Mundane Monday!

I'm not really sure what 'mundane' means, but it's something along the lines of commom and simple. In other words, the perfect word to describe my Monday.

Ron, Harry and Hermione

It's been really boring lately I mean......there are only too many rooms in a house you can clean. I've cleaned up basically the entire house plus taken up the job of brooming and mopping the kitchen daily. This should  probably give you an idea of how bored I am, because I despise cleaning; and that's saying something.

The only enjoyable thing that I have done is read all of the Harry Potter books in order and watched all of the  movies in order(except the last one.)

Oh a of course, I've also been reading the Dramione fan fics. Personall though, I prefer the Rose/Scorpius fan fictions as opposed to Draco/Hermione.

Here is one of my favourites :

Fire and Ice  - It is a Rose/Scorpius fan fic.

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

Bored To The Max!

Good Morning All! It has been almost two days since I have finshed my exams and all I have been doing is rotting at home (in a manner of speaking!)

Anyways, yesterday was brutal since I was home alone. In the end I ended up brooming and mopping the kitchen, cleaning the living room, cleaning the t.v, reading a few Dramione fics (the charm is sort of starting to wear off) and watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. When my brother got home from school, I ended up playing maid to him. No details necessary.

I don't exactlt have a fixed plan of what to do today except that I plan to continue with my cleaning parade around the house, watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and play with my yo-yo.

Ok. I lied about playing with the yo-yo. I just thought that it would emphasize the point of me being bored.

That's about it. Go on...laugh at how I'm spending my free time.

Sincerely,
Natasha Jain

So Long Semester One!

Ahhhh...well...all my exams are finally over. I would've blogged yesterday, but I was relishing all of my free time.

This means that I has 5 consecutive days off plus Wednesday of one week.
Although it has only been less than a day since I finished my exams , I feel sort of useless lying around the house.
There is nothing I can study for, no homework, nothing. Oh well! There is always the choice of cleaning the house...but do I really wnat to do that????

Oh well!

Sincerely,
A-very-bored Natasha

P.S I've noticed that blogging consoles me in times of great need! :P

The Alleged Last Blog Post

* weeps * Hey guys! This is supposed to be our last blog post. That's right...it's supposed to......but it isn't going to be. I think that I've grown attached to blogging regularly, so I've decided to continue doing so. Well....at least until semester two doesn't start. When semester two starts, I think that I will post, but not regularly.

Anyways, it is quite sad to see the end of semester. I am one of those people who unfortunately doesn't accustom well to changes and get's attached and used to routines. I also will miss having ICS everyday. I have to say, out of all my courses, I've learnt the most in ICS. And not just creating a website or creating programs, but time management, working in a group and organizational skills. This is due in part to Mr.Arkin who's great expectations (Haha! No, I'm not thinking of the book!) is the reason of change in me. Thank you!

I also want to thank everyone in the class because it was a fun experience having you guys as my classmates and I'm glad I met you all.
It makes me sad to think about how fast time flies. It seems as if it was only yesterday that I was first listening to Mr.Arkin introduce himself.

Computers was very relaxing and fun on Friday. Mr.Arkin brought in a special surprise for us : cake. It was very delicious. There was also an assortment of chips, timbits an chocolate chip cookies. I think that more than the food, I enjoyed the relaxing mood. there was music playing while all of us got to play each others games. It was fun! I especially enjoyed Yu Chen and Laura's Harry Potter Pacman game. Avada Kedavara! Ha! I spent part of my period ....you guessed it....reading Dramione!
I hope this Dramione addiction doesn't get in the way of my exams preperation. I've actually lowered my limit of Dramione to 0 a day. But after exams are over, I'll have 5 days off until exam review day, so basically all I plan to do all day long is :
 - read Dramione fics
- watch all 7 Harry Potter movies'
- read all 7 Harry Potter movies

and if I have time :
- read the Hunger games
- read Hunger Game fics

(Essence of Grace! :P)

Don't miss me too much!

Cheers,
Natasha

P.S I realize the "Don't miss me too much!" comment was inappropriate as I promised to blog until semester two begins!

Bonjour, Tout le Monde!

I realize that it isn't necessary to blog twice in a day but.....I just felt like doing so.
Our group is almost done uploading everything. We have the advertisement, user manual, testing report and flowchart perfect online without any flaws.

We are having problems with the executable and the code. Our code is coming out in in notepad instead of in Turing, while our executable is causing some wierd problems.

Oh well! We are still working on it. I will give you a full-blown report tomorrow.

