Symptoms of the Black Death

 The Black Death was a deadly disease over in 1347 that ended up spreading from northern China all the way to Europe, killing over 200 million people; the death toll was apparently almost 90 percent of the world population then. The symptoms of the plague were:

• Sudden fever onset
• Headaches
• Sporadic chills
• Weakness
• Tender and painful lymph nodes called buboes

The most common way that the virus spreaded was by flea bites, and combined by the lymph nodes created that immediately begin to spread the disease by multiplying. if not treated in time or properly, the virus spreads to other places of the body.

My learning in Art for the last few months

       In Art class, we have learned so many different things, mostly photography. We were introduced to multiple people who have created art using photography. One of the artists were Slinkachu, a modern-day artist who uses mini model figures to make his artworks.

        During our time doing some photo-shopping some images, we were told to use an overlay/collage artist. We had multiple options and we picked only one of them. Out of all of them, I picked Maureen Broadbeck, an artist that takes the focal point and colors it in in a different color. 

         For both stages, we created our own works of art, based off of both artists. We made photos like they would have, and we could even alter them if we wanted to. In both photographs, the focal point is always very obvious and close to the camera or screen, because it would take the attention away from the other areas. 

Here are the photos, in their respective order:

My learning went pretty smooth, even though I had begun to lose interest. Some of the topics were pretty interesting, like the photographs and the photo-shopping. I felt like I was able to express my creativity in a different way that I never really showed interest in.

If you want to, tell me, what kind of art are you interested in?

My final Art project

 In the last few days of school, we were told to do projects and work before the year ended. In Art class, we used Adobe Photoshop and one a random photo, one we took or fished off the internet, and improve it to how we see fit.

   Mine was a hand holding a pencil over by the light. I improved mine by sketching over the picture, hand in red and pen in blue. Then I used the lasso tool to prevent any loose pixels and make it seem smooth and clean. Then I put a frame for the background and used gradients, light pink and light cyan, for the background. After, I used another frame to edit the brightness of the photo. I got rid of the hand and pen picture, keeping my edit on. Here's the finished product:

It was a lot of fun to do and though it was kind of confusing at first, after a while, I smoothed through without a problem. As much as I didn't like to do photographs, I very much liked this one. I hope I get to do wonderful activities like this in the future.

Distillation experiment

We will be doing an experiment with distillation. We will be using evaporation and condensation. Evaporation is heating something up, giving it so much energy that it starts heating up and turns into a gas. Condensation is turning the gas from the evaporation back into liquid. Doing it with a mixture will dilute the liquid, making it taste farther from the original. The condensation can form a solid because it can create solid crystals and condensation cools down so that it reverts back into liquid.

Aim: to separate a solution suing coke/coke zero to form a solid + a liquid.

Hypothesis: I believe the solid will look greenish in color and so will the liquid. I think that sugar crystals will form, less on the coke zero while more will form in the normal coke because of the different sugar levels.

Observation: When it was heating, the water evaporated and condensated back into liquid. The liquid turned into water when the coke zero started heating. After the end, both coke had different results. The normal coke had more residue than coke zero but the water was green and wasn't as clear.

Conclusion: The coke zero evaporated and condensated back into water. There is few residue left. My hypothesis partially correct, but I have no idea how to explain it.

essay for health class

     In Health class, we were set a task that required us to explore the health problems in all divisions of our lifestyles. Of course, we weren’t allowed to dwell on the topics of suicide, masochistic self-harm or eating disorders. Our set success criteria was an understandable statement, grammar and wording. Descriptions and details are also a must in our criteria. The topic that I chose was obesity, because when I was younger I was considered as such in my country.

Firstly, we had to open a doc and copy it so that we could edit them. There, we put all of our info and topics on there. My big questions were who started or caused the problem, why people choose to do it, and etc. Whatever I wrote on the essay won’t exactly match the questions I wrote here, because I believe to have remembered that the table doesn’t contain those questions. 

Once we had our big five questions, we were told to make some main points for our questions and do some research for our questions. From there, we did some digging and put in some main points for our research. We chose to do this so that it would be easier to remember what we would write about and easier to delve into the topic. We learned that these strategies can help us write our essay easier without much of a hindrance.

It was certainly challenging when I began to start writing the essay using certain words from my extensive vocabulary. Whenever I was faced with a problem, which wasn’t very often, I coped by using a breathing technique to try and keep my feelings in check. Next time, I’ll make sure to evaluate further into the topic to prevent any further stress. I am very proud of the essay and my efforts into making it, it was kinda fun. 

