Jason Lu

This week I will be talking about my hard drive upgrade and how it has improved my experience. I had the hard drive installed for a couple of months, and I have decided to take advantage of the space. Initially, I was very cautious about purchasing the drive. It was by no means cheap, and it costed around $70 dollars (if my memory is correct). By the time I considered by it Kalen had already purchased the drive, which may have influenced my decision somewhat.

At the time, I was primarily thinking about how it would affect my Skyrim and Fallout 4 experiences. Before the storage upgrade, the number of mods I could have on both games were limited due to storage problems. In particular, I was eyeing a Skyrim mod called “Bruma”. To explain why I really wanted “Bruma”, I need to talk about how the Elderscroll games work. Bethesda, the developer of the Elderscroll games, likes to create an Elderscroll game per province in the in-game continent. The continent called Tamriel has 9 provinces, Skyrim being one of them. The mod “Bruma” adds part of another province into Skyrim. Basically what I’m trying to say is, “Bruma” requires a lot of space because it literally adding DLC to Skyrim.

When I finally decided to purchase the drive, I had to wait a bit. When the drive did arrive, I needed to wait for the weekend to install it. The installation wasn’t as easy as I had thought. At first, I thought we would just need to put the drive in. However, I was wrong when I learned we had to switch the drive’s data around. The process was slightly stressful, however since Kalen and I had daddy’s help things went pretty smoothly.

After the installation, I didn’t feel the effects of the new storage immediately, that is why I’m doing this blog know. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. I can now enjoy the new space the drive has granted me. In the end, I may end up upgrading my PC over time, and I feel getting the new drive is just the first step.

This week, I will be writing about why the washroom is so filthy and why I live like a slob. Both of these can be traced back to laziness. However, I would like to talk about each individually because both cases are slightly different.

The reason the washroom is so filthy is because of several reasons. One is I have built up a mentality that I only use that washroom. I am usually the only one who uses that particular washroom on a daily basis. This makes me feel I don’t need to clean the washroom as often the downstairs washroom. Whenever I use the downstairs washroom, I make sure I clean it thoroughly. The reason for this is because I know someone will most likely use the downstairs washroom the same day or a few seconds after I leave. After enough time passes, I become lazy and since no one complains about the washroom, it is left unclean. Another reason the washroom is so filthy is because I don’t look underneath the toilet seat. On most occasions, I have the toilet seat down. When the toilet seat is down, I can’t see the mess, and because of this I mentally trick myself in believing there is no mess.

The reason why I live like a slob is similar to why the washroom is filth. The reason being, I have built up a mentality that this is my room. However, unlike the washroom, this mentality is even stronger when it comes to my room. My room makes me feel safe and secure (especially my bed). Because of this, I feel like no one will judge me for how I spend my time in this room. Since this is not the case, I will explain why I do certain things in my room. First off my desk, although it might seem like an utter mess, it is organized in a sense. The bottom right corner Is for clothes, the right side of the right speaker is for binders, on top of the binders is for papers, and there are plenty of other locations I have for specific stuff. Just because everything isn’t prim, proper, and squared (an example of this is a stack of papers all perfectly stacked in alphabetical order) doesn’t mean its a senseless mess. You may ask why I don’t make the desk prim, proper, and squared, that’s because I know in less than a week it will go back to being an organized mess. After so long, I have come to the realization it’s not worth spending the energy if I can work just as efficiently when the desk is not prim, proper, and squared. Another thing I get a lot of complaints about or the pants and socks on the floor. You may ask why don’t I pick them up and put them in the laundry bin. The thing is though, I like to reuse my clothes. In my mind, I rather reuse already dirty clothes than get clean ones and those make it dirty as well. This especially true when I have fewer shorts than days before laundry day comes around (informal way of saying “I don’t have enough pants to make to laundry day if I wear one pair of pants per day”). Again you may ask why I don’t hang them up in an organized fashion? Well in my eye, its a waste of energy. For example, I could come home after dim sum, take off my pants, pick up my pants, hang my pants, put on pajamas, get called for an outdoor activity (walking, biking, etc), take off my pajamas, pick up my pajamas, hang my pajamas, and put my pants back on. On the other hand, I could come home after dim sum, take off my pants, put on pajamas, get called for an outdoor activity, take off my pajamas, and put my pants back on. One of these options definitely contains more steps than the other, and fewer steps mean less energy expended. And no, I don’t leave the pants overnight, I put them in the laundry bin after my shower. I could probably give an explanation to why everything in my room is the way it is, however, I don’t what this blog to be really long. Also, just because I live like a pig in private, doesn’t mean I act like one in public. In school, I always show up to class early (even first period, even when I leave at 9:50 I’m never late), clean up after myself in the cafeteria, keep my laptop organized when it comes to school work, and when I did get homework I actually finished it.