Au revoir,
Natasha Jain

*Screams and Waves Hands in Air* I Love Dramione!

Hey readers! I'de like to give a shoutout to Grace Lee. She made my day yesterday by posting some links to the enjoyable Dramione fanfictions. The only problem is that I'm getting seriously addicted. So, to solve this little problem, I made a pact with myself. I will complete all of my homework and only then will I read the Dramione fics. Just to be a bit more cautious, I am limiting my Dramione fics to 1 per day.

Once again, thank you so much Grace. Your half-an-hour was definetely not a waste of time.

Today ICS was a very intense period. We are spending the period finishing up last minute things related to our major culminating activity. Right now we are enhancing our code to make it look as proffesional as possible. We are also uploading our files one by one. I'd say that we are about done and are extremely close to wrapping up.
At this point in time, I'd like to give another shoutout to my team members who have been great so far. *raises imaginary beer cup in hands* Here's to Ada, Samiha and Monika.

It was/is a great experience working with them.

Cheers to all,
Natasha

Save Water! Don't Cut Down Trees! Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Renew!

Hey guys! Go Green! *smiles sheepishly*
Well...what can I say? Green is in...other colours are not. Ha!

Anyways! My blog title is solely based on my geography culminating activity. We have to choose a resource and make a poster. The poster should convey what problems the resource is facing, possible solution and sustainabilty. We can only use slogans and images. Get your creative cap on! Unfortunately, we get only 2 eriods to work on it---an in class assignment. Oh, the horror! *clutches heart dramatically*

On to ICS. We have just 2 days left to complete our culminating. After that, the stress is off and the pressure is on. Well...they are sort of the same thing, but still.

I am going to sign off now. I have an enormous load of work waiting for me.

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

I'm Going Cinderella!

I don't know why, but today I feel very princess-y (and yes that is a word; at least in my dictionary.)
That may be due to the dream I had last night about attending a royal ball (I know....weird) or maybe because it was it was a late start day today. All of my classes were short and the day whizzed past really quickly. Unfortunately, even though it was a late start day today, I was not able to sleep in. I guess I'm just nervous about exams; so I woke up at my regular time and studied a bit more for my exams.

I have to say, it's a bit hard to concentrate on studying for exams since Grace has me addicted to Dramione fics which are awesomely ninja. They are almost as good as the Harry Potter books. Almost.

Today, Mr.Arkin did us all a favour and told us the format our exam is going to be in. There will be four parts :

1) Multiple choice-----Q1-14-----14 marks
2)Short Answers------Q15-27----52 marks (Yikes! That's a lot!)
3)Programming--------Q28-30----30 marks
4)Web Design---------Q31-32----15 marks

Grand Total : 111 marks
Total Time for Exam : A mere 90 minutes

I think that this conversation that Mr.Arkin with our class has scared me a bit as he kept on emphasizing the point of reading the questions correctly and answering only what is asked.

Mr.ARkin spent about 30 minutes explaining to us the procedure and structure of the exam. He also took questions and set us up for the exam by having us write our names, class and role number on our scantron and HTML and CSS reference sheet.

The rest of the time, we spent working on our major culminating activity. The pressure is on!

I have a lot of work as well as the dates for the exams get closer and closer. Oh well! It's a god thind that my subjects are balanced out in both semesters.

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

Who Wants To Be Willy Wonka? Encore!

Hey readers! I feel a bit carefree today for an unidentified reason. Weird....for me anyways.

Anyways, ICS today was fun. As soon as we got into class, we were greated with a surprise. Mr.Arkin had laminated all....umm...most of our mosaic projects. I have to say that I was really impresses. I mean, my mosiac project looked awesomely ninja in my PDF document (jokes!) ....but when I saw the laminated copy I was awestruck (in a good way). It looked amazing! Well...not only mine. Everyone elses looked really great and proffesional. I guess that we all reached part of our goal...the proffesionalism part *wink*.

The rest of the period was dedicated to completing our major culminating activity. Our app - Who Wants To Be Willy Wonka? - is coming along quite nicely. The deadline is getting closer and closer. Today's class, for some reason, flew by extremely quickly but my group managed to accomplish and clear up a lot. We are still a bit behind our schedule but despite the fact, are still making very good progress.

Something off topic : Lady Gaga's instrumental version of Alejandro sounds amazing. (I'm listening to it right now.) I know, I am a very good multi-tasker. I'm cleansing my soul (listening to music) and am making an effort to reach greatness (updating my blog). *laughs to herself*

*incredulous looks from audience*
I'm joking! Don't get worked up!

