Clean-up Time!

Lalalalalalala... it's Friday again! Have you noticed how I'm always really happy on Fridays? I wonder why...

Anyways, today was very uneventful, due to Mr. Arkin's absence. Teacher absence = free work period though, and that was very nice. I spent the entire period cleaning up my website based on the teacher comments from my autobiography mark, and creating the Programming Glossary... It's been a long time since I've visited my own website!

I wasn't able to get any programming done in class, but I managed to completely finish refurbishing my website (and that's quite feat)! The new glossary is up and running as well, if you want to check it out; just go to touque.ca/EC/, click on ICS2O, Student Work, and conveniently find my name at the very bottom of the last list!

So this weekend means time to do some programming and finish up those Selection assignments! But for now, all I'm concerned about is getting some quality sleep. Good night!

More Selection, Disruptions

Yes... today was a work period for us, to update our Selection assignments! They are officially due Monday. Tomorrow will be a work period as well, because Mr. Arkin will not be here. So dear guest teacher: I wonder if you can put up with us...

Not much discussion was done as a group today; a few questions got cleared up, and then it was right to work. At least until...

BRRRRRRRRINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!

Wonderful — a fire drill. Did I mention we just had one two days ago? Joy. I don't understand why there has to be two in a week. Especially considering we used to have one every few months... we know what to do already! After the little disruption though, it was back to work.

Tomorrow, in addition to the guest teacher, is also our school Halloween! It's not that big of a deal, but I want do something a little out of the ordinary... still don't know exactly what yet, but I'll come up with something!

Is That the Truth?

Today we learned the unary and binary boolean operators, then making "Truth Tables"! It all had to do with the two binary boolean operators, and and or. It looks like this:

true + or + true = true
true + or + false = true
false + or + true = true
false + or + false = false
true + and + true = true
true + and + false = false
false + and + true = false
false + and + false = false

So today was all about determining truth from false, I guess. Then we set off to work on Selection Assignments #3-7. When you add selection and boolean expressions into the equation, it sure gets a whole lot more interesting! Today was a fun class.

Other than that, I messed up my 100% Music average today, so I'm feeling pretty bad. >:( Stupid playing test... oh well, I suppose it's just music. I'll just sleep it off and feel better tomorrow. Bad night!

Selection, Bad Timing, and a Drug Test

Today was the official start to our fourth programming unit: Selection! This concept will add a whole new twist to our programs — the results will vary even more now that the user will begin to have more than one option to choose from! We only went over some really basic examples today, but we are well on our way to an awesome new unit!

Next, we had a little pop quiz — D: — where we had to write a program that calculates the user's BMI (Body Mass Index). While I found the quiz to be quite easy, our time was interrupted by a fire drill! Such nice timing. But the thing is, by the time the fire drill was finished and we went back upstairs, our test papers had vanished into thin air! So, while I did finish in time, many of my classmates unfortunately did not.

Then, right after our little "CS surprise", we did a drug test in Health class! Guess what... I failed. Now, hopefully you didn't think I was talking about one of those tests where they see if there are drugs in your system... Would I really fail one of those? No, instead it was an end-of-unit test for our Substance Abuse Health chapter. And I probably didn't fail-fail, but I'm not sure exactly how well I did. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

So all in all, my day was just wonderful. Just wonderful. Oh, did I mention I learned some unwanted news, which I will not share with you guys for reasons I also cannot share? Just wonderful, eh? At least it was a late start.

Tables and Desk-Checking, Rant on Election Day

Today was all about tables and desks... well fine, not literally. But those were the two topics for today. "Desk-checking" means following the route the computer takes when running a program. Today we spent the first half of the period practising "one of the most valuable skills we have learned". Then we looked at arithmetic and relational operators. For homework, we were to create a program that displayed a table for both sets of operators, after two user-supplied integers.

So, well, not that much action today in Lab 218... However, we will be starting the Selection unit soon, so that should pick things up.

In other news... ROB FORD IS THE NEW MAYOR OF TORONTO! Egh... in truth, I didn't like any of the candidates this year, but Ford seemed like the "little-bit-better-one" out of the worst? Personally, I'd probably support Joe Pantalone, but only because he looked like the nicest person out of the three front-runners—he'd probably make a really good friend. His platform however... wasn't exactly the greatest.

George Smitherman on the other hand, even though the press was all over him, I didn't really hear much about his plans should he become mayor. The only thing they focused on about him was how he was the only chance for the "anyone-but-Ford" campaign later on in the race. Thus because I didn't know anything about Smitherman, I probably wouldn't have voted for him.