In the end, I am entirely responsible for why the washroom is so dirty. However, I believe I have justified reasons to why I live the way I do. Overall, I will try my best to keep the washroom clean from now on and live up to my family standard of how a room should be.

This week I will be talking about my school life so far. It has almost been a month since the new school year has started, and I want to share what I have learned so far.

In my first subject, Music, we have begun to play music in two groups. The teacher usually splits the class into groups intermediate and beginner. The intermediates go to a separate room to do their own thing while the teacher attends to the beginners. As I have stated in a previous blog, I got put into the viola section. Some upsides are the small group size. In the class, there are only four viola players, not including me. The three remaining classmates are intermediate players, which is helpful because I can ask for advice, and they seem like nice people. However, due to the small size and the fact I’m a beginner, all eyes are on me if we screw up.

My second subject, Careers seems more laid back than my other classes. I find this strange, considering Careers is a mandatory class I must take. So far, Careers is the only subject where I haven’t received any homework. We have learned about stress management and interview skill. However, we have some weird moments in the class. Once, we spent 45 minutes playing Jenga as a class bonding exercise. Just yesterday, our teacher was away, but now substitute showed up. The absence of any teachers left the class to their own devices.

The third subject, Construction Technology is the most fun. Currently, the class is building small trinket boxes. The box is almost finished and is expected to have it completed by next Friday. Along the way, I have learned how to use all sorts of power tools. Some equipment I learned how to handle are the chop-saw, band-saw, planer, and jointer. One trend in the class is, if the teacher is away we do nothing. The reason for this is safety, the substitute teachers I’ve had so far are not certified to use the power tools in the shop. Without a Construction Technology teacher, the class spends most of our time doing homework from other subjects.

Finally, my last subject Media Arts is the most boring in my opinion. In the entire first month, we have begun to learn how to use photoshop, we learned about the principals of media arts, and we have learned about colour theory. On the subject of colour theory, I have a quiz on Monday about it. One of the few upsides to media art is that I’m with my friends. Compared to the other subjects, I recognize many people in my Media Arts class. However, as I have previously stated, I’m just waiting for the animation unit.

Overall, the first month of high school is more or less what I have expected. The only exception to this is Careers being very laid back. I like Music, but the transition to the new instrument is hard while Media Arts is boring. The only subject I enjoy 100% right now is Construction Tech. However, that doesn’t mean I hate my subjects. In the end, I hope I have a fun year.

This week I’m am going to talk about A concert I went to last week. Last week, my family received two tickets from a family friend. Each ticket apparently cost $68 and it would be a shame not to use them. Out of the four people in my family, mommy and I were the ones interested in classical music. Although, even though I went with mommy I was still very reluctant. In my opinion, I would rather stay at home and listen to music than going to a concert. In the end, I agreed because of the high ticket cost and the fact I liked classical music.

