Essays and Book Reviews by Mitodoteira

Climbing in the dark

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:15:38 GMT

Last Sunday was overcast and rainy. We went to the San Francisco city beach under the Cliff House. We got there almost at sunset. We were hoping to get there at low tide to get into a certain cave only accessible when the water is low. The water was too high and the low tide would come only at 9. We wandered around the beach. The waves were large and loud. We couldn't climb the rock face itself, because the water was too near it. We went to the remains of the an old fort which was build to protect against the Japanese invasion which never came. We crossed the broken down concrete walls there all the metal was rusty and the concrete was crumbling. The place smelled salty and dusty. Tunnel on the other side had a hole in the wall. When the tide was high enough the waves would hit it so strongly your ears will get numb from the pressure change. It was misty and dark in the tunnel, and we used my flashlight to avoid the puddles in the sand over the concrete floor. At the other side the tunnel opened to the sea side, and the dim evening light was shockingly bright after the darkness of the tunnel.

Back on the seashore, the cave entrance was still under water. We wandered around. The climbed the side of the cave under the Cliff House. The rock was cold, rough, and slightly moist, and build out of grays. Part of the beach wall next to the cliffs is made out of smaller rocks you can see and concrete. It is about 70 degrees incline and 40 feet tall. It has lots of handholds and footholds and easy to climb. The rocks in the wall were rather brightly colored, and you could see some color. The wall felt grippy, like large grain sandpaper. The wind was howling and waves crushed loudly. If I opened my mouth, I could taste the salt in the wind. I was excited. At the top of the cliff, there was a thin concrete walk and a three foot high concrete fence separating the drop from sidewalk and the parking lot.

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:09:09 GMT

Convection Experiment

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We did an experiment with convection. We filled a glass to the brim with water. We made sure the water was still. Then put drops of ink on the suface. They slowly circled down to the bottom of the glass in the shape of a octopus (actually more like a dectopus) with a tentacle in the middle. Each tentacle had a drop of ink on the end of it. It looked like far to much ink for one drop. As the ink and water began to mix, the ink slowed down. At some point the ink drops balanced buoyant and the ink stopped falling. Colored ink fell faster than black ink because it has higher density than water.
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Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:55:40 GMT

Egg Experiment

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Egg shells are made of mostly calcium carbonate (95-97%). Calcium carbonate is the same mineral as marble and chalk. Calcium carbonate can be dissolved in acetic acid. To prove this is true we put an egg in vinegar.

We put an Large brown egg in regular kitchen white vinegar (~5% Acetic acid). First it got covered in bubbles. After a few days the shell was gone.

The bloated egg is not-quite-smooth but it's even. It feels like tiny grain sand-paper, or maybe like the skin of a ten-inch shark. It smells strongly of vinegar. It is a dirty-ish mellow yellow color with the yolk sort of peeking thru.

The egg had swollen to 200% its original size. To calculate how much the egg got bigger I measured its volume. I used a plastic cookie container to make a measuring cup. I taped a strip of sticky paper onto the side, and used a 50ml testing tube, which was too small to measure the egg directly, filled my container, marking every 50 ml. I put in a raw large brown egg in a shell in the measuring cup its volume was 50 ml while the volume of the bloated,shell-less egg was 100 ml. The weight of a L brown egg is about 65g, the weight of the bloated egg was 100.

The egg gets somewhat cooked by the vinegar so the skin is a little tother than in a "raw" egg

The egg enlarged twice in volume, but it weight got bigger only by half. This may have occurred either because my measurements were inaccurate or because the density of the egg has changed as well as its size. I think scales were more accurate than measuring cup. I believe the density has changed, because the difference is too large, even if my measuring cup was not very accurate…
Measuring cup with normal egg:

Measuring cup with bloated egg:

Egg covered in bubbles:
The measuring cup:

Rose Windows

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:25:39 GMT

Rose Windows are a feature of Gothic architecture. Gothic architecture began around 1120 in continental Europe. Rose windows are made out of colored glass pieces, held together by lead bars. They make symmetric geometric designs. They have both mirror and rotational symmetry. They can have 6,8,12,16 or even 24 stone-framed spokes. The stone frame is called "tracery"

