You know what? I Think I Like Late Starts

That should be a new constant: LATE_STARTS := "Everyone likes"! See what I did there?

Maybe programming is getting to me a little...

Anyways, today is the last day of November! (And a late start, obviously.) Unfortunately, Mr. Arkin was away yet another day, so we had to forge on into the Substrings Assignments again on our own. The assignments seem simple when you read them, but believe me, they are something else when you're trying to write the program! However, I did manage to get up to assignment 15 done.

In some other news... December = CHRISTMAS IS COMING! I am really excited, because Christmas = Christmas break = no school. Plus, this year my cousin's coming over to visit us during then, so I'll be showing him around our, *coughfabulouscough* city! It should be a great two weeks.

So, not much going on today. Was a better day than Monday, at least. Still haven't had that Music playing test yet... Oh, and tomorrow is a "Spirit Rally", which means no morning classes! Joy?

More Than One Sub + a Rant on Math Tests

Substitute teachers and Substrings... what's the difference, really?
Ok, no.

Today Mr. Arkin wasn't in class because he wasn't feeling so well. Thus, sub #1: the Substitute teacher. The work he assigned us, because we were finished with the Repetition unit, was sub #2: Substrings. A substring is a part of a string. (A string is a set of characters, if you don't remember.) For example in the string "mathematics", a substring can be the letter 'm', the first syllable "math", or just any set of letters like "athema". After reading the page on substrings, we got right to work on a brand new set of assignments. Gee, I wonder what they're called... the Substrings Assignments of course!

So it wasn't that important of a class today... However, that was not the case in Math class. We had our second Math unit test today, and there were two questions which involved concepts we hadn't even talked about! How frustrating is that, when you haven't learned something and the teacher expects you to magically know it for a test? And I wasn't the only one complaining — out of the entire class, everyone agreed that we indeed had never been taught that! So by the end of the period, everyone felt really down... wouldn't you, if you knew this was going to bring your average down by a lot? We tried talking to our teacher about it, but she wouldn't say anything except "I'll see." Argh. :'(

Another Monday past, another disappointment. I'm starting to see another trend: Avoid anything major on Mondays! But like they say, if you're at the bottom it can only get better... right? I really hope so, and that justice will be brought to all our poor math class students. I DEMAND JUSTICE!

The GAG Experience

I hope I didn't just make you throw up right there.

If you're wondering why I didn't post yesterday — *gasp* — well, it was because of GAG! Aka Girls About Girls sleepover! After I got home at around 4pm, I had to pack. Then we had to meet back at school at 5:30pm, resulting in leaving at around 5pm. I didn't have the time to even look at the computer!

And so, a day — and a whole lot of sleep deprivation — later, here I am, sitting faithfully at the computer, to tell you about my day yesterday. During ICS class, we had another period to catch-up on our Repetition assignments. I managed to finish (and edit many times) my assignment 13, the last one of the assignments! It was very relieving to finally finish everything.

So now I have the rest of tonight and tomorrow to review for our second programming test! And study for the Math test. And practice for the playing test. Is it just me, or do my tests seem to gravitate towards each other, so that they end up all in the same day/week? Lucky me.

Now, you're probably dying to hear about my GAG experience! Yeah right. But I'll bore you with all the bloody details anyways. :)

Upon arrival, we were split up into different coloured groups. I was put into the red group. We started off playing a few group games, and then another few games in our smaller groups. We got to know each other a bit better. And then, before we knew it, it was time for dinner.

After dinner, we got a choice between "Improv" or "Karaoke". I chose Karaoke. Turns out, we played a game similar to Don't Forget the Lyrics! We paired up, and then went up to see if we could remember the lyrics to a song. Grace and I decided to go first, and we got to sing You Belong With Me (by Taylor Swift). After everyone got a turn to go up, everyone stood up and sang the last few songs. It was entertaining. xD

After our activity everyone went back to the gym, and we had a "wacky relay race", and you'd better believe it, because it was really weird, and involved things like passing oranges with our feet. Fun, eh?

Then, we again went into our groups for some team-building games. We had to do this game where we stepped on a sheet, and had to flip it over completely while making sure no one fell off. It was a really interesting experience.