Essay:

 

    Obesity is a problem suffered worldwide by many people. The reason it is a problem is because it hinders people from doing their daily activities like a normal person would, because the amount of calories being taken in is greater than the calories burnt. The assumptions made of these people is that they’re usually lazy and like to eat 24/7, but usually that’s not the case. There are several reasons as to why people are obese, some reasons being medical conditions and ethnicity. People tend to drive towards these assumptions because they’re often the most widespread knowledge and also the most believed.

     A lot of people also tend to be obese because of a force. Sometimes it can be from a personal issue, a dilemma they’ve faced or because someone’s forcing them to. The people usually responsible are bullies, abusive people and their own expectations. They could also be obese because it is the outcome of their coping mechanism from a mental or emotional issue. They try to find a way to help themselves, but their mind usually redirects to the same issue: eating. They could also have lost motivation for something and have only become part of the problem.

     The consequences that come out of this is that people become discriminated against. People dislike the way people look because they’re fat, and it only pushes the problem further. Another problem is an increasing risk in health problems. It can range from something common from high blood pressure to something completely life-threatening like heart attacks or cardiac arrest. They can also feel heavier by the amount of weight they’ve put on, and this can stress them out even more, as if the discrimination wasn’t enough.

     It leads to a bunch of mental health problems and self-deprecation, like depression, stress, anxiety, short-fused anger issues and possibly misanthropy if the bullying becomes completely severe. Thankfully, there are ways to combat or prevent this problem. If the situation is being approached, you should try to hold back on the food, or talk to a friend or family member to try and keep you from becoming obese. If it has already happened, take some counseling or talk to a professional, like a doctor or a therapist. Work on a schedule and lower your calorie intake and exercise regularly. If you want to avoid it entirely, focus on doing something that interests you, like a hobby of yours. If you like it, then do it. Just don’t do the same thing that got you into that mess.

    Just remember that when you encounter this, learn the ways to avoid it and who to talk to. Think about yourself and take care of yourself. Learn to stay away from the cause or walk away from the problem. Just remember that it is never too late to save yourself from this problem.

What was life like in the Middle Ages?

    More than often, you'd hear the talk of the Middle Ages everywhere. In fiction, literature, and etc; everyone seems to be interested in the Middle Ages, but they don't seem to bring the problems and inhuman things done during the time. To be honest, we don't wonder what actually happen in most of the things that depict them. So, this begs the question, what was life like in the Middle Ages?

    Usually, as interesting as it seems, life in the Middle Ages isn't actually all grand and peaceful that we see. The shows and video games that we are given do not show the painful and agonizing reality of this, but more often reflects on the life of a king, lord or a knight, and sometimes, from someone lower.

    In fiction, peasants are usually considered decently paid and hard-working, and this is quite far to what it was back then. Peasants usually had bad lives, and though it isn't always the case and that they're protected should they work for their employer, they often lived in small cottages, and hygiene wasn't very well considered, so sometimes, the houses aren't very clean, not even the people themselves.

   The impact of this were some rioting and protests against royalty, taking example from the French Revolution. As a result of these, there were many casualties and deaths within the hierarchies.

    Life isn't as good as it seemed back then.

Evaporation experiment

 Separating using evaporation:

Aim: To try and separate a solution into solute and solvent using evaporation. 'nuff said.

Hypothesis: The liquid will become lighter after separation.

Equipment: Copper sulfate solution, 250 ml beaker, heat proof mat, evaporating basin, element.

Method:

1. Set up element.

2. Add 100 ml of hot water to the beaker and place on the element.

3. Add copper sulfate to the evaporating basin until it is quarter full.

4. Carefully, place the evaporating basin on top of the beaker

5. Turn on the element to 3

6. Heat the solution until most of the solvent has been evaporated and crystals of solute are forming

7. Turn off the element- be careful not to touch, as it will be hot for a long time.

Observation: The element hadn't been working right, the water started boiling and the element smelled like burnt rubber incense.

Conclusion: Since the water didn't boil fast enough, I didn't notice any significant changes.

Discussion: We activated the element, the water began to boil and the steam went up to heat the evaporation basin. It began heating the basin, but nothing was fast enough to be heated and change.

Evaluation: The experiment was pretty slow and since nothing happened, was practically a waste. I didn't like the smell of the element, because I hated it. I would get a different or better heating material.

Dilution

 Definition:

Dilution is when there is a weak concentration of an element in a solution/mixture. When there is less compared to the majority.

Concentration: When something is more particles of something in a solution/mixture.

Dilution series:

Aim: To make a dilution series to investigate concentration.

Equipment: A potassium permanganate crystal, six large test tubes, tweezers, a plastic transfer pipette, test tube rack, 10 ml measuring cylinder.

Hypothesis: 

Which test tube would be the most dilute? -The test tube that will be the most dilute would be test tube 6. 

Which test tube would be the most concentrated? - The first test tube.

What did you do? - We put the crystals into the first test tube and distributed the liquid to the next. And repeated the process for the other tubes until the water got lighter and lighter and lighter.

Was your hypothesis correct? - Yes, my hypothesis was correct. After distributing 5 ml to every next tube, the last tube ended up being lighter than everything else.

Which was more concentrated and which was the least? - The most concentrated was the first test tube and the least was the sixth test tube.

How do you know? - The solution was distributed between the test tubes, the amount becoming less between the test tube with each distribution.

Science Experiment... again

 Aim: We need to separate a solution to form a precipitate

Precipitate - the name for a solid that forms in a liquid during a chemical reaction

Hypothesis: I believe that the solution would separate.

Method:

1. Pour approximately 50 mL of copper sulfate solution into a beaker.

2. Add the same volume of sodium carbonate solution. A reaction will happen, you should see a cloudy blue precipitate form called copper carbonate.

3. Watch demo then fold filter paper to fit inside the funnel.

4. Place the funnel with the filter paper inside of it into the mouth of a conical flask.

5. Stir the mixture in the beaker then carefully pour it into the funnel.

6. Observe what happened.

Observation and Discussion: The mixture became cloudy and dark than what it was originally. It did not change color. When we began filtering the solution, the filtrate appeared clear. The residue was a gooey outcome of the copper sulfate, slime almost.

Conclusion: Copper sulfate cannot be filtered when mixed into a solution.

Photographic

    A week into Term 4, we started a research about Slinkachu, a British artist that uses figurines and everyday objects to create his photos. Recently, we made a slide focusing on our research about him, and after that, we made some photographs using similar figurines. Here's the slide:

     And here's some of the photos I took. My phone didn't have the grid feature, so I just used close-ups and ran into the fight blindfolded.

          Thank you for reading this and have a wonderful day.

aluminiuminum

     Weeks or a few months ago, my 9CMM class started a project. In this one, we made an aluminum drill gauge. Before going on to craft it, we plan the model over in Tinkercad. We made a bit of adjustments to the model, because it wasn't exactly measured right. After I finished modelling mine, I helped some of the other students through.

      A good two or so weeks later, we get to working on the aluminium model. First, we used engineering glue on the model so we could mark our cuts with scribes. Then, we punched some dents into the lines to make sure we weren't cutting unnecessary parts of our work. Then, we did the same for the drill holes. After, we drilled the holes using drill machines that I can't remember the name of. Then, we cut the measurements and got rid of the engineer's glue left over weeks prior. Recently, we put some glue on some acrylic cuts of our initials and sizes, and plastered them onto the model. 

    Because of gravity, the things kept sliding down. The next day, we come back to dried glue; with some of our acrylic stuck diagonally or off-center. I believe we have yet to finish the project, but we're close. Just hope I get to see the finished product.

scieeence

      Today, in Science class, we dissolved sugar in water. Done.

Roll credits!

       Never mind, I'll talk about what we did. During class, we were given some beakers and a small spatula. We were given some sugar along with some cold and hot water. We tested whether something would dissolve faster if we stirred or not and whether it dissolves in cold or hot water faster. Because of the test, we found out that the mixture dissolves faster when stirred and in hot water, which seems much obvious.

      During the experiment, we discovered the average time for the sugar to dissolve in several conditions. We divided the total amount of time with the amount of tests and these were what we had:

(These are not completely accurate, some of these were mistimed)

- 50 ml of cold + 1 spatula of sugar, stir - 54 sec.

- 50 ml of hot + 1 spatula of sugar, stir - 29.75 sec.

- 50 ml of cold + 1 spatula of sugar - 76.2 sec.

- 50 ml of hot + 1 spatula of sugar - 163.8 sec.

      Yeah, seems about right.

The long explanation:

 Experiment: Test to see where sugar dissolves faster and record the time on how long it takes to dissolve.

 Testing: We put one spatula of sugar into the beakers with cold and hot water. One pair we didn't stir and let to settle while the other pair we kept in a constant moving spiral. We used a stopwatch to record the time.

 Result: Our results were:

Cold water: stirred - 55s, untouched - 156s

Hot water: stirred - 37s, untouched - 87s

 After: We added the results and divided it for the amount of the results. The average time of dissolution is shown above.

 Conclusion: The sugar dissolved faster in hot water, even faster when stirred.

Diary of a researcher

 11 Jan 2018

    We visited the remote island of Tokelau with a small group of scientists, curators and media creators. We were headed there to learn about the culture, the land and its people. On the ship we were aboard, there were supplies to bring with us and to give to the locals and passengers as well. During our conversations with some of the other young passengers indicated that they were returning home for Christmas from Fiji, where they were studying for the University of the South Pacific. During the trip on the ship, it impresses me how some people get to shower in a boat, constantly rocking back and forth. And how they manage to get a hot drink from a teapot into a cup with no problem whatsoever is baffling just as much. After a good 24 hours or more, we see the low-lying atolls of Tokelau. Just staring at it strikes me about how vulnerable the islands and people are.

    It’s hard to imagine how well they would fare against the ever so rising sea levels, considering the highest point in the island is only a few metres above sea level. During the low tide, you could see the protective seawall, that, although small, provides a bit of safety from the ocean. Despite being geographically isolated and their vulnerability against the sea, they are sufficiently developed villages hosting even hospitals and a large school somewhere in another island.

   The townspeople were warm and hospitable but shy at first. Eventually, they warmed up to the tourists and they became keen to share their stories with us. Their solar power station has kept the entire place up and running for a long time, and thanks to the deliveries before, they’re building a municipal building with the development of some houses with televisions, computers and fridges. And everything seems pretty steady and well-run.

   But that won’t stop the problems of the future. When we met a teacher in a primary school, she said that they’re talking about the future they believe in and expect. Like most places, they seem different through a postcard than actually visiting the place. Their seawall helps, but it is only a temporary solution against an insurmountable problem. However, a sign on the side of a building gives us a message, a message we must hear: a clean environment is the only way to survive.

   After the study, we returned back to our homes, in the comfort of our family’s embrace and the warmth of our home. That was a very interesting experience, I hope to visit that country again soon.

Facts about Niue and Tokelau

 Facts about Niue:

1. Niue is one of the world’s largest coral islands.

2. The people in Niue (Niueans) are citizens of New Zealand.

3. Niue is possibly the smallest independent nation as of now.

4. The island is most commonly referred to as “The Rock” as a reference to it being one of the biggest raised coral islands in the world.

5. The island lies about 2400 km northwest of NZ between Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands

Facts about Tokelau:

1. Of the total 265,941 Pacific population in the NZ Census 2013, approximately 2.4% or 7,173 Pacific people identified as Tokelauan.

2. Tokelauan women are more likely than men to learn two or more languages, at 44.4 to 40.2 percent respectively.

3. English was the most spoken language in Tokelau by 93.6% or about 6,537 people.

4. The region of Wellington is home to the biggest Tokelauan population in NZ and in the world, with almost 50% living in the region (49.1% or 3,525 people).

5. One of their proverbs say “Nohe mānumanu ki te ika kae mānumanu ki te kupega” which says “Do not be too concerned about the fish, but be much more concerned about saving the net.” but means “There are things in life which are important to save and preserve for the future, and the language is chief amongst them.”.

Blog of the Three Wonderful Idiots

      In DTE class, we were told to make a project of our own using some cardboard and bamboo sticks and some Spheros. For our project, we were made into several groups of three or four. We wanted to make our program close to a drag strip, and this is what it was close to what we wanted it to look like: 

The dragstrip we made as an inspiration for the track.

We want to develop a drag race themed code for Spheros and make it work like a race. We want the Sphero to run on a randomized speed that will determine whether the player will win or lose.

We make the chassis for the Spheros with bamboo sticks holding the wheels, which were cardboard. The chassis itself was made out of tiny rolls of paper, and was supposed to work as a car, but after a while, we didn't manage to finish it. Here's the development log for the project:

Development Log: We receive instructions to do the project. My group mates are Noel Prasad-Barwick and Kade Fowler. Both are my friends and equally fun and annoying. We begin coding for the Sphero while Noel shortly abandons us. Mr. Carter shoots down the idea of luck-based speed and wins for some reason I can’t remember. We get it working with extended testing. We begin to make the things we require for the project. I begin to think that this will be a trainwreck, but considering our success rate together, I might as well give it a shot. I was absent while Kade did all the work. Noel, I assume, was also dying in his house. We made wheels, poked holes in them, continued programming and I get cut by my own dumb. Noel is absent once again. I got the official logbook from Mr. Carter’s site. The other two end up beating each other to a pulp while fingering smurf oobleck and insulting each other with overused comebacks. Mr. Carter starts a CoD match while I contemplate thinking about whether I should’ve brought my dad’s iPad or not. We’ve started making the starting point for the Spheros. As I’m writing this, Noel tries to read the previous logs while spitting on my arm. These guys are just plain idiots, but I don’t think I get to say so considering I’m friends with them. I began writing the blog for our oh-so beautiful project. But, my god, it's gonna be up to them right now if we pass or not. I'm just writing the blog. Noel recommended that I add as much sass as I can for the log and blog. It rhymes, but I'm gonna add as much as I can to indicate how much I want to dump slime on them or whatever heinous prank I can do. We seem to have lost our code in the ocean of projects. I don't believe we have finished it completely, but I have yet to find out. We're doing a blog this time. I'm just updating mine. These guys have barely helped me with the log and thus, it's just me covering every bit of topic. I write better than them, so they appointed me as the writer. Also because either they were lazy, or couldn't write. It's both, but I can forgive the latter. We are still working on the blogs Why am I still doing this He stole the line above from me. I made some adjustments to my blog, but I won't put this on the log. We haven't finished the project, but, oh well.		Date/ Student: Sep. 6 - 7 Andrei Montellano Sep. 14 Andrei Montellano Sep. 17 Andrei Montellano Days since Sep. 20 Andrei Montellano Sep. 23 Andrei Montellano Oct. 14 Andrei Montellano Oct. 19 Andrei Montellano Oct. 22 Andrei Montellano Oct. 28 Andrei Montellano Nov. 2 noel prasad barwick Nov. 2 Andrei Montellano Nov. 3 Andrei Montellano
Code/ Program: unknown		Notes: We planned to make our Spheros operate on luck based-speed.

The project was tough considering our own faults and the difficulty in our project. It was still fun to do, regardless of anything. I found out that we liked to mess around, but when we focus we actually get work done. Robotics was fun, but I don't seem to be interested in it much.

diary entry of a (former) bullying victim

 August 2, 2021

Dear Diary,

      It was Tim, again. He took my stuff, again. It’s been going on like this for a week or so. I think it’s because I look weak, that I was short compared to him when I sit down, but normally, I just avoid confrontation. This time, I confronted him personally because he never saw me standing up. He comes up to me and threatens me like the little turd he is and I stand up. I guess this is the first time he’s seen me stand because I can tell by the look on his face that he was terrified. Sucker ran off without a word. He hasn’t bothered me since. I’m actually pretty happy about it.

                                                                                                    - Harry

Conduction animation

 Another one for the week.

This animation is supposed to show how conduction works. The particles begin moving as they get hotter. I also moved the pan around to make it look like it's moving.

B&E and Market day

 Two to three weeks prior from now, we started an activity which involved the house colors. It was called 'business & enterprise' and we were being instructed to pair up in groups of four people. Since there were some extra people that weren't in groups, some of us had five people instead of four. From what I believe, this activity was meant to help us learn how to work with other people and how to run a business. They did a good job at it, I'll give them that.

During the weeks that followed, we prepared for Market Day, which began on Sep 24, Wednesday. We planned for what we were gonna make, what we were gonna call ourselves and how we were gonna execute our plans. We decided to make some afghan cookies and milkshakes and call ourselves 'Cookie Shakes'. Eventually, we scrapped the idea of milkshakes as the ingredients would've cost us extra and put us over the intended budget, and they would've been extra work.

We also began designing our banner for our stall. We got a good idea of using the netball posts to hang our banner, and because of that, our banner stood higher than the other ones. We got our ingredients at the last week, but couldn't make the cookies until the second to last day because we had no sugar and the person who was meant to bring sugar was out sick during the week and prior to. 

In Market day, we made some last-minute baking to make the icing for the afghans. We were told to go back to the kitchen when we finished cooking but forgot to clean our space. I bought the largest afghan we had for $1.50 worth of tokens. We also sold out of our afghan cookies very quickly because we had such a short supply. We also didn't have any extra ingredients to make anymore cookies the day before. 

When I got home, I gave the cookie I bought to my parents. They said it tasted good and that we did a good job at making them. I felt happy because of that, but I didn't feel confident that I would be okay cooking on my own.

This picture down here is our stall right after we've sold out. There's me in the middle, one of my group mates on the left and a friend of mine on the right.

Vietnam War inspired Photos

      Some Vietcong hiding in the bushes.

  Some US soldiers having some problems with the communications.

 More Vietcong on reconnaissance.

 A US soldier wandering in the bushes.

 A lone US soldier struggling to come in contact with other units.

 Vietcong soldiers being pinned down by US soldiers.

 See image above.

 A firefight nearby a city.

 Fighting in an open and devastated space.

moar science

 As an introduction to our new Science class, we learn about matter, its definition and its forms. Matter is what makes up just about everything we know and see. One of the things we learned is what particle theory is.

Particle theory defines what matter is as a whole and how the particles work. It says that:

• All matter is made up of particles
• All particles in a pure substance are the same
• There is space between all particles
• Particles are always moving 
• There are attractive forces between particles
• Temperature affects the speed at which particles move

Also recently, we were taught about diffusion. Diffusion is a movement of particles from a high concentration from a lower one. Examples are the smell of perfume, because it smells strong when it is first sprayed, but since particles are always moving, the smell eventually diffuses. The rules of particle theory that applies is the 4th bullet point; particles are always moving.

In class, we also did an experiment: we were trying to see whether particles spread faster in cold or warm water.

  Aim: Observe the effect of temp. on speed of diffusion.

  Hypothesis: Hot=fast, cold=slow

  Method: We put some potassium permanganate in both petri dishes full of water, one of them hot and the other cold. 

  Observation and Explanation: When the chemical was placed in both dishes, it somehow spread faster in cold water than hot water. In the hot water, the water appears a lighter purple than the cold water which has a darker hue. This is because of the 6th bullet point; temperature affects the speed at which particles move.

My Version of a Timeline of 9/11

  In Hurumanu Three, we were tasked to pick a green box out of the pink and green ones and work on that. The options were earthquakes, about 9/11, the eruption of Mt Vesuvius or the Parihaka Day of Plunder and research on the wars of NZ. Out of all of those, I chose to work on 9/11. It took a while and two periods of classes to finish, but hey, I managed to finish. Here's the finished project:

Sure, the picture might be big, but hopefully you are able to read it. 

My Photomontages

  So, I got a bit sour over some dumb game because my friend didn't give me much of a chance and because of my own dumb mistakes. And, this is for my Art blog, so I'm kinda not sure if this is gonna calm me down or make me even more sour. But, anyways, onto the blog.

   In my Art class, we were tasked to make about three photomontages, each with their own photos and meaning (except for the new kid who got to do only one (coz obvious)). We find the photos in Google and put on the "Labeled for Reuse" option for whatever reason. We opened an app called remove.bg to make sure the photos had no background and that the most noticeable thing was the only thing there.

    On Google Drawings, we pieced the photos together, altered the colors and lighting to create an image with a meaning, reminiscent of Hannah Hoch's work - the person who we were studying about. To be honest, because I was in Art class, I was expecting more drawings and techniques instead of photomontages. That put my mood very far down, through rock bottom. Have things like these happened to you before?

     Anyway, most of, if not, all of us finished our photomontages. During a time when Art class wasn't on, I was clearing out a drive and accidentally got rid of my scrapbook - the thing we put the photos we used on - permanently.

    I'm gonna put the images here and tell you what they mean, and it is also very obvious as I put the context in the photos themselves.

This image is meant to scream the idea that when people become desperate, people will turn to dark and dangerous things just to get some money.

This image obviously says that no matter who wins or who loses, a loss comes for both sides in a war. Whether it be land, a country, people or belongings, it is a loss.

This image was made to say that regardless of your skin color, personality and such, we are equally the same and it was completely useless to try and discriminate someone other than to receive a bad image.

    How I pieced the first image together was using a few images in my scrapbook and cut a piece of the hand to make it look like it's holding the knife and money. The other two I made after I accidentally got rid of the scrapbook. I just plastered a couple images and backgrounds together.

   If you wanna see the teacher's resource, inspiration, site and such, here's the link: https://sites.google.com/hornby.school.nz/visualarts/photography-year-9/course-outline-for-year-9

   For a while now, I haven't worked on a proper goodbye so... Thank you for reading this blog and I will see you in the next one.

Our Sustainability Class

  In our Sustainability class, we studied about our planet and the problems we have on our planet, caused by humans or for other reasons. We learned about overpopulation and the pollution and more problems inflicted on our planet. In the last few weeks of our subject, we did a project focusing on any of our entire subject; a report, an investigation and the project, one we could do in groups.

The evidence of my learning is on this site: https://sites.google.com/hornby.school.nz/hhswananga/home/sustainability/sustainability-term-ii/m9a-mr-carter
   In the class, we studied about the recent virus outbreak: the Corona-Virus, climate change, overpopulation and such. We used math in our subject to learn and understand these more. We learned about the resources of the planet and how we can use or replace them for better alternatives. In our last few weeks and the project, me and my teammate tried to create a board game focusing on the planet's safety and preservation. This is what me and my teammate has got so far.
Pictures:

 

The pieces and the dice for our board game.

The prototype of the board game we're gonna print.














My reflection on this entire subject is that I have almost fallen asleep a few times. Aside the class from being able to put a kid to sleep, overall, it was a nice class. I had fun doing the projects and activities and I was able to use my learning to further improve my understanding of the world and its issues.

   Thank you to the people who have helped me learn, and my teacher, Mr. Carter.

Dissecting a Rat's Body

   Today, I dissected a rat. It was not as bad as I thought it was, but still. I kept telling myself to hold it together and not throw up. Thankfully, the dissection didn't make me vomit. The smell might've been different, though. I would show you pictures, but I don't want to show anyone those or remind myself of it. I will remember, but the smell I wish to forget.

30sec Film Reflection

  In our hurumanu two class, we made a short 30 second film about a certain scenario. I'll show you the video when I have it ;)

Our film was about a student getting sent to referral for causing trouble in class. The end of the film shows the student being sent out, hoping he had learnt his lesson.

When we were making the film, I enjoyed the fact that I was a background character. My role was the scriptwriter and the extra job, was that I was to hide in the background of every scene and be the Where's Waldo of the film. It felt nice, considering everyone watching it could wonder what I was doing and I'd just be watching a video or playing a game.

What I learned during the filmmaking is that it looks harder than I thought. The planning and things it takes to do one scene is a pain and the effects and sound are hard to acquire without proper equipment.

Some film techniques we involved in there were the shots and distance between the camera and the character. All of the shots were considerably close to the character.

Something we found hard to do or challenging was the sound effects. We would have hard trouble finding the right bits and we were also being constantly side-tracked by the other unnecessary sounds we found.

What I would do differently next time is to do more than what I could. I would like to help my other teammates with what I can do to make things easier.

My Learning with Code.org

  In code.org, we trained ourselves in the field of coding. Though some of us have finished it completely, most of us have just started or is close to finishing them all. I've finished several courses, and though I have some things to work on, I have finished them completely. Here is one of my certificates after completing a course, from Minecraft: Hour of Code.

   It may not seem like much, but I'm kinda proud of it.

Tinkercad Tag

  My experience in 9CMM was a... tad underwhelming. But we did do some interesting things. We made some dog tags in Tinkercad and we had them printed. Of course, not everyone got theirs because it was either not sent or not printed in time.

  I would show you a photo but I currently don't have mine and haven't seen it yet. I'm sorry!

More Science-y Things

I did the esophagus, liver, rectum and the anus sections. Kade Fowler and Noel Prasad-Barwick did the rest.

Digital Tech - Ergonomics

  So, on our 9DTE class, we were taught an amount of things about computer science, coding and ergonomics and infographics. This is one of the results of what we learnt:

   fig. 1: The ergonomics in the workplace                                                                                                   

In this image, we've done an infographic on the ergonomics of the workplace. This is my representation of an infographic of ergonomics. 

In the class, I have enjoyed all of the activities and the videos that we watched. What I didn't enjoy was the often boring-ness. What I want changed is nothing, because bored and amused is a good balance.