To tint glass, craftsmen added minerals to melted sand.geology.com/articles/color-in-glass.shtml lists some of the mineral pigments:

Cadmium Sulfide: Yellow
Gold Chloride: Blue-Violet
Manganese Dioxide: Purple
Nickel Oxide: Violet
Sulfur: Yellow-Amber
Chromic Oxide: Emerald Green
Uranium Oxide: Fluorescent Yellow, Green
Iron Oxide: Greens and Browns
Selenium Oxide: Reds
Carbon Oxides: Amber Brown
Antimony Oxides: White
Copper Compounds: Blue, Green, Red
Tin Compounds: White
Lead Compounds: Yellow
Manganese Dioxide: A "decoloring" agent
Sodium Nitrate: A "decoloring" agent

I tried to make a rose window myself:

Pictures of real Rose Windows:

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:10:11 GMT

My grandpa came to visit recently. He lives in Russia, so I only see him about once a year. He took me along for a hike in the hills around here.

We hiked up a hill. Instead of trying to find a road up, we scrambled directly up the hillside, through the slippery new green grass, mud, and old straw.

On the way there I found a deer antler. I think, it is a deer antler, because it is shaped like a deer antler and about the right size. At first, we thought it could be an oddly shaped stick, but later we found out it was an antler. The bottom of it had small notches all around and remnants of the dried up soft pad that used to attach it to the animal's head. The tips were rounded, smoothed and looked finished. If it were a branch, they would be broken or very thin, where a leaf could be attached. It is much harder than wood, and weighs more than a stick this size would - as much as a large book. I think the deer who shed it was three years old, because it has three points. The first stretch of the antler (maybe, a trunk of it?) is somewhat curved , round and about an inch and a half in diameter. When it splits in two pointed branches, one of them splits again into two small round tips. The entire antler is a little over a foot long and half a foot between tips of the branches. It is warm dirty white with darker wrinkles. It's general texture is smooth, but it got notches and ridges. The tips are more rough, like large grain sandpaper. When the antlers are on the deer, they are brown. This one was probably shed last February. I think they get whitened from exposure.

Antlers and horns are different: antlers fall off every year; horns stay on the animals head and grow all its life. Rams,bulls, and goats have horns. Deer, elk and moose have antlers. Female deer can also grow antlers, but not always, and they are very small or deformed (or both).

There was a reservoir and a great veiw at the top of the hill. Turned out there was a road leading up the hill. We came down the road, and almost got lost on the way home. Everybody liked my antler.

the story of salt (mark kurlansky)

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:47:34 GMT

Salt (NaCl) is the only mineral that we can eat. Everything else was once alive or produced by something alive. We (all mammals) need salt. We need sodium ions in salt for our cells to function. Food can be preserved by salting. We need salt to live. We use salt in technology. Those who controlled the salt trade had power. Right now USA is the greatest producer of salt.

Early hunters didn't need to think about salt because there is salt in the blood of animals. When people began to settle in one place and farm they needed to get salt elsewhere. One of the places to find salt are dried salt lakes. Herbivores normally find them before people. Early farmers probably tamed animals by giving them salt.

The most plentiful source of salt is the ocean, but ocean water needs to be boiled for hours and fuel is very expensive. A solution is to put seawater in ponds, though it can take a year to evaporate. They do so in the south, where there is more sun.

The Chinese got salt from underground springs. The water in them is much saltier than the water in the ocean so it takes less fuel to boil it out and is not as expensive.

Another source of salt is rock salt. Most rock salt is very pure. There are rock deposits under USA, Spain, Poland and many other places. Rock salt is beautiful. Each salt mine is unique, some black, some red, some striped, some pure white.

The ancient Chinese emperors would control the price of salt to raise money: salt paid for the great wall of China and the Chinese army, but people did not like paying such big money for salt. Many Chinese emperors made themselves unpopular by overcharging for salt.

For the long time the Romans controlled the western part of the Old World and salt was their key to power. Roman cities were often built near salt works. The Romans believed that everyone should have salt. It was normally served in a seashell, but if a rich man was having a party he would serve it in a silver bowl. Roman emperors tried to control the price of salt and keep it down to make people happy. Sometimes they taxed salt to raise money for army, and sometimes gave it out for free to gain public support.