After decorating our own cupcakes — and eating them of course — the ones who wanted to go swimming did, while the rest (including me) got ready for bed. We were actually luckier because we got all the nice mats. Not that we were being greedy or anything... ;)

After the swimming people got back, we again split into our groups for snacks and a discussion about life issues. We shared our thoughts and opinions on different aspects of life, such as relationships, the future, death, etc.

Then the movie The Incredibles was put on. Did I mention it was 12:00am by that time? Well past our bedtimes... but that was fine with us! Grace, Randi and I, who weren't very interested in watching the movie, spent some time talking, and then eventually we all fell asleep.

I only managed to get 4 hours. :(

I had to drag myself up at 7:00am, when they decided we'd had enough sleep for the night. It took awhile for everyone to get changed, and wash up. By the time everyone was done, it was time for breakfast.

After breakfast half the group went to the gym to play some "trust" games, while the others went to get t-shirts and decorate them! After an hour, we switched. I got all my friends who were there to sign my t-shirt.

And that was pretty much the end of it! I would say overall that it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I'm glad I went — not to mention the free t-shirt we got. However as a result of yesterday I feel really tired, so I think I'll be heading off to bed yet. Better sleep well so I can get to studying for that CS test! ;)

The Lunatic Wants a Bath

Today, Mr. Arkin talked to us about programming success. The three steps towards success are:

1. reading the program code with precision, unlike how you usually read text - skipping words, filling them in yourself, etc.
2. being able to know the outcome of the program by reading the code
3. visualizing the locations in memory in a program (the variables that create a named storage in RAM)

I think number 2 is definitely really helpful, because if you can trace any program's code, than you can quickly and easily figure out if there are any problems with it, and how to solve the problem.

Now if you're wondering what all that has to do with a lunatic and a bath... Mr. Arkin reminded us that programming and the programming language is very literal. We need to be able to give clear, literal instructions, as if to a non-programmer. He gave an example: Before we found out that there is water on the moon, a lunatic — from Luna (the moon) *coughpuncough* — comes to Earth and finds out that there is water on earth. He wants to take a bath. Now direct him from the dining room to the bathroom, and instruct him on how to take a bath.

I once did a similar activity: instruct someone on how to tie shoelaces. The key to success in both cases is being literal — if someone does not know something, they are unable to take any instructions figuratively and automatically understand. Now I'd really like to take the challenge and write up a set of instructions, but maybe later as I have other things to do tonight.

So all in all, today was a cool day, and a nice class. Tomorrow is Girls About Girls, a sleepover that is being held at my school for all the girls. It'll be a great chance to hang out with friends; that's mainly why I'm going actually. Also, tomorrow is FRIDAY! Wow, this week sure flew by fast...

When Mr. Arkin first mentioned lunatics, literally the first thing that popped into my d was Luna. You know... Luna Lovegood? Harry Potter? Hermione Granger? Draco Malfoy? Yup. If you haven't heard already, I am a HUGE HP fan, and I'm dying to see the new Deathly Hallows movie. Definitely can't wait!

DRAMIONE <3

17 Kislev, 5771 : Arrays

Do you know what the above means? Do you have an idea? If you guessed the Jewish calender, that is correct — Today is Mr. Arkin's birthday on the Jewish calendar! That means he celebrates two birthdays: one on the Jewish calendar, and one on our Gregorian calender... I wonder if people have to get him two presents. If they did, I'd totally try that too — there's always the Chinese calendar! ;)

The main Jewish events on a Jewish calendar. Do you realize that according to the Jewish, 2012 has passed already? *phew* Not that I believe in it anyways.

In addition to Mr. Arkin's birthday, today's class was on arrays. They are an efficient method of storing data in many variables. The new keywords introduced today were array and of. Each array also needs an index. Indexes are what define the different variables — they are a sub-number of a variable. Arrays make life so much easier, especially in repetition programming!

Oh, did I mention today I saw my Printer Assignment marks? There were four levels, each marked out of lever four. Guess what I got? No really, guess. 'Cuz I'm not gonna tell you! So evil, eh? >:)

So now it's time to get to work, and my beloved repetition assignments. Good night! Yom Huledet Same'ach Mar Arkin!

