Diary - February 2025

February 1, 2024 - israel drought

I read a book called, "From Our Own Correspondent", and here is a little bit of what I learned.

In the time of airing, "From Our Own Correspondent" used to give radio talks to people who didn't know what the rest of the world was like. I read a story about the Israel Drought. This period of time was when the River Jordan was drying up. 450,000 people in the west of the river were using more than 2.3 million people in the east of the river! This is why it dried up, but it wasn't always like that. There used to be a hydroelectric dam in the river, but now it is long abandoned, not even having enough water to moist up a towel!

Kevin Connolly, a person living in Israel, has a lemon tree on his balcony. To keep the tree alive against the tough heat, he has to install a water piping system in his apartment to pump water once in a while. But, every time he hears a gurgle of the water, "I imagine the Dead Sea shrinking a little further." 

Since 1998, Israel has been having a serious drought, until 2012. According to the research of three University of Arizona scientists, "The recent drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean's Levant region is likely the worst drought of the past nine centuries. The Levant comprises Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria."

I think I would be the best if you put me at defender (because I am very strong) or defensive midfielder (because I am good at scanning the field and having accurate passes).

 My goal is to practice my ball handling skills so I can perhaps play as a winger, where I will have a lot more attacking chances. 

To achieve this goal, I will practice dribbling around cones for 10 minutes a day to get used to the ball at my feet, and practice different skill moves (e.g. the scissor move, the inesta, the Ronaldo Chop, and the outside turn).

february 16, 2024 - the last musketeer

Today I read a book called "The last musketeer". It is about 4 teenagers: Greg, Aramis, Athos, and Porthos. They are trying to stop a person named Michael Dinicuer from getting both halves of the devil's stone. If he gets both halves of the devil's stone, he can become very powerful and control france. 

Greg is from the future when he lands in 1615, france. he is first trying to rescue his parents, who have been framed for a "attempted assassination plot for the king, Louis XIII" and locked in a prison. Greg and his friends hatch a plan to rescue Greg's parents. They will row a boat along a river leading into the prison, set fire to a gunpowder pile, and among the chaos, rescue Greg's parents. The plan works, but they eventually rescue Greg's parents, but they get caught by Michael Dinicuer. But, the king arrives just in time to instead throw Michael into prison!

February 17, 2025 - the DECEIVERS

Today I read a book called "The Deceivers". It is about 4 kids: Finn, Emma, Chess, and Natalie. They are trying to get their parents back from an alternate universe where everything is about the same. Their parents have been captured and held hostage. In order to get them back, the kids have to find different clues and eventually figure out a plan to get their parents back.

The 4 kids first have to figure out where the lever (the switch to the portal to the alternate universe) will work, since it doesn't just work on every wall. They figured out that it has to be used in a place that exists in both worlds. The kids used Natalie's mom's house. Then, they hide in the Judge's (Natalie's mom) house to avoid being seen. After they find out the clue that only one lady, Other-Natalie (Natalie's copy in the alternate universe), and the Judge herself can be trusted. With Other-Natalie's help, they trick local prisons to have The kids' moms, Natalie's mom, and Joe be held as scapegoats at a party in the basement. This gives them enough time to free their parents and escape the scene!

The kids persuaded the Judge to give them the key to the scapegoat cages, and they free their parents and leave!

February 18, 2025 - skiing

Today I drove to Whistler to go skiing. On the way, my mom and dad told me about robotics. They said another person was going to be the driver instead of me, and I had to earn the right back. But the biggest part was that they were going to drive for teamwork at state championships! I need to work harder to earn the driving privilege! 

It took around 3 hours to get to the hotel, but the hotel was really close to the ski gondola, which is a good thing. Since my family arrived in the afternoon at 1 o'clock, me and dad only got to do 4 runs of gondolas. It was very fun, and I did a bunch of 90º jump turns on the "quarter pipes". 

I think the most fun part was skiing the harder runs, because the harder runs had bumps, which made really good jumps. I also liked the bumps on the side. They were like little terrain parks! But the best part is... I JUMPED OVER A TREE! I just tried to do a tree run, but I got stuck and was going too fast (because I went on a drop that was like 12 feet before), so I had to bail. I did this by randomly turning, and I went onto a bump and jumped over a small tree, and yes, I landed the jump.
Tomorrow I hope I get a chance to try the actual terrain park, because it has a lot more jumps that are really big. There are also smaller jumps, too!

february 19, 2025 - skiing

Today my whole family went to go skiing! It was the same as yesterday, except that I went to the terrain park. I hit a really big jump 3 times, and I never landed it. How sad. But, I did get to go in a bunch of tree runs! But, eventually I go tired, so I fell down a lot, and I hit my head really hard once. But, it was all okay, because at the end, we rode a gondola called "Peak 2 Peak", where it takes you over a valley of trees, and ends at another place. It was awesome, because there was another terrain park with smaller features. This was more friendly for me and Kyle, because we did not like the other terrain park too much. In this park, the big jumps were a lot smaller, and I managed to land all of them. The terrain park also had a lot more box rails, which was something I could do! 

I think today was by far the most fun day of skiing. I jumped over 6 more trees (small ones), and I got to do really big jumps. I also jumped over a rock! And a hole (I didn't land it, and my pole almost fell in the hole)! But the best part was that WE GET TO DO THIS TOMORROW! 

P.S. (BTW, tomorrow is my birthday! When's yours?)

February 22, 2025 - Rose Hill tournament

Today I had a tournament at Rose Hill, and we got the Design Award. Apparently it is useless, except when you are at State or a U.S. Open tournament. For example, if we got design award in Florida's Fun in the Sun, we could have qualified for world championship! But, we missed that chance. But, we got a trophy! It has gears that actually spin, just not very smoothly.

We did really well in qualification matches, and with skill (and a lot of luck), we got paired up with a team called Trailblazers. Let me tell you, they are really good at passing! One of the drivers drove... WITH A NOSEBLEED! You know, this team is really good. I want to make a robot like theirs, but I don't think we have enough motors and wheels... 

We eventually got 3rd place for teamwork, because some of our passes were not good. But, we still scored 136 points, which would have smashed the previous record, but 838E had to ruin it by getting 147! but, we wouldn't have gotten teamwork champion, because the 1st seed got 160.

february 23, 2025 - new version

Today Eric came to our house to practice robotics, mostly because we had the team robot at our house. Eric made a version 5 that can china load, and his dad made a really light 3-motor drivetrain with a catapult and a outtake. Both robots work really well, but I think the 3-motor drivetrain works better. When the robot is moving forward, the 3rd motor applies for both sides, making it a "4 motor drivetrain". When turning, it only uses a 2 motor drivetrain, though.

I think the china-loading bot is good, just not for skills. If we want to do good in skills, we need a robot that can both china-load and intake normally. The 3 motor drivetrain is a really good idea, we just need to make the gear ratio higher so we turn faster. When we turn with the 3 motor drivetrain, the 3rd motor will drag the two sides down, so we need more speed on it.

february 24, 2025 - competition

Today all the drivers participated in a competition for the 2 teamwork driving spots. Me and Bobby won these spots! Yeah! I'll tell you how. All of the competitors drove a little game: you try to score 10 balls and clear 4 switches as fast as you can, and yes, there is a dead robot on the field for some reason. I got nice scores, but I got one that was really bad. 1 minute and 9 seconds was the second-to-last score we had. But, on the other ones, I all got less than 1 minute, and I even got a 55 seconds as my score! Of course, Bobby drove and got 49 seconds, kinda smashing my score, but anyway.

The big surprise was that Aiden and Eric didn't perform very well! Eric did good, but he blew up on 2 scores over 1 minute. Aiden was the same problem. I don't even know why the parents said Aiden and Eric were better! Me and Bobby PROVED that we should be the drivers. So, there you have it.*

*also, you don't, because yesterday all the parents talked about who should be driver and the parents argued a LOT. It was not very fun. My team had to write about the judges interview.

February 25, 2025 - dad almost gets my team in trouble!!!

Today Eric, Bobby, and I were at Blaze practicing teamwork. It was a special type, the type that you only load on to one side of the loading station. We mostly got between 10-12 balls, but we occasionally got 13 balls, 173 points. I messed up a lot, though. My biggest mistake was driving forward from the goal wall before the ball was in the goal! This ended with the ball on the field, not scored, and a big pain for me. But this wasn't even the biggest problem!

My dad is a helper. He really likes being on the team, and constantly makes lots of improved versions of the team robot. But, he was caught by coach Max alone, and on a computer. You know what this means...

THIS MEANS HIM ALONE AT THE COMPUTER WAS BECAUSE HE WAS CODING FOR THE TEAM! THIS IS LITERALLY THE BIGGEST RULE IN VEX IQ! THIS RULE IS THE RULE THE DEFINES "FAIR"! AND HE ALMOST GOT US DISQUALIFIED!!!  (⋋_⋌)

february 27, 2025 - charlie thorne 

Today I read a book about a person named Charlie Thorne. Her IQ is 220, from scores since 3. She claims to have started doing math at age 4, but still. She not only is really good at math, but also really good at most sports. She can process lots of calculations in her head, and thus she calculates all the drops, cliff angles, flicks, and other tricks. She is really good at skiing, and also equally good a skateboarding. 

In the story, she is blackmailed by 2 CIA agents: her step-brother, Dante, and another person called ... into making her figure out where a equation "pandora" is.

february 28, 2024 - good lunches

Today I just realized that the school's "good lunch rate" went up! Next monday, we have chicken alfredo, and the next day, we have NACHOS!!! I even told my friend Lucas W. that all the lunches I ate were good, and all he said was "Well, you always eat the better of the lunches." So, I will try the chicken burger next Thursday, since everyone says it sucks balls. 

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!!

Okay, yeah. Anyway, I think I have my top 5 in mind now. But, I won't share it to you yet, because I still have tell you something. If you are just sitting there, thinking, "The school lunch is not bad!", you are so wrong. Once when I had pancakes and strawberry sauce with an omelet, but my omelet was moldy!!! So, Alex took a picture of it, and told Mrs. Iniguez. Anyways, here is my top 5: