are some things I have in mind, but they would be uninteresting and boring. So, I decided to blog about the fact that there is nothing to blog about.
Hm.
I'm watching some kind of tennis anime right now, and it's okay... not the best. Whatever.
In this anime, the players have random super abilities like to curve shots so much they go around the side pole and land in the court, and the ability to use acrobatics while playing tennis. Totally fake, and not because it's animated. The main language is Japanese, with english subs, so I can understand it still. The main character is a freshman called Echizen Ryoma, who is really good at tennis. He joins his school's tennis club, and is playing as a regular in tournaments like the district and provincial. His goal is to get to the National level of tennis, just like his dad, who was once a pro tennis player.
Okay, anyways, I'll think of something to blog about the next time I do. Byebye.

Planes Safe?

I always thought planes were very dangerous, because there were so many plane crash stories on the radio. This is why everytime I go on a plane, I get very nervous. To add to my negative feelings about flying on a plane, I also get very dizzy and feel awful while riding tens of thousands of feet in the air. Although some people say that car crashes happen more often than plane crashes, I still feel unassured, because the odds may depend on the scenario of which flight, or the weather, etc.
I'm sure there are some people who share my dislike of airplanes, and I think I should start getting over it, because when I get older, I may have to travel by plane to reach a destination, so why not start overcoming my fear now? Anyways, the airplane food makes me feel like puking, the pillows are prickly, and the blankets smell bad and are thin and flimsy. The only potentially good thing about airplanes are the inflight movies, where you can choose from a large variety. I'm fine with cars, trains, boats, subways, but I really don't like airplanes. Some people love them, and they are lucky. I guess I was just born with it.
Another thing that really freaks me out, is that terrorist attacks are mostly for airplanes. I have never heard of a terrorist taking over a car. There is no point, and so, I feel better inside a car than an airplane.
I am kind of looking forward to going to China, but we will be flying there, 14 hours, and my past memories of flying to China have not been very good. I felt terrible in the airplane, and I couldn't sleep, because I was in a sitting position. I can never sleep like that. It's very uncomfortable too.

I don't like airplanes.

Only one more month of summer left...

July has just passed, and so, half of my vacation is over already. It seems pretty short, compared to the next 10 months of school that is coming my way. I'm heading to Grade 9, still in Zion Heights, and I'm not looking forward to it. I think this, because in Grade 8, we had loads of projects in english and science, and they were not fun. This year, there will probably be even more, which means more restless nights and lots of work.
I wish we could have one more month of summer...
If I were to send this request in to the government, I would give a couple of reasons to why my idea should be approved:

1. With an extra month of summer, the students get to relax longer, and perhaps have a more efficient school year, to make up for the potentail loss they may have collected with the missing school month.
2. It's not fair to have the school months to summer months ratio being 5:1, so it should also work in equality.
3. Too much work is not good too. Humans need relaxing time as well.

Even with these options, I suppose I need to agree with the fact that education is very important as well. Although I would enjoy another free month, it probably wouldn't be the best thing.

Picnic Gathering

On Monday, August 2nd, since it was a holiday, we (dad, mom, me) invited a bunch of friends to go to the beach to have a picnic. Dan didn't come because he had to return to Downtown, so the rest of us left at 10am and arrived at around 11am. There, we set up "camp" under a large tree, and people started arriving. It was an hour after we got there that one of my friends, Ian, 18 years old, arrived, then we ate. The food was good, and Ian and I played some soccer after lunch. At around 2pm, Ian, Dad, Gary, Helena, her dad, and I went into the water to play with the water ball. We played baseball, monkey-in-the-middle, and after that, we looked at these amazing sand sculptures on the beach. Apparently there was a contest going on, and these sculptures were so realistic. We went back, played some cards, and packed up and went home.

Movie Review: Salt

Salt: Movie Review
Starring Angelina Jolie

"Salt" is about a CIA agent who may potentially be a Russian spy. Before the movie came out, there was lots of controversy whether Evelyn Salt (the main character) was a hero or a villain. I thought she was a villain, and you will find out if I am right or wrong later on.