Well... that leaves Rob Ford. Let me just say something: REPEATING "THE GRAVY TRAIN" 10 BILLION TIMES IS NOT GOING TO HELP YOUR CASE. At least, not with me. After hearing that same phrase a hundred times, I was not amused. It didn't help when I learned of his history as a druggie. However though, I have to admit from what I've heard, his plans and ideas are the "best of the worst"... I mean, you have to agree that reducing taxes is tempting. However, I'm not sure exactly how much of his plans are going to actually come true—guess we'll just have to watch and see.

So all in all, If I reallyreallyreally had to choose...? I'd choose Sarah Thomson. Because she dropped out. That's how much I thought the rest of the candidates sucked. No offense to anyone here, I'm sure you're all good people, but I just don't think any of you would make a good mayor for Toronto. Sadly though, my opinions will probably never be heard... especially not by Rob Ford and his gravy train.

It's Almost Time to Move On

We are almost at the end of the Input assignments! That is really great because then we can finally move on to Selection, which is a whole new way to enhance programs. We were supposed to print out all our program codes (to have them as a reference), so today in class was spent doing just that.

Since I am already done all the required assignments due, I continued on with a few of the Selection ones. They are quite... interesting. But tonight I'll get a break—I'm going bowling with my friends! Then tomorrow is my friend's birthday party! So I'll be pretty busy throughout the weekend. Next week I have a Health test, a Music playing test, and a Math quiz, not to mention CS homework! So my hands will definitely be full these two "supposedly-relaxing" days.

Have a good weekend everyone! TGIF ;)

Oh the Horror of Input Assignment 4...

Well, not really. But still. Today was spent as a class, working yet again on assignment 4! There was (again) lots of talk, because everyone had different perspectives as to how to write the program. It was the processing section, actually where we spent all our time, because there was some debate as to how to actually calculate the average speed—it was long but simple vs. short but complicated. In the end, it was decided that long and simple won, because not everyone thought in the "supposedly-complicated" way (which I fought for). However, we left headquarters gaining some new insight, and another night to work on finishing Input assignments.

Next to tackle will probably be the Selection section. I decided to read ahead a little today since I'd already finished all the Input assignments. The concept itself is not difficult at all, but there are definitely some added challenges within the assignments themselves—like making text different colours! I read the Help page in Turing, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't get it to work! I'll have to ask Mr. Arkin about it tomorrow in class.

No ICS2O

Yes, that's right everyone, there's unfortunately not going to be ICS2O for the rest of the semester, due to technical issues.

Was that cheering I heard in the background...? >:/

Nah, just kidding. You can relax now. There was only no ICS2O today, because it just so happened to collide with the Volunteering Assembly/Gr. 9 Rep Election Speeches. So unfortunately, instead of working some more on the oh-so-wonderful input assignments, we got to listen to speeches, speeches, and... more speeches! Joy. But at least that's over and done with.

On a brighter note, we got our Superpower Autobiography marks! Yay, I was so happy because the wait was finally over. Now, drum roll please...

*drums roll in the distance*

I got 48 marks out of 50! I'm really pleased with my mark. Even with no ICS2O, it's been a good day after all. :)

Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus.

Of course there is a Santa Claus! He's the one who takes the reindeer out, jumps down chimneys without breaking his back, and has enough appetite to eat ten billion cookies! ... Never mind that you can find reindeer at your local zoo. Or the fact your parents woke up with cookie crumbs on their lips on Christmas Day. Santa Claus does exist, I tell you!

The above meme was actually introduced to us yesterday, courtesy of Mr. Arkin. But only remembering today, I read about it just now. The whole editorial was really interesting... so I decided to write a little "response" if you may. The writer of the editorial has some really interesting points. You should check it out.

Back to Headquarters news. Today we didn't do any work on the computers; instead, we sat down to discuss and come up with a hybrid copy of Input Assignment #4: an Average Speed Calculator. There was much talk going on for the whole period between my group members and me. We spent the entire period working on making the most perfect copy of the program possible. Afterward, Mr. Arkin gave us a few pointers as to how to make our "supposed-perfect" programs even better/more efficient.

For homework, we were to go home and perfect our own assignments in Turing, based on what we'd talked about today. I finished that pretty easily, thus this generally early post.

Now I'm off to go make my friend a birthday card—it's her birthday Thursday, and her party on Saturday! So I'm off... good night!

"My pet rock ate my pencil." ~ Me

More on Inputs

Today was a continuation of last Friday - working on various variable programs. Thankfully I went ahead during the weekend, and thus didn't have to do much except make a few changes to my programs! Therefore I moved on even further when I got home—there's a really cool program where you create a program to generate a receipt, and plenty of others as well... lots of fun! :)

Tomorrow is yet another late start! If that seems a bit repetitive to you... well, it certainly was - there have been late starts for almost the past month! Not that I'm complaining or anything...

Well, it's time to go get some much-needed rest... Maybe after I check Facebook one last time. And listen to that awesome song on Youtube. And send out a few emails to my friends. Annnnd, maybe go check out my other blog. Yeah. See how much of a procrastinator I am?

So, that's about it for today! Good night... hopefully in the next hour or so. ;)

Cream Puffs!

Yes, I know you think the title has nothing to do with computers or computers class. But, in fact, that is not true! Today we were given a lesson on variables—a follow-up on the reading we'd done yesterday. We talked about variables and their identifiers, as well as the get command, and assignment statements—statements that assign a value to a variable. Oh yes, and the assignment operator (:=). Let me say that Mr. Arkin was quick to point out that it is not in fact "a second mouth"/"weird face I'm making at you", but that the actual operator is ":=". Although it actually makes a really good face! Haha.

If you're still wondering where the cream puffs came in, then you're in luck. First, while demonstrating an example of a program with variables, he created a program which asks for the user's full name, and then displays the first name. He put "Cream Puff". Except "Cream" isn't exactly a very nice first name... but then neither is "Apple" (Gwenyth Paltrow) or "Pilot Inspektor" (I'm not kidding—it's not even spelled properly!), and I don't see anyone complaining.

However, that is not the real inspiration for the title of this post. The truth is... we were treated to cream puffs in class today—the kind with ice cream in them! Win or what? One of our kind classmates brought in the treats, and everyone was, needless to say, delighted.

So, I would say that was a nice ending to the week. As I always like to say, TGIF... and TGfCP!

You can figure the second one out, right? Have a great weekend!

Fun with Variables!

No, thankfully we aren't talking about the not-so-fun-math-class kind. Instead, I mean variables in programming! They make programs a lot more fun, because the results can change. For homework we were given the task of reading information on Variables and Input in programming. It was really cool, because now I finally understand how to instruct the computer to "get" the data it needs, and to either display it or modify it. I then tried a few of the assignments, even though they hadn't been assigned yet— I managed to create an Inch-to-Centimetre Converter! It was lots of fun. It's definitely more interesting to create programs that contain variables in them!

On another note, If you're wondering why I'm posting so early, well it's because I've got to go somewhere tonight... It's the Young Voices 2010 launch! In case you're not familiar with it, Young Voices is an annual magazine, created by the Toronto Public Library, which publishes both writing and artwork by teens from across Toronto. This year, a poem that I submitted was lucky enough to be selected, so I will be going to the launch tonight! ...So if you ever visit the library, check out the Teen section and you should be able to find a copy. :)

Character Graphics!

Today's lesson was pretty much just on some more programming glossary terms. However, then we got our assignment... we were to create character graphics using Turing! It sounded pretty cool in the beginning, and it was, but after copying down 5 billion codes in our notes, it got kinda tedious. However then came the task of creating a graphic with our name on it... that was when things got a little more interesting.

This was probably around 1/4 of the entire length of the code...

Above is the example of the programming codes we had to write. But all the hard work paid off when the program was run and the final product outputted.

My name using slashes! So pretty, eh? ;)

There was also another, slightly more complicated project that we could also have done.

Yay, it's the Canadian flag, made using @'s! Believe me, it's harder than it looks.

So that was the two fun parts of this new assignment. I just finished both of them! Argh, my eyes hurt. Perhaps it's time to go to sleep... good night!

Outputs, Outputs, Outputs...

Today at headquarters, all the party spirit seemed to have worn off, and it was back to business once again. We continued with our new programming unit, from learning some new glossary terms to looking at more basic examples of various statements and their results. We actually did quite a lot today! It was a pretty fast-paced class.

After the lesson, we started on our first programming assignment: Outputs (surprise, surprise)! We had to follow the instructions written here, and take notes on what we noticed in our notebooks. In fact, I just finished the last bit! It was an interesting assignment because it continued the examples of various statements and their outputs. However the last bit with the number signs and the integers after the field widths are kind of confusing. You can read all about it in the link above.

All in all, it was a pretty great day... if you don't count the fact that we froze our butts off in gym because we had to go outside. But that's a whole other story.

So, that's it for now. I have two tests tomorrow, which I have to go study for now. So I'll talk to you guys later!

Celebrating Success

...Fine, it wasn't exactly like said above. In fact, it was a lot more pigging out on chips and cookies, playing truth or dare, and just... relaxing. I don't think we've ever done that in class before! Our party just so happened to be last period, so that was another bonus - after the day we were able to just play around last period. It was a nice time spent with each other.

This weekend is a long weekend because of Thanksgiving... Hooray! Tomorrow I'll be going out on a hike with my family and my friend's family, so that should be a great time, especially to take pictures of the wonderful colours of fall! Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone, and I'll talk you guys Tuesday!

Now you can go stuff yourself with turkey. Cheers! :)

Intro to Programming and PARTY TIME!

