Oceanography Excursions

Today I went sailing with the Monterey Bay Aquarium out into the bay to get the Oceanography Merit Badge. About 20 scouts from our troop went on the trip on a medium-sized sailboat docked on Fisherman's wharf. On the way to the boat on the wharf, we passed by a seagull nest on top of the restrooms.

Beginning at 10 in the morning, we sailed around the bay for three hours, completing various ocean-oriented activities. After a talk about safety, we began by discussing local marine life including the sea lion, harbor seal, and abalone. One of the crew members brought out a giant plankton net, and after trawling it behind for five minutes, we brought it up and it was filled with dark green phytoplankton. Then the naturalist taught us how to make your own net out of a nylon stocking, bottle, coat hanger, tape, and twine.

After this basic introduction, we split up into groups: 6^th graders, 7^th graders, and 5^th and 8^th graders combined. My group, the latter, first went to the rear of the boat where they had scooped up some kelp from the ocean and laid it on deck. We talked about how so many common items, like toothpaste and ice cream, are made from carrageenan, a product of kelp. Then we searched for small organisms like isopods and snails in the kelp, and viewed them in a small magnification container.



The next station was inside the cabin, where we looked at the plankton we had scooped up from the beginning of the trip. It turned out to be mostly phytoplankton, plants, but there were some zooplankton like small crab larvae and some things that oddly resembled glass shrimp. In the cabin, we discussed the differences between plankton (drifters), nekton (swimmers), and benthos (bottom dwellers). The boat was equipped with a nice refracting microscope, much like the ones we used last year studying cells in Science.

The last station was back on the deck (thankfully, out of the stuffy cabin) and we discussed the physics of oceans, including the three types of waves: wind, tidal, and seismic; and some wave terminology, ie. amplitude, frequency, wavelength, etc. We also tested the salinity of the ocean, turning out to be 38‰ (parts per thousand) saline. Toward the end, Oliver spotted his house from the boat and stopped to take a photo of it with his 12x optical zoom.

Finally, while we were getting back from the group activities, the staff somehow brought out a fish tank with 15-20 bat stars in it, a type of sea star (incorrectly called a star fish) with webbing between each "foot." The bat stars originally came in purple from the north and orange from the south, but cross-breeding produced a wide array of color combinations, including an olive-and-orange spotted one. The boat was involved in a bat star relocation project, so when the time came we were told to "gently" drop them overboard (like anyone actually did that!) before we sailed on back to shore.



As we came into the dock, we completed all of the requirements for the Oceanography merit badge, except for the 500-word essay of the trip, which also happens to be this blog post.

Croquet

I did this random drawing during Spanish class a while back while we were watching a movie.

The Yearbook Comes

We finally recieved our yearbooks, and, like always, there are a ton of errors! There's a teacher in the 6^th grade section, an 8^th grader in the 7^th grade section, and many pictures just missing. There was apparently a cover art contest (I didn't hear about it due to technical difficulties regarding the video bulletin) and Oliver won, so his artwork is on the cover. Today he recieved his $25 iTunes gift card as a prize. Despite the errors, it's still a good way to keep memories.

Along with the yearbook came the traditional awards assembly, where I got a certificate for having perfect attendance all year. We also watched a half-hour long slide show with a ton of pictures of the school year, many of which are in the yearbook. I plan on getting the photos from Mr. Huynh as soon as I can.

China Camp to Big Sur

This weekend was the 9^th annual China Camp to Big Sur backpacking trip on Memorial Day weekend. I went on this last year, but the weather was much hotter and my backpack was heavier, so it wasn't nearly as much fun as this year was. With Brian's help, I got my backpack down to 7 pounds without food or water, turning out to be under 20 with the full 3 liters of water. It also helped that I had a frameless GoLite pack which weighed less than one pound. I shared an REI QuarterDome tent with Matthew for the hike.

We left early on Saturday morning from the local Safeway parking lot at 5:30, after waking up at 4:30 and having a pancake breakfast. It was about an hour's drive to the start of the hike at China Camp in the Ventana wilderness. We soon left and hiked 7½ miles to Pine Ridge, which was planned to be our first stop for the night. However, do to predicted rain and wind, we decided to hike an extra 3½ miles to the Redwood Creek camp, some 2800 feet below in the valley. As it turned out, the rain didn't come until late the next day, but Redwood Creek turned out to be a nicer place to camp anyway.

Sunday morning was nice because we got to sleep in 'till 6:30, so I got to catch up on some much-needed sleep. This was by far the easiest day. About half way through, we came to a river crossing. Some people tried to get across dry on the rocks, resulting on a few full-body plunges into the river. I decided the easiest way across would just be to wade, and that proved successful. After drying off and eating breakfast, we continued the next couple of miles to Barlow Flats, the stop for the next night.