French prisons were so horrible that many prisoners died before trial. So they were preserved with salt and kept until their court day. One poor criminal was kept salted for seven years before his case was dropped and he was buried.

The French king Louis XIV raised salt taxes so outrageously that people began to smuggle salt, and many were put to death for salt smuggling. Salt taxes were among the reasons for American colonies to rebel. Search for salt and rewards for establishing saltworks helped independent America grow.

For the long time India was ruled by Britain. Britain forbidded the local manufacture of salt and made locals to buy expensive English salt. A man called Gandhi said he would walk to to Dandi on the Arabian sea and make his own salt there.

In the middle of 19th century people found that salt domes indicate the presence of oil. Turned out that salt was plentiful underground, and so was oil.

I liked the book. I found that in this book it was salt that controlled lots of other things, but in another book that was gold, and in yet another it was cod. It sounds like the author makes whatever topic he is writing about to be super powerful.

Five Senses on a Turkey Feather

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:02:17 GMT

Sight: Shaped like a long knife, it is striped like a zebra.

Smell: It smells warm and fuzzy, or maybe better described as grandma smell plus almond smell minus most of the strength.

Taste: It PROBABLY tastes like hair but I'm not gonna find out because I'll get sick if I stick it in my mouth.

Hearing: If you run your finger along it, it sounds like someone slipped while running on a plastic floor in shoes.

Touch: It feels soft and smooth, but stiff

I got these feathers on a hike at the reservoir:

Photosynthesis: notes about a book.

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:25:22 GMT

The vital process: Photosynthesis by Jeffrey J.W.Baker

The Greeks thought plants eat dirt. It seemed logical, there were lots of roots in the ground, some have food in them. But where do plants get their food? 2000 years later Van Helmont thought that if plants got their nutrition from dirt, then the dirt would be losing matter. Van Helmont conducted an experiment to test that plants eat dirt: he put a 5-pound willow tree into a 200-pound pot of dirt. In five years he dug up the tree and weighed it again: it had gained over 160 lb while the dirt lost only 2 ounces. Since the only thing Helmont had added to his willow pot was water, it seemed logical to believe that plants eat water.

Actually, his willow was also exposed to air and sunlight, but he didn't realize they mattered. One day a man called Grew looked at the surface of a leaf through his microscope and saw tiny pores. Grew wondered what they were for. First he thought they were for letting out sap, like perspiration. But he considered a second possibility: that pores were for taking in air. Stephen Hales tested this idea. He took two pots with soil, covered them with inverted glass vessels, and put a mint plant in one of them. When he used a syphon to raise water level in the vessels. When he watched the water level for two month. Any difference in water level would mean that plant does something to the air. The water level in a vessel with the plant was higher. It meant that the plant was taking something out of the air. Eventually, the mint plant died. Hales put another mint plant in the same jar (without letting any air in), and it died in several days.

Next was Englishman Priestly. He put a burning candle in the inverted glass vessel, and it shortly extinguished*. He also discovered that a mouse would also die soon under the glass vessel. He also found that a candle wouldn't burn in the container there mouse have died, and a mouse wouldn't live in the container there candle went out. He thought that both mouse and candle "damaged" the air. He thought that mouse "burned" in some way. He wondered how we can still breathe the air after all these thing who breathed for thousands of years and all these fires burning all over the world. Something should be repairing the air.

He found what it was: he placed a string of mint under the inverted jar, but it didn't die. When he placed a candle, and when a mouse in the same jar with a plant. The candle burned and the mouse lived. A man called Jan Ingenhousz repeated Priestly's experiments and found that Priestly was correct but that plants could only clean air in the light. Ingenhousz dicovered that in the dark plants also dameged the air.
Ingenhousz also found out that only the leaves and young stems could fix the air. Ingenhousz wondered what did they have in comon that the rest of the plant doesn't. He guessed right: they were green.

Priestly tried putting a mouse and a plant in an airtight vessel: they lived. Further experiments found that plants use Carbon dioxide. The formula is (CO2)+(H2O)+light-->+green substance=glucose+O2
...TBC...

*We (Clem, Rafie, and I) did that experiment with another candle in the open air for control. We repeated it ten times to make sure we got it right.

