Diary - February 2024

February 1, 2024 

Today I read the conclusion of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs.

Just facts! Did you know the fact that you can go to google maps and search up KT Boundary and it will show you where it hit? Did you know that if it weren't for the asteroid, I might not be writing this, because dinosaurs might be trying to eat me? We do not know these things, as we can only dig down to the ground a little more and find some more species. Even though every few weeks a new dinosaur is being named, we are still a fraction of a fraction in into the giant world of dinosaurs.

Sometimes, people would think of dinosaurs as destruction makers, but some people miss dinosaurs! Dinosaurs are our ancient relatives, and they also deserve a chance to live. We humans only have lived for 2 million years, compared to dinosaur's 135 million. Think to Tyrannosaurus Rex now. It lived for 2 million years, and even longer if it weren't for the asteroid. We haven't suffered a mass extinction, and we've only lived 2 million years!

February 2, 2024

Today I read about 67 things to do (and to not) with punctuation. Part 1 of 4.

1. After a period, you put 2 spaces, right? No. You might have done that before the 1980's in language arts, but now you don't. Usually, that is old fashioned, and now people like the new fashioned stuff better.

2. Literally 3-4 years ago, you would be normal to write F.B.I. like that. Oh, FBI was just an example. This is how you actually write it:

       FBI

3. I get if you still want to write U.S., because when you write US it looks like a shouted version of us. I still prefer to not use the extra dots.

February 3, 2024

Today I read about 67 things to do (and to not) with punctuation. Part 2 of 4.

I will skip the things about commas because most people don't make mistakes like that.

1. Do not use an apostrophe to pluralize something. It is just wrong. Not only is this a common mistake, it is kind of embarrassing to make this mistake. 

2. But, if you encounter stuff like "he got 4 B's and 2 C's on his report card" that is okay, but only for single letters, not like Apple's. In that example you are referring to a thing that belongs to a person called Apple. 

3. Simple mistakes here, the word "their's" does not exist. So does "your's". Bruh. The green squiggly line is showing under the word again! 

February 5, 2024

Today I used this new website called Noctie.AI. It is where you play chess games against an ... AI? 

The AI can beat anyone, even Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. The AI is designed to beat everyone, but it will change to adjust to your level. I am only at Knight 1, and that is like 1200 rating. Guess what? My rating is 1105! It is a lot better than the chess.com one. On chess.com it is only 901.                                       ↓  Type of member

I really like this AI. It is free, I don't have to be a __________ member to do game reviews, and I get to have hints about the best move and take backs. Also, the AI isn't like dad whereas he gets mad at me sometimes. I don't really care, but sometimes I do

February 6, 2024

Today I read about 67 things to do (and to "not" [well, on some]) with punctuation. Part 3 of 4.

You might have noticed that I used the "(so called[brackets] that fit inside a parenthesis)". Well, I do learn a new thing every day!

1. The brackets go inside a parenthesis like this (you know this is just an example [of a bracket and how it works]) . Just so you know, there are some rules like

2. When you are specifying something like when the text tells the last name you want to say the first name, you must, and must do it in brackets. I don't know why!

3. But, you can also not do it. If the text you are changing has a capital letter, in quotation marks or etc., you don't do it in brackets.

February 8, 2024

Today I read about 67 things to do (and to not) with punctuation. Part 4 of 4.

1. Hyphens. First rule with hyphens. You do not just go puting a hyphen here and there and everywhere. Words like Pre-existing, Re-electing, and In-destructible are wrong. You write it like Preexisting, Reelecting, or Indestructible*.

2. That brings us to the second. You cannot use the prefix, but can you do it to the suffix? No. It wouldn't make any sense at all if you did Hope-less-ness. 

3. One thing to say, sometimes in rules, you don't have to know a ton. Sometimes, you just have to experiment with words like the one I just did, the Hope-Less-Ness one. I don't see the green squigly line because I added it to my dictionary.

February 9, 2024

Today I read about some tips with numbers. Part 1 of ... 1?

1. One thing you should know is that I am little. I am not a master like as in kung-fu or in chess (well, I did play like a 2062 once) , so don't expect much if I am wrong.

2. If the number is a number that is like fifty, write it in words. But, write it in numbers if it is 509. But, if you encounter a sentence like "After a ride to Vancouver on I four-oh-five, I went to Hotel one-one-six (there is a hotel 116 in Bellevue) , room two hundred in two-thousand-twenty-four" , that is overboard.

3. If it every comes to time, you don't write it unless it is 4:42 PM or 10:17 AM. If you can, also write 4:45 like "a quarter to 5". Keep it short!

February 10, 2024

Today I read about foreign affairs in English.

1.  Words in foreign languages can be taken as English!!! Even words with the fancy marks on them! And guess what? You have to write the accent marks on the words, too! But, for phrases, not so good. You can't define them as English.

