Summer Homework

Book Posts:

One of the books that I read this summer was called “What If?” In my opinion it was a very good book because it talked about non-fiction things but in a fictional way. The author, Randall Munroe asked people for weird questions that could be answered scientifically. One of the questions was, what would happen if you got everything from the periodic table. In his answer he describes how the elements would react to each other and which ones would decay radioactively. A quote from the book says, “No matter how careful you are, the sixth row would definitely kill you.” There were many more questions that he answered in the book. They include, what would happen if you threw a fastball at 90% of the speed of light. Or, what would happen if you pointed some of the strongest lasers at the moon. I am very interested in these types of books because you can still have fun reading them even though there is a lot of science and math. Randall Munroe is a “Former NASA Roboticist” as quoted from “What IF?” He also wrote another book called, “Thing Explainer” which is also a good book. There is a picture of the book above.

The Soldiers of Halla is one of the books that I have read this summer. It is the tenth book of the Pendragon series. The author of the book is D.J.Machale. The Soldiers of Halla is a great book in many ways. One of those ways is that it answers many questions that us readers may have accumulated from all 9 books before it. Though, it leaves a few questions unanswered and sprouts other ones. But, you can’t reveal everything! Also, there are a lot of good action “scenes” if you will, in the book. It also has many elements that surprise the reader. One of them is that a presumable good character “taken by the dark side” is a good way to put it. This character at the end shows that she believed in her”master’s” plan for the worlds but did not want to destroy all of them. She wanted to keep at least a little bit of the natural world. Another thing this book shows is elements that make the reader think over and over again about them. One of them is how these people can predict this future that happens that was not supposed happen. This is because one of the characters went back in time, changed the past, and then that therefore changed the future. Just think about it for a minute. Now, here is the plot of the 10 books quick version. It starts with this boy named Bobby Pendragon one morning. At that moment he is just a regular teenager. You just start the book and that point he lets this girl come in to his house. I won’t get into the details of that. After she leaves his Uncle (Who actually turns out to be not related to him at all) takes him on his motorcycle to an abandoned subway station. He leaves his motorcycle on the street, says a sentence about acolytes and they both go into the station. Acolytes are a whole different topic which I don’t have time for. In the station they find the main villain of the story Saint Dane who actually turns out that he was using his powers for good before. He also used to be friends with Bobby’s “Uncle” but that is another thing I won’t spoil for you. He narrowly misses a bullet rushes to the flume and narrowly misses the flume. Got all that? That was about 30 pages. Maybe even more! Anyways they go to this place called denduron where I won’t spoil the story but there are two tribes where one treats the other like slaves. Right now I should talk about turning points. Each territory has one and it makes a huge difference in the places future. In denduron it was tak, an explosice material. That is all of the story of book one that I will tell you for now. I will then skim through the rest of the books until the one I will mainly talk about, book 10. Book 2 is about this place called Cloral which is all water and the only land are barges the people created. They find another traveler, oh yeah Bobby is a traveler. I will skip to book 5 but before I do that, soon after the end of Cloral, Bobbys Uncle gets killed. In book 5 Bobby goes to a place called Eelong where cats are intelligent and humans are not. Well, they are actually called gars. A rule is trying to be made that says that cats called klees can eat gars. At the end of the book because Bobby’s friends, Mark and Courtney use the flume to go to Eelong, it collapses killing the traveler from Eelong and trapping 2 travelers on Eelong. I will now skip to book 10. In it all of travelers, even the ones who have died meet on Third where the future has been changed becuase of Saint Dane. Well, if you think about it, this could have always happened becuase maybe the turning point on third Earth was what Saint Dane made happen? Anyways, all of the survivors that still hate Saint Dane give essence to Solara. Solara, which is a whole different story is like heaven, I guess. The travelers need essence to live and, now becuase Saint Dane has destroyed the flumes, the rules have changed. So, now the travelers can do things like shape shift and travel to any world in a matter of seconds. Saint dane has created an opposite Solara, one that feeds of off bad things like anger. But, just like the travelers, Saint Dane needs essence from this Solara to survive. In the end he gets betrayed by people who he thought were on his side, but, they still were good people inside. They just were to scared to show it in fear of being killed. Finally, the person I was talking about way in the beginning who was “taken over by the dark side” was Nevva Winter. She wasn’t all bad and still had good in her. When Nevva realized that Saint Dane was going to destroy everything, she fought against it. That did result her in getting killed but without that happening, Saint Dane would’ve never been defeated.
There is  a picture of the cover of the Soldiers of Halla above.