We arrived at Barlow Flats around 11:00, so we had a whole afternoon to relax and―at least we thought―swim in the watering hole. However, the water turned out to be so cold that all most could do was wade in about knee-deep. By about 1:00, we were all set up and ready to just do whatever we wanted, so a few of us started a fire in the fire pit from some embers left over from previous campers. After about 30 minutes, it had become a decent-sized fire, and we spent the next couple of hours sitting around it, getting wood from a nearby redwood log. After boiling water for freeze-dried Pasta Primavera that actually turned out to be quite good, we spent the evening until about 9:00 sitting by the fire before going to sleep.

This morning, the weather cleared up and got warmer, but luckily the hike was almost done. I had my first fall of the hike, but it wasn't that bad and I only got a couple of scratches. We finished the hike at the Big Sur Ranger Station about 10:30. I rode home with Matthew and on the way, we stopped to get food at the local Nepenthe restaurant.

The Spring Concert

Last night was the last band concert of the year, and it went very well. This is the concert where all the groups at the school do 2-4 songs, usually ones we have practiced almost all year. However, this year we decided to change the songs we did at the last minute. As well as For Our Heroes, a song from the festival, we played two new songs: The Great Locomotive Chase and In a Gentle Rain. The latter mainly just featured soloists with a "rain" background by snapping, and Locomotive was a depiction of a civil war train chase, as it said in the description. In jazz, we played Bruiser's Blues and Woodchopper's Ball, also decided on at the last minute.

For the finale of the concert, a group of us who have been coming in at lunch about 2 times a week performed The Empire Strikes Back Medley, a collection of Star Wars songs from Episode V. Unfortunately, Riley, who plays the 1^st clarinet part with me, was absent so I had to cover it on my own.

Lemon Delight Cookies

Last night, we made some cookies to sell at the bake sale at tonight's concert. They were very easy to make, and tasted really good with fresh lemons. Use the juice from a lemon you used for the grated peel.

Ingredients
• 4 ounces unsalted butter, chilled
• 1¼ cups sugar
• from 2 lemons:
```• 1 tbsp lemon juice
```• zest (peel grated)
• 1 large egg
• 1½ cups flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Preparation
• Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
• Line 3 large cookie sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
• Using an electric mixer, combine the butter, 1 cup sugar, the lemon zest and juice until fluffy.
• Mix in the egg. add the flour, baking soda and salt and combine.
• Place the remaining ¼ cup sugar in a small bowl. Roll heaping teaspoons of dough into balls, then roll in the sugar.
• Place on the prepared cookie sheets a few inches apart. Bake until golden around the edges, about 15 minutes.
• Transfer the cookie sheets to racks to cool completely.

NERF Gun Fight

After the Eagle service project, I went over to Cypress Street Park and had a NERF gun fight with Matthew and Michael. This is the absolute best park there is for these battles; it has everything, including cliffs, trails, trees, and a tennis court. We usually have way more people, but a lot of people were busy. We also played a game by throwing a tennis ball and running after each other to get it by any means possible.




I made this map of the park with labels pertaining to the game in Photoshop. I'll perfect it later, but it still gets the point across...:

Weaving Reeds

Today was Colin Fuerst's eagle project for boy scouts. We weaved mats out of reeds grown in the Carmel Valley by the river. Later on, they will be used to build authentic-style native american dwellings. The project will also get us the Indian Lore merit badge. Matthew was in a group with me, and we wove two mats together. It was really easy; you just tie each reed together with string with an overhand knot in six places along the length.

Pouncerelli

This is kind of random, but I thought I'd post this cool photo of Matthew's cat Pounce licking up catnip last time I was at his house.

Gray Area

In 6<sup>th</sup> grade, I had my current spanish teacher, Mrs. Terry, for math and science. In science, we did this activity called Environmental Detectives, which was based of this map of the "Gray Area," an old photocopied picture of a town with landmarks such as the Mistersippi River and other parody names.

A couple of days ago, she asked me to color in the map in Photoshop. It was actually harder than it would seem, since the original was a scan instead of solid colors. Using layers and the magic wand tool, I managed to fill it in fully. The reward: really AWESOME chocolate chip cookies.

Another Heat Wave

It appears there is a high pressure system with no rain or clouds which is trapping hot air and reversing the flow so warm air comes in from inland, heating the area beyond normal temperatures.

Basically, Pacific Grove (our foggy land of 65º weather) was up over 80 degrees. By Saturday, it's supposed to get up to 100º inland, and pretty hot even here by the coast.

Meet Melvin

Today was the start of the flour baby project in Science. For years in younger grades, we watched the 8<sup>th</sup> graders walk around with bags of sugar, flour, or potatoes for a week. In the past we have served as "babysitters" for the older grades, but now we finally got to have our own "babies." Yay...?

We have to carry our 5-pound "babies" around for approximately the next week and get graded on its condition. This year, potato bags weren't allowed, and I chose a sugar bag because we were in need of sugar, and it was way cheaper. I named mine Melvin for no reason, just because. I made it―him―a nametag in Photoshop and put it on the front.

It's a kind of a drag to carry it around all the time because you have to hold on to it while you're doing anything or they'll take it away to "child protective services", aka Mr. Godfrey.