After the almost 1 hour drive, mommy and I arrived at the concert hall. When we entered the building I was in for a surprise. This concert that I was dragged into wasn’t even a professional concert. Out of the 33 performances, only 4 were done by professionals. At this point, I was quite disappointed with the concert. Before the concert actually started, I was still shocked that a children’s concert cost $68 per ticket. When the performances finally started, I just tried to enjoy the performances. Most of the performances were done well. However, the technical crew ruined every single vocal performance because of the microphone settings. Still, the microphone problems were trivial compared to the audience. Daddy says I have a phone addiction but I’m nothing compared to the crowd. During each performance, there were at least 5 people on their phones. At its peak, I counted 8 people on their phones. 5 were on Wechat, 2 were playing games, 1 had to pick up a phone call, and I haven’t even included all of the people talking and taking videos. All of this happened after we were informed to turn on silent mode and not to take videos.

Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy the concert. I felt I could have been more productive at home then spend 3 hours in the concert building alone. Then again, I was that enthusiastic about the concert, to begin with. I feel bad for anyone who showed up and had high hopes for the concert. In the end, I never had a high expectations but the technical crew and crowd kind of ruined it for me.

This week, I will talk about how I go through my day and find out what I take for granted. On a normal day, I usually get out of bed at 6:30 am and I’m able to this because of my phone. Without my alarm, I would most definitely oversleep. After waking up, I would brush my teeth and wash my face. Next, I would go down and eat my breakfast. I would say, I am grateful for the people who grow, make, and sell the bread. This is because I have white bread on a daily basis. If I didn’t have my bread, I would need to spend a lot more time making my breakfast. After breakfast, I go to school but not before picking up my lunch, made my mommy. During the entire school day, I would say I’m am grateful to the teachers there. Every day, the teachers teach us new things to prepare up for society. Without the teachers, I wouldn’t have the education I have now and that’s something I take for granted. When I walk home, I also take for granted the roof over my head. Without the house, I would probably freeze to death or get soaked in the rain. After entering the house, I go to my room and work on my homework. At around 6:30, I get called for dinner. The two last people who I am grateful to are my parents. I’m grateful to my parents for providing me with an food, home, and an education.

After writing this blog, I have learned I take a lot of things for granted. I have learned to be grateful for the food and shelter I get. I have also learned to be grateful to the people who work hard every day to provide these goods. So, I would like to thank the farmers, the builders (who built the house), the teachers, my parents, and all the other people who support me.

This week, I will be talking about my first week of school as a grade 10 student. Unlike the previous year, there was no orientation. This meant my first week of school was only three days. Since I felt three days was a bit short, I will also talk about some of my second week experiences.

When I got to school at around 9:00 on Sept 10, I went to my supposed homeroom. Unfortunately, my first class was music. Unlike my other classes, none of my friends were in this class. However, although none of my friends were there, I saw a few former classmates. During first period homeroom, we did a class bonding activity. This was very strange for me. For the last 11 years of schooling, The students always introduced themselves on the first day. At the end of homeroom, we picked up a few sheets to sign. The rest of the day would be repeats of period one, introductions or activity and collecting sheets. Unlike period one though, I had some of my friends in the other periods. In period 2 careers I was with Gordon, period 3 construction technology I had Gordon again and Edward, and finally period 4 media arts I was with Jacky and Aaron.

Things didn’t get interesting until day 3. On the third day of school, we started selecting our instruments in music class. Most of the class already knew what instruments they wanted. However, since I had no idea what were instruments there, I tested out a few instruments. By the end of the day, I tried out both the double bass and viola. I ended up choosing the viola, because it was lighter and in my opinion easier to play. After picking the viola, I also found out there were zero double bass players and two fulltime viola players. This was surprising because although most of the class were veterans from last year, there were still quite a few new players. Since there were so few double players, I thought the teacher would try and persuade some people to switch. Most of the second week was spent getting the new players familiar with their new instrument.