The Edge Chronicles, Beyond the Deepwoods is a book by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell which is the first of it’s series. The story follows Twig, a kid in the deepwoods who does not look like the wood-trolls in his village so he is not liked. When Twig becomes old enough his mother tells him that he has to leave and find somewhere else to go because his mom says he is not actually his real mother. Shocking twist! Anyways, while Twig is roaming around in the deepwoods to go to his cousin (which is where his mother told him to go) he hears someone’s cry for help. It turns out it is a slaughterer! He helps out the slaughterer and he brings him to his village. He stays there for a night and then has to leave. Though, a village elder gives him a banderbear coat. Next, he figures out he is not on the path anymore and winds up at a caterbirds hatching. The caterbird says he will watch over Twig forever. After that he winds up getting eaten by a bloodoak, and burped out. Then, he winds up following some gyle goblins into the den underground. He then meets this lady which makes honey for the gyle goblins. Her name is the grossmother and no, she is not a regular lady, oh no, she is 10 feet tall and extremely obese! Anyways, things like this keep happening like when he meets the banderbear who eventually gets killed. But, Twig is walking through the forest and suddenly he looks up… there is a sky ship falling! Sky ships fly because if you burn wood from the deepwoods it makes things float. Anyways, the thing in the middle of the ship which is basically a rock is needed for the ship to fly. If it is not hot it starts to shrink and if you lose it, your ship will not fly. Twig, knows where the rock fell so when the pirates come, he tells them where it is and he earns a place on the ship. Later on the ship, the captain is telling a story about how he could not support his son and left him at a woodtroll village with his shawl wrapped around him. Twig still has that shawl and the captain describes one just like it. The captain and his son are reunited, vows never to desert him again yay! Story over! Not just yet. Twig has a dream that the the gloamglozer (a monster in all of childrens nightmares) tells Twig that he could become one! He twigs Twig by showing that he has helped him. Twig tries to join him and, well, he starts falling for a very long time until… the caterbird comes along and drops him on the ship. Yes, the same one Twig watched the hatching of.

In the end The Edge Chronicles Beyond the Deepwoods is a book that shows many influential topics such as not fitting in. Though, it still is a exciting story to read and your always wondering what will happen next!

Regular Posts:

One of the things I was doing this summer was building this model of a early 19th century wagon. To start out, all you had were 4 wheels, 4 nails, and a lot of specifically cut pieces of wood. there were a list of instructions but, really we did not follow the instructions. We just looked at the picture of it and started building from there. First we started connecting the first pieces with elmers glue but realized, it would not dry fast enough. Then, I started using super glue because it would it would dry faster. Me and my dad continued building until I realized the pieces of wood were very dry and that if they would be sprayed with water, it would help the glue. After I finished a good amount of the wagon. Me and my dad started working on the wheels and the axles. This was one of the easiest parts because all you had to do was hold a piece of wood steady and nail in the wheels. Finally, after the wagon itself was done, me and my dad glued on the axles and wheels. That was when me and my dad had finished the wagon. You could actually get it to move around! The first picture shows me holding the first two pieces after the were glued together. I am holding it steady so the glue can dry. Next picture shows me opening the bag and laying out all of the pieces (this was supposed to be before the first one). The third picture shows me and my dad nailing a wheel into a piece of wood. The fourth picture shows me with the wheels separate from the rest of  the wagon that we had already built. This shows that all we had left to do was glue on the wheels to the rest of the wagon. This leads into the final picture which shows me with the completed wagon.

