Grade Eleven

I am tired. I had Biology all day where my teacher made us do a lab that involved testing a blended, mushed up McDonalds Happy Meal for nutrients. Yeah, it was a good day to have a cold.
After that, I had Sociology, which is a fun university course that you can take in high school in my school division. Did I already talk about this? Anyway, we heard some more fun stories about breaching experiments (where all you basically do is mess with everyone's heads), participant observation, getting paid obscene amounts of money to do research (take a Research Methods course in unversity and you might get paid $14,000 to conduct surveys).
The last part is taking a Filipino exam where you can get four extra credits if you pass it. After almost seven years in Canada, I think I did pretty damn well on it. Just have the oral exam tomorrow, which I'll ace since I still speak fluent Tagalog at home. The sad part is, it took me 2 1/2 hours to do the whole written part. I didn't get home until 9. 
I haven't had much time to do creative stuff, except for making kumihimo bracelets. They're so fun! I'll post a couple of pictures of the ones I've already made.
Ugh, I have a bunch of homework too. I'm mostly worried about the stop motion animation due on Wednesday. I think I can get away with handing it in a week late. These are the perks of being a good kid. This is why you don't act up in school, guys. You get extra time and the teachers are understanding if this is your first time handing something in late. Get on their good sides!

Celty and Tetris

At least one of you has to be familiar with Durarara!! (I hope). It's a really good anime if you're looking for something other than your usual "save the world" or "fight creatures" type of thing. They do fight, but it's Durarara!!, they fight using other methods.

Anyway, this is what brought that on:


Celty Sturluson chibi 

Celty Sturluson

I made Celty right outside my house. I love Minecraft so much that I'm using it for a school project.In Animation's class, I have to make a stop-motion animation. Other people went for the obvious take pictures manually approach.
Hey, but now at least I'm motivated to make a good animation, right?


Study Skills: Reading Strategies

How you read is important to how you learn. The environment, the rates, things like this help you absorb the material.

1)      Metacognition – learning how to learn

·         Connecting new information to former knowledge

·         Selecting learning strategies deliberately

·         Planning, monitoring and evaluating learning

2)      Environment for Reading

·         Lighting

·         Ventilation

·         Reading position

·         Focal distance

·         Distractions

3)      SQ3R

Survey

·         examine everything so you know what you’re reading

Question

·         make your own questions

o    main idea

o    what’s important,

o   turn headings into questions

Read

·         underlining the main ideas helps you remember

·         use the margins for key ideas and organizing concepts

·          reflect on what you know

·         highlight and take notes

·         look for answers to your questions

·          be present

o   be aware of your presence

·         avoid marathon reading sessions

·         set smarter goals for difficult readings

Recite

·         summarize in your own words

·         talk about what you’ve just read to yourself or someone else  

·         ask yourself questions

Review – within 24 hours

·         highlights and underlining

·         read notes

·         recite main points

·         answer questions

·         weekly/monthly in addition to the daily

4)      Reading Critically

·         Is the text reliable?

·   What’s fact? What’s true?

·   What is my opinion? Do I agree?

·   Who are the authors?

·         What is the purpose and register?

·   Does is inform, amuse, persuade…?

·   Is the writing academic, formal or journalistic?

·         Get the big picture by skimming

·         How much do I need to cover?

·   How much time do I have?

·   Relation to the course?

·   Relevance to me?

5)      Reading Rates

·         Skimming – to find specific information, to get the general idea

·         Rapid – to review familiar material, get the main idea, reading light material for leisure

·         Normal – to answer specific questions, note details, solve problems, underline relationship of detail to main topic

·         Careful – to master content

Summary

·         Environment is important

·         Be an active reader – SQ3R

·         Be a critical reader

·         Reading rates

Study Skills: Note-taking

I went to a seminar yesterday at a university in my city. (Gotta love my school division and how well it prepares its students for secondary education compared to the other divisions in the city.) I learned how to take good notes, as well as other skills. I'll post my notes on note-taking...that sounds odd... 

Academic Success

Academic success depends on…

·         Attitude

·         Ability

·         Learning techniques

Note-taking

Why take notes?

a.        Materials to study from

b.       Encourages active listening

c.        Promotes retention of material

d.       Helps with organization of concepts

 1)       Preparation for note-taking

a.        Attend all classes

b.       Do the assignments

c.        Read your notes before coming to class

d.       Bring the right materials

e.       Organize your notes as you go along

f.         GET ENOUGH SLEEP!

2)       Effective note-taking consists of three aspects

a.        Observing

·   If the instructor writes it down, it’s important

·   Watch the instructor’s behaviour and gestures

·   Listen for context

·         Listen for the meaning

·         Listen with a purpose (to answer questions)

·   Listen for language

·         Introductory, concluding and transition words

·         For repetition (if the instructor repeated a point, it’s important)

·         For connections to previous lectures and textbook material

Active Listening

S.L.A.N.T.

S – Sit in front and sit up straight

L – Lean forward

A – Ask questions

N – Nod and smile

T – Track the teacher

b.       Recording – making choices, being organized

·   Label, number and date your notes

·   Use colours

·   Write neatly

·   Use an effective note-taking technique

·         Cornell method

Cornell method example

·         Format the page

·         Take notes on the right

·         Use the cue column for questions or keywords

·         Practice reciting/reviewing

·         Summarize after class

·   Gets the information into your long-term memory

·         Mind and Concept Mapping

Mind map example

Concept map example

·         Concepts flow from one to another

·         One central idea

·   Specific points branch out

·         Use colours to code different ideas

·         Outlining (this whole post is an example.)

c.        Reviewing – daily, weekly and monthly

·   Within 24 hours

·   Do a post-class edit

·   Fill in the blanks

·   Set small study goals

·   Conduct weekly study reviews

 

Keeping Up!

·         Use symbols and abbreviations

·         Write short sentences

·         Develop your own shorthand

·         Leave spaces when material is missed

·         Have an “I’m lost” signal

Be an Active Learner

·         Notice your wandering mind

o    Your wandering thoughts

§  Leave judgement about content and style until after

o    Participate in class activities

o    Relate the class to your goals

o    Think critically about what you hear

§  Don’t write everything down

Summary

Note-taking

·         Encourages active listening

·         Promotes retention

·         Organization of concepts

·         Preparation for tests and exams

Effective note-taking includes observing, recording and reviewing.

Find a note-taking technique that works for you.

Minecraft Tips

I haven't been playing Minecraft as long as other people, but I do know some tricks that would make your life easier. I'll update this every time I think of something new.

1. Never ever dig straight down. You could fall in lava or die because you hit the ground too hard. Dig stairs instead. Might take longer, but there's less chance of you burning to death or falling quite far down.
2. It's recommended that you use a bow to attack creepers...but sprinting at them while screaming is so much fun. No, not all of you are insane like Kaye, so don't do what she does and play tag with creepers.
3. When surrounded by blocks affected by gravity (sand or gravel), break the bottom block and quickly place a torch down. This breaks the blocks that fall on the torch.
4. Hide your chests with diamonds under floor paneling. No one will know except you. Unless of course, you make signs that say, "Diamonds under here!" But really, who's stupid enough to do that? Traps, however, are really fun.
5. Sheep will regrow their wool if they eat grass. Don't kill them after you steal their clothes.
6. Don't use redstone for fancy gadgets and doohickeys (I've always wanted to say that word)? Use it to mark your paths when exploring caves.
7. Always put torches on the right side when exploring caves. That way, you just have to keep them to your left when you want to go back. This isn't the best way, since you can cross areas you've already explored and go in circles...
8. You can store metals and gems in blocks (fill all the squares on the crafting table grid) to save space.
9. If you want normal stone instead of cobblestone, you can put it in your furnace and it'll go back to stone. You can also get stone with the Silk Touch enchantment.
10. You can repair tools by putting them together in the inventory crafting grid. Two half-used pickaxes will give you one unused pickaxe. Takes up less space.
11. When mining, I recommend you take a sword (not diamond), a bunch of pickaxes and shovels (iron), a bucket or two of water, a crafting table, at least sixty four torches and some wood. Don't take diamond stuff because you never know when you're going to die. Unless you're mining for obsidian, but you can always take a bucket of lava and bring it to the surface to make your obsidian up there. 
12. Pour water at the edge of a lava pool. You get obsidian and you don't die.
13. It is possible to get diamonds in chests when exploring abandoned mineshafts. It's only happened to me once though, so I'm guessing it's not that common.   
14. For the love of God, do not make a dirt house if you're planning on staying there a long time. I hope I didn't need to say that.
15. You can milk cows by holding a bucket in your hand and right-clicking a cow. Milk cures poison and is used in cakes.
16. You can milk mooshrooms for mushroom stew by holding a bowl in your hand and right-clicking.
17. Shear mooshrooms for mushrooms.  
18. You can also craft mushroom stew right in your inventory. One bowl and the two kinds of mushrooms.
19. Diamonds can be found mostly in between layer ten and sixteen, I believe. Dig all the way to the top layer of bedrock, count up five layers (now at layer zero) and then count ten more. You can start branch-mining or whatever. I just wander around and start digging where the lava's at. 
20. Diamonds are much easier to find around lava pools in layer ten. Says the woman who found 30+ diamonds this way.
21. Dig around diamond ores before mining to check for lava and also to see if there are any connected diagonally.
22. Dungeons are the only place where mossy cobblestone (what's the actual name for it?) can be found.
23. Monster spawners can be disabled by putting a torch on it or simply destroying it.
24. It's very easy to get lost in the Nether, so figure out a way to mark your path. Towers of cobblestone or some other Overworld block?
25. Your portal can be destroyed by ghasts, so build a cobblestone base around it. I've never gotten mine destroyed, but that's apparently possible. They recommend cobblestone because it's resistant to the ghast's attacks. I'm not really sure of this, so correct me if I'm wrong.
26. It's easier to have a mineshaft entrance connected to your house, so you can quickly access it and not get attacked by mobs.
27. If your mouse has a mouse wheel, you can use that to select items from your hotbar instead of the keys. If not, you should probably go torches, sword, pickaxe, food, etc. to make it easy to reach up from W, A, S, D.  

Boredom

So this is why I should mix bracelet-making with Minecraft more often. These guys are based on my alpha bracelet patterns (which I copied from fuse bead creations).

Kaito

Miku

Rin and Len

This is why I should get bored more often. I'm going to do Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist next. 

Edit:

New Map!

So it's been a while since I updated this blog on my Minecraft adventures. I started on a new map a while ago using a seed. It spawned me in the middle of the intersection of a snow, a forest and a desert biome. I made an igloo first.

Stairway

Igloo

"Balcony"

 I got horribly lost and couldn't find my igloo, so I built this house.

Brick house

I didn't take a picture of it, but one night, there was a creeper staring at me through the window.

My double bed. The wolf's name is Olly.

Hidden Enchanting Table



The village of Squidwards.

And this is what I did today. I connected my house to the forest via railway. My brother was sitting next to me and kept telling me to put TNT on the ground underneath the tracks. My brother's five. We're definitely related. I started connecting the igloo (I found it in the corner of my current map) to my main house.

Wolves going on a minecart ride.