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:12:35 GMT

I wasn't blogging all summer. We had a co-op today. I had Latin, Radio lab and Shakespeare "reader's theatre": we were reading "Midsummer Night's Dream" aloud.

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:15:29 GMT

I read a book called "Troll Fell" by Katherine Langrish.

Peer's carpenter father just died, at his funeral Peer is token away by "Uncle" Bulgar the Troll Fell miller. Uncle Bulgar has a twin brother named Uncle Grim. Peer makes fiends with a girl called Hilde and nis (house spirt) called Nithing. Peer discovers his uncles wicked plan to sell a matching pair of human beings to trolls for a wedding. Later he runs away and find out that Bulgar and Grim kidnaped Hilde's twin brother and sister, Sigurd and Sigrid. Together Hilde and Peer rescue them. In the end Peer gets adopted by Hilde family.

May in one entry

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:11:29 GMT

I did the math STAR-tests of grade, 4, 5, 6 and the English STAR-tests for grade 4, 5. I think I did ok on everything but 5th grade English: I had only 92/114 correct. Some of it I didn't know and some I don't know how I managed to get wrong!

I went to see a performance of the beautiful ballet Swan Lake. Our ballet school company performed in Lesher Center. I went there all alone, but I found a friend from my ballet class and sat with her. It was beautiful performance, and they made it very expressive with no words. I hope I'll be a part of this performance some time. Actually, I can try for Nutcracker in two years if I stay with this school. And our class has performance this Saturday! I am very excited about it, and I think know my part. At least I remember every step and intervals and pauses.

My archery class is over. I don't know if I want to do more next fall... Probably it was just too hot during the last class.

I wish I knew the keyboard so I don't have to look at it to type.

We (all our family and my grandma) went to Maker Fair last Sunday.

Race N' Shoot: balsa ships with RC were shooting painted ping-pong balls in the ring.

Victorian House: an odd-looking small mobile house with a ladder to the roof and a lot of barometer and clock faces glued to the walls. Some people attending it looked like pirates from Miyazaki's movies.

Life Size Mousetrap: a huge contraption like a board game "mousetrap" that used 50lb pound metal balls instead of marbles.

Western Warship Combat: balsa scale models of WWII warships shooting each other with small metal balls. One of the ships sunk!

Posables: Something between a construction toy and a sculpture.

Underwater Robots: bots with a camera and a light. They could float or dive, go forward, and turn. There was a display you could watch when operate robots.

Breathing Bottle Veil: a 30ft tall tube net made out of plastic bottles.

String Baby: a kind of marionette with mechanical transmission. You have to put your fingers into the rings and pull them to make it move.

Bike-A-Go-'Round: a merry-go-'round with a bar high up, from which two bikes hang. They are re-made to turn the merry-go-round: you have to to have a partner those weight is similar to yours and two of you pedal these bikes. There is some transmission from pedals to the central rod. I could not find a partner for a long time but after a while I found a boy called Christen who agreed to go with me.

We talked about algebraic expressions. I had to solve some problems with no numbers, like this:

A car leaves town A for town B with velocity a. The distance between towns is D. How long would take for the car to reach B?
t=D/a
Car leaves A with velocity a, and at the same time another car leaves B with velocity b. How long would it take for the cars to meet?

t=D/(a+b)
Car with velocity a leaves A and goes for some time td. Car with velocity b leaves B (before another car reached it). When will cars meet?
t=D-a*td/(a+b)+td

I did a part of the book "Insides, outsides, loops and lines". It has some geometry and some topology in it, and regular patterns. It looks like a coloring book, but actually contains a lot of math. I love it. Turns out you need only 4 colors to color any map. Also, we talked about topology. From topological point of view, the saucer is the same as a glass or marble, and a cup is the same as a bagel or a planter pot or a toilet paper core, or a DVD. Hard to believe. A teapot or a kettle is like a pair of glasses with no lenses. Or like a backpack with to handles (if you open the backpack so it doesn't have inside). A milk jar is like figure 8 (solid) or backpack again. Mom says a person is a bagel as well, but it's silly, and complicated.

I started to read "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austine. I don't see what so interesting about it yet. It is #2 on my list, I guess it should be good.

I keep reading my grammar book.

We camped in Stanislaus National Forest. I helped to rise the tent, and we started a camfire several times. One time we used no matches, because the coal was still hot enough to light pine needles. We saw how the wood wouldn't burn until it was all dry, and would give only vapor, and when it is dry it ignites all at once. We heard bears a lot and decided to leave sooner than we planned. We went to Yosemity National Park and climbed down to the creek under the waterfall.

My brother Yakov is homeschooling now, too.

We watched the "Golden Compass" twenty times or so. I liked the movie, but got bored of it because my brothers couldn't stop watching it. I think the movie follows the book, but simplified in some spots. Ma Costa was exactly like she should be. Lyra was good. I was surprised that Mrs Coulter was black-haired in the book, and in the movie she was blond, and I think she was very good. I thought Farder Coram shuold have been thinner and looked more sickly, and John Faa should have been imposing in different way. Iorek Byrnisson was very good, and I think Gandalf's (Ian McCallen's) voice was right for it. I actually liked Iorek in the movie better than Gandalf inthe movie. My parents drive me crazy by repeating at odd times "AND I AM AN ARORED BEAR!!!" with deep voice. I respond "And I am Serafina Pekkala, the clan queen!". I like the witch in the movie. I like Asriel: he looks normal, but he is very strong and goes on doing what he started. But I thought Stelmaria should have been more graceful. I was disappointed with the snow leopard.

Also, I have got a new bike and named it Nymah. And a new bed, because our old bunk bed fell apart from all this jumping.

My mom helped me with typing

Mon, 11 May 2009 03:12:31 GMT

read book called East by Edith Potoow. Summery later.

Mon, 04 May 2009 06:35:25 GMT

Over the last 4 weeks, I did a lot but didn't write nuch. ACtually, I didn't write at all.

Had my STAR Tests (California Standard). Not much to say about them. I think they were quite easy. Met some people I knew and new people I liked.

Made an optical illusions sheet in CS3 photoshop:

I read a Pullman trilogy called "His Dark Materials" (#3 in my BBC book list)
Book I "The Golden Compass": An orphan girl called Lyra lives in a world were suddenly chidren start disappearing. They are stolen and taken North. At some point Lyra runs away to save her best friend who got caught. She met Gyptians, Panzerbjorne, witches and her mother and father, organized mass breakout of ths tolen children, but didn't save her friend. She actually got him killed.
Book II "The Subtle Knife" Lyra meets a boy named Will in another world, in an empty city of Cittagaze. Together they discover that there are other worlds. Will gets a knife so sharp it can cut windows between worlds and a soul from a body. Lyra's father plans a war against the God (who is like the God of Christian chuch).
Book III "The Amber Spyglass" . Lord Asriell fightes Christian God, and Lyra and Will go down to the land of the DEad to find her friend and say sorry. They cut a door for the dead to get out of that sad place and just become atoms and parts of everything else.

And I read two books witch are not part of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy but related to it.
"Lyra's Oxford": Lyra sees a witch's daemon and saves it from the birds attacking him; later she hardly avoids being killed by enemy witch.
"Once Upon A Time North": An aeronaut called Lee Scorsby lands in a small town in the North -and has some adventures.

I also read a Terry Pratchett's trilogy called "The Tiffany Books"

Book I "Wee Free Men" Tiffany is a 9 year old shepherd's daughter who wants to be a witch. She rescues her little brother from and evil fairy queen armed with a frying-pan and a book "Sheep diseases". Wee Free Men - little fierce drunk blue-skinned sheep-stealing warriors -- help her.

Book II "The Hat Full of Sky" Tiffany is attacked by a hiver (a sort of evil spirit that dose not exactly live or think but just grabbs and possess people). It makes Tiffany strong, but mean. She fights it (again with the help of Nac Mac Feegans).

Book III "Wintersmith": the spirit/god of winter is in love with Tiffany. She must fight it off, because it would make it winter forever.

And I read a history book called "The Story Of The World" by Susan Wise. Now I am at the story of the son of Eric the viking who discovered Canada.

