What a ? Desk!

 

    In the New York Times article, What a Messy Desk Say About You, the author Gretchen Reynolds writes that both a messy and a neat desk have an advantage to the people sitting there. Researchers at University of Minnesota found that a messy desk could boost the imagination, and generate better ideas, and as Dr. Vohs, a behavioral scientist, says “inspire breaking free of tradition.” But if you have a neat desk, then you are most likely going to eat healthier and have more efficiency in your work.

    I really think that my work space is on the neat side. Actually,this marble table top was not originally bought for the house it is in now. It was first bought as a dining table for our condo. When we rented the condo out a couple years back, our tennants had decided to keep the table for their use. But just several months ago, they left, so we took the table and put it in our house instead. The left side of the table is the more cluttered side. Closest to me on the left is a black stapler, with a sticky note filled with random phone numbers. Next to that is a grayish-yellow tape dispenser with a small roll of clear tape. In front of the stapler is my black pencil box, filled with dozens of pens and pencils, and including even more eraser pieces and shavings. There is even a pink Eos lip balm hidden in the depths of the box. Behind the pencil box and slightly farther away  from me sits a small, gray, plastic box filled with junky bookmarks, stickers, tape, and clips that I can cover with a white piece of paper if I want to make the desk look neat in a short time. Beside that stands two pen cups, one glass the other metal painted red. Each holds more than ten pens, two letter openers and a pair of scissors. In front of these cups is a minute bottle of medicine to apply to the skin for bug bites. On the far left corner of my desk is a small upright calendar given to us by our insurance company. In front of the calendar lies a thin pile of bills and a magazine under a remote control, iPhone and phone book. Smack in the middle of this desk is a Dell laptop. To the left of that is a small lamp that I purposely twisted around.

    I think that my work space really slows down my imagination and creativity. But still, it was really surprising in the article to learn that a messy desk even has any advantages at all. I think that my desk should be a little bit messier, because that could be the solution to coping with creative school assignments. I will just try something new.

    In all, I think that my work space is just a bit to clean. So, I think I will take some advice from Dr. Vohs, and “let the clutter rise and unfetter your imagination.”

Jacket or No Jacket

 

    In my short yet interesting twelve years on Earth, there have been many situations where I was stubborn and stood my ground, unbudging. Not many of these situations have ended with me getting applause, but rather more like me getting yelled at by my mom or dad. But in one particular Boy Scout situation I was congratulated for my stubbornness and living up to the Scout motto, “Be Prepared.”

    In May, our Boy Scout troop had been working on the Cycling, or Biking Merit Badge. Some of the requirements were riding 5-mile, 10-mile, 25-mile, and 50-mile trips. The Scouts and I had finished most of these requirements, and I had been preparing to go on the 50 miler, from the Azusa mountains above Freeway 605, to Seal Beach.

    In the previous troop meeting, our Scoutmaster had told us to bring the full Ten Essentials of pocketknife, first aid kit, flashlight, compass, sunscreen, trail food, rain gear, water, fire starters, and extra clothing. I had gathered all my essentials except for the extra clothing. I was wondering aloud which jacket I should bring for the trip. My mom walked in my room and told me to not bring everything listed, and that I could exclude the jacket. But I knew the jacket was one of the most important items in the Ten Essentials, so I argued  back. My mom tried reasoning with me, and said, “It’s May, the weather isn’t that cold!” I told her that there was a real possibility the temperature could suddenly drop, and I could very likely become an “ice statue.” After all, I need to live up to the Scout Motto, “Be Prepared.” Now I had triggered my mom’s incredibly famous and short temper. Her Shanghai dialect started streaming out, rising in volume as she went. Soon her voice was echoing around my room, towering above me like a sinister fortress, with an invisible white hot fire surrounding her as the words shot out at me. Anyone foolish to disagree with her would have a nasty ending (all this description is exaggeration, of course), but I did. After she finished yelling, I calmly went over to the closet, pulled out a jacket and stuffed it in the pack. My mom looked like she was about to burst, but she said nothing.

Around 7am, my mom dropped me off with the rest of the troop. The moment I stepped out of the car , I knew that I had made the correct decision to take the jacket along. Then I saw my mom change her mind as she stepped out of the car as well. As she shivered in her shorts and short sleeve shirt, I walked up to her and said, “I told you it was going to be cold.” She admitted defeat and started to walk in circles to keep herself warm. When all the Scouts had arrived, we started the trip. I was even more grateful for bringing the jacket because the first leg of the journey was downhill, and the cold wind would have whipped at me if I had not brought protection. But the others weren’t so lucky. Most of them didn’t have jackets or sweaters and were shivering uncontrollably. Finally, one of them couldn’t handle the cold anymore, and had to stop. He was right in front of me, so I also stopped to check if everything was all right. Well not everything was OK. This guy’s shivering looked like spasms, so I rummaged in my pack only to find that “one jacket” turned out to be two. Just as I handed my fellow Scout the extra sweater, our Scoutmaster stopped next to us. He congratulated me for “Being Prepared” and for being able “To Help Other People At All times.” My fellow Scout’s spasms died down, so we continued our trip. Apart from exhausting us, the trip was uneventful.