Today was the official start of a new journey: Programming! While I am really excited to be finally starting the programming aspect of this course, I'm also quite nervous—it looks so complex! That probably means I'll have to pay extra attention in class... not that I don't already, of course. ;)

Today we created a flow chart of the process of both website design, which we were already familiar with, and programming itself. With programming first you have to code the program. Next, when the syntax—programming word for grammar—is valid, you execute the program. Then, if it looks satisfactory, you can either generate an executable,—a non-open-source program—or simply stop there! See what I mean? Just the process is starting to look very menacing... Not even to mention the text-editor, the compiler, or the executor, all part of the IDE... Chances are I've probably lost you already!

After all that, we looked at the programming tool we were going to be using: a program called Turing. Turing is an IDE, or Integrated Development Environment. Basically that means it has a text-editor, compiler, and executor, all built in! We looked at some basic programming words and what they turn out when you click "Run". It was really basic stuff, and we have got off to a great start!

On a cooler note, start of new unit = end of the old unit... which in Mr. Arkin's words mean... PARTY! That's right, tomorrow our class will be celebrating our past few weeks' accomplishments with some food, and of course... music! So maybe tomorrow Lab 218 will become Party Room 218? Yay.

So tomorrow when you're in working on your English essay (that was actually due yesterday) or solving for x in Math, think of us... We'll be partying away! :D

Now, the party don't start 'til I walk in...

Don't stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, Imma fight
'Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock on the clock
But the party don't stop, no...

-Tik Tok, Kesha

01001001 00100000 01010111 01101111 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01001001 01100110 00100000 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 010000

01010100 01101111 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01100110 01100001 01110010 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100011 01101100 01100001 01110011 01110011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01111001 01100101 01110100 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110010 01101110 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100001

01010100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00101100 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01101011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110000 01100001 01101001 01110010 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 01100001 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100101 01100011 01101001 01100001 0110110001100010 01101100 01101111 01100111 00100000 01100101 01101110 01110100 01110010 01111001 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01001101 01110010 00101110 01000001 01110010 01101011 01101001 01101110 00101110 00100000 01001001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101110 00101100 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100101 01110100 01110100 01111001 00100000 01100110 01110010 01110101 01110011 01110100 01110010 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100001

Have no idea what that meant? That's OK, I didn't expect you to. >:) Have fun figuring it out!

01010000 00101110 01010011 00101110 00100000 01001001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110101 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01000011 01001000 01000101 01000001 01010000 00100001 00100000 00111110 00111010 00101000

010 0110 aka 38

Guess what we learned today? Hint: look at the title.

If you guessed binary code, you're right! Today we learned all about base 2 and 7-bit binary codes. It looks something like this:

2^6	2^5	2^4	2^3	2^2	2^1	2^0	Base 10 equivalent
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
0	0	0	0	0	1	1	3
0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4
0	0	0	0	1	0	1	5
0	0	0	0	1	1	0	6
0	0	0	0	1	1	1	7
0	0	0	1	0	0	0	8
1	1	1	1	1	1	1	127 (largest binary code number)

I thought it was a really cool lesson today. Plus, we finished the glossary! Double win! :D

Finishing Up the Glossary!

We are almost done the second glossary project! Thankfully, this one was a whole lot easier than the first one, as we didn't have to look up the definitions ourselves. Today, the entire class was spent copying down and discussing the rest of the definitions. There are only a few left! We were also asked to find pictures for each of the definition terms... how are you supposed to find a picture for “programmable” or “byte”?!

On another note, I am running for grade 9 rep! This was actually a last-minute decision... I want to see if I can make it past stage 1, and then decide what I want to do. Forms, as well as a 300-word essay, are due Thursday, so wish me luck! :)

Another Glossary and Notepad++

Hey everyone again, and I'm so sorry I forgot to post yesterday - I was intending on making a post on here, but went to check out my other blog first, and completely got sidetracked! So once again, sorry about that, and here's a basic recap of what we were doing both yesterday and today.

Yesterday, right after finishing up our glossary, we started a new one! This one is called the “Basic Computer Glossary”. However this time it was a lot easier because Mr. Arkin actually gave us all the definitions. Yesterday we started writing down definitions for various terms, and then went home to create a basic skeleton of a webpage for it. Today we just continued to write down definitions.

Unfortunately, today was supposed to be Studio 218, but a) there was no DJ, and b) we spent most of class discussing definitions, so there wasn't time for music anyway. However, we were introduced to a new program today: Notepad++! This is an excellent program for writing HTML and CSS codes, because it is automatically colour-coded by attribute, and therefore a whole lot easier to read!

So that is my update for the past two days... it's the weekend again, which means time to relax! Haha. But first, time to go update my glossary with the new terms we wrote down today. Have an awesome weekend everyone!

It's October! Already one school month gone by... wow.