What Is Going On With The Weather?

Ahh, mud season.  That time of year when it is too warm to go skiing and too wet to play outside.  For the most part that is.  Right when the grass starts to dry off and the sun provides substantial heat for outdoor activities, the weather turns sour by dumping an inch or two of slushy snow on the ground.  The only thing I think this is good for is increasing the county's water supply.

I realize it's not quite winter, and not quite spring, but really?  I mean this pictures were taken in basically the same spot not twenty-four hours apart.

My Recent Reading List

Lately, I have finally been able to get some fun reading in.  Since winter break, I have finished not one, not two, but THREE books, none of which were required by school.  Oh, and did I mention that the combined number of pages happened to be somewhere around 1,200?!  I take this to be a huge accomplishment because "fun" reading can only really take place after I read my Honors English novel, my AP Human Geography textbook, and occasionally my Honors Bio textbook.  The point is, my fun reading has gone way down this year, which is really unfortunate for me.  Well, here are the three AWESOME books.  I don't know if the sci-fi/fantasy genre is your type, but I would at least take more than a glimpse at them, because you would be really missing out on some great adventures.

A Silver in St. George / "Dam" Las Vegas

Well, I haven’t posted about soccer in a while, but the only thing I’ve been doing for the past months is practice, which isn’t the most enthralling thing.  So instead of talking about my soccer, I will recall on this post my brother’s soccer tournament in St. George.  We left on Friday, drove for a good few hours, and arrived in the sunny, red rock environment of St. George.

As a result of not doing so well during their fall soccer season, my brother’s team was looking for a confidence booster in winning the tournament.  The first game, they won 3-2.  The second game, they won 1-0.  The third game, they won 5-2.  Now, I don’t what it looks like to you reading it, but those wins felt A LOT better than the multiple season losses, even from a spectators point of view.  After winning all three games they moved on to semi-finals, which was a success too.  The finals was pretty intense; going into overtime and penalty kicks.  Unfortunately, they lost during the penalty kicks.  Sound familiar?  Yep, this situation took place before in the girl’s high school state semi-finals soccer game.

Whoo, yeah! Second place!

Science Fair Surprise

Last Wednesday, a science fair was held at my school.  As an Honors Biology student, I was required to participate in it.  I think the last time I did a science fair of any sort was in third or fourth grade.  When I heard that I had to do a science fair project this year, I was very saddened, for I am just not into that type of thing.  Nonetheless, this project was a big part of my grade and who knows?  Maybe it would turn out to be fun.

So I started thinking and researching stuff that pertained to my interests.  Finally, I found a site that talked about food and reaction times which reminded me of gum.  I did some research about gum and learned scientists had already proven that gum improves your reaction time, so that experiment was out of the question.  I didn't want to totally throw out the idea, so I thought about adjusting it.  Then...light bulb!  I would do an experiment to see if gum improves reaction times more in children or adults.  Yeah!  I did more research, this time on brain plasticity in kids.  And I was off!

I created a question and a hypothesis.  I found a website that tested reaction times and made little sheets of paper for volunteers to write their results on.  The hardest part was finding forty volunteers to do my experiment.  However, even that got done eventually.  I wrote my research paper and finished my display board.  I was ready for the science fair.

And, of course, after being perfectly healthy for months, I get sick the day of the fair.  Of all the times.  The good thing was I was still able to go to school and participate, but it was very uncomfortable because I had a sore throat and a mild, but painful cough.  When the judges came around to my display, I temporarily quelled my cough, but I had a terrible performance!  I rushed through everything, forgetting to say key things like my hypothesis and half my procedure.  It was very embarrassing.  However, I figured they were only judges and my goal was to get a good grade from my teacher.  Luckily, my presentation to my teacher went a lot better, and I got the feeling she liked my project. Overall, it was an okay afternoon.

Two days later, on Friday (the day this was posted) the twenty finalists moving on and the twenty honorable mentions were announced during second period.  My second period class is relatively loud, so I missed the first half.  The second half revealed some names that belonged to kids in my class and I congratulated them.  The big surprise came at lunch when my friends told me they had heard my name on the announcements!  At first I didn't believe them, but sure enough, a special certificate with my name on it was waiting for me in the office.  What, I made it?!  Despite my awful presentation?  Apparently it wasn't as bad as I thought. :)  So I guess I'm going to the district science fair. -_-  At least it will look good on a college application.

Here are a couple cat memes that have to do with science.

Image courtesy of Le Café Witteveen

Image courtesy of Beam Me Up