I'm going to have to sign off, because I do have a fair bit of work to complete today. I also have to study for my exams. (I think the Ib personality has ambushed me .... I actually revised over the weekend. I'm usually the cramming-at-the-last-minute sort of person.)

Cherry, cherry, boom, boom,
Natasha

P.s I think I'm going Gaga. (Ha! That was waaaaay corny!)

P.P.S I realize that my the title of my blog is Who Wants To Be Willy Wonka?, but I only gave reference to it once.

Freaky Friday!

Hey, readers. I apologize for not updating my blog yesterday. I wasn't feeling too great and had a massive head-splitting headache. That may be due in part to the fact that I didn't exactly have the best day yesterday.

Yesterday, ICS was very relaxing. Unfortunately Mr.Arkin wasn't in class yesterday because he wasn't feeling so good...but...we did have a supply named Mrs. Diaz.

I spent part of the period reviweing what we had so far in our culminating activity and the other part, mentally reviewing ideas of what steps to take next.

I think that our group is a tad behind schedule. Ada has finished the most challenging part and now it is only the matter of working on the graphics and accomplishing how to work the help options. Apart from that, I think we are done.

Sincerely,
Natasha Jain

Who Wants to Be Willy Wonka?

Well....what are you waiting for....answer me already. All you have to do is play the trivia game Who Wants To Be Willy Wonka? and you could win endless pieces of chocolate.
*audience looking sort of reluctant and bewildered* Uh....sure. *looking suspicious* We get all the chocolate we can eat, right?
*my face crumpling* Uh...well..you see...sort of.
*audience* What so you mean sort of?
Umm..the chocolate is sort of uneatable. It's virtual chocolate.
*audience looking shocked* Forget it then...we were only listenin' cuz of the free chocolate.

So, hopefully you readers got the gist of my little banter back there. It has a lot to do with my CS culminating activity. My group and I, as you may or may not know, are doing our culminating activity based on the trivia game Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? We are currently struggling but I think I personally made really good progress today. In class today, I finished the first part of our game completely. So as soon as Ada figures out how to add text-files we'll be about 4/5 done our culminating.

Monika and Samiha are still working on the flowchart, as it is quite complex for our group.
Culminating and exam times, I've noticed, are quite stressful times for students.

I am especially worrying about my English culminating which isn't going so well at the moment...with the technical stuff. By technical I mean sound effects, costumes and props.

Well, I better get started with my work.

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

Wet, Wild and Windy Wednesday!

Hi, readers! The weather today was atrocious! All the wind, snow and cold weather slowed down the traffic horribly and unfortunately due to that, I was late to class today. By the time I came to class, 35 minutes of the class was already over. That was a real bummer because I could've used that time to make my flowchart with Monika.

Anyways, I think that my group is really progressing quite well. The flowchart is almost ready and after that, the only thing that we'll have to worry about is finising the program. I'd say that my group is pretty well on our way. The only thing that we are stumped with is the whole business involving text files.

I think that the pressure is sort of getting to me ..... in a 'you-need-to-work-harder' way. :P

There's my geography culminating which is coming up with a lesson plan on agriculture to teach the class in our expert groups.
Then there is my english culminating in which we have been put into small groups and have to create a small t.v reality show.
And of course, there is my ICS culminating which all of you know already.

Thankfully by the end of this week, I'll be done my English and Geography culminating and then I can focus on my computer work.
(You guys are probably wondering why I don't have a culminating activity for my last subject....that's becuase my art culminating is an in-class assignment. So unfortunately...or fortunately I should say, I can't bring it home with me to work on.)

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

P.S It was really cold outside today! Brrrrrr..!

Flowcharts!

I know what you're thinking; what kind of a boring title is that. *huffy face* Well, it may be boring but it sure is informative!

Today me and Monika experienced a little dilema - a flowchart realted dilemma. Our app is quite complicated and unfortunately the more tricky it is the longer our flowchart will be. So, Monika and I spent the entire period making drafts and copies of our flowchart. Unfortuantely for us, after Mr.Arkin had a look at,, in our mind perfect, flowchart, he was quite confused.

That means a lot of work for me! Oh well! I guess this is high school, or IB for that matter.

Mr.Arkin gave us the entire period to work on our major culminating project and I thinkour group progressed quite nicely.

Today we succeded in attached text files in our Turing file, so that was encouraging.

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

Camping Out In The Living Room!

A rough...but somewhat close image of me!

Once again, I am predicting that you readers are lost! Am I correct?

*audience nods looking utterly bewildered*

Well, it is quite a shame, but I have to confess that I camped out in my living room on Saturday up until 1:00 p.m. I know, that's quite sad considering the large amount of homework I had to complete. *gets dramatic personality on* A tragic end to 5 hours; wasted away and withered like a flower without water. 

*readers* Uh...Natasha....if we wanted drama, we'd have asked!
*nose in air* Hmmpph! What good is a blog if there is no passion and perspective to it?\
Anyhow, since you insist, I will continue on to what we did in class.

In ICS, we continued to work on our major culminating project! We are progressing well on our way I think. Me and Ada worked a bit on linking text files to our program, while Samiha and Monika created a very specific pseudo-code.

It's still going to be a bit tricky and challenging to completeout culminating activity, but....I think I can deal with that.

Sincerely,
Natasha

System Overload!

Don't worry readers, just because my system is in overload doesn't mean that I will stop blogging. I'll admit, I have a soft spot for things life this. When I say system overload, I mean all the overwhelming feelings I've been bombarded with. Right now I'd have to say that ICS is the subject that I'm being overwhelmed. Today Mr.Arkin said that we should be done 2/3 of our major project. My group is only done about 1/5. Eeks! We've got a lot of work to do!

Today, we learned something very interesting and beneficial! Mr.Arkin taught us how to read text files. I think that I got lost somewhere in the middle but I get the basic concept. Mr.Arkin then told us to submit our PDF files to him. Unfortunately, my files was 2 pages over the limit. Yikes! So, now I've got to fix that! This weekend is going to be extremely busy, I can just feel it!

This picture is an understatement! LOL!

Another thing that happened today was that everyone got their exam schedules. I know that some of my friends have only 1 exam this semester while I have 3. But it's good because my schedule is equally balanced. My friends will have 4 exams next semester; that is really overwhelming.

So, my homework list is extremely long as I have to create props for English, work ON my English culminating, work on my computers culminating, edit and send Mr.Arkin my PDF file AND study for my exams. That's just to mention the main homeowork. On top of that I have to memorize my lines for English, edit my page on wikispaces, work on my geo map and finish my art painting. As the days go on, I seem to have less and less time to myself!

Destruction in 10 seconds.

(speaking 10x faster than usual) Oh my goodness! It seems that I am getting worked up and will soon explode due to the lack of thinking straight.

Soon to be turned to mush,

Natasha Jain

P.S KKKKKAAAAAABBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!

It's a Winter Wonderland!

I don't know about you guys, but my backyard is covered in sheets and sheets of snow. It's quite a sight I must say. I am reminded of Robert Frost right now!

Anyways, class was productive...and..not so productive as well. It was productive because we got the peiod to work on our final project - my group is designing a game show.

It was not so productive because we spent the period playing the Who Wants to be a Millionare? game online to get ideas for our culminating. Actually, it was more like wasting the entire period playing games. Oops!

Anyways, I've decided to spruce up my blog today by telling you my culminating activities from my other classes.

Geography - TBA

Computer Science - Mosaic Project. Check. Apps Project. To be Completed.

Art - In art, we are going to be drawing bozes in order to create a 3-D scenic image. (Actually, our art classes are usually a waste of time. The name of my art teacher remains classified for obvious reasons.)

English - In English, we are creating a reality TV show and included characters from different texts we have read over the semester. My group is doing a re-make of the show Survivor. Da Da Da Daan! It's way cool with a lot of Shakespearean swearing...hugger-mugger...bloody hag...etc.

Homework for Today:

Geography : Proportional Circles Map

Computer Science : Create PDF.
                               Write Blog.
                               Work on Game.

Art : Yahoooooooooo! Freebie!

English : Type up script and send it to rest of group members.

This is really off topic, but I found a rabit in my background today. If you are reading this Ada, MLIA. (It sort of catches on!)

Anyways, I really must go do my homework!

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

The Mysterious Heartbeat

Do ever have those times when you have a deadline to meet and you are just 5 second away from it? (of course, if you do not meet the deadline you will be devoured by man-eating crocs)
In that situation, your heart starts beating and it feels like a bongo drum beating away at your chest!

Well, I have just been in that situation with completing my mosaic project. I would have been done by 8:30 but then the validation issue came into focus. Unfortunately, my page wouldn't even validate due to some weird and unknown reason which is why yours truly had to rewrite her entire html and validate within 30 minutes.

*person says in nerdy voice"How come you only had 30 minutes? You started at 8:30 and Mr.Arkin closed the FTP accounts at 10:00 last time. According to my calculations you should have had 1 hour and 30 minutes."

Ah! That's is where you are wrong my good friend erm....nerdy friend. I started validating at 8:30 and spent an hour pondering over the stupid mistake.

Anyhow, I got my work uploaded on time and I think that it is my best work yet! *smiles happily to herself*

It's amazing how cramped your legs can get when you sit in the same place for 5 hours.

In class today, we were given the entire period to work on our mosaic projects. I on the other hand, went to Mr.Arkin to get him to proofread my article. It is a good thing that I did, otherwise my final mark (minus the test) would be a 35%...not that I calculated. My sheet was full of blue ink; it's a wonder how I got past it all. Thank you Mr.Arkin!

Anyways, I'm tired! Unfortunately, before I pay attention to my bed and warm pajamas, I must finish more homework...joy*sarcasm intended heavily*

Good night!
Natasha Jain

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow !

In referece to the title of my blog, IT SNOWED! I was a bit dissapointed this December 25th as I had a dry Christmas (I was in India, remember!) I also like the way the ground looks covered in sheets of snow.

Anyways, my like for snow is not the topic of interest. However, what is the topic of interest is our major culminating activity. Mr.Arkin introduced to us a bunch of major culminating activites that we could chose from. From the wide variety of selection, my group consisting of Ada, Samiha and Monika, decided to make a game. We are going to make a modification of the game 'Who Want's to be a Millionaire?' in Turing. We put an interesting touch to our game by changing the name to Who Wants to be Willy Wonka? Instead of money, the players will earn virtual chocolate. The only downside in this game is that virtual chocolate cannot be eaten. *sigh*

Our group got our topic approved by Mr.Arkin who gave us some ideas on how to make our game more unique and challenging.

After that, I spent the rest of the period working on my article which I have to finish as soon as possible. I was experiencing a brain freeze yesterday and therefore made satisfactory progress! *pouts a little*

I'm must sign off because a whole pile of homework awaits my arrival. (Was that too wordy?)

Cheers,
Natasha Jain

Chapter 1 : 2011 Begins

Hello readers, and welcome back to school! Hopefully all of you had a restful and enjoyable winter break and have full energy. If not ... well... then...rotten luck!

I personally had a restful and long (my vacations started a week before holidays) break and now I am ready to get back on track.

In ICS today, Mr. Arkin introduced us to our culminating activities. Yes, you heard me right, activitieS! More than one! Our first culminating activities is to create a webpage. It is supposed to be a masterpiece; impeccable writing skills *getting Shakespeare attitude on*

We are to chose a topic from a given category of our choice (we were given some specific categories by Mr. Arkin) and then write an excellent, mind-blowing, proffesional, awesome, incredible article (notice the multiple adjectives).

The other culminating activitiy....we unfortunatley do not know yet.

We spent the period joining a new wiki (vpca) that Mr. Arkin created especially for the purpose of our culminating activity and adding the topic of our interest to the page.

All in all, I can already tell that the month of January will certainly be a busy one.

Sincerely,
Natasha (who has to get started on her homework but is extremely tired due to jet lack!)

P.s Weirdly enough, I have been back in Canada for 6 days now and still am in jet lack.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hey guys, I'm back! Before I start rambling on about my trip, I am going to apologize. I know I promised to blog everyday but I was extremely busy and unfortunatley didn't have any time.

Anyways, I think that I can say with confidence that the last 17 days, were the best days of my life. I had so much fun. I travelled, shopped, ate different sorts of foods and moreover relaxed with my family in India. BTW, travelling alone isn't so scary after all!

I also had a different experience of celebrating Christmas in India.

Jalebi

While I was there, I got the opportunity to ride on a horse, camel AND elephant. I have to say, out of all three, I hated the camel the most for reasons best left unsaid. I travelled to all of the cities where my relatives live and spent my time sightseeing. I also ate all of the foods that are considered to be Indian specialities. For example, pani puri (a sweet/salty snack) , jalebi's (a sweet treat) , kulfis (Indian ice cream), aloo ki tikki (potato cutlets) and many more delicious things.

Aloo ki tikki

The only thing that went wrong in the entire trip was me getting food poisoning on the morning of my third day. I had to take it easy after that.

Christmas was certainly a different affair for me than normal. Usually, I celebrate Christmas here by decorating a Christmas tree and baking cookies. In India nothing of that sort happens. Instead we went to the church to light a candle. It was a different expereince since I have never done that here.

Kulfi

Pani Puri

I think the best part of the trip was the time I got to spend with all of my family members and cousins.

I think that if I could re-live this experence again, I would'nt change a single thing!

Happy Late Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cheers,

Natasha Jain