A day of Tutoring

Today, I tutored a fellow student on Calculus...more specifically Calculus using a polar coordinate system, since there is a test on Monday. I hope he does well, because the entire session (including lunch) lasted from noon to 5:00, but I think it helped him. It took me a while to remember what to do with the problems, as I have not taken any math classes this year.

The uneasy calm before the storm

Next week is finals week, so we have some large projects due then. The biggest is a 25-page biology report, but there are items to do in all subjects before crunch time. The finals themselves do not scare me, but the rush beforehand does. As a bonus, however, I will not have to go to my father's apartment as he and my brothers are on a boy scout outing. So, I will have a long weekend of work.

Preparing for the Solo and Ensemble Competition

On March 5, the local Solo and Ensemble Competition is held, where students from the Fox Valley compete by playing practiced pieces either alone (a solo) or in a group (an ensemble). Pieces are divided by difficulty into A, B, and C classes; A is the hardest and C is the easiest. A judge scores the performance and gives it a rating of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, or 1*. A 1* rating is given for a very good performance of a class A solo and makes the performer eligible for the state competition.

I am currently working on a class A horn solo and a horn choir, which is a large ensemble. I do not know the rating of the horn choir, but it is probably a class A. My solo is coming along quite nicely as I have been practicing it quite a bit. Our horn choir is meeting every morning this week to hone the piece so that we sound good on Saturday the fifth.

Kayak Rolling

Today, after church, I took part in some kayak rolling learning sessions with the Venturing Crew that I am a part of. Venturing is an off-shoot of Boy Scouts of America and involves kids ages 14-21 taking part in events that tend to be a bit more "high adventure" than those that normal boy scouts take part in. I worked with a former scout on a hand roll, which involves flipping oneself up without a paddle. I wasn't able to quite get a good roll, but I got close. Next week, if I am able to get a ride to the site, which is the Appleton YMCA, I will hopefully be able to successfully hand roll and paddle roll. We'll see.

More annoying than creationism

I can find creationists, who typically know little about the Theory of Evolution by Means of Natural Selection, to be quite annoying at times, especially when they make proclamations that "evolution is garbage" or the like. However, what can sometimes be more annoying are those that do see evolution as being the truth but don't know much about it and go about proclaiming how it works to others. One of the most interesting (and annoying) claims that I have heard from this crowd is that macroevolution = microevolution over time, and that both are irrelevant concepts to the Theory of Evolution that were created by creationists in an attempt to discredit evolution. This is not true. Microevolution and macroevolution are distinct concepts agreed upon by biologists.

Microevolution is undeniable to even the most ignorant layperson. It simply involves a change in allele frequencies in a population over time. This happens all the time, especially in small populations. Often, it is a product of selection (whether through human behaviors or not). The most famous example are the peppered moths of England. The vast majority of these moths prior to the English industrial revolution were white in color, which gave them an advantage, because the lichens they often landed on were also white. However, after the industrial revolution, these sensitive lichens began to die off and as a result, peppered moths that were darker tended to survive. Actually, currently there is a trend in the opposite direction as cleaner air standards have been imposed. Thus, the dark moths are disappearing. Microevolution observed.

Macroevolution is a bit trickier to observe, but it has been observed at the basic level, speciation. This case also occurred in England with the advent of the subway and the emergence of a new mosquito species. Culex pipiens is a type of mosquito that preys upon birds to obtain the blood (and thus blood protein) neccessary to raise viable eggs. However, with the advent of the subway, a few C. pipiens individuals strayed into the London underground. Today, there are two separate species, C. pipiens, the normal bird-preying mosquitos, and the underground mammal-preying mosquitos, Culex molestus. These two types are unable to interbreed successfully and are thus separate species. Thus speciation, the simplest part of macroevolution, has occured. More complex elements of macroevolution, which include the transition from dinosaurs to birds, or the transition from a group land-dwelling mammals to whales have good documentation in the fossil record and can be seen through modern-day evidences of homologous structures, and even more recently and convincingly, the genetic codes of organisms have lent support to common ancestry through the similarities and ratios of differences between similar species.

