Preparation for Athletics

For the past month we've been getting ready for athletics day (which is next Thursday by the way). This year I decided to compete in the competitive group and I chose javelin, discus, long jump, triple jump, and the 100m sprint as my sports. 

What I have improved on since the year began

I personally think I've improved my javelin greatly. I've become much more consistent with my throwing and have actually been seeking tips from teachers and other students who are much better at javelin then me. I've also learnt how to make the javelin actually land with the tip first instead of the tail. I also think I'm throwing straighter then I was at the start of the year too. I just have to keep in mind that I need to throw upwards a little rather than just straight. I've also learnt how to do triple jump and even though I can't say for sure that I've improved I can say is that I've learnt how to do the jump properly which is good.

What I'm excited and not excited about

I'm really excited about discus, long jump, and javelin. I'm excited about discus mainly because I attempted to do competitive discus in year 6 and was shy of just a couple of centimeters which was kinda disappointing. I'm excited about long jump and javelin because I enjoy the two sports and I'm decent at long jump. However I'm not excited about the 100m sprint because I'm not great at sprints and I don't really enjoy running. Other than that I'm excited for athletics day.

This week (technically last week) in home economics: Breakfast Muffins

Last week in home economics we created breakfast muffins. The end product came out well and the recipe was simple to follow. 

Breakfast muffin recipe

Ingredients

1/2 Tbsp Olive oil

1/2 an onion - diced

2 Slices of ham

4 Cherry tomatoes

1 1/2 cups Self raising flour

1 Tbsp Parsley - chopped

2 Eggs

1/2 cup Grated chesse

1/2 tsp Smoked paprika

1/2 cup Milk (add a couple of extra tablespoons if needed)

Salt and black pepper for taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 185C on fan bake and spray muffin tin with canola spray.
2. Heat oil in a pan and saute onion for 3-4 minutes or until onion is soft. Once done set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl combine tomatoes, flour, parsley, cheese, paprika and season.
4. Add cooked onion and use fold technique. 
5. Whisk milk and eggs together and fold into other ingredients until combined.
6. Spoon even amounts into each muffin tin and bake for 12 - 15 minutes until golden and puffed.

Bonus

To make a nice herb butter to serve muffins with combine 50g of butter and 1tsp of chopped parsley. 

Folding technique 

The folding technique is a type of stirring where instead of stirring with a wooden spoon you fold with a metal spoon. It's easier to show than explain it through writing so below is a video of how to fold.:

            

Reflection

The good things

I think that everything went fairly well. My group worked well together in my opinion and thought that the muffins came out well. The muffins were delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I also might make the herb butter next time because I think it would tasted really nice with it. 

The bad things

Nothing really bad happened. I mean there were a few bumps such as me not putting the muffins in long enough but they only needed an extra 2-3 minutes. Someone did accidentally turn off another groups oven so I'll have to make sure that my groups oven is on every now and then so it doesn't happen to us. Other then those two things nothing extreme happened to my group and everything ran smoothly.

Overall

I really enjoyed making this recipe. It was simple and I learnt things such as the folding technique, how to tell when batter is done in the oven, and a few other things. I like how the recipes we've been doing are easy to change and you can replace ingredients or remove them to your liking. 

The slave trade triangle

In social studies we're learning about slavery as part of our human rights unit. We started off learning about the slave trade triangle which I have mapped out below:


The slave trade triangle was a trading system between Europe, Africa, The Caribbean islands, and North America. How it would work is Europe would send weapons such as guns and exchange them with African kings for slaves. Slaves would then be taken to the Caribbean and North America where they would be sold and made to work on cotton, sugar,  and tobacco farms. Boats would then taken those goods and being them to Europe. The Slave trade lasted between the 15th century to the 16th century and was finally abolished in 1807. Of course the keeping of slaves was still allowed but the the trade circuit was abolished. The reason it wasn't abolished until 1807 was because that was the year of what historians consider the first mass public protest. Of course there had been protests but on a more smaller, personal scale such as having abortions or committing suicide. There were also groups such as Sons of Africa who began a letter writing campaign against the slave trade. 

Creative writing reflection

For the past two weeks in English we've been exploring and learning about different types of creative writing.  We did this for preparation for our creative writing topic this term alongside reading Shakespeare's Macbeth. To start off we talked about what makes good creative writing and came up with things such as an interesting plot, plot continuity, three dimensional characters, writing that flows, variety of sentence lengths, etc. We then completed a matrix of five activities that involved writing haikus, reviewing slam poetry, writing our own sensory language piece, learning about types of language affects, and writing our own metaphors and similes.

What did I learn?
I learnt about types of language affects (in particular allusion and anaphora) and how to use them in my writing. I also learnt about sensory language (which I didn't know had  a name) and got to write my own. I struggled a bit about what to write and how to write it, make it sound nice, and make it actually make sense.