Well, it was worth the risk to stand up to my near-lunatic mom. I learned that sometimes you just have to stand your ground and be stubborn for a successful life. It was quite lucky that I was stubborn, or else my fellow Scout and I could have  both ended up as “ice statues."

Letter To Our School Principal

Dear Mr. Martinez,

Hello! I am a seventh grader at El Roble. Recently, I read an article in The New York Times about how physical fitness relates to students doing well in school. The main idea of the article is showing that kids who are fit and more active do better in academics and school. So, I am writing this letter to suggest to you, even with a forty-minute session of PE everyday, it would be awesome to have some active things included in some of the other five periods.

Instead of only having PE as the only active class session, we could make English, Biology, SSR, and History, active class times as well.

For English, how about acting out the plays instead of just reading them. From the plays, we can learn English literature, grammar, and vocabulary. Learning these things by acting out the them out not only is fun, but also might allow the students to boost these facts in their brains. Meanwhile, the physical activities help students to do better on overall academics.

What do you think of when the words science or biology are mentioned, Mr. Martinez? Well, I think of looking around and observing. Most of the observing that we have done before was done inside. But why not observe an open world?

The  students could take a scientific walk around the campus and enjoy the sun while making observations about the structures and nature.These observations sure would be more interesting than some in any old classroom.

It’s really great that you have Opportunity Time in SSR because you can work in the garden and that’s really active. But for the people who don’t participate in Opportunity Time, the SSR teacher could organize a lively and fun game that everyone loves. One idea is Tag, but with one little tweak. Each person gets three “lives” so everyone can stay moving for a longer time. There are many more games the students can play, the options are almost limitless.

Being active in History is very similar to English. The kids can have fun acting out some scenes or battles from history. Acting something out and memorizing the information is definitely easier and more experiential than reading from a heavy textbook and learning by heart all the dates of important events in history. Performing a battle might appeal to some of the kids who don’t pay attention in class and could make their grades in History more satisfactory. Again this activeness leads back to the issue of how fit kids perform better in overall school work.

I hope you really consider my suggestion. This plan does not require any money, and also will win lots of parents’ support. I wish to see you put my plan into action! In a short time, you will notice all the benefits of it. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Justin W.

The Yamaha Stringless Piano

 

    David Pogue, a well known New York Times Newspaper writer who especially writes about new electronics, wrote about a new series of stringless, electric Yamaha pianos, called the N1, N2, N3, and NU1 (AvantGrand Series). Sensors replace the strings, with sounds recorded from the world’s best piano. When the hammer hits down upon the sensors, the recorded sound is played through a set of high-end speakers, which produces such a realistic sound, it can fool many hard-core pianists.

    I particularly appreciate the detail that these hybrid pianos never need tuning. Tuning is very expensive (around $100), and takes a lot of time. Also, the soundtracks are reproduced from the world’s best piano, so one can get almost as high quality a sound as the best piano, and, in the meantime, save thousands of dollars. I also like the fact that if I live in an apartment or condo, I can turn down the volume or listen to my playing through headphones to prevent my neighbors from screaming and yelling at me when I am practicing at one in the morning. It is also great for people who don’t have very big houses, because the pianos in the Avantgrand series are really compact, yet imitate the sounds of nine-foot grand pianos.

 

The Return of the Wolves to the French Alps

Recently, there has been a big issue on the news about the gray wolves coming back to the French Alps, an area where more than sixty thousand French herders still use to herd livestock. This way of livestock farming is one of the last natural and ecological methods.

Back in the 1930s, the herders and farmers that lived in the French Alps had hunted the gray wolves to extinction with some official encouragement. But within fifty years of the gray wolf's extinction, the animal was made a protected species throughout Europe. By 1992, the first pack of wolves re-entered the French territory from the Italian borders. The conservationists were very happy, and the populations of the gray wolves grew steadily.

 Even though the conservationists were happy for the return of the wolves, that did not mean everyone was. The shepherds are becoming increasingly annoyed, because the growing number of wolves keep attacking the sheep. Since these wolves are protected species, the herders cannot shoot them, which allows the wolves to take as many sheep as they can. The shepherds have been asking the government permission to hunt the wolves. They refused, but the government hired Great Pyrenees guard dogs that trot along with the herd. So now the shepherds have started to take action in trying to stop the wolves from attacking their sheep. Each night, some owners lock the livestock in a kind of structure to protect the animals and they hire more hands to help out. Even with the French government spending millions of euros to reimburse the herders, the herders only earn around the minimum wage.