Evolution plays a role in modern society beyond tracking endangered species and charting the history of life on earth. It is used in disease treatments. Evolution plays a part in the development of drug resistances by bacteria and viruses. Contrary to popular belief, however, resistance does not appear in the presence of these drugs, such resistance actually already exists among a very small portion. The frequency of the alleles changes through the selection presented by the drug, which will wipe out those that lack resistance much more quickly than those that are resistant, and may even have no effect on the resistant organisms. This means that we observe microevolution, a type that plagues our medical community.

A good night's sleep

Well, I finally got some descent rest last night. Our school had a 1:20 dismissal and I had a nap after arriving home. I had supper, watched a movie, and then slept from 10:00 to 9:30.

The aftermath...

The concert turned out to be a relative success. Though I did not perform the best at the Russian piece, the Hebrew Songs came across very well. Overall, the performance was mediocre, and many of the parts were downright boring. However, that is what is to be expected at a high school orchestra concert.

Orchestra/Symphony Concert

I have my uniform, which is a tuxedo, for tonight's orchestra concert. I will be playing two pieces of three. The first one is a German piece that features the choir singing some Hebrew songs while the symphony plays allong with them. The second is called the Circus Band, which I do not play for. The final piece is the Russian one that I mentioned earlier in an earlier entry (ВOCПOMИHAHИЯ O ΛETHEЙ HOЧИ B MAΔРИΔE). I think that the concert will go relatively well, except for our last piece.

The middle school band tour

Today I had two band concerts, one at Horace Mann Middle School at 8:00 and one at Shattuck Middle School at 1:10. I started out by going to Horace Mann at about 7:45. I had my brothers carry my two instruments, a horn and a mellophone, because they attend Horace Mann. The concert lasted about an hour and I was on pick-up crew, so I helped put away the music stands and help load the percussion instruments. At the end of this, I found out that I had misunderstood a direction to get on the bus, because I thought that there was another means of transportation for the pick-up crew. I was half right. I had to load my mellophone, horn, garment bag, and jacket into the moving truck (which housed the percussion materials) and I got to sit on the floor of the moving truck between the driver and passenger's seats.

I got back to school at about 9:50 and got back to class at about 10:00. The second concert was nearly identical to the first, except that it was at Shattuck Middle School, which is a bit larger. For this one, I didn't have any problems with transportation, as I was not on loading crew. However, lugging a mellophone and a horn onto a bus is quite the chore. I got back in time to catch the tail end of Keyboarding class, so I didn't have to make up any assignments.

Returning from the ski trip

On Saturday, my family and I traveled to Mellen, Wisconsin, where we met up with a group from the Neenah-Menasha United Church of Christ, the church that my family attends. We stayed in the basement of the Mellon United Church of Christ and played word games before going to bed around 11:30.

We got up around 7:00 and ate breakfast. A large portion of the group was going cross country skiing, but my family and two others were going downhill sking at the Blackjack ski hill in Michigan's upper pennisula. I rented some skis and bought some poles and hit the slopes. Like most midwestern ski hills, Blackjack is relatively short. It has harder runs than Wisconsin ski hills and most family-oriented ski areas like Brule, but it was fairly easy for me. However, there was one run, Cameron's Spur, where I made a mistake. There was a large jump on the side of that run and I decided to take it once, only to get a small amount of air and have to turn my skis to start going downhill again. A second time off of the jump, I aimed lower, but ended up getting a whole lot of air and landing on the bottom of my lower back, which still hurts.

After Blackjack, the Church group headed back to Neenah, but as Valentine's day was set as the backup day for any snowdays, there was no school on Monday, so we headed north to Iron River to stay at the AmericInn hotel. It snowed during the night and the next day, we headed to Brule. I have been to Brule quite a few times before, and none of the runs are anything near challenging to me. However, it was a bit more fun with the fresh snow. After our day at Brule we headed home.

Skiing

This weekend, my brothers, my mother, and I will be skiing in northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. We will be joining a church group today, sleep on the floor of a church in Melon, Wisconsin, ski, and head to a hotel further north, ski, and come back. This is the first downhill skiing that I've done this winter, which is largely due to financial reasons, but normally I would have skied quite a bit by now.