A Leaside Day

Hi everyone! Guess where I went today?

If you guessed Leaside High School, you're absolutely right. Remember the Model UN (United Nations) G20 Summit I was telling you about? Well, it was head at Leaside today. I had to miss an entire hour of sleep so that I could get to school on time to leave! So by 9:00am, I'd already yawned about 20 times, and was sincerely hoping that it really was a worthwhile trip. Did I mention how harsh the winds were this morning?

Anyways, it was a huge relief when we got inside. However, we got there around 15 minutes late (blame the TTC), so we had to rush into the auditorium. It was there where we met Michel Chikwanine, a motivational speaker. We learned his story; he was a child soldier growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He survived the war, which claimed 5.8 million lives, including his father, also a human rights activist, and one of his sisters. It was really a bone-chilling story, and really brave of him to share it was us all. At the end, we also learned that he works with Craig Kielburger, the co-founder of Free the Children, a foundation that helps bring to light and eliminate the exploitation of children around the world. It was a really moving presentation.

Next it was on to our actual conferences. I represented Argentina, and was part of the Economics committee. Our first resolution was the debt crisis in the European Union. Many ideas and arguments were brought up, particularly about the debt crisis in Greece. Some suggestions discussed was getting rid of the Euro (which did not manage to pass during the vote), and reducing the value of the Chinese and Indian currencies (which was greatly debated especially by China). In the end, we agreed that it would benefit all countries of the European Union to increase exports, and limit government spending. A G20 committee would also be created to oversee the financial situations in the various countries.

After a multicultural lunch made by a class of Leaside students — needless to say they didn't spend a million to make sure it wasn't poisoned or something >:) — it was back to work, and resolution #2: debate on whether or not to implement a bank tax, to solve the issue of wasteful spending by these financial institutions. Again there was much discussion. In the end, it was agreed that only on those banks that had wasted money — not the countries themselves — was a bank tax to be issued. Also, 85% of the money collected was to go to the federal government, while 15% was to be given to the IMF (International Monetary Fund), to be saved in case of another economic crisis.

Unfortunately because of time constraints, we never got to the third resolution — which was supposed to be the one I excelled at! However, it was still a great day, not to mention all the free goodies we got, like actual G20 Toronto pens and keychains.

All in all, it was just a really great day! We were all in high spirits at the end, and we were kind of sad to leave. However, we all really got a look at the way G20 summits are held (it was actually really professional. Like really professional.), and discuss issues as if we had power. It was a fantastic experience!

Coming home though, I know the work that will catch up to me tomorrow! First step was to check the Daily Log, and call one of my fellow CS friends to ask about what they did in class today... the Printer Project got taken up! I am more anxious than ever to get my mark... I wonder if I'll be able to go to sleep tonight.

Actually, I probably will, because boy, am I tired from 1) not getting enough sleep! and 2) the day's activities. So GOOD NIGHT!

Dam---Dang. :(

Argh... "dang" is right. I didn't print out my Repetition Assignment 8 modified today, thus resulting in getting a zero. That totally just started my week at an all-time low...

*Remembering Sunday ~ All Time Low plays in background*

Wow, that was depressing.
Ah well, scr--- whatever. Let's talk about something a little less saddening, shall we?

Other than the homework collection today, we just continued to work on our Repetition Assignments. We are almost nearing the end of it! Just around 3 more assignments to go and we'll be finished the unit. (Hope that doesn't mean another test... No, I did not just give you an idea, Mr. Arkin.)

In some more happy news, tomorrow we're doing the horrendous BEEP TEST in Gym. How is that happy you ask? 'Cuz I'll be missing it! Tomorrow is the Leaside High G20 Summit, which I will be attending. It should be a great day! For more information, you can check out the website. I will be representing Argentina, and our topic is Economy. I actually chose Human Rights, because I find it far more interesting, but unfortunately I got placed into Economy. Ah well, hopefully I will be able to do just as well with that topic.