The wolves, on the other hand, don’t have any stress in surviving. The small group of wolves has a large amount of prey available to them. Because of the easy kills, their populations have been growing more than twenty percent a year. The small delicate pack that crossed the Italian borders to France has now swelled to more than 250.

So far, I sympathize with the wolves. Although the wolves have done a lot of damage to the livestock, the wolves are still endangered in France. If the French government authorized the killing now, the wolves would go extinct very quickly again. Then, it would take a long time for the wolves to return to the French territory again.

I like it that the French government is reimbursing the herders for the lost livestock, and providing the guard dogs, but they really don’t seem to be thinking of ways to stop the attacks.

I have a couple of suggestions on how to maybe reduce the number of attacks from the wolves. The government could build some kind of moveable barrier around the area where the shepherds herd their sheep. That should stop most of the wolves, and the guard dogs could take care of the rest.

Another plan is to introduce a new species into the ecosystem that won’t affect the balance of nature. Some of the wolves might start hunting the new species instead of the sheep, and that should decrease the loss of the livestock.

The government could also provide the herders with more guard dogs. Instead of the usual ratio of around 200 sheep to a dog, it should become 100 sheep to a dog. The herders would have twice as many dogs and most likely feel more secure.

I hope the French government will do something about this issue soon. If this continues, it could get very ugly.

My Energetic Hands

    My hand are rough, but can be very gentle. They are small and chubby, but surprisingly strong. With my hands, they can play the piano and dance gracefully down the black and white keys. My hands can hold a book and as I read, I dream of a faraway place. They can swing a golf club when I play golf with my family on the weekends and bring me pleasure as the club hits the ball with a satisfying thud. With my hands, I can hit a tennis ball with my racket and feel the fierce pride coursing through me as I successfully ace my opponent. My energetic hands allow me to swim fast on the swim team. They also allow me to splash my friends while we cool down in the pool under the hot blazing sun. If it weren't for my hands, I wouldn't be able to help younger children wash scratches or put a bandage on their cuts. If I didn't have my hands, I would not be able to tickle fight with my dad when he comes to say good night to me. I wouldn't be able to paint or sketch, which I like doing. In all, my hands have become my favorite part of me. I love my hands, as I do with the rest of my body.

Robby’s Wish

 

Robby woke up this morning and started to sneeze. He shivered and glanced at himself in the mirror. “I’ve grown a lot here in USA,” he thought. He sneezed again and blew his nose. Robby Chai was an eight-year old Chinese kid and had jet black hair and eyes. Robby suddenly became cold and hurried to get a sweater over his pajamas. As he was fetching the sweater, he peeked into the empty room that belonged to his grandparents. Now Robby missed his grandparents in China. He had grown up with them since he was brought back to China just two months after his birth in L.A. A special bond created immediately between his grandparents and himself. But his parents took hims to USA because they thought school in China was too exhausting for little Robby. This was good in some ways, but it had its disadvantages. It was almost winter break now and the holidays were coming, Robby missed his grandparents badly.

    Robby was a huge fan of Ironman. He wished that the iron suit would would come true. Then he could visit his grandparents whenever he wanted. Robby pictured himself blasting off in a shining iron suit at over 5,000 miles per hour. He thought of flying over the clouds, whipping past birds, and  waving to people on airplanes and even jets from the US Air Force. Then,within an hour, he would show up at his grandparents’ window, hovering as close as he could get. It would be dark outside because of the different time zone and he could see his dear grandpa and grandma sitting on the sofa, watching TV, with cozy blankets around them and lamps basking them with golden lights. Sometimes they would chat quietly about the show and sip on steaming jasmine tea. Robby also saw in his wide mind his old metal matchbox cars lined up in a glass door closet in the back of the room. They must have been polished recently, for they caught the faint light and gleamed dimly.

    Robby suddenly shook his head violently to get his mind back to reality. He knew that high-tech stuff like Ironman was too advanced. But he believed that one day, it would be possible. One day, distance would not be an issue. Then Robby remembered that it was Thursday morning and he still had school. He quickly brushed his teeth, changed into school clothes, and followed the aroma of breakfast sizzling downstairs.

    As Robby and his parents were eating the delicious breakfast consisting of eggs, pancakes, sausages and fresh orange juice, Robby brought up the subject of going back to China. He retold them about the Ironman idea, what he imagined his grandparents were doing, and everything else he had thought about while upstairs. “I do agree that the Ironman idea is too extreme with the technology right now,” Dad replied thoughtfully, “But you’re right, Robby in the future, Ironman is definitely possible.” Mom also piped up, “ At first we wanted to surprise you, but we won’t keep in away from you any longer. We’re going to China on winter break! And it’s been such a long time since we’ve been in China when it snowed,” she added as an afterthought.

     Robby got so excited that he nearly fell out of his chair. His wish had come true, although not exactly the way he wanted it to!