Pep Band Tonight

Tonight there is a pep band performance for a boy's basketball game. Though it is my seventh, which is two beyond the required amount of five for symphony students, I think it is a good idea to go. First off, I don't have much to do today, so it will provide me with something to do. The second and more important reason is that the Symphonic Band has a set of two performances, one at each middle school on Tuesday.

Since we have Monday off of school, as Valentine's day was chosen as the snow day insurance day, we need to bring home our uniforms and our insturments, as we will report directly to Horace Mann Middle School in the morning instead of the high school, so our equiptment won't be available. This means that I will have to bring home two instruments: the melophone and the horn, neither of which are light or compact. So, I decided that it would be a better idea to take them home in my families van rather than try to fit onto the bus with a horn, a melophone, my music folders and a garment bag containing my band uniform.

Middle School Jazz Concert

Today my mother got quite the surprise from my brother Ian: there is a Jazz Band concert today. So, this evening, we went to see a concert consisting of the combined seventh and eighth grade choirs singing some simple jazz songs alternating with the Jazz Band (consisting of seventh and eighth graders) playing various jazz pieces. The music wasn't the greatest, but they sang and played fairly well for seventh and eighth graders.

Symphony

At my high school, there are three bands: the Freshman Band, which meets first period, the Concert Band, which meets fifth period, and the Symphonic Band, which meets fourth period. The Freshman Band, as its name suggests, contains all the high school freshman taking Band. The Syphonic Band, of which I am a part, consists of all the seniors and any juniors and/or sophmores needed to fill the positions. All other band members are in Concert Band.

As part of Symphonic Band, where I play horn, I am obligated to fill positions in the orchestral symphony should there be an opening. Thus, I am a part of the symphony, since this year, the orchestra director wanted all five horn players from Symphonic Band to participate in the symphony. Overall, symphony is boring and a chore. The final piece that we will be playing at the orchestra concert is the epitome of boringness. ВOCПOMИHAHИЯ O ΛETHEЙ HOЧИ B MAΔРИΔE (pronounced Vospominaniya o Letney Nochi v Madride), which is a programmatic piece about a summer night in Madrid. The piece is full of rests, which is annoying because our director is not a very good conductor and is hard to follow.

However, there are some perks to being part of the symphony. I don't have to take the fourth play test and I have the option of attending two less pep band performances, but I'm not sure its worth listening to the orchestral conductor drone on, expecting us to read his mind, while not playing for large portions of music, then coming in with random notes that are hard to hit the first time.

An Average Day

Today was a relatively average day, so I think I will recount what a normal day is for me.

I wake up at around 6:30 am, eat breakfast, make my lunch, get my backpack and horn ready, get my coat and hat on and leave the house at 7:14. I walk to the bus stop, which is approximately two blocks from my house. The bus leaves at around 7:20 and arrives at the high school around 7:30. I then leave my horn in the band room and head to my locker, where I drop off my coat and hat. I then go to the school library to participate in the daily trivia contest, where I am about the middle of the pack. I then head to my first class.

My first class is Spanish V, which runs from 7:50 to 9:00 (7:50 to 8:55 on Tuesdays). We go over any homework that was assigned for the date and sometimes the teacher checks to see that it was completed. Then we move on to various group activities and worksheets where we have to speak and write Spanish. Unfortunately, our school has a trimester system, which is a major drawback for foreign language because a class is only offered over the course of two of the three trimesters, creating a longer gap of time when students are not speaking the language. I took Spanish IV during the first and second trimesters of my Junior year and am taking Spanish V this trimester (second trimester) and next trimester. If it weren't for my ten-day trip to Spain last June, I would have gone nearly a year without Spanish. So naturally, I am just barely up to par on my Spanish, even though we are more than half-way through the trimester.

