Year in Review

I had a good time this year all things considered. I did really well in every class except gym (thank god that's over) and expect to make honour roll again this year. Despite the fact I rarely do homework until the last minute, I do really well in general. I've got a good group of friends and good classmates.

My friends are the weirdest people ever, I swear. We get going on topics you wouldn't belive. Usually things are somewhat civil, but on a good (or bad) day, things just get crazy during lunch. They're nice enough people (excluind one or two) and overall a great group.

I don't do extra curricular activites at all. Never really appealed to me. I might do something at some point, but I highly doubt it. They jsut don't appeal to me. I expect Grade 11 to be an excellent year, and hopefully not to challenging. It will be kind of sad since some of friends are graduating, and I will be alone-ish in Grade 12, but I should have some new friends to hang with by then. I had a great year, and hope next year will be great too.

Studying

I don't study. Period. The reason why is that I've found that not only do I lack the focus for studying (at least for extended amounts of time) and that I remember most of the things I learn in a unit as the long as the question gives a little clue (and its almost impossible not to because you need a topic). I seem to have what I've come to think of as safety deposit boxes in my head, in which I learn something, and lock it away. I will proably not remember it until I need it. An easier explanation is a photographic memory, except it needs a key.

I last studied (not counting reviews) sometime in elementary school, maybe Gr. 6 or 7. I've gotten at least 80+ on all my tests, and have 90s in all my classes at last check. Some people need to study, but I have no need. But the tips were good ones!

Oil Spill

This is a tragic incident that will be fealt for at least a few years. The government and BP plc are working hard to fix this issue, and they have a few ideas. I hope they get it fixed soon, and they have some good ideas. They first tried to put a containment dome on the leak, but there was ice forming on the dome, so that didn't work. Now they want to use a top kill method, which involves first pumping a drilling fluid into the oil well, followed by cement. They say that this method has been used on land, but never 5,000ft below the sea.

The oil spill started when the Horizen drilling platform exploded. It collapsed and the blowout preventer didn't kick in to stop the oil. To stop the coast damge, they been using oil-absobing booms, floating tubes made of oil-absorbing materiasls. A submerine is also trying to insert a small tube into a larger tube to cement it and stop some of the oil. As well, relief wells may be drilled to siphon oil away from the spill.

Long Weekend

Long weekends are alright. The are just opportunities to go places you couldn't in a normal two days. I just went out to my grandmas and played video games, rather than stay home. I spent some time with her of course, but otherwise it was just a really long weekend. If anything, I am just more tired than a regular weekend. Junkfood, sleeping in, and video games are great, but too much makes you tired. Very...very...tired. They are awesome, but in the end, you are tired.

Faceb00k Privacy

I have a Faceb00k account, but only for the sake of having one. I log on every once in a while and I've got hundreds of requests that ake forever to delete. I don't have much personal information on it, but after reading this, I want to log on and change everything to private. It is a complete invasion of privacy on the companies part, and plain stupidity on the people. Even before the changes, people should have things set to friends only, and not put a whole bunch of info online. It is a constant message braocast across any site with user accounts to never give out personal information over the Internet. But now that I think about, Faceb00k has none of these, even if it's a social networking site, it should still warn people. When new users create their accounts, it should either go through a step by step process to select settings, or automatically set for private. Friend requests from people you don't know should be ignored, and people really need to be careful.
I dislake Faceb00k for the most part. It has alright games and sure you can talk to people, but it gets in the way much to often. People always have giant amounts friend from their school, and yet no one knows each other usually. I have one only to check thnigs once in a while and thats it. Even my email I check rarely (although I am trying to change that). Faceb00needs to change, but so do laws against privacy invasion and date protection.

Developers VS The People

In the world of video games, you have the developer, the publisher, and the consumers. The publisher is just the middle man, the company that gets the game to stores usually. It's the developer and consumer that really matter. In the early days, developers would make a game, and it would either make them, or break them. If people didn't like the game, it wasn't bought, it was forgotten about, and if the company couldn't try again, so be it. Today, most developers are huge, and make one game then go on to the next. Consumers care a lot more as well, most games usually becoming franchises these days. Developers like doing things their way, with very few of them getting any input from the public except through playtesting.
It's another hot topic for video games; does the devloper know more than the public, or vice versa? Who should have the say? In my opinion, developers need to defer to public more, and they need to make sure it's a broad audience. Lots of games have been ruined by a single mechanic that could been fixed if they had at least playtested, or better yet asked lots of people by posting it online. The good news is that more developers are using the public as another tool when making games. Woohoo!

Candy: Friend or Foe

Candy is great, but like everything else, only in moderation. If you eat too much, it can be very bad for you. But if you have it once a month, or even once a week, you should be fine. I love candy, especially Nibs, and I get it once a month on average, maybe a bit more. You just have to control how candy kids get. If you give a 4 year old every candy he asks for, he's going to become addicted and FAST. On the other hand, if he learns hes only going to get it as a treat, he might try harder to be good. There should also be more candy in schools. Good marks get rewards, like experience points, or candy, and it is proven that most kids try harder when there is a prize at the end.

The candy is a large one. "The US candy manufacturing industry includes about 1,600 companies with combined annual revenue of $17 billion." ("Candy Manufacturing") There are dozens of different candy types, and dozens of different brands for each type. Everyone has their favourtie, which is why so many brands stay afloat. There are local brands and international, and theres always a fight for the top.