The movie starts with a scene where Salt is a prisoner in North Korea, and is being tortured. This was 2 months ago, and now, in the present, she works for the CIA. It was her anniversary with her husband, so she wanted to leave early, but there was a walk-in to the CIA headquarters, and they needed Salt, their best interrogator, to ask him a few questions. She did so unwillingly, and sat down with the Russian man named Orlav. Orlav told Salt about "Day X", an attack by Russia to destroy the United States, and he told her that there would be a Russian spy that would kill the Russian Prime Minister. Orlav says that the name of the spy is Evelyn Salt, and after running neurotests, the investigators listening outside the room found out that he was not lying. Salt tries to argue her innocence, but one of the investigators, Peabody, wants to lock her up. She escapes the building, barely getting past the soldiers that Peabody had sent by creating an explosive out of cleaning products. Meanwhile, while in the elevator, Orlav is escorted by two policemen. Right when the doors close, a spike pops out of his shoe, and he attacks the two officers, killing them both after they were knocked unconscious. Salt has escaped, and Orlav has escaped. Now, Peabody and Ted Winter, Salt's friend and coworker must catch her and stop her at all costs.
Salt uses the traffic and the advantages of being on foot to great use, and she gets away on a motorcycle. Peabody and Ted are very frustrated, and they plan to watch over the funeral very carefully the day after tomorrow.
Salt goes back to her apartment to find that her husband has disappeared, and so she takes one of his spiders (he is an arachnologist), and flies to Washington, D.C, where the funeral will be held. She poses herself as a man, and signs into a hotel room. There, she takes a syringe and removes some of the poison from the spider.
On the day of the funeral, Ted and Peabody are looking around for Salt, but she is disguised by dying her hair jet black. Inside the church, as the Russian Prime Minister was making his speech, Salt made the floor under him explode, and all the organs went off all at once. The Russian Prime Minister was dazed, and the last thing he saw was Salt pointing her gun at him and pulling the trigger. Peabody finds Salt, and both are holding their guns and aiming at each other. Salt drops her gun at Peabody's command, and she is taken away by the police, with a satisfied smirk on her face. Inside the police car, at the perfect moment, Salt attacks the other officers, even with her handcuffs on, and crashes the car. She escapes calmly, walking straight away from the accident, and nobody notices her. She takes a boat away to where she knows Orlav is hiding, and he greets her very warmly. Salt was raised in Russia after her parents died in a car crash, and she and a large group of other small children were taught by Orlav. Orlav reveals Salt's real name, Chenkov, and they head down into the Russian secret base. There, Orlav asks Salt if he can trust her, and she says definitely. Orlav still had his suspicions, so he brought her down to the basement, were she saw with horror her husband gagged and bound. One Russian soldier shoots him, killing him. Salt does not do anything rash, but her eyes say that she was grieving inside. But, in order to stay alive, she does not do anything, and Orlav is satisfied. Later on, up in the cabin, while Orlav is busy with a new plan to kill the President of the United States, Salt takes a wine bottle and kills him. Grabbing a pistol and three grenades, she kills everyone on the ship. She then heads to back to Washington, D.C, and on the plane, she meets an old friend that was also taught by Orlav. This friend knew Orlav's plan, and so the two travelled together and posed as sergeants in the army to get by security. Salt had cut her hair short, and applied a skin paste to make her skin darker. They get into the White House, and spot the President and a large group of bodyguards, including Ted. Her Russian spy counterpart did not tell Salt his role, but just told her her's once more, then suddenly, he ran right into the group of people surrounding the President, shooting everyone. The guards' bullets hit him, and as he was about to crumble, he detonated a bomb set on himself. This rent apart the whole corridor, but the President, Ted, and a handful of other officers were still alive. They head down to the very secure basement, where there is a hightech laboratory. Salt is now faced with her mission alone.

Beehive in our wall?