My second class is AP Biology. This runs from 9:10 to 10:20 Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and 9:05 to 10:10 on Tuesdays with a 20 minute extention period called X-mod, where we get our weekly Principal's announcement and recieve information for school wide events such as formal dances, assemblies, and scheduling. The class itself is somewhat unstructured. This is our teacher's first year as a full-time teacher and she was placed into the Biology department as a replacement for the teacher who was orginally going to teach AP Biology, because over summer vaction, he decided to take a one-year sabbatical from teaching. Her inexperience with teaching can show at times and her teaching style somewhat reflects that of a college professor. This is fine for me, as I can understand all the concepts put forth in the class with relative ease, though her teaching style is hard on some students. Tests in this class are excerpted from the AP exam and have a slight curve to reflect the difficulty of that exam.

My third class and favorite is AP European history, which runs from 10:30 to 12:30 with lunch from 10:55 to 11:25 within the period (10:40 to 12:20 with 11:05 to 11:35 lunch on Tuesdays). The teacher of the class is Mr. Morgen, who is also the Cross Country Coach. He is a fun teacher who encourages a free flow of ideas and encourages critical thinking and analysis. He is energetic and loves doing what he is doing. Class periods vary depending on the lesson. Sometimes we watch a movie with historical context, such as Luther or Elizabeth, sometimes we discuss the events of a period and how they interact, sometimes we do tests, and often times, we do a combination of these. He has taken us on a field trip to the Chicago Institute of Art to showcase the evolution of European art, starting in the Renaissance and working up to the nineteenth century. He makes history enjoyable and intriguing in a similar fashion to how he makes running enjoyable.

My fourth class is Band, which runs from 12:40 to 1:50 (12:50 to 1:55 on Tuesdays). We are currently working on music for a tour of the two middle schools in Neenah and chamber music for the Solo and Ensemble Competition that is approcahing. Thus normally half the class is unstructured time where we study our solos and ensemble pieces, while the other half is a full band rehearsal of the pices that we will be playing at the middle schools.

My fifth class is by far the most boring. Keyboarding class runs from 2:00 to 3:10 (2:05 to 3:10 on Tuesdays). We do a series of drills and excercises in typing, which is especially boring since I am already significantly above class expectations in terms of typing ability.

When Keyboarding is over, I usually take the bus home after gathering my horn and getting on my coat and hat. That is, of course, if I don't have an after school meeting to attend.

Accolades

Well, today I attended the math meet. I tied for third place among the seniors at the math meet with my fellow team member, Eric Heywood at 31 points out of 40, which was fourth place overall. Our team (which has been abysmal this year) pulled a surprising third place in the large school division. Overall, it was a good math meet.

However, the biggest award that I got was not the third place medal that I got from the math meet, but the notification that I had made it to the next level of the National Merit Scholar Competition. This is a scholarship opportunity based off of the PSAT test. The PSAT is a practice version of the infamous SAT test that also doubles as an entry test for the National Merit Scholar Competition. I did very well on that test with a 77 (which correlates to a 770 on the SAT) in Math and a 70 (which correlates to a 700 on the SAT) verbal score, as well as a 76 (760 on SAT II) Writing Skills. This meant that my selection index was a 223, which was high enough to qualify me for the National Merit Scholar Semifinalist level. After achieving semifinalist rank, one has to fill out an application for the National Merit Scholar scholarships, which range from $500 to $2,000 a year from either one's college or a corporation. Achieving the finalist level means that I am even closer to obtaining a scholarship as well as being a nice title that comes with a certificate. So, I am thrilled to find that I have advanced.

On the eve of a math meet

As a member of the math team, I periodically go to "math meets", where I go to another high school with a bunch of kids from my high school who are in search of extra credit in their math classes and take a set of five fifteen minute math tests. While this does not sound like the most fun way to spend an evening, I find it to be a good time where I can compete with other high schoolers. The tests are not conventional math tests: usually the questions are trickier, but if you can see the shortcut to the answer, it is fairly easy. Of course, in order for these tests to be competitive, most competitors need to get most of the answers wrong, and they do.