For second period, we are still in the beginning stages. We were given a course package, and begun learning this thing called I.C.E (Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship). Most classes began with a game or some sort of class bonding activity. This might be because our teacher, Mr.Sit seems like a very easy going guy. However, we are still moving through the course package and are ahead of the other careers class. In my opinion, Period 2 is when all the interesting stuff happens. Just today, our 10 minute class bonding activity, took 25 more minutes than expected.

I find period 3 the most fun. However, the entire first week was taken up with safety videos and how to read a ruler. At the start of the second week, we began our first project. The project in question was creating a handmade trinket box. I found it very fun cutting the wood and learning what all the machines did. However, I was slightly scared that I could lose a finger during class. Although this class won’t help me find a job, I think its fun and the skills I obtain might be useful in the future.

Period 4 is not as interesting as the other classes, but I hope it will later on. Currently, we have created a poster, created a powerpoint, and watched a movie. So far, this class feels very similar to grade 9 computer technology. The thing the caught my eye at the beginning was the animation unit and is what I will be looking forward to in this class.

Overall, although these weren’t my ideal courses, I think I will still enjoy this semester. Music is fun and although I rather take ICS or computer tech, music it isn’t bad. Careers is a mandatory course and I don’t really have an opinion on it yet. Construction technologies is a very fun course, but it won’t get me into a university or get me a job. Finally, media arts is my final course and although it isn’t what I expected I hope it gets better. In the end, the courses I got weren’t what I originally wanted. However, I won’t let that fact make this year any less fun than grade 9.

This week, I will be talking about the marriage between my uncle, Steven, and his fiancé Naomi. In this blog, I will talk about the day of the wedding and the days leading up to it.

Before going to the wedding, we visited our relatives in Pembroke. We stayed in Pembroke for three nights, then we moved to my aunt’s condo the night before the wedding. Before leaving to the wedding venue, I changed into my formal attire. I personally don’t like formal attire at all. I think formal clothes are expensive, limit movements, and uncomfortable. Fortunately, I was allowed to wear a T-shirt instead of the shirt that came with the suit. After changing into the clothes for the wedding, we left for the wedding venue.

When I stepped out of the car, the first thing I felt was hot. It was around 30º and I was very grateful that we would spend most our time inside the country club building. Unfortunately, the actual ceremony would happen outside. The ceremony was very nice, there were flowers, there were the rings, the vows, and a kiss at the end. The only thing that would’ve made it better, in my opinion, would be the weather. When we went back inside I sat on a couch until dinner time.

Soon, dinner time came. When the doors opened to the dining hall, I immediately went over to our table. After a few minutes, all the people were seated. I was placed with a few cousins, uncles, and aunts along with my family. After the first speech was made by uncle Simon, we got our first dish which was a salad. Although I didn’t like the salad, it would be our only green vegetables for the night. Soon another speech was given, and the next dish arrived. The new dish was some sort of pasta, it contained regular pasta and stuffed pasta. I really enjoyed the stuffed pasta because it just melts in your mouth. I remember having something very similar at a previous wedding. After most of the guests finished their 2nd dish, the final 3rd dish arrived. The final dish was a wonderful steak. After eating the steak, I was really full. After the three course meal, the bride and groom had their first dance. Uncle Rob and his band also played a few tunes. While the music was playing, a bunch of people jumped onto the dance floor. While people where dancing I was on my phone. I’m not really into dancing or really loud pop music. I soon left the dining hall for the lobby because it was quieter and comfier. I spent the rest of the night on the couch while the guest partied. Once it became 1:30, we had to leave because my grandfather was getting grumpy.

Overall, I actually liked the wedding. The food was great and for once nobody asked me to get up and dance. My favorite dish was definitely the steak because it was so juicy and tender. I felt this was one of my better wedding experiences I have had. The only thing that could have made it better, would be if the temperature was cooler. I also felt this wedding was a lot shorter or maybe it’s just me. In the end, I hope the next wedding I attend, will be just as good.

This week I will talk about my summer school experience. I have made a previous blog on my thoughts about summer school. However, this week I will talk about my first week of summer school.