It all started happening about a week ago, when I started noticing that there were many bees around our front porch area. At first, I didn't take notice, because I thought they were attracted there by the flowers, so I didn't mention it. After a day, as I walked past the front porch, there were at least 10 bees buzzing around, and I told my dad, who inferred that there was a beehive in the wall. This inference proved to be correct, as we (my dad and I) saw a small hole in the brick under our window. It was a very small hole, but since the wall was hollow, I freaked out because, firstly, I HATE insects of all kinds, especially if they are in the house, and secondly, I was scared that the whole colony would find some way into the house, and find myself waking up in the middle of a swarm of bees. So, we went to Canadian Tire to purchase some insect/wasp spray. Dad sprayed the hole, but the bees just flew right through the foam like it was air. Then, Dad tried to plug up the hole with a piece of duct tape. This worked, but somehow, the bees found another way out.
Dad went to Home Depot to buy a trap. Apparently, the trap allows bees to fly in, but then, it is impossible to escape. I set it up by filling it with apple juice, honey, and a few pieces of raw meat. We set it under the window sill, and left it there for 24 hours. When we went back to check on it, there were absolutely no bees in there.
After very little success, Dad went and bought a mosquito net. We went outside when it was dark, where there was little to no activity, and we taped the net all across that side of the wall. We used copious amounts of duct tape and clear tape. After the task was completed, Dad went to send Dan to his apartment in Downtown, and I found out that clear tape does NOT stick to brick very well. So, I tried to reapply a fresh coat of tape, but it just stuck for about a minute, then withered away. I did my best to clog up all the possible entries and exits, and finally, put the stone rabbit on the net as a paperweight (or maybe a netweight), and went back inside.
The next morning, I went outside, and there were at least one hundred dead bees inside the netting, and a couple flying outside. At first, I thought "Oh my god! How did those bees get outside?" Then, Dad told me that those bees that were outside were not inside the hive when we put the net up, so they were trapped OUTSIDE instead. That made sense, so I calmed down a bit.
Now, we just went and bought us another can of spray. Hopefully the bees will be gone soon, because I HATE BEES!!!

Movie Review: Despicable Me

Despicable Me: A Movie Review
Starring Steve Carrell, Miranda Cosgrove, Elsie Fisher

Despicable Me is about an evil villain named Gru, who adopts three orphaned girls to use them as pawns in an evil scheme, but he grows fond of them and they change his life forever.

In Egypt, a group of tourists arrive at the Great Pyramid of Giza. A young, obnoxious boy tries to pretend he’s a fighter pilot, and he crosses the security line into an abandoned construction site. The boy falls off, and lands on the Pyramid, and to everybody’s surprise, the Pyramid sucks in and shoots the boy out, as if it was made of rubber. The Pyramid then deflates, and the news that someone had stolen the Great Pyramid shocked the world.

In a completely normal neighborhood, there is one house that stands out. This house is four stories high, old and rickety, and the front lawn is dead. This is the house (or base) of Gru. Little did anyone know, that old, spooky, mansion contains a high-tech laboratory, where Gru and his companion, Dr. Nefario, and Gru’s army of minions (see picture) experiment and invent. After hearing about the Pyramid heist, Gru becomes jealous of the mysterious master thief, and so he decides to pull off the biggest heist in the history of the universe: steal the Moon. Gru needs to first steal a shrink ray from Eastern-Asia, but otherwise, he has his plan all lined out. One other thing he needs a loan from the Bank of Evil to build a rocket that will reach the moon. In the waiting room, Gru meets another villain called Vector. To Gru, Vector appears to be somewhat of a nerd, and no good at being evil. Once his turn has come, Gru explains his plan to the bank president, and the president is impressed, but refuses to provide the loan until Gru gets the shrink ray. Gru is angry, and freezes Vector’s head on the way out of the bank.

Gru and three of his minions travel to the base where the shrink ray is held, and steals it. Suddenly, Vector comes out of nowhere with his ship and steals the shrink ray once more, and shrinks Gru’s ship. Vector brings the shrink ray back to his lair, and Gru is faced with the challenge of stealing the shrink ray once again.

After many failed attempts to get into Vector's lair, Gru spots three girls who are heading towards the lair to sell cookies. Seeing this, Gru snickers, because he thinks that it would be impossible for three children to get into such a highly armored building. To Gru's shock, Vector opens the door for the cookie sellers, and they walk right in. Gru decides to capture the girls to use them to try to resteal the shrink ray, and since the girls live at an orphanage, he unwillingly adopts them. After retreating to his laboratory, and leaving the girls alone, Gru and Dr. Nefario attempt to create robot cookies, so that they can hide in the cookie boxes that Vector will buy, so they can steal the ray. They succeed, and so, Gru tells the girls to go sell cookies to Vector. Unfortunately for Gru, the girls have a dance class, and they refuse to go sell cookies until their class is over. And so, after class, the girls walk over to Vector's lair, and sell him many boxes of cookies. While Vector was counting out bills, the cookie robots travel to where the ray was being kept, open up a passage for Gru and his minions to steal the ray. Sadly, the robots seal up the passage before Gru could escape with the ray, so he had to go out through the front door. He eventually does this, with many VERY close calls of being found out by Vector. On the way back home, the girls pester Gru to go to an amusement park, where Gru and the girls start to form a bond. The girls give Gru a ticket to their dance performance, but Gru finds out that that was the day on which he had planned to steal the moon. Sadly for him, the bank still refuses to provide Gru with the money, and he lost hope. Then, all his minions and the girls get money by selling things and from savings, and so, the finances were secure enough to build the rocket ship without loans.

On the day of the moon heist and the performance, Gru makes a very difficult decision. He flies to the moon, shrinks it, and suddenly realizes that he still has time to make it to the performance. He arrives there, but he was too late. He notices a note from Vector that said that he was taking the girls hostage, and he wanted the moon in return for them. Gru travels to Vector's lair, gives him the moon, but Vector was a cheater, and flew away in his ship. Gru pursues him, and Dr. Nefario arrives with the ship. Dr. Nefario tells Gru that the more mass the object that is shrunk has, the shorter the time it will take for it to grow back. Therefore, the moon will grow back very soon. Meanwhile, in Vector's ship, the moon is already starting to grow, but Vector does not notice. The moon grows much larger, and Vector gets crushed by it. The girls escape from their jail, and they have to take a jump to reach Gru's ship. All three girls make it, and the moon, back to full size, rockets out of the atmosphere into its original place, except this time, Vector is stuck there.

Back home, the girls perform their dance for Gru, his mother, and his minions. Suddenly, the DJ minion starts a new song, and everyone is dancing on the stage. Gru and the three girls step on a platform, which rises into the sky, and the final scene of the movie is Gru, his three new adopted daughters, and their silhouette in the moon's shine.

I give this movie four stars, because I thought the plot was excellent, it was fun to watch, and it was very entertaining, funny, and easy to understand. In a nutshell, I thought it was brilliant.

Oh noes!

I accidentally deleted my whole movie review :(

So, I'll just be doing a new one on Despicable Me.

Damnit.

-Andy

FIFA WORLD CUP FINAL!!!

SPAIN vs. NETHERLANDS
The FIFA World Cup Final match was between Spain and the Dutch. Spain, having only lost one match to Switzerland in the Group Stage dominated play most of the game. There were no goals but many close calls during the first 90 minutes of the game, and in total, 14 yellow cards were handed out, 6 of them in the first 20 minutes. I couldn't blame the players for fouling more often, because it is in fact the final, winner takes all. So, there wasn't too much action in the first 90 minutes, but when the game went to extra time, Spain scored a brilliant goal by Andres Iniesta in the 116th minute, Extra Time 2. The Dutch goalie, Stekelenberg, got a hand on the ball, but it wasn't enough to stop the championship goal. And so, Spain takes it 1-0 over Netherland, and for the first time ever, Spain has won the World Cup.
It's interesting, because Spain always won by a margin of 1 goal (except against Honduras, which they won 2-0), and they surprisingly haven't scored many this tournament. Germany, on the other hand, scored the most goals of all the teams, and yet they lost to Spain 1-0. I can infer that apparently although Germany's forwards are strong, Spain's defense neutralizes it.
I congratulate Spain on their victory, and I hope it goes all well for them.

The Rubik's Cube

I got a Rubik's Cube in Grade 6, and I know this is very late to be blogging about it, but I am doing it anyways. I couldn't think of any other topic, so I'll be commenting on the puzzle mankind has struggled on for about a year.
The Rubik's Cube is a toy puzzle composed of 26 cubes of different colours, put together so that they form a 3x3x3 cube. A completed Rubik's Cube has 6 sides of one colour. Once you scramble the Cube, it is practically impossible to solve it without knowing the proper formulas. Once you learn and remember these algorithms, and with a little bit of practice, it's easy to complete the Cube and dazzle your friends.
Right when bought, some Rubik's Cubes are tough and hard to turn, so I took apart my Cube and moistened the inside of the Cube with lubricant. Now, it spins quickly and smoothly.
There are different algorithms that are useable, and the more complicated ones are much harder to learn, but if you use them properly, they are very efficient. One of these advanced algorithms is F2L (First 2 Layers), which completes the first two layers of the Cube, leaving only one last layer to be completed. It is a very common shortcut, and it takes some time to learn.
Using this and other advanced algorithms, the greatest Rubik's Cube solvers in the world can complete a Rubik's Cube in under 10 seconds. My personl best is 45 seconds, and this includes a lucky break. This lucky break is when you complete the first two layers, and the final layer is already completed. This happens when the scrambled version of the Cube is in a specific format so that the final layer can be completed just by solving the first two layers. It is very rare, and I have only been lucky 4 times so far since I had the Rubik's Cube.
There are many variations to the Rubik's Cube, such as the 4x4x4, or the Pentamix, and they are even harder than the 3x3x3. Anyone who can complete the Pentamix under 5 minutes is a genius.

This was my blog about the Rubik's Cube.

-Andy Shang

iPod Touch 3G

I recently bought the iPod Touch 8G, because I had wanted one for many weeks. It has tons of cool features like the Calculator app, and Safari (where you can surf the Internet). Many people normally jailbreak their iPod, a way to get free songs and applications, and I asked my friend to do it for me, because you need to download a special software to do it. He agreed, but for some reason the jailbreak didn't work, so instead he just upgraded the iPod version to 4.0 instead of 3.1.3. I don't know why he did this, and I didn't like it, because now, I have to wait for a jailbreak system to be created for the iPod V 4.0. My friend didn't jailbreak it, he failbreaked it. So now, all I can do is download some free apps from the App Store, and get a couple songs, and wait for the new system to come out. :(
The Wi-fi connectivity is fortunately working, although sometimes the connection isn't at it's best, and it lags quite a bit. To be honest, a normal iPod is boring compared to a jailbroken iPod.

Still waiting for the jailbreak system for V 4.0....

Uruguay defeated by Netherlands today!

The semifinal match's score, Uruguay vs. Netherlands, was 2-3, respectively. The Dutch overpowered the Uruguayans, and clinched the spot for the finals, where they will face either Germany or Spain for the World Cup. Netherlands is now ranked 4th in the world after they defeated Brazil 2-1, and the Dutch now get to take a break and watch the showdown that determines which team will be their opponent in the final. This second semifinal match will happen tomorrow at 2:15pm.

At 90 minutes, Netherlands had a 2 goal lead, but in extra time, Uruguay scored a late goal. Although this goal lifted the hopes of the Uruguayan players and fans, they did not have what it took to equalize the undefeated Dutch. This is the first time the Dutch have advanced to the finals in the World Cup since 1978.

I hope the winner of the Germany and Spain match-up will win, because I really like both those teams, and I think Germany has played very well this World Cup.

We will see! :)

New Blog!

Okay, this is my new blog I made.

I'll be posting anything interesting that happens during my day!

:D

-Andy Shang