San Lorenzo Park Campout

This weekend was an awesome campout for boy scouts in San Lorenzo Park, down by King City. The main theme of the campout was patrol cooking, where each patrol fixes all their own food. Each patrol got their own campsite, and ours was called Cougar Cave. While we were there, we developed a patrol cheer with a bit of humor:

Cobras, Cobras,
in the grass.
Mess with us,
we'll bite your... ankles...

This was in addition to our normal patrol yell, Don't hiss us off!



We took turns cooking different parts of the meals. All the adults of the troop flocked over to our patrol because instead of things like hot dogs for dinner, we had cappellini noodles with butter-parmesan sauce and garlic bread.



On Saturday, when we were not cooking, we went on a hike around the park, and also looked at some historic agricultural museums...



...and had fun in the water. First we had a water balloon fight, but it lasted for about 5 minutes because we didn't have enough balloons. Then Malcolm revealed he had brought his Slip-and-Slide, so we had a lot of fun on that. We couldn't get it to inflate, so we just had to spray it with water to get it working.

Preparing for the Weekend

Today I went to Save Mart with Matthew and we picked out $75 worth of food for our scout patrol. This weekend is the San Lorenzo Park campout, and we have to do our own cooking. Our patrol consists of Matthew (patrol leader), Oliver, Sean McKeon, Kyle Gatward and I (at least, these are the people who regularly show up to meetings), but Sean isn't coming to the trip

For breakfast, we're going to have breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs and potatoes. When we got back, Matthew and I chopped and cooked the potatoes with seasonings. Lunch will be do-it-yourself sandwiches, and dinner will be cappellini noodles and garlic bread. Of course, we also got orange Tang (a powdered sugar drink - just add water) which is a scout tradition to have at campouts.

A New Wall-Eyed Weirdo

Matthew and I made this update to the old Wall-Eyed Weirdos Make The World Go 'Round design and put it on a shirt. The original design was used on a birthday card for Riley, but I decided the wall-eyed weirdos on it were very crude looking, so we revised it. In my opinion, this is the best wall-eyed weirdo picture we have made.

You can buy the shirt at http://www.cafepress.com/
walleyed.261547584.


View with transparent background.

RE: Music In The Parks

Huzzah! We got a superior rating in both concert band and jazz band, and both groups also got the "best of" award.

Into The Woods

Today I went to see the school play, Into the Woods, at the Pacific Grove performing arts center, which happens to be our school auditorium. Into the Woods is one of those fairy tale stories with parts from different classic fairy tales, with elements from the stories of Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and others. Yann played the part of Jack, and in one part he sang a song called Giants in the Sky. Sean McKeon, our scout Senior Patrol Leader, played the baker, who had to find certain items to be able to have children.

Here's the summary from the program description:

Into the Woods is the story of: Cinderella, who wishes to attend the King's Festival; Jack, a lonely and impoverished young man who wishes that his beloved cow, Milky-White, would give milk; the Baker and his Wife, who wish they could have a child and Little Red Riding Hood who buys some bread from the Baker to take to her grandmother in the woods. An ugly old Witch visits the Baker and his Wife, revealing that the Baker's father had stolen from the Witch's garden to feed his pregnant wife, taking some of her magic beans. The Witch cursed the family, making them barren, and imprisoned their daughter Rapunzel, the Baker's sister. The Witch explains that the spell may be reversed if the Baker and his Wife can find the four ingredients she needs for a certain potion: "the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper pure as gold", all within the next three days.

The play was very enjoyable, except for the technical difficulties where the body mics kept giving out and going all fuzzy.

Mushroom Patch

I actually did this painting a while ago in my dad's studio, but I keep forgetting to post the picture. It's oil on canvas, and took about 1½ hours to paint.

Music In The Parks

Today was the latest music competition, Music In The Parks at Milpitas High School. At 7 in the morning, we met at the middle school and split up onto three buses. Oliver brought his DS and played Pokémon Pearl on the ride.

We were running a bit late so when we arrived, we went straight on stage and played For Our Heroes and The Last Ride of the Pony Express. This time, we didn't mess up on the half tempo part, so hopefully we got a better score. Since our first chair trumpet Tyler was absent, Tijmen had to cover the first part.

After packing up our instruments, we watched the school orchestra play Capriccio Italian and Furiant in the gym, where we would later play in jazz band. After waiting around a bit longer and warming up in the back room, we played Count Basie's Jumpin' at the Woodside for Jazz Band, as well as our usual What Is Hip?.

Later on, most of the people went to Great America, to return at 9:30 PM, but I didn't want to because I don't really care for theme parks. I got a ride home with Michael, and we watched a South Park spoof on World of Warcraft on his iPod Touch and listened to music. Yann also had to leave early because he had a part in the school play, which is airing tonight.

The awards ceremony is at 6 this evening, so I'll post the results when I can.

TacoWear is up!

I finished making the CafePress shop, TacoWear, where you can buy bags, shirts, etc., all adorned with fish tacos. It can be found at http://www.cafepress.com/TacoWear. The latest item is an FT book/laptop bag, requested by Daniel Kim from school: