At this point in my eye drawing, I had finished putting down the initial value of the iris and the white part of the eye. I had added the reflections from the window and put in the reflection of my eyelashes. The next step is to add the value for my skin. Instead of putting the value directly on the drawing and then blending it, I put value on another sheet of paper and picked it up with th blender. This gave a smoother look for the skin. For the iris, because I put the pencil value directly on the drawing, it showed the texture more. After smoothing out the skin, I realized that the iris and skin turned out to be about the same shade. To fix this I made the iris darker. The next step (which I am currently working on) is to add the eyelashes. It seems easy at first, but it turns out to be pretty challenging. You have to get each one in the perfect spot. What I really like about my eye drawing is how the iris really pops out. One thing I would change would be some parts of the skin. Some parts were worked to much and some just not blended enough. Overall I am really proud of my eye drawing so far.
Last night, Wednesday the 19th, was Guild Night. It was very fun, but nerve-racking. I was in the Monks, Nuns, and Imams Guild. I was a nun. I really like making and how my costume turned out. It was kind of hard to stay in character the whole night, especially when my mom pulled her phone out to take a picture. I had to act like I had no idea what it was, but it was fun the act confused about an iPhone. I was surprised how I had changed most of my monologue while I was talking to people. It was a little annoying when people asked questions throughout the whole monologue, instead of just the end. I was very scared at first, but I was confident with my family watching and at the end. I was surprised how fast the night went by. After a while I gave up trying to get people to eat the molasses mixed with mint, so after a while I just had them smell it. One of my favorite parts was when a 5th grader smelt the mixture, their eyes went very wide, and they made a disgusting face. Before I knew it, it was time for me to become an abbess. By the end of the night I was exhausted, but then I was full of energy because I was holding it all in. I was a very weird feeling; a cross between tired and energetic. I was sad that I only got to see one other guild, the Medicine Guild. Overall it was a very fun and exciting night. Thank you Lynne for being my guild master!
-Noelle
Here is a diagram of the nervous system.
We are studying the Nervous System. The main function of the nervous system is to transmit signals from one part of you body to the brain. There are two different parts of the system, first is the somatic, which transmits signals from the skin to the brain. The second is the Autonomic, it regulates body processes that are involuntary like: blood pressure and the rate of breathing.
Something interesting fact that we learned is that there are 100 billion neurons in just your brain itself. Another thing that we learned was that there are two kinds of nervous system. There is one part that controls the voluntary movements, and the involuntary ones. Some questions we have are:
- What part of the brain does receives the signals that the nervous system transmits?
- How does the nervous system control senses other than touch?
- How many axons are there in your body?
We hope to figure out more about the nervous system.
I think it was really cool to play someone’s piece who was in our class’ song. I really enjoyed Sierra’s piece because it was a little challenging (especially with my cast,) but not too hard. It was a really good experience.
I learned something about myself over break. It started with just a regular Thursday, and I had just gotten my cast off the day before. I decided that I wanted to be on the top bunk, and switch with my sister. I made a whole presentation, and Gwen (my sister) said no. I let it go, hoping that she would re-think it and say yes. As I expected, Gwen said she would switch bunks. We switched, and we added the addition of switching desks, and shelves.
After we had switched, I realized why I wanted to switch. I had been on the bottom bunk my whole life, and I was getting tired of it. I wanted change. Once I realized this, I started to think about why I wanted change, and why/if change is important in your life.
I pondered for a while, and came to the conclusion that change is very important to have in your life. Even though it is important, I believe that too much change too quickly is not good and could be very stressful. For example, if you have been in one house for your entire life, then one day your parents say you have to move across the world for no apparent reason, it could be stressful. However, when you add little bits of small change often into your life, you could benefit from it.
The reason I think you could benefit from little and frequent change is that it could be exciting and fun. If you have been doing the same thing for your whole life, it may become like a routine. Routines are good, but you should add some specks of things to change your routine. You may not realize it, but these small bits of change in a routine are like obstacles. These obstacles can get your mind working in times it may usually not be working as hard because it is used to doing the same thing every day at that time.
Change can be present in many different ways. You could be reading this and saying to yourself, I like my room the way it is, and I don’t want to change it. To bring small change into your life, you don’t have to change your room. Change could be eating a different breakfast (if you eat the same breakfast every day,) waking up earlier, going to bed at a different time, doing homework in a different place/time, and if you want to go bigger, you could even go for a new hairstyle, etc.
Finding that I need change in my life has made me realize lots of things about myself. I wanted change, and I needed change. I would like to throw in a little change in my life from now on, so my brain can get thinking, and my life can be more exciting. I would really recommend trying to add some change in your life. It may make you realize something about yourself.
Me and Lucia at the Robotics Competition that LREI hosted!
On Sunday, January 29, LREI hosted the FLL Robotics qualifier at the high school. Since it was at our school, we got our own room to practice in. There are three parts of the FLL Robotics Competition. They are the robot, where there are challenges made of Legos for the robot to solve, and we have to make the robot complete those challenges. The second part is he research. Every year there is a theme, and this year was Animal Allies, so you had to choose a topic about the relationship between humans and animals then come up with a solution and present it. We chose the problem of sea turtles eating plastic bags. Did you know the #1 man-made thing in the ocean is plastic bags? Another part in the Robot Design; how the robot is designed.The last part is Core Values. The core values are Cooperitition (cooperation+competition,) Discovery, Integration, and Inclusion. This year you had to make a poster about your team using these Core Values, and one other that you chose. We chose to talk about Kids Do the Work. In our practice room we had the mat for the robots, and we had some computers for research. The 6th grade team went out to the Student Center to practice research. We did it about 5 times, and we all memorized our parts. We then practiced Core Values, and that went well too. We worked on the robot and then had lunch. Shortly after, it was time to go to robot design. We all went up bringing the robots, and everything including programs, computers, and our poster for Core Values. Next we went to CV and we had to look at a picture and tell the story. We then presented our poster, and they seemed to enjoy it. We went off to research, and they also seemed to be interested and it looked like they enjoyed it. We went down stairs to practice robots a little more, then we had to go to the robot comp. To be honest we did not do too well. Our robot started veering, but I still had fun. Then it was time for them to announce awards, and to our surprise we got 1st place CV!! That meant we would move on! And also to our surprise the 7th and 8th grade team got the champions award! In the end, it was a really awesome day, and we can’t wait for the text comp which is next weekend. March 4th!
We went to Saint John the Divine in New York City. It is the 4th biggest cathedral in the world, and we climbed to the very top of it. We took the train uptown, and when we got there, it was an amazing sight.
The View Of The Front
We walked inside those two big middle doors, and came into the huge cathedral. I got some good pictures. The stained glass was the most amazing. It was just so breathtaking.
The Stained Glass Window Behind Us
Our guide then came, and we started climbing the stairs. We stopped on a flying buttress, and we were able to see the windows a little better. Walking up the stairs made me dizzy because they were so steep, small, and spiralish. We got up even further, and I got this picture.
Picture from 2nd floor stop.
We learned that each pair of windows had a theme. Some were education, some were medicine, ect. In medieval cathedrals the stained glass windows would show the story of The Bible, because most people couldn’t read. We kept going up, and stopped at the rosettes. We went up to the roof, and the view was amazing. There are no words to describe it. We went down again, and I looked at the pews that nuns and monks would sit in to sing and pray.
Overall, this was by far, my favorite field trip ever.
This is my latest Spanish quiz and I am very proud of it.
I got 2 things incorrect on this quiz, but that shows room for improvement but I still am proud 0f it.
Time to confess my sins. Oh no. I cannot do this. Yes I can. I am just glad I got past the bathing. Am I really going to say it? I can’t, my dreams of becoming a knight will crumble. Oh, here is my escort. Don’t look scared, Millicent, don’t let him notice. He wants my name? Say Allard, not Millicent. Get in the carriage. I can’t really confess I am a woman, surely. Should I? Lying is a sin so then I am not confessing that I am lying about being a woman, and that is a sin. One day I didn’t fast. I have also committed the sins of anger and pride. Relax. Don’t think about sins. Huh. Will I go to a tournament or will I go to war? Tournaments are very entertaining, and I could get really famous. But would that increase my chance of being found out? Maybe if I am a great knight, I will get more land. What will my coat of arms be like? Will it be weird to be chivalrous to women if I am a woman, or will it make it easier? Calm down… I will be alright. I will be alright. I will be alright. I will be alright. Uh oh, there is the church.
Wow. I have never been to this church before, it is beautiful. There is stained glass mosaics on every wall and beautiful cavernous ceilings. There is the priest. Just don’t blow it. Just admit everything except that you are a woman. Slowly say the sins, Millicent. Slowly, almost done. Don’t get nervous and blow it. This is your whole life. Just think of the future… Thank the Lord! I made it. I am really doing it. I am ready to get my chainmail on, get my sword blessed and become a woman in the disguise of a knight!