One of the things that I made this summer was strawberry ice cream. Really, what I did was make vanilla ice cream and than put purred strawberries into it. Keep in mind that strawberries’ water content may make the ice cream not be ice cream any more. For me it kind of turned into ice milk. The timeline of making strawberry ice cream can vary if you used a different recipe than I did. Strawberry ice cream for me took about 30 minutes to make the base. Than, cool down the finalized base to room temperature and put in the freezer until it reaches 40 degrees F or lower (This can take 4-8 hours). Than, you may put it in an ice cream machine to churn it. Keep in mind before this step you are making vanilla ice cream. During the process of churning the ice cream you add the strawberry puree. Then, I guess you could eat it out of the machine but, if you want it to turn into ice cream (or more like ice milk for me) put it in the freezer overnight. Get the recipe and steps to make vanilla ice cream at http://leitesculinaria.com/4388/recipes-french-vanilla-ice-cream.html There are some pictures of me making the vanilla ice cream base. The first picture shows me separating the egg whites from the egg yolks. The second picture shows me mixing the ice cream base so it does not burn.

This summer I had camp and for the first time I went to a, “French Camp”, if you will. There was a lot of fun stuff to do at this camp and each week had a theme. The theme represented what trip we were going to go on. We would always go on a big trip Wednesday. I guess you could say it was a regular day camp. There was one catch though, the counselors would only speak to you in French. If you really could not understand they would tell you it in English but, not that much. This forces you to try to catch on. Trust me, I learned colors by playing uno… yeah. Though, I haven’t even gotten close to everything yet! Other things that we would do would be sports such as soccer or basketball. You would be in a classroom for a lot of the time so of course there would be things to do inside. They also play games as groups such as trying to let a ball go through your legs. Or, getting a set of keys through a grate behind someone without them hearing you. Additionally, on Fridays we would sometimes go on trips that could be related to the week. One week it was a Bastille Day party. Another week, it was going to Central Park. As you can see this camp titled “Bonjour NY” isn’t just taking French lessons. I mean, sometimes you do have French lessons, but you also can go on awesome trips. Just last week the camp (including me) went to Fort Lee for a scavenger hunt, and then had s’mores! Come on, who doesn’t like s’mores? Anyways, I hope this can convince you that if you are interested in French, but don’t just want to sit down all day taking lessons, try this camp out. Just try to give it a chance. Me, personally, I also made some new friends so, if you want to meet some new people, this could also be the place to go!

P.S. If you are interested in some French words that I learned at camp, here they are: un or une-translates to a in English. There are two spellings because one is masculine and one is feminine depending on the gender of the word. Un monuton-translates to a sheep. Also, here is a useful word if you are ever in France, Je ne parle pas français-translates to I don’t speak French

CAPTIONS

At the top of the post are three pictures of me at French Camp. The first picture shows me and my friends with the robot that was just finished. If you put a ball in the spot it was in the picture, and wind up the cable, when you released it the ball would  get shot out! The next picture shows me and some other kids standing in the gym waiting for the soccer match to begin. We had just got to the gym and were waiting for the goals to be put down. The third and final picture shows me and my friend Maxwell trying to keep the egg on the spoon until the other side.

Reflection

During the summer many interesting things have happened. Some of them I have written about as posts but even some, I have not. A small piece of my summer would consist of, making ice cream, making models, going to French camp, even some additional ones like learning how to throw a frisbee. As you can see, my summer was very full so that means that there are too many things for me to write about everything. So, as a compromise, I will explain some of the highlights of my summer. The first one being, you guessed it, model making.