Luckily summer school started on a Wednesday so I will only talk about three days. On Wednesday, I went to school and went to the cafeteria to find my homeroom. After finding my homeroom on the first floor, I entered the room. To my surprise, there was someone I knew. After I greeted Jason, I sat down beside him and waited for the class to start. First, we got these green tag. The tags lets the staff know we are attending summer school. Without a tag, we would be asked to leave. At the first break, I learned Jacky was also taking summer school but in a different class. After the first fifteen minute break, I returned to class. Since it was the first day, there wasn’t much work. However, what scared me was that we would get our first assignment on Thursday and a test next Thursday. After learning that, I got a feeling summer school is going to be rough.

On the second day, I forgot my tag. In the last paragraph, I said it was very important. On the second day of summer school, I already forgot it. Luckily, I remembered on my way to school. With fifteen minutes left, I sprinted back home. After retrieving the tag, I asked mommy for a ride. When I got to school, I was one minute from being late. That experience had taught me not to leave the tag behind again. For the rest of that day, my legs had a lot of pain. That day we also got our assignment, it was a group report. There were four topics Homefront, Battle, Technology, and Person. Each member had to pick a topic to do a report on and I chose Technology. The rest of my group was Jason, Sohom, and Yusuf. I already know two of them from school the last is a new person I met. The Friday was the most boring because it was a work period day.

In the end, I am not enjoying the summer school experience. It is very stressful knowing I will have assignments and tests every week. The only highlight is that I met new people but that’s it. I’m jealous Kalen gets to stay home while I walk 1.5km when it’s 32 degrees outside(no shade). Overall, I’m looking forward to no summer school and I’m counting down the days.

This week, I will talk about my future plans for summer vacation. Summer vacation is now 3 days away. I originally wanted to spend the first few days playing some video games. However, Kalen, mommy, Darcy and I will be going to the cottage on Thursday. I am not sure what I want to do when I arrive. Most likely, I will just end up on the couch playing video games. I will probably also end up fishing on the boat at some point. I would also like to finally finish the light novel I have been reading for half a year.

After our return from the cottage, I will have around 33 days before my summer gets interrupted by summer school. I have already covered summer school in a previous blog, so I will not cover it in this one. During the time outside summer school, I hope to play a lot of games with my friends. Some games we will probably play are BDO, CSGO, and possibly Borderlands 2.

In the end, this summer I will just end up playing video games and going to summer school. I will also have a wedding to attend at the end of the break. I don’t mind going to a wedding, but I dislike the required clothes. Overall, I doubt this summer vacation will be exciting but it is a break from school.

This week, I will talk about my first Black Desert Online. I previously talked about the game in another blog. However, due to the launcher, I wasn’t able to play. After a few months, I just had my first BDO experience last weekend.

The first thing I realized when I opened the game, was the huge character creation. If you wanted to create your ideal character, you could do it in BDO. You could change any part of the body. For example, if you wanted skinny arms and thicker thighs you can do it.

After the long character creation, I finally entered the game. The first thing I noticed was the amazing graphics. Normally, MMOs have not as good graphics as single player games. For example, Tera’s graphics aren’t as good as Skyrim’s or Fallout’s. After a few quests, I also realized the skill system was very different from traditional MMOs. Instead of using keys to activate a certain skill, BDO uses a combination of W, A, S, and D while holding down the LMB. I found this system very intuitive and easy to use. However, over time the combos became harder to remember. This system also makes me wonder how mages cast spells. I use a melee class, so the new system was very easy. However, a magic caster usually remains stationary when casting. This means you could move and cast or the spells constantly gets interrupted. I personally haven’t played a magic casting so I don’t know.

In the end, I have been having a great time. I have been focused on leveling so I can catch up with my friends. In one day I managed to get to 42 in one day. Meanwhile, my friends are in the 50+. Overall, I hope to catch up with my friend soon.