2. If you are writing names from different countries, for example, don't have the foreign-language names in italics. That describes foreignness. And, with what I told you up there, you don't express words as foreign.

3. Just for British places!

• Avoid the BRITISH "ou", as in neighbour, colour, harbour, and labour. Always write the AMERICAN neighbor, color, harbor, and labor. There is one exception. Glamour sometimes can be wrote here as American. But not Glamourous. That is not a word.

• In British language, they have TWO l's as in travelled, cancelled, and marvellous, instead of traveled, canceled, and marvelous.

February 11, 2024

Today I read about commonly misspelled words in English. Part 1 of 2.

1. Accessible:          The -ible and -able suffixes are easily confused with each other.

2. Accommodate/accommodation:       Double c's and m's are signs for chaos. 

3. Acknowledgment:        Easily mistaken with the British "Acknowledgement".

4. Battalion:    It has two t's and one l, not the other way around.

5. Buoy, buoyant, buoyancy:       Q: How many times do you encounter "uo"?     A: 5 times.

6. Cappuccino:      Two c's, two p's. Also, Espresso doesn't have an x.

7. Commandos:      No one really uses this, so just use the other form, commando

February 12, 2024

Today I read about commonly misspelled words. Part 2 of 2.

1. Weird: I cannot spell it like "weird" the first time I try. I always spell it as wierd.

2. Raccoon:     Lot of people forget the double o and c. Even my mom failed to spell it.

3. Roommate:      So many people spell it as "roomate". See also: dumbbell, filmmaker.

4. Whoa:      It is mistaken as woah so many times like, 5 in 10 people would say it is right!

5. Y'all:      Lots of people think that Ya'll is the right one. But, some people don't even say it!

6. Publicity:       It is very rare to see publically...but it is not–never mind. I must have missed it.

February 13, 2024

Today I read about bumps and holes in English.

Number 1: "Based off of" is just a waste of time and space. Always use "based on". But, Based off of is okay. No harm at all!

Number 2: "Bawl, Ball" Bawl is when someone cries hard because of something.. A ball is a round object in games like soccer, baseball, etc.

Number 3: "Carat, Caret, Karet, Carrot" A carat is a weight of gemstones. A caret is this:^. A Karet is a measure of how pure gold is. 24 is the                         most. A carrot is what Bugs Bunny eats. And it improves your vision!

Number 4: "Diary, Dairy" You don't mess up what dairy and diary mean, on your keyboard one slip and you mess up your word.

Number 5: "Dessert, Desert" A Dessert is a snack like cake or a cookie/a snack. A desert is a type of landscape with lots of sand. And cactus.

Number 6: "Eek, eke" Eek is when you scream at something like a mouse, Eke is when you do something with difficulty. You can eke and eek.

Number 7: "Faun, Fawn" A faun is a less aggressive version of a satyr, a fawn is a young deer. Not too hard to understand. Search faun up,           though.

February 14, 2024

Today I read about commonly misspelled names of people. Part 1 of 2.

Number 1: Hans Christian Andersen: A ton a ton of people misspell it as "Hans Christian Anderson".

Number 2: Attila the Hun: He was a warrior, and yet a lot of people spell his name like "Atilla". Not right!

Number 3: Warren Buffett: Even though he is a billionare, his name is missplled as "Warren Buffet", like and all-you-can-eat buffet.

Number 4: Julius Caesar: Famous Roman emperor, name commonly as Julius Ceasar. Not good for an emperor!

Number 5: Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss: Creator of Cat in the Hat. His name does not have a second "e" like "Theodore".

February 15, 2024

Today I listened to a book about David and Goliath examples. Part 1 of 5.

–––WARNING! EXTREME WAR ZONES AWAIT YOU!–––

Number 1:  THE REAL DAVID AND GOLIATH

Some Philistines come from a different place, and they want to conquer Israel after the mountains. The Israelis knew that, so they set up camp face to face from their opponent across from the Valley of Elah. (picture below) The Philistines sent their biggest and strongest soldier, Goliath to face an experienced warrior. Whoever wins, the other side will become slaves to the winning side. Instead of an experienced warrior, Goliath faces a shepherd named David. David uses his slingshot to hit Goliath in the face, then he chops his head off with Goliath's sward. David wins.

Logic behind this that sometimes you don't do things the conventional way. You sometimes have to find a different path. Just like David, instead of fighting the conventional way hand to hand, He knew he would lose. So, David uses a long-distance weapon to attack. More examples later. Modern examples.

FEBRUARY 16-23, 2024

Okay. Sorry for the week-long interruption coming up, I'm on vacation. In Australia.

~~~8 DAYS LATER~~~

Today I am in Sydney, where me, mom, dad, and Kyle went to Bondi Beach. It is a place where people surf and jump over waves. At first thought, I was really surprised, like, a beach is a place for swimming. But, after I saw the size of the waves, I wasn't that surprised anymore. The waves were really big. 

When we got there, me and Kyle changed into our swimming clothes, and we were ready. After we were on the beach, me and Kyle went to feel it. After a few waves, me and Kyle moved forward. We got into the bigger waves. Several times it pulled me under, and several I went under. FUN!

We were having fun when a coast guard pulled us over. He said he have to swim in between two red and yellow flags. When we were inside the flags, we found out that the waves were bigger/better. We had more fun. And no one stopped us, so. Yeah. I even found out that sometimes you don't even have to jump over the waves. Just go with the flow. I sound like a yoga teacher, right? Imagine that, an 8 year old teaching yoga.*

*There IS a 10 year old teaching yoga who published a book. It is in Guinness World Records 2024, which just came out.

FEBRUARY 24, 2024

Today I went to Taronga Zoo in Sydney. Also, this is the last day in Sydney. Tomorrow we are leaving back to Seattle, and now I can go to school again!

My favorite animal were the koalas. I thought the koalas were really strong. The koalas would just hold on a branch for 18 hours without falling. I can only hold on for an hour or two. After that, I would get hungry and come down. Plus, I don't know how the koalas eat eucalyptus leaves. The eucalyptus leaves have poison on their leaves, and how did they evolve to eat POISON? I would get food poisoning. 

My other favorite animal was the kangaroos. They can hop really fast. Up to 70 kmph/44 mph! That is faster than Usain Bolt! As for Tree Kangaroos, they also hit 44 mph ON TREES! That is so fast. They might even be faster if chased by a predator.

 FUN FACTS ABOUT ELEPHANTS: Boy are they stinky! A sign also said that elephants poop out up to 100kg of undigested wood, dirt, sand, leaves, and trash which is good for the environment. And also heavier than my dad.*Plus, elephants like mud, which is not good for me.

*My poop is like 0.5 kg, so my poop is only 1/200 or 0.02 or 0.5% compared to the elephant.

february 25, 2024 

I'm sick of planes. If you like plane rides, this would change your opinion about planes. Look at my plane schedule:

11:00: 16 hour flight from Sydney to Vancouver                            8:15: 2 hour flight from Vancouver to Seattle

                Exclusives: People cursed on the plane                                       Exclusives: The plane was very shaky

    I watched someone barf                                    I watched Kyle barf in a bag

You see, and just to mention, I didn't include the turbulence and the part where Kyle started putting his feet on my head on the Sydney-to-Vancouver flight.  At least it is better than when we got to Cairns, because we spent 20 hours on the plane. Guess the food we got? NO FOOD AT ALL. FOR 20 hours!!! I only got a little bit of sprite and apple juice.

Also, after lunch, I took a nap. Now, everybody knows that after a nap you need 10-30 mins reviving yourself, right? I only had 5 minutes and then I went to do math that I didn't do. And that also kinda explains why I ate 3 oranges and a pair of dark chocolate cookies. And thats why I also feel like staying up all night. No sleep.

february 26, 2024

Today I will tell you why I like traveling.

I like traveling. You can get plenty of good foods, you can discover new things, and you can go sightseeing..

Most of the time, the food is good wherever I go. But sometimes the food is not good, like stuff with spicy stuff. Every time I eat it, I need 4 gallons of water to get 

         SORRY FOR THE INTERRUPTION

February 27, 2024

Today I will tell you the secrets of influencing people.

The secret is to compliment people, don't complain about them, and put yourself in other's shoes. The last one means "Think about what you would do if you were _______" (for example, Miles) . 

To put yourself in other's shoes you have to first think about what the person you're trying to influence likes. Then, think about what the person wants. Give the person what they want. You completed the puzzle. Now, do the other way. If you have kids, they will always disagree to do things. Say, my kid doesn't want to go to 1st grade. Just tell him what fun stuff there will be in first grade, such as painting, writing, drawing, reading, playing, and etc.

FEBRUARY 29 2024

Today It is leap day! YAY! But, I still have to do my diary.

Today I read about how to make friends.

Number one rule to making friends is to be genuinely interested in them. Everyone wants to be important and listened to. Also, the part where you have to be genuinely interested in them, you have to do the action like you mean it. Also, did you know that the words "I. I. I." was used 3900 times in 500 phone calls? BRO!

Example number one: (this almost made me cry) There is a ten year old boy who is in the hospital to do orthopedic surgery tomorrow. It is Thanksgiving, but he does not have money for a Thanksgiving dinner, and not being with his mom. He starts crying in the bedsheets. A nurse hears him, and drys his tears, and gives him a "Thanksgiving feast". Then, the nurse talks to him until he falls asleep.

Example number two: