Hi, I'd like my Sub with a String of Cheese! Part 2

Don't worry, I'm not really hungry; so you can get rid of your fear of a wrath of hungry person.
You readers can probably tell from my personality (and if you read my blog yesterday) that I'm not really talking about getting a sub - but in reality, our new Turing topic substrings.

Unfortunately, Mr. Arkin here today either and nor will he be tomorrow. So, we spent the entire period working on our substrings assignments. I have to say it really pays off if you read the instructions and the substrings page properly. I spent nearly 30 minutes on a question and it took Grace less than 1 minute to help me.

I, of course, was gaping at her like an open-mouthed idiot. (In response to my look, she simply said I read the substrings page.)

I read the page, but I suppose not properly. It was sort of like reading the owrds from one part of my brain and then throwing it out from the other side before actually processing it.

I think that I learned a very valuable lesson today. (BTW, another thing I learned is that it's better if you spend 1 hour on a question and actually understand the concept.)

Our homework for today is our daily blog posting and good progress towards out substring assignments.

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

Hi, I'd like my Sub with a String of Cheese !

*audience giving me a dissaproving look*
*totally innocent look* What! You didn't like it? I thought that it was pure genius. Anyways....the clue to what we did today was sort of in the title.
BTW Ada, if you're read the title ... MLIA. Ha ha!

Anyways, today Mr.Arkin wasn't here but he left specific instructions that we were to work on the substring assignments.

I used the period to get familiar with the whole concept of substrings and then I made progress working on the assignments.

Overall, it was a pretty good day.

(Sorry, I kow that it is an extremely short blog pot, but nothing worth mentioning happened)

Sincerely,
Natasha Jain

Is it Friday Already???///???

Isn't is amazing how fast the week is over? *don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question - and if you don't know what 'rhetorical' means then look it up in the dictionary*

Anyways, I don't know what you guys are doing on your Friday night, but I'm staying at school.

(audience in sarcastic voice) Oooh! Staying over at the school, that's gonna be fun.

Hey, chill out guys. I'm not staying over at school for work purposes; it Girls about Girls tonight.
I'm really looking forward to Girls about Girls; specially since a lot of my close friends are going to be there. I  really think that it'll be a good experience.

Anyways, getting over my exitement (or not....I know....I don't sound tooooooooo exicted, but I actually am), class today was a catch-up period. As soon as we got in, (BTW no Studio 218) Mr.Arkin annouced that we were going to have a Turing Show-Off! This was basically an opportunity to show-off our work to our classmates and get some feedback and suggestion. Only Andres was brave enough to share his program; so kudos to him.

One main thing that we all learned out of this lesson (short talk is more like it) was a brief idea of what we would be doing for our culminating activities.

The rest of the period was spent,  scratch that, is being spent working on completing all our other assignments and other work we need to complete.

I, as you can all see, am spending my time extremely well by FINISHING MY BLOG.
Ha, ha!

I really cut the load off, didn't I? *sarcastic tone*

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

P.S It's getting awfullt close to Christmas, isn't it? It's certainly going to be a winter wonderland.

P.P.S :@ Unfortunately, I WILL NOT be here to witness this winter wonderland since I will be in India (I don't know if I should be happy about this fact or sad) Maybe both?

What are the Three Important Skills of Successful Programmers?

If you readers are good at picking up hints, you may have already caught on that this blog entry is totally serious; as in no jokes, no sarcasm, no idiocity.

Today Mr.Arkin explained to us the 3 most important things associated with becoming a successful programmer. ( My advice to you guys :  Don't ask questions. Jus follow the rules. - just kidding.....partially ...)

After that, Mr.Arkin went over to three logical solution to repetition assignment number 8. One of them, Mr. Arkin had previously told me. (I felt special. Ha! )

BTW, just some cool info; Mr.Arkin's favourite datatype is boolean. Cool eh?

The rest of the period was spent continuing to work on our assignments. For most of us. While everyone else was working on their repetition assignments, I went to Mr.Arkin to ask for some well-needed help. (Seriously, arrays are so NOT my field of expertise - technically speaking I'm still an amateur at EVERYTHING....but still)

Thankfully, I was able to somewhat grasp the concept of arrays...not quite.

Anyways, I've made up my mind to talk to you guys (ONLY for today) about my other classes.... I've noticed that I've never done that. I'll go in order.

Period A : Computers - 'As described above'

Period B : Geography - We got back our test which I'm surprised to see that I did really good on. (Don't give me that look, I honestly studied hard for that)

Period C : English - We got back 3 pieces of marks out of which I didn't do so great on 1 of them. (Oh, I passed alright..... - it's sort of an Indian fail though)

Period D : Art - I spent 2 days working on a masterpiece (according to me), just to have my art teacher say that it was a load of rubbish. (The name of the teacher remains classified information. )

As you guys (and girls) can plainly see, my day has been an up and down roller coaster.

One piece of advice to you; YOU GUYS ARE IN IB. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO GO ABOVE AND BEYOND THE EXPECTATIONS.

That was sort of an inspiration from my english teacher....who by the way had my entire english class in a frenzy from her "little speech".

Anyways, each day is important and can't be re-lived.

Signing off,
Natasha Jain

Would like to chose from this ARRAY of chocolates?

*sarcastic and disbelieving look* Pssh! Did you guys honestly beleive that I, out of all people, was gicing our free chocolate. Natasha never, ever, ever, EVER gives out chocolate for free.

By the way, I hope that you guys understood the relevance of the word 'array'.
But since I'm sure that you guys didn't, I explain anyways. Today in ICS, we moved on to array's, which makes writing huge programs with many values waaaaaaaaaaayy easier. *Notice the long 'a' sound*
Two more impotant keyword we were introduced to were 'array' and 'of'. And array means a collection or set. Throughout class, we took many notes. I have to say, I'm back to square 1 with the whole 'grasping information' situtation. *sigh*

I'm trying to get the hang of it, but my mind is just a teensy tiny bit preoccupied...if you know what I mean......

I have 3 announcements to make before I forget.

# 1 - Happy Birthday to you Mr.ARkin. (I'd say that in Jewish, but unfortunately I have forgotten it..:'( )
# 2 - Interim Reports! .....Lets just leave it at, that my parents weren't happy nor dissapointed. (Personally they should be happy considering the transition to high school, and more importantly IB  - all conversations come back to the whole 'Ib' concept - )
# 3 - Upcoming Test - don't think I'm weird but I am very happy that we are having another test. My computer mark was the lowest out of all my marks .

*audience giving knowing and dissapointed looks*
*the reason behind dissapointed looks finally sinking in* Hey...wha-...no way..if you're thinking that I got like a 15% or something like that, YOU ARE WRONG! I recognize that look when I see it.

When I say that my computer mark was the lowest, I didn't think I was applying that I got a 50% or less.

What would you thin of my computer mark if I said that all my other marks were 100's. (An impossible feat but still......)

Ahaha! I thought so, so zip it! *attitude*

Anyhow, Mr.Arkin has generously given us the rest of the week to finish up all our assignments (any of the ones we haven't completed from before as well), and to brush up on our concepts.

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

HTML Revisted!

As you readers may know by reading my blog (if you do), is that over the weekend Mr.Arkin gave us a printer cmparison assignment to complete. We were to compare two or more printers of different types and then display our finding in a table using an HTML page.

Well, I must comment that Mr.Arkin marks extremely quick. I mean, within a one to one and a half day period, Mr.Arkin marked all of our printer comparison assignments. And by all, I mean all three classes which total up to approximately 60 kids.

Mr. Arkin posted up our marks today and I have to say, I did amazingly good.

Anyways, on to more iportant topics. In class today, Mr.Arkin went over a few HTML basics again. For example, (perhaps the most important lesson of the day), NEVER USE SPACES WHEN NAMING A FILE OR A DIRECTORY. >3

Haha! We also took a many notes on very crucial things to remember.

The rest of the period was spent working on repitition assignment number 12, which by the way wasn't as challenging as some people said it to be.

*by the way I am extremely grumpy today for reasons best left unmentioned*

Signing off,
:'( Natasha Jan

Da Da Da Daaan "I've Got My Powers Back! " Tra la laaaaaa!

You readers are probably thinking what does she mean by she has her powers back?!?
*audience nodding head*

Ha ha! I gotcha there, didn't I? In reality though,  I actually did get my powers back - my Turing powers.
* stunned disgusted silence - suddenly audience starts to disperse*
Hey, wait! Where are you guys going? I promise it'll be a worthwhile story for all you reporters out there. Anyone?

Fine, be like that! See if I care. Hmmppphh! I'll just pour out my woes to my good ol' computer, (oops, I mean Mr.Arkin's computer.)

Anyways, I'll just continue!

It may just be a stroke of luck, but I think I've got my powers back. You still don't get it? ok, I'll explain. I whizzed through all the character graphics, input, output and selection assignemnts. But when we started repitition, that's when I got stuck. I mean, 2 hours per question? That's insane! That was me!

Now though, I think that I'm whizzing through all the assignments again. I know, I'm good!

* audience: Uh, no your not! *

Ha, I see you decided to come back. I know; you guys just couldn't get enough of me!

----------
Moving on.

Today was a good work period for us. We were able to get a huge head start on our homework. I, being the good time-manager that I am (*cough* *cough*), was able to finish my Turing homewor (repitition 9-11) in class with about 25 minutes to spare.

I used the rest of the time to work on my blog. (FYI, everything types above the dotted line, I typed in class :P)

All in all, ICS was very productive today.

Yours until the ink flows (umm....scratch that)

Yours until the computer keys work, (that's better)
Natasha Jain

Hey ho, Away we go ....

Guess what readers? I get to research printers. *stunned sort of a silence*

Ok then! That obviously didn't have the effect that I expected from you guys but whatever; you guys are too slow. *thinking to herself* Or maybe I just didn't explain properly.

Nevertheless, I will take the great pains and time to explain to you WHY I must research printers.

*telling a story voice *
It all started back in class. We were allowed to use the period to work on our repitition assignments, specifically question 8 modified. Suddenly, we were called to he desks to take a note. We took a few notes on IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and some features on Turing. We learned that the computer has a great desk checking option. Clicking on the Debugger menu, checking the "Trace Execution" button and then clicking run (or step) should do the trick. The computer literally 'steps' inside the program to desk-check. It is really helpful. *putting scary voice on * Then came the horror. Our homework for the weekend was to create an HTML page that compares 2 or more printers based on our needs. Our story ends here! *matter of fact tone*

OH NO! When I heard that I thought to myself, 'there goes my weekend'. Even though it was already first period, I had a load of homewrok already. On top of that, I have a geography poster/presentation due on Monday. Oh well, it's IB. I can deal with it....I think (slightly panicky and hysterical voice).

Yours truly,
Crushed under the load, Natasha Jain

Checking, Checking and Re-checking

The title of this blog should probably explain to you what we did in computer sceince class. WE CHECKED! Ok, that was extremely vague I'll admit. To put what we did in better words, we analyzed and desk-'checked' (Ha ha) our peers repitition # 6 assignment. This basically took up half the period.

I must say that desk-checking is a very good talent to possess. It is very benificial in order to find out where we went wrong in the program. At least I think so!

The other part of the program was designated to corrected our assignment and getting started on our other assignments. Overall, a very melancholy day. *Note to self: start inserting more humour back into blog*
Ha ha!

Over and out,
Natasha

Back to Work!

I know, I know, my title isn't exactly the best and what you readers want to read but still.... it is the truth. Is is possible for your day to be very slow and relaxing but when you go home, you are loaded with work? Well that's exactly how ICS went today. Saying that I have a lot of homework from computers would be an exaggeration, but I still had my fair share. I just have to say that I currently in the process of sinking.....the reason; my homework.

Anyhow, we took a couple of notes and Mr. Arkin introduced us to the new procedures and functions abs, getch, play, whatcol and whatrow. You may think that I'm really weird, but my favourite keyword is 'play'. Why? Because when used appropriately, you can play music on Turing. Cool eh?

Anyways, Mr. Arkin gave us our homework early: Selection assignments 3-5 and our daily blog. In abour 3-4 sentences I will be 3/4 done my computer homework. I have to say that tracing the program can now be considered a great gift in my opinion. When using loop statements, you must be careful of where you place your statements. I got a bit confused, but a little (lot) help from Ada, I was able to get backon track.

Overall, today was quite a day!

Signing off,
Natasha Jain

P.S I find it very weird/cool that Turing has a music option. :P

DO NOT REPEAT, I REPEAT, DO NOT REPEAT!

Ha, Ha! Just a bit of ill humour there from me. Repitition. Our new topic for Friday. Some people in our class were already ahead and were done all the repitition assignments before the rest of the class even understood the concept. Some important keywords we learned in class were exit, loop and when. The exit and when keyowrds are extremely important in the program. Together they instruct the program when tom stop/exit. For example:

exit when -variable- [binary operator] - variable/constant -

The loop keyword instructs the computer to continue executing the program over and over again [or until the exit statement is true].
I think that class on Friday was extremely productive; I grasped alot about repitition and learned that the program executes the statements in "sequence". Mr. Arkin showed us the concept of repitition on his program of repitition. Our homework for the weekend was ou daily blog posting, repitition assignments 1 and 2, modification of assignment 2 [the user should specify when they should start and stop],  and a modification of a program Mr. Arkin showed us in class. Overall, compared to some other topics that we have covered, I find repitition quite easy and simple.

Yours until the ice melts,
Natasha Jain

Rememberance Day

As we all know, today was remeberance day. Today we remebered all the soldiers who fought for us in World War 1 and World War 2. The assembly that we had really moved me. It was very well planned out and got the message across to the student body.

Anyways, on to ICs today. Let's just say that after I got home, my neighbourhood was practiclly drowning in a tsunami ..... courtesy of my tears. We got back our tests today, (I know, Mr.ARkin marks tres fast), and I didn't do so well. I managed to pass, but I know I could hav done better. It turns out that I stidied for all of the wrong things. In class, we reviewed the test with a partner and then Mr.Arkin took it up with us as a class. Our homework today was to review the mean mark program, write our blog and sign our tests.

To dejected to talk,
Natash Jain

P.S This is going to sound really weird coming from me, but I am actually hoping for more tests, (mainly to average out my mark).

MISSION: Test OUTCOME : Uh...Do I really have to anwer that?

By my blog title, you are probably infering that I did horribly on the test. That may be true ... or not. :S
I'll cut to the chase. I personally think that I did quite well. There were a question or two that me and my friends *cough* Andres *cough* Grace had an animated discussion about. Right now, I am leaving everything up to fate (I learned that from a  movie :D). Whats done is done, and I can't change that!

The test in general was quite easy if you studied. I'm going to make this extremely short because I am exhausted (not from studying late, but becuase I haven't been able to sleep well).

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

(To Beethoven's Symphony No. 9) Da Da Da Daaan "THE TEST"

*muttering to self* Put is the short form of output, get is a keyword, a decared constant has can't be changed once initialied, IDE is integrated development environment, lowercase A in ASCII/binary code is 97, upp--
Ohh! I didn't see you there.

I was just studying for our programming test that is tomorrow.
*my brother in a matter of fact voice* No, she isn't studying she is cramming.
 *me, slightly panicky* NO! I wasn't cramming! *in guilty kid voice* Ok, maybe I was...sort of....a little. Oops!

Ok guys jokes apart, I personally think that I really time managed. I started studyng and flipping through our notes when we first got the message from Mr.Arkin.

In class today, Mr.Arkin introduced to us counters, accumulators and touched base on the initialiation section. Additionally, at the beginning of class we had a huge and very informative and helpful question and answer period.

I'm going to sign of and continue with my test preperation. Actually make that two tests - geo AND programming. (My geo test is actually next Wednesday, but why not study earlier.)

Your's until my head melts(or explodes, whatever happens first *noncommital shrug*)
 Natasha Jain :D

* singing * It is Monday, going on Tuesday!

Hey everyone! As you can tell, I am very cheerful today! Class today was very relaxing and I think that I had a very good weekend. It was extremely refreshing!
In class today all the groups presented their posters of the code analysis to the class. It is amazing how much everyone came up! There were al lot of attributed and guidelines in such a simple program.


The second part of the period was devoted to analyzing a peer's program. We were to analyze our peer's program and then find a few errors. Then we were then to go fix the mistakes in our program.

Overall, a very mellow day. Since Ia m done early I am writing this blog and then will study a bit for my test by analyzing some of my other programs.

Sincerely,
Natasha Jain

Happy Diwali!

First of all before I get tell you about ICS today, I am going to take the time (and space) to say Happy Diwali to everyone. I celebrate Diwali and it is a very religious festival that my family and I look forward to every year.

Enough about me. Today in ICS we continued to analyze the code Mr.Arkin gave us yesterday. My groups paper is a little messy and unorganized...but hey, at least all the information is there!

Anyhow, our only homework for the week was to write our blog.

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

Desk Checking Dilemma

You guys must think that I sound like a heck of a downer right now. But when your day hasn't been going to well and your tired, you begin having negative thoughts about everything.

On to more important topics of interest...computer science. When we got to class today, Mr.Arkin instructed to get into groups 4. Our task individually was to desk check a model answer of selection assignmetn # 6, and then as a group create a poster that states the programming guidelines, the format, the amount of keywords used etc.

I think that it was a nice change and a new way of learning.
Our homework today was to chose 3 of our best and most sophisticated programs and desk check along with writing our daily.
Overall, a it was a good change that I enjoyed.

Tune in for more tomorrow.
Natasha Jain

*Yawn* Take You-*Yawn* -r Kids to *Yawn* Work Day!

I don't think that *yawn* I will be *yawn able to *yawn * get through this entry *yawn* without yawning every second. I am exhausted right now!
*5 minutes later*
Whew! That was so much more better. A cup of coffee really does the trick.
Anyhow, today topic of interest.....Take Your Kids to Work Day.
By the way, brace yourselves; this entry is going to be huge (reflection of my excitement.)
Today I went with my dad to his place of work- TD Bank.  He is a lead architect. I woke up at regular time and was there by 8:30. I learned so many cool and interesting things about his building.  His building (close to STC), is called SOC (Scarborough Operating Centre), is the heart of TD. It is only 1 of 2. It is so important that the building isn't even labelled - that is for the safety of the data.
When I got there and went to my dad's area, I got to see where he is at work and what people he associates with. Then at 9:00 on the dot, my dad dropped me off at the conference room. TD was offering a half-day workshop for grade 9 students. There were about 12 kids seated around the oval table. I got a name tag and then we started with an icebreaker which covered our names, who our host was, our school, our hobbies, what we want to be when we grow up and if we have any pets. It was very interesting to see all the multicultural people and faces.
We then started on our tour. I actually felt very special because we were granted special permission to see places that even our parents weren't allowed to see. :)
Today was basiclly like computer studies. We saw many hardware, software and CPU's. There were also many big machines, devices and wires. Each hardware box alone costs about 5 million dollars. Wow, isn't that a lot. We learned that if someone in Vancouver makes a transaction, the information from their card to a branch in downtown and then gets updated at SOC.All of this happens in anout a second.

We then came back to the conference room for snacks and trivia game of Jeopardy. I wasn't so good at it, but learned a lot about TD and the value that education holds in our world. We also learned public speaking, writing resumes and interview tips. After that, we resumed our tour and this time explored and saw different people at their jobs. That was the last part of the tour, after which we went back and got certificates, lunch vouchers and gifts.
I personally thought that the gifts were very cool - we got a TD gym bag filled with dollar shaped pencils, mints, chocolates, pretty little stickies, stainless steel water bottles, pens, highlighter and more cool and nifty things.
This ended at about 12:00. After a good lunch of salad and cold macaroni, my dad and I went to downtown for a meeting. When we got their, it turned out that there was a miscommunication and the meeting was scheduled for an hour later. tTo kill time, we roamed around the underground shops -it was an underground mall. When the meeting started, my joy quickly faded away. They were all talking about things I didn't understand and I was on the verge of sleeping. When the meeting was finally finished at 4:00, my dad and me rushed back home, but unfortunately we were caught in traffic.
Now I really understand the importance of education and what my dad does to make money for my family. This has also given me some thought to what I would like to do when I grow up.
Overall, I don't think that I have ever felt this tired before in my life.
I hope that you all learned something today as well.
Cheers,
Natasha Jain
P.S A useless fact: The architect who designed the Eaton Centre was the same who designed my dad's build. Cool eh?
P.P.S I sincerely hope I didn't bore you with my 10 page essay.

Blow out the Candles George Boole!

* Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to George Boole, Happy Birthday to you. How old are you now? How old are you now? How old are you now? Hoooow ooold aaare yooouuu nooooowww? *
Oops! I guess I can't ask George Boole that question considering that he has been dead for almost 150 years.
Just a bit of background information on George Boole : He was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is noted and remembered for his ideas on boolean algebra. In fact, we even have a datatype named after him : boolean. Isn't that amzing? Considering that he has been dead for a long time, it is amazing how his works of computer and algebra are still recognized.

Anyways, getting passed the happy mood, lets focus more on class today. Today we went over case statements. This was connected to our homeowrk yesterday which was to read "Selection 2". We learned that when you have more than 3 or 4 alternatives, it is easier, cleaner and more efficient to case statements.

We took good notes on that and got to use an ATM program. It was very interesting and gave us a some thought to how machines run in our daily life.
Our task for the period was to alter and work on the ATM program, while our homework was to guard it against negative values.
Anyways, I am going to end this now, because I need my beauty sleep.
* skeptical look from audience *
Ok..I lied. My dad goes to work a little early, so I am going to sleep early to get enough rest.
Stay tuned for more readers!
Natasha Jain

Mistakes, Mistakes and more Mistakes!

You must think that I sound like such a downer right?
But truth be told, I actually am not.
I am simply stating the truth....well, partially at least.
You see, for homework we were to complete all of our selection assignments - from # 1 all the way to 13. I was fine until I came up to the last question. That was when I was crying tears of frustration, my ears were red, my mind was expereincing a brain freeze and.... *audience : WE GET IT! *
All right, all right, what good is a blog entry without exaggeration and drama.
Anyways, getting back to the point, I managed to complete it, with a lot of difficulty if I might add, but today in computer guess what happened? It was wrong. I have to say though, I wasn't too surprised. I mean, it was expected. Luckily, Ada, Grace and Andres were a big help. We had an animated discussion and tryed to figure out the answer to the question. Thankfully, I am on the right track now...I think. With luck, I should be able to fix question 13 today.

Next, in class today Mr.Arkin clarifed any questions that we had about the homework which a huge help to many of us. :)

The next task at hand was to get a small group of 2 -4 people and compare all of our selection programs. We were to get the best parts in each of the programs to come up with the neatest, short, and best program. It was a a cinch; exept the horrible #13.
I think that we should give it an award - Topsy Turvy Question of the Year. Whadya think?

Anyhow, I am now going to feast on my mound of candy!
Natasha
P.S By the way guys, Happy Late Halloween.