The five fifteen-minute tests are divided into three individual tests with calculator use prohibited, one individual test where calculators are allowed (and encouraged), and a team round where calculators are allowed. In the individual tests, there are four questions per test: the first question, which tends to be the easiest, is worth 1 point; the second question, which is a bit harder, is 2 points; the third question, harder yet, is worth 3 points; and the final and hardest question in each test is worth 4 points, adding up to a total of 10 points, which means that one can acheive an individual score up to 40. The team test is taken with all the members working as a group to finish the questions. A team can have up to eight members, but only four can be seniors. There are six questions on the team test, all worth 10 points to count toward the team score. Team scores are tabulated using the combined individual scores plus the team score.

Since to most people, a math meet would seem to be a waste of an evening, the math teachers offer extra credit to those who go. However, I do not get any extra credit, as I have completed the highest math class offered at my high school: Calculus. For me, math meets are a recreational event where I can compete against my fellow classmates and other high school seniors as well as a particular junior who tends to get the higest scores at meets. My typical score at a math meet is around a 30. If I do well, it will be more and if I do poorly, it will be less. For the past two years, I have earned the honor of second team all league (the league being the Fox Valley Math League), which means that I was not one of the eight highest scorers overall, but I was one of the five next highest in my grade level. Last year, I was the ninth highest scorer. This year, I hope to earn a place among the first team all league and I think I have a very good chance. While this may not be a great experience for some, I think it's fun to test my math abilities against others in the area once a month.

At my father's apartment

My parents are currently undergoing the process of divorce and are currently working out a custody settlement. Currently, I stay at my dad's house for Wednesday and Thurday evenings (staying at my mother's overnight). On Saturdays we stay at his apartment all day and stay overnight. My father apparently wants half custody, which would end up meaning that we would stay at his apartment for a whole week, every other week. I don't think this would be a good idea, and I will go into some of the reasons why I think this.

First, he really doesn't pay much attention to my brothers and I. Most of the time we are left to our own devices as he plays World of Warcraft. The times when he does pay attention are at supper time and whenever we help him maintain his apartment, which doesn't happen very often. Secondly, we rarely go anywhere besides the apartment, and there is not much to do there beyond using the computer and watching movies. If we do leave, it is to go to a movie theater or to rent a movie from the local video store. Third, he is very lax on discipline, which is especially bad for my youngest brother, who often takes advantage of this and doesn't do his homework as he should. Basically, it is not a very friendly environment.

"Winterfest"

Today, my high school held it's winter pep rally. This comes as the culmination of the winter "spirit week", which involves various dress up days. This time they were: Pajamarama on Monday, Clash Day on Tuesday, Twin Day on Wednesday, Inside Out Day on Thursday, and the traditional Red and White Day (represnting our school colors) for the pep rally. There are also a set of unofficial senior dress up days that are perhaps a bit more interesting: Senior Citizen Day on Tuesday, Gangsta Day on Wednesday, and Secret Service Day on Thursday, while Friday is still Red and White Day.

Overall, I found the pep rally to be mediocre. I play in the pep band, which does alright. The highlight of the assembly is the performance of my high school's show choir, which goes by the name of Vintage. Afterward, the assembly goes downhill: our "Cheer and Dance Team" shows off their abysmal cheerleading skills (probably the worst in the Fox Valley if not all of Wisconsin) and a class competition is held. This assembly's competition, was "Whipped Cream Hangman", which isn't really a form of hangman at all. Contestants from each class run up to their class's table, picks up a magnetic letter with their mouth out of a pie pan filled with whipped cream and runs back with it. When all of the letters are recovered, the team needs to unscramble the word that they make up.

Other than that, today was just a normal day with slightly shorter classes.

Starting a blog outside of ODN

To start off, I am a 17 year-old citizen of Neenah, WI. I attend Neenah High School, where I am a senior and will be (thankfully) graduating on June 8. I am also a moderator at the Online Debate Network as well as the leader of the Book Club. The site is relatively small, having been started November of 2003, though its growth has been relatively slow as of late. This is both a curse and a blessing. It can be rather stagnant at times with the same debates being rehashed without variety. However, this has gotten better with the advent of some new active members. As well, this also allows much easier moderation and thus a cleaner discussion board. There are no personal insults and repeated substanceless posts are not allowed. Overall, it is a very open environment where Liberals and Conservatives, the religious and non religious, as well as anyone thirsty for knowledge and a new view of the world can thrive.