What I found in particular to be enjoyable
I really enjoyed the haiku activity and the sensory language. I enjoy describing things in writing and creating a picture in the readers mind so haikus and sensory language were really fun and interesting to do.

All the posts involved in this activity
Haikus + extras

Sensory Language

Language affects (Allusion and Anaphora)

Metaphors and Similes

Slam poetry

Haikus

                   

Chicken and rice muffins and what we learnt in home economics.

Last Friday my home economics class had our first practical. Below is the recipe that we used to cook chicken and rice patties/breakfast muffins.

Ingredients 

• 2 cups of jasmine rice
• 1 chicken breast
• 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil
• 1/2 a large carrot
• 3/4 cups of grated cheese
• 2 spring onion stalks
• 1-2 eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C and set your rice to cook.
2. Slice chicken in half width way. This causes the chicken to cook faster.
3. Heat oil in medium heated pan. Proceed to cook chicken in pan. Once brown remove chicken from pan and shred with fork.
4. Grate carrot and finely cut your spring onion.
5.  Lightly beat your eggs then add carrots, spring onions, eggs, cooked rice, chicken, and cheese to a large bowl.
6. Spray muffin trays with cooking spray and proceed to spoon mixture into tin.
7. Sprinkle a bit of cheese on top and then cook for 15 minutes.
8.  Once finished remove from oven and let stand for a couple of minutes.

Tips for food safety

• Use the correct cutting boards for food to prevent cross contamination. Colored boards are yellow = chicken, red = red meat, green = vegetables and fruit, 
• Wash your hands and under your fingernails before you begin.
• If you are defrosting chicken for this recipe, then defrost the chicken in the fridge. While this doesn't stop bacteria from growing and multiplying it does slow it down.
• Clean your work space before placing food on the surface.

Reflection

Our first practical was fairly easy as the rice and chicken were already cooked and ready to go. This meant that all we had to do was a little bit of mise en place. Mise en place is a french word meaning "putting in place". In a professional setting mise en place is used to describe the preparation of food before you begin cooking. We had to prepare the vegetables, cheese, eggs, and then mix everything together. We also had to change the recipe as the original rice needed to be halved (which is the recipe above), and we changed how we were originally going to cut the chicken. We were going to cut horizontally and instead just sliced it in half. I really enjoyed this practical but I do hope that the next one is a little more harder.

The good things 

Some of the things that went well was our time management. When we finished we actually had a decent amount of time left. I also think that my group worked together really well and the class as a whole was behaving well and paying attention to the teacher. The patties/bruffins were also really nice.

The bad things

The only things that went wrong was the fact that some groups were a little bit messy and had trouble tidying up. Fortunately a lot of people had finished cleaning up early and were able to lend a hand.

Overall

Overall I really enjoyed this practical. I like how you can change ingredients out for something else i.e switching the carrot out for mushrooms or the chicken with for fish. Next time I'll probably add some more herbs and spices just so it doesn't taste as bland. I'll also probably have it with a nice sauce/relish i.e capsicum relish or sweet chili sauce (which I heard is very nice with this recipe). Overall I thought this practical went very well and I'm excited for the next one.  

Heart attacks (not the lovey dovey kind)

The heart is a critical piece of the body as it pumps blood into the body and lungs. Unfortunately the body has to make things difficult by giving us heart attacks. If you don't know what a heart attack is when something is stopping blood from flowing through coronary artery such as a blockage or narrowing of the artery. This causes a blood clot to begin forming which will prevent blood and oxygen flowing and result in either the damage or death of the heart muscle. You can also have a heart attack due to a tear in the coronary artery, small blood clots, fat particles from other parts of the body, or when the blood in general is reduced such as when the body goes into shock from trauma, heatstroke, or blood loss. Risk factors include age, genetics, smoking, high blood pressure,  high blood cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, physical in-activeness, and stress.

Symptoms
Symptoms of a heart attack include nausea, shortness of breath, sweating/cold sweat,
feeling faint/dizzy, feeling of impending doom, weakness or tiredness, and commonly pain in the left arm such as tightness, pressure, aching or a burning sensation.
How to prevent one
There are multiple ways to prevent the chance of a heart attack which are mainly doing the
opposite of what causes a heart attack, so things such as staying active, eat healthy, limit alcohol intake, maintain a reasonable weight for your age/height group,  avoid over stressing yourself, manage diabetes, stay updated on blood pressure, and another way is to actually sleep instead of binge watching the umbrella academy on netflix.

What treatment is there?

There are a variety of treatments that are available to victims of heart attacks, such as aspirin, thrombolytics (dissolve blood clots), anitplatelet agents (prevent clots from becoming larger), pain relievers, nitroglycerin (widens blood vessels), beta blockers (relax heart muscles and decreases blood pressure which makes the heart's job easier), ACE inhibitors (reduce stress on the heart), and Statins (control blood cholesterol). There's also surgeries such as Coronary angioplasty and stenting, which includes sting a tube up your wrist or groin to a blocked artery, once there they inflate a small balloon and expand a metal casing which will cause the artery to remain open either temporarily or long-term. There is also coronary artery bypass surgery which involves sewing your veins/arteries in place beyond a blocked/narrow artery which will then allow blood to flow through easily.

SLAM poetry

As part of our creative writing work in English we have to review a piece of New Zealand slam poetry. I chose to review a piece done by Brad McCormick called "I'm not gay but I'd go gay for John Key".

Why I like this piece

I enjoy watching people take the piss out of politicians so I instantly liked the sound of this one. I like how he was able to criticize the prime minister but not make it extremely political and keep it light and funny. I think that the lines "He has the courage to be a leader but to not bother to sound like one" and "With movie execs to give them tax breaks"  kinda sums up what I like about this piece which is the subtle criticism of our ex-prime minister. 

Another reason I enjoy this piece is they way Brad delivers it and the way the words flow. I think this is mostly shown when he says "Tell us about how you care about ordinary New Zealanders". Brad knows when to elaborate and allow the words to roll of his tongue but he also knows when to make a sudden stop like when he says "Protect me from evil beneficiaries who try to take my taxes to buy food."  or he knows when to take a small break in between sentences and just let the sentence hang in the air for a couple of seconds like when he talks about expensive butter.  

Metaphors and Similes

Why does Martin Luther King Jr's speech flow so nicely? (and other things).

Sensory language and the grocery store

In English we’re learning about different forms of creative writing. We have six tasks to complete and one of them is to write a short sensory language piece. Sensory language is when you involve all 5 senses (hear, sight, taste, touch, smell) and use them to describe the same scene. Below is my piece:

The beeping of the registers fill the air as if it were the beating heart of the store.
Metal wire is pushed even harder against my skin as I lean against the bar of cart
and cruise down each aisle, careful not to crash into workers who appear at night and
restock shelves. Colourful products compete on the shelves, each trying to win my
affection, but I know their tricks and I ignore them. The gentle waft of bread becomes
fainter and fainter as the night goes on, soon to be replaced before the sun rises again.
I imagine the tastes of the various chocolates that line the shelves, each one with a
unique combo of ingredients. The longer I stare the more I allow temptation to grow.

Human rights

In social studies we're learning about human rights. We got to take a look at the declaration of human rights. Below is my poster that displays some of the laws/rights.

Phillip and his phalanges

In science we're learning medical science. Because of this we have to memorize the major bones so we all created skeletons filled with labels and muscles.

Soundtrack of my life

                     

Fixed mindset vs Growth mindset

What we've been doing in art

In at we've been focusing on how to make our drawings come alive with techniques such as shading, adding shadows, negative space, etc. All these skills will aid us in adding realism to our end of year project, creating our own propaganda, which will then be into a mini magazine/zine.
                                                  1/2/19
Our second lesson mainly focused on tones and adding shadows on to shapes. This allowed us to mainly focus on understanding how to add tone without any real pressure. I also used a small guide on how to add shadows which helped me quite a bit. One of the rules of the lesson was we weren't allowed to erase any of our drawings which was a little hard for me but I managed to resit the urge.

7/2/19
Our next lesson let us apply these skill on to one of those wooden human figures. We also watched a quick video about adding negative space. I'm not the greatest at adding shadows but I think I've gotten better now that I kinda know what I'm doing. I only managed to complete one drawing of our stick figure but luckily my mum had on at home so I did a quick drawing of that one as well. I struggle a little with shading in the smaller parts (eg: the connectors between limbs, edge of limbs, etc) but I think I've gotten a little better and a little more confident with it.

Structure

Structure is used to help with proportions and (hopefully) make your drawing all equal size by drawing light lines on where things should be. Usually you would do this when sketching out a drawing or when your just doing random sketches. It's a useful thing to know how to do.

What I'm going to work on in future

I'm probably going to focus on shadows and angles of light cause it's sorta hard to visualize that. It's also sorta hard knowing how long shadows are meant to be and where the gaps in the shadow (if there are any) and how long they should be. I'm also going to focus on proportions cause I'm not great at keeping everything one size. 

Arthritis: It's a pain in the ass (well not really)

What is arthritis?
Arthritis is a condition in which your joints become damaged or worn out. Arthritis can happen to anyone and presents itself in 140 different ways with the most common being osteoarthritis, gout arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and juvenile arthritis which is found in young children.

The joints
The joints are where the ends of two of your bones meet. The cartilage covers the ends of your bones which prevent the bones from rubbing against each other. The synovial membrane produces synovial fluid which keeps the cartilage lubricated allowing the two bones move easily. The ligament holds the two bones together. Joints are commonly found in your elbows, knees, wrist/ankles, fingers/toes, etc. Arthritis appears when the joints become infected, damaged, inflamed, or they stiffen.

Different types of arthritis

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and occurs when the cartilage becomes worn out or infected due to excessive exercise, very little exercise, excess weight, and aging. Symptoms of osteoarthritis include swelling around the joint, stiffness from moving after sitting down for a while, pain in joints when moving or resting, weakness in the muscles, painful cracking when moving joints, and bony swellings know as bony growths. Treatments vary depending on what happened to cause the osteoarthritis to appear but most treatments involve painkillers, gels/sprays, walking aids (walking sticks, etc), specific exercise routines, and, occasionally, weight loss.

Gout arthritis 

Gout arthritis occurs when your blood contains uric acid. Uric acid comes from a protein called purines which are come from food. Usually uric acid passes through your body but if you are overweight, take certain medication, eat too much food that contain purines, or have kidney problems, the uric acid builds up. The acid then turns into sharp needle-like crystals that cause immense pain in the joints and damages the cartilage. Symptoms of gout arthritis include sudden joint pains which can last up to 7 days, lumps growing on elbows, hands, knees and feet, or painful and stiff joints. Treatments for gout include medicine to lower you uric acid, pain relievers, swelling relievers, healthy eating, lowering alcohol consumption, or even a change of footwear.

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is cause when the body's immune system attacks the synovial liquid in your joints causing it too thicken, therefore causing the joints to stiffen. This causes inflammation and swelling around the joints. Rheumatoid symptoms include swelling,stiffness, joints feeling hot and painful, fever, fatigue, weight loss, and decreased appetite. Treatment for rheumatoid is similar to those of the other two; exercise, healthy eating, medication, and joint protection (comfortable shoes, etc). Surgery is also a option for those who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (J.I.A)

J.I.A is a form of arthritis similar to that of rheumatoid arthritis. The immune system mistakes healthy tissue in the joints for unhealthy tissue, this results in pain and swelling. J.I.A is found in children and teens under the age of 16, hence the name containing the word juvenile. There are two types of J.I.A which are Oligoarthritis, when up to four joints are infected, and Polyarticular, when 5 or more joints. Symptoms include skin rashes, joint pain, swelling, stiffness,fatigue, fevers, weight loss, smaller appetite, tenderness, and general feeling of being unwell. Treatments are similar to those of the above three.

Common Myths about arthritis

Joint Pains = Arthritis

A common myth is that any type of joint pain is arthritis which is false. There are many other conditions in which there is damage to soft tissue such as tendonitis, bursitis, and various others.

Popping knuckles increases your chance of arthritis
Although arthritis can happen for various reasons, popping/cracking your knuckles is not one of them. The reason your joints make a popping sound is because when you pull your bones, by either stretching or cracking them, bubbles in the synovial fluid pop. This is doesn't increase your chance of arthritis but it can still damage your hands. Chronic cracking of knuckles may lead to weaker grip strength and there have also been two published reports of people getting injured by attempting to crack their knuckles.

You need to rest if you begin to have joint pains
Although joint pain commonly occurs due to overexercising it can also occur when you don't exercise enough. You joints become stiff if you don't exercise and lie around quite often. Even if you do acquire joint pains due to overexercising it's still suggested you continue exercising just, not as extreme. If you do experience joint pains it is suggested that you see your doctor instead of taking advice from friends and family.

Your diet doesn't affect you arthritis
Your diet plays a part in everything you do and arthritis is no exception. If you read the part about gout arthritis you may remember that uric acid (the cause of gout arthritis) enters the body via food (shellfish, animal organs such as liver, bacon, scallop, etc). Alcohol also affects your arthritis. Of course I should also clarify that your diet mostly affects those with rheumatoid arthritis. If you are worried about your diet and it increasing your chance of arthritis then I would suggest seeing a doctor instead of asking google or reading a 14 year old's blog.

Arthritis only occurs in elderly people
If you have made it this far and you have common sense then you would know this is a myth. Arthritis can happen to anyone although there are people who are more likely to get it (eg: genetics, obesity, age, working conditions, etc.) it really can happen to anyone.

Of course there are many other myths but these seem to be the most common.

Main sources

Health Navigator: https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/a/arthritis/
Arthritis New Zealand: https://www.arthritis.org.nz/information/forms-of-arthritis/
OrthoInfo: https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/arthritis-an-overview/

Minor sources

Harvard Health: https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/does-knuckle-cracking-cause-arthritis

Health Essentials: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/six-myths-about-joint-pain-and-arthritis/

Arthritis Foundation: http://blog.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/arthritis-myths-facts/