Model making can be a very long process. The one I built though, you could do with some specifically cut wood, super glue, and a small spray bottle. If you want to see the step by step process of making the model, I can direct you to it. You need the super glue so that you can connect the pieces quickly, if you use regular glue, it takes to long to dry. WARNING: If you are going to use super glue, be careful, it takes a very long time to get of your fingers. Finally, you need a small spray bottle so that you can spray the wood with water. The reason for doing this is because it helps the wood bend more. Did you know super glue does not actually dry, it sets? This is because super glue is not like regular glue which drys when the water evaporates. Super glue dries because of a chemical reaction between itself and the surface you are applying it to. A good thing about building models is that when you are done you are very excited because you spent all this time working on it and now you get to see the finished model.

Another thing I did during this summer was making ice cream (or in my case more like ice milk). It can be very hard to make ice cream depending on how you like it. If you like soft serve you can eat when it comes out of the machine. But, if you are like me, then it can be a little harder because you have to freeze the ice cream after it comes out of the machine. The reason my ice cream turned into ice milk was because I tried to make strawberry ice cream. Strawberries have some water in it and that is why I believe ice crystals formed and turned the ice cream into ice milk. Yeah, you thought making ice cream was easy, no, there are a lot of parts to it. First you have to make the ice cream base which consists of: 2 cups whole milk, 3/4 granulated sugar, 1/4 inch piece of vanilla bean, just the seeds, 6 large eggs, just the yolks, and finally, 1 cup heavy cream. If you want make strawberry ice cream with this recipe when ice cream is in the machine put in about a cup of strawberry puree. If you want to know the steps to making vanilla ice cream go to this website: http://leitesculinaria.com/80854/recipes-vanilla-bean-ice-cream.html. If you go through all of the work of making any flavor of ice cream, it is definitely worth it at the end. This is because you know that you made it and now you get to eat it. In addition to that, now you can say that, “I have made and eaten my own ice cream!” 

During the summer I have done many different things. Additionally to that topic I went to LA and in Los Angeles I did many different things. Some things I did in California were: going to the natural history museum, taking swimming lessons, and going to the LACMA (Los Angeles Museum of Art) specifically the rain room. This was only a slice of what I did in California but it is some of the highlights. First of all, the natural history museum, in which I went to see an exhibit about dinosaurs. Personally, I think that our museum of natural history here in New York was better than theirs. The funny thing is actually that the exhibit about dinosaurs there was that it was set up by our natural history museum in New York! That was weird… Anyways, swimming lessons was a highlight of my trip because I really got a lot better at the backstroke and the freestyle. Also, I learned the breath stroke, which I am pretty good at (considering I only learned it in 10 minutes).  Lastly on the swimming topic, I have tried to do the butterfly, which I have actually gotten pretty good at! At the end of the California topic comes the LACMA and/or the rain room. The LACMA is a museum that can really be comparable to the MET in the exhibitions. I really liked most of the art work that was on display there. There were many, many pieces by an artist who really made you like farther into her pieces. They were literally fancy graphs… not kidding. In addition there were many big pieces of artwork such as probably the most intricate toy train set you will ever see. Sadly, it wasn’t running when I was there :(. Finally… the thing you were all waiting for… the rain room! Yeah, you have no idea what I am talking about. Well, the rain room is basically a room where in most of the area, it is raining. It gets better. If you try to walk into the rain, it stops raining! If you manage to get to the center, all around you it will be raining, but not on you! This is probably done using weight detection and motion sensors. If you like art and you are in LA, do yourself a favor, go to the LACMA! It is a great experience and you will get to look at some great art! Who doesn’t like that? 

In Conclusion, my summer was filled with so many things! Hopefully you could try some of the things I did this summer. Whether it was doing an activity e.g. building a model. Or it was making something like ice cream. Or rather just small things like going to the park or the beach. As you can see, even though summer went by very quickly, during the time that I did have, I have done many, many different activities. Even some of them will be remembered for a long time.

One comment

  1. Julia Wilson

    Sam, it sounds like you had a very creative summer, building models and making ice cream. Strawberry is actually my favorite flavor when making home made ice cream. Did you take French before in school, or was French camp your first experience with the language?

    Reply

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