And so it's another Monday — some things never change — and the start of another week. Not exactly the way I would've wanted today to go, but hopefully the rest of the week will just get better right? Oh, and speaking of getting better, the Printer Comparison project marks come out tomorrow, which means I will get my mark on Wednesday! I am sincerely hoping that that will be able to lift up my spirits — I'll have my fingers crossed!

So wish me luck tomorrow, and I'll tell you guys more about it as soon tomorrow night!

I'm About to Get to Know Printers a WHOLE Lot Better...

Yes that's right, it's not only PD Day tomorrow, but also Printer Project! Aka we don't get to relax and enjoy the long weekend... Undeserved holiday, as Mr. Arkin calls it. Maybe this is "payback"... :'(

That's OK though, because instead of doing my homework right away like a good IB student, I'm gonna procrastinate until Saturday and still enjoy my day off! So while my fellow classmates are busy going on the Best Buy and Future Shop websites, I'll be off to Grace's house, along with a few of my old friends, to talk and catch-up on life with the Giftees (and TOPS people, I should mention). Thumbs up for not using time efficiently!

Let me explain more about the Printer Project... actually, because you probably won't want to hear it all, you can just go read it if you are interested. But a basic outline is that we have to compare two or more printers, and make a recommendation to ourselves based on our findings. We should consider the basic properties, like operating costs, connectivity, how well it will serve our needs, etc. Then we must present all our findings by making a webpage! Interesting project, but I know it is going to take >6 hours...

An interesting fact here, that we actually learned last year, but I forgot up until today: did you know TDSB blocks the Staples website from all its computers, just because it has a contract with Grand & Toy? I was trying to get a head start on my printer research today in class, and tried the staples website... remembering once again that it cannot be opened. Quite pathetic, in my opinion, to go that far, but hey... maybe Grand & Toy gave an irresistible deal. Who knows?

And so with that, this shortened week draws to a close. So while you watch some TV, go chat on Facebook, or just sit back and read during your weekend, just remember me... I'll be slaving away on the computer, trying to get the assignment done. ;)

Repetition Repeated

Yes. Again, today was dedicated to Repetition. First, we had to analyze and desk-check one of our partner's Repetition Assignments (#6). It was quite a tedious task, but I know it was to help us make each other's programs even better and improved. Afterwards it was time to continue working repeatedly on the Repetition assignments (see what I did there?). I managed to finish and modify all the assignments up to #11. For homework, we have to modify assignment 7 so that the user gets to choose aspects of the program, and also complete assignment 8. Thankfully, I have already done both!

Other than the past few days' repetition of Repetition classes, there hasn't be much else going on. Our mid-term reports are coming home next week, but we already know all our marks, so it isn't that big of a deal. Tomorrow I will be helping out my middle school teacher with her parent-teacher interviews, so I look forward to going back to my old school to visit. Also, Friday is a PA Day, which means hanging out somewhere other than school, so that should be fun! :)

And now I'm off to work on some outside-of-school projects that I've been creating (writing, Photoshopping, etc.). Making good use of some free time!

"Repeat." Repeat.

... And, repeat. That creates an infinite loop!

"..."

Oh psh, fine! Me and my lame jokes...

Anyways, today was another work period for our Repetition assignments. We also learned that if you want to use a character in a string, that is a Turing key symbol - like double-quotes ("") for example - you use a backslash (\) in front of the symbol. The backslash tells the computer to "escape" from the string for one character. For homework we need to finish Repetition assignments 6 and 7.

Other than that, today was pretty uneventful. The one major news though is that I got my final mid-term mark (gym) and so now I know my mid-term average! It is exactly 93.25% (too bad it couldn't round to 94!). Now have fun figuring out what my four marks are... especially the ICS one, eh? >:)

Oh Look, It's OUR MID-TERM MARKS

I didn't check my e-mail after 5pm yesterday, so I was completely unaware that the mid-term marks would be posted today! Ah well, probably better that I didn't know, or I wouldn't have been able to fall asleep last night. Haha. However today, as soon as I saw the list...

First reaction: OMG HOLY COW OMGOMGOMG IT'S THE LIST OMGOMG [put repeat ("!", 10 billion)] <--- xD little programming joke there.

Second reaction: *scans list frantically*, realizes the list is in fact not by class but by numeric order of student numbers. (Thank goodness.)

Third reaction: *mouth drops down to the floor — literally* :O

Now, let's continue on to today's class! Today was like a free period, so that we could catch up on Repetition assignments, and move further ahead if we wanted. I spent the period modifying my assignment 2 to make it even better, and working ahead. For homework we need to complete Repetition assignments 3 to 5, which I have already done, so tonight should be a relaxing one!

Plus, Friday is a PA Day, which means no school! PLUS, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is coming out on that day as well... if you don' t know already, I am a huge HP fan, so I am delighted! DRAMIONE FTW (you can go look that up :D)!

Did I forget anything? What, you mean my mid-term ICS mark? You actually thought I was going to tell you? Well, tough luck. I'm not gonna announce all over the Internet... So you can take your guess, but I guess you still have a few options:

(1) Stalk me and threaten me to tell you my mark (Not recommended, because I'll probably a. kick, b. punch, or c. slap you)
(2) Ask me nicely, and maybe I'll consider it... not.
(3) Ask Mr. Arkin, and maybe he'll tell you! Yeah right. Ya think?
(4) Go ask all the other ICS students who somehow know too, even though I wasn't the one to tell them. -.-"

So have fun trying to figure out what my mark is... tough luck. >:)

loop, put "Repetition", end loop

Output:

Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
etc.

Yes, I think you get the idea: we formally started our Repetition unit today! First we learned about infinite loops - loops that can go on forever, and have no natural end. Of course, there aren't many uses for infinite loops in our lives, so usually we avoid them. But did you know Apple Inc's headquarters are at 1 Infinite Loop (get it, one infinite loop?). Funny.

Anyways, next we looked at the keywords loop, exit when, and end loop. Loop and end loop make up a loop body. In the loop body, there can be zero or more statements. To avoid an infinite loop, the keywords exit when are used - they instruct the computer to exit from the loop when a pre-defined boolean expression yields the value true.

For homework, we have to do Repetition assignments 1 and 2, as well as modify assignment 2 so that the user can choose the integers in the times table.

This whole new concept is sure to add another twist to our programs!

THE AFTERMATH. + Lest We Forget

Wow, that was fast. And unexpected. Mr. Arkin had all of our tests marked today! all 70-ish of them (for his three classes)! I've never met a teacher who gave tests back the day after before...

Anyway, aren't you curious as to what I got? Well, you'll have to wait. First I want to mention that today was Remembrance Day. All across the country, ceremonies were held for those who courageously gave their lives to fight for the freedom and peace we live in today.

During first period, we had a small assembly ourselves to commemorate those who died fighting for us. In Flanders Fields was read out loud, and The Last Post was played. Pictures were also shown of the wars and various peacekeeping missions, accompanied by the song Universal Soldier by Buffy Sainte Marie. Afterwards, we observed a minute of silence for the fallen ones, the ones who gave their lives so that we can live better lives today. It was an emotional ceremony.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row.
***
To all the soldiers who gave their lives in battle,
Rest in peace, and may God be with you always.

Next, we got our marks back for our tests, as well as reviewed in partners "hybrid" answers for the test questions. And now, what you've been waiting for... drum roll please!...

I got a 22 out of 24, the highest mark in my class! Guess Murphy's Law paid off... I was really amazed to score such a high mark, and really happy as well of course.

So today was both a sombre and a happy day. We continue to remember the brave, and cherish our lives today. If you have some time, I suggest you watch A Pittance of Time, a song about taking the time to remember, by Terry Kelly. It is a really moving song and video.

THE TEST.

9:00 - Music: Focused on film shown in class, taking Music History notes. Perfectly good mood.
10:15 - Math: Does math homework while playing Pictionary (yes, it is possible to multi-task). Perfectly good mood.
11:35 - Lunch: Tries to study notes while eating. Almost nervous breakdown.
11:45 - Lunch still: Trying to study while freaking out about test in less than an hour.
12:00 to 12:25 - Lunch still: Tries to take mind off of test by talking to friends about random things... to no avail.
12:30 - 5 minutes before test starts: Almost in hyperventilation mode. That's all I can say. Deep breaths, deep breaths... <--- Fine, maybe it wasn't nearly as bad as that.
But then...
12:35: THE TEST BEGINS. (aka D-Day.) Ok, no.

Surprise, surprise. The questions weren't nearly as difficult as I'd imagined. In fact, the concepts were quite easy! Though a few of the questions were kind of hard to answer to... you know, those questions that look so easy but are hard to word? However, I think I did OK. Actually, with Murphy's Law in mind... I THINK I FAILED MISERABLY. Hope that worked.

As is the upside to all tests though, we didn't have much homework. Plus today turned out to be a better day than I'd first imagined, so I guess thats a definite thumbs-up. Now, time to go try to get some sleep tonight, while really trying hard not to think about the test. Good night.

Devas---Anticipation Towards the Test!

Tomorrow is our first major Programming Unit Test, so there is definitely a lot of nervousness to go around. And anticipation of course! *coughcough*

Anyways, today was mainly spent as a Q&A period, so that we could ask any questions we wanted and study our notes for the upcoming test. There were many questions asked, as we all scrambled to take all the necessary notes and prepare well for our first major exam.

Afterwards we got a little into our next unit, Repetition, by learning about counters and accumulators. Counters are used to count the number of objects entered, while accumulators add up what is entered. After the little lesson, we had to write a program where we took 3 marks, and displayed the mean. It was a good start to the Repetition unit.

But as far as I'm concerned, no one is thinking much about repetition today, as all minds are on tomorrow, and no doubt studying hard. I hope to do well on that test as the mark will definitely be weighed my total Computers mark by quite a bit. So off I go to study now. Wish me luck!

More On Features, TEST!

Code analysis is something we've been working on every since last week, and today was the final finish - we presented the posters that we'd made on Selection assignment 6. Many groups had additional things to add to the general programming guidelines, so it was a learning experience. As a result, we had to work on analyzing another program, Selection assignment 7 today for homework. Afterwards it was a surprise party for Mujtaba, who became a Canadian citizen on Friday! Everyone enjoyed what free time we had.

Today was also the start of our swim unit in Gym! I really love swimming, so I know this is going to be an awesome unit. Apart from having really little time to change, it was a really fun start to the unit - we swam around, and then played a few games in the water. Hooray for swimming!

So all in all, it was a great start to the week. We have our first programming unit test on Wednesday though, so it is a mad rush to get studying, and study well! I hope I'll be able to do well on the test!

I Didn't Hear the Pop

Walks into a perfectly normal day in class. Sits down with group from previous day, works on code analysis poster. Looks through programming guidelines handout and jots down features of given program code. Makes good copy on large piece of paper - remembers to write in cursive on poster! Uses many colourful markers on poster. Everyone copies notes down properly on separate sheets of paper. Hands poster in. All a perfectly normal day, right? Then...

P-P-P-P-POP QUIZ!
C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!

Sadly, no one heard the pop - no one ever does - so it kind of sprang on us. Only kind of though, of course... The upside was that the quiz was really simple: write a program that gathers two integers and displays their mean. I finished the quiz quite easily.

Another good thing about the pop quiz was that it resulted in no homework for the weekend! Yay! However, that means today set a new record: 3 quizzes in a day!

1. Computer Studies : pop quiz
2. Gym : basketball quiz
3. Math: math quiz
4. Music: only free period! If only we'd had a theory quiz eh?

So though we didn't hear the pop today, it turned out to be quite a cool day after all. Not to mention I got to hang out with my friends afterwards! Awesome! But as I always like to say at the end of the week... TGIF!

I wonder why I keep using the centered-large green font-small orange caption-format...

Desk-Checking is Back

Desk-checking made us a visit again today, because some people were having a few issues with their programs. Desk-checking is a good way to figure out what those problems are, because you can easily trace what the computer is doing. So today, we had to desk-check an assignment handout. Then for homework, we were assigned three more desk-checking exercises, this time on our own Selection programs.

COMPUTERS ARE LITERAL.
LITERALLY.
The one important thing to remember when desk-checking.

After working out the assigned program, we had to discuss in groups of four the features of the same program - that parts about it that met the programming guidelines, any other good parts. However the period went by very quickly, and we found ourselves out of time. I think we will be continuing that activity tomorrow.

So overall it was a nice day. I must admit desk-checking is a very helpful skill and should be practised so that we know it well, but that sure doesn't make it anymore tedious!

TOKTW Day!

Today was Take Our Kids To Work Day (yay!). Which meant no ICS2O (aww...), but it was a really cool experience and definitely very insightful.

I went with my friend Julia, along with her friend Catherine, to her mom's workplace, Symcor Incorporated. It is a really big company which offers data processing services. Created by BMO (Bank of Montreal), TD (Toronto-Dominion) Bank, and RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), Symcor works with many large companies to process its cheques, bills, and other information.

Because the company is so big, there were actually quite a lot of kids there &mdash around 30. It was really nice because the company had organized a special program for us. First off was a power-point presentation on Symcor's history. Then there was a tour of the three buildings at our location. The place had really heavy security, because of the highly-sensitive information it processed. Thus we each had our own security cards, which we had to swipe each time we entered and exited a building.

After the tour was another presentation, this time about Internet safety and privacy. The speakers talked about reading privacy policies fully, and changing privacy settings on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. We also learned about browser cookies (a data trail which tracks your activities on a website), and even got an actual one (Chips Ahoy!) to accentuate the point!

Next came lunch. Did I mention it was free? There was a really nice cafeteria there &mdash with clean tables and a few TV screens &mdash so we spent all of lunch eating and chatting away there.

And then it was time to "shadow" our parents/sponsors &mdash look at what they actually do, and try bits of it out for ourselves! Julia's mom worked in the Data Entry department, which is like a fancy word for entering in monetary amounts from cheques so that the information can be stored in a computer. We mastered the basics quite easily, so one of her mom's co-workers was kind enough to open a program just for the three of us, and we spent the rest of the afternoon doing actual Data Entry for the company!

All in all, I must say it was a one-of-a-kind experience. I think TOKTW Day is really important &mdash more important than I thought in the first place &mdash because it helps us to understand both the importance of getting a good education, and how hard our parents work each day! The program at Symcor was really great, and we certainly experienced many new things. It was a really cool day altogether... not to mention the free coffee mug we got at the end. :)

Thank goodness I read the daily log today... Or else I probably wouldn't have written this. Thumbs up for last-minute thinking!

We Have a New Case On Our Hands

Yup, a new case for all of us to solve. Today was all about case statements, a better alternative to "if-ladders" (many selection statements). Case statements use the keywords case (obviously), of, and label, and are great if you have many true parts in a selection section. This type of selection statement basically uses lists, instead of having the keyword or separating boolean expressions in an "if-ladder". Plus, case statements are a lot easier to both write and read!

To help us practice our newly-learned concept, we were asked to create an "ATM" program, which lets the user deposit, withdraw, and transfer money to different accounts. We had to guard against negative balances as well. The program looks really cool when it is run!

And so, our Selection unit is coming to a close. On Thursday, we will be beginning our Repetition unit! That should add a whole new twist to our programs!

A special birthday wish to George Boole (1815-11-02 / 1864-12-08), who invented boolean expressions! Without him, our programs would sure be pretty dull. So happy birthday, George Boole!

Tomorrow is TOKTW Day! Aka no sch--- of course I'm devastated! Everyone knows school is the best place in the world... ;)

Clean-Up, Catch-Up, TOKTW Day

Aww... Studio 218 was supposed to be postponed to today, but unfortunately time flew by, and before we knew it, the time for music was gone! Darn. :(

However, it was a relaxed day today, as we got a period to catch-up and clean-up our Selection assignments. Thankfully, I only had a few minor errors, but still, time really did seem to fly past! However I was able to completely clean-up all my Selections assignments by the end of class, and it was a generally productive period.

Then, a period later, I found out that it was yet another late start tomorrow! They just keep on coming, don't they? ...Ah well, I think I'll live. ;)

So, it was quite an uneventful day today. But did I mention, Wednesday is Take Our Kids to Work Day for all of us ninth graders! I will be going to my friend's mom's workplace — I'm really looking forward to it because it'll give me an opportunity to see what a regular day of work is like. Yay!