I take archery classes on wednesdays 2:30-3:30. We had bull's-eye targets which were labeled 1-5. We shot 4 arrows at a time at 10, 20 and 30 yards. My hits: 10 yards: 2, 2, 1, 0 and 4, 3, 2, 0. 20 yards: 4, 0, 0, 0 and 3, 0, 0, 0. 30 yards: 0, 0, 0, 0. That is, 20 total and I earned the "15" badge! There is no "20" badge and "15" is the smallest. I had to iron it to a T-shirt, but I lost it and I will probably have to ask for another one.

Elli and me made an arch out of the hanging parts of willow branches at "art group meeting". ReChang (she is an artist) just said "lets have an art class". That time we met at "Lake Temescal" we all swung on the willow branches sometimes we took little enough for them to rip and then we used them in what we were making. We tried to make Goldsworthy-like something.

I made a bowl out of clay on a kick wheel. The wheel was like a wooden table connected to a bench, with 2 metal projections pointing to the horizontal middle of the structure, that have sturdy short tubes at their ends. The wheel itself a metal disc about 1 foot in diameter and 1" in thickness. There is a metal tube connecting the top disc to the bottom disc. The bottom disc is wooden, 3 feet in diameter and 1 foot thick. To spin the wheel you have to kick the lower disk with your feet. If one uses it they put wet clay on the top disc and spin the bottom weal with their feet so that they can make beter circles and smother spirals. The larger wheel is like lever in some way.

Went to co-op 3 times. We had a Russian tea party: everybody had to ask for tea and candy in Russia.
Pendulum Experiment: We hung washers on the end of strings and changed the length of the string until we got a period of 1 sec. Clem and I worked together on one, one of us would use an watch ad the other counted the periods if by the time 10 s. had passed the counter had counted 10 p. then the task was accomplished. Turned out the period didn't depend on how far you pull the weight aside and on the weight you use. Only the string length mattered. Paperclips had too much air resistance, we used washers. Turned out, the longer you measure, the more alike your measurements get.

See-saw experiment: we measured our weights and the distance we were sitting from the middle of the see-saw. We had to find how we shell sit on a see-saw to balance it. My weigh (pounds) times distance (inches) equals Clem's [lesser] weight (pounds) times her [larger] distance (inches). I cannot find my worksheet with actual numbers .

I skipped co-op one time to go to "Sailing Into Science" class.

Had a class called "Sailing Into Science" about Ecology Physics Mechanics and Sailing,
witch included rowing a "Wale Boat" (in team, two kids per oar, 12 oars), measuring how salty water was, bumping in "Paddle Boats", lifting my friend up on a pulley, capsizing a kayak. I was very wet and salty. They have special words for everything: the back of the boat is stern, the front is a bow, but the part that cuts the water is a prow, and all other parts and sides have their own names. The thing there you put an oar is a rowlock, and if you don't use a rowlock, it's not an oar, it's a paddle.

My two grandmothers and granfather visited us (not all at the same time). I couldn't go to my grandmother's birthday in LA because of STAR test. We went to Exploratorium with my grandfather. I was reading "Physics in cartoons" after that and made my Optical Illusions.

We went to Rock City to climb and watch. We caught (and released) lizards. They have blue tummies. The bluer the tummy, the more heroic is the male lizard. Also we sa tremites dropping thir wings and going in pairs like trains, and two sort of ants attacking them. The rock there is so soft wind and little soft sticks can cut it. We tried to open ant holes further to see ants better. We cought a stinky bug and hid in wind caves.

On ballet, we are practicing for the performance. Also, I camped with my friend's family in Salomon P. Teylor park in Devils Gulch. There was a wartefall and a great bay tree fallen across it. We played it was the pirate ship. There was some poison oak, not too bad.

Fayum portrait

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:56:36 GMT

This is my Fayum portrait work. I painted it with acrylic, but using Tempera technic. It means that my colors were not transparent and layers didn't blend (if I waited for them to dry which is the way to pait in Tempera technic). Actual Fayum portraits were painted in tempera or wax paint (encaustic). Wax paints are translucent, you can't paint over with them but they do not really blend at all. Fayum portraits were funeral masks generally painted on wood. Fayum Portraits are called "Fayum Portraits" because Fayum is an place in Egypt where most of them were found.

Fayum portraits were made in Egypt under Roman occupation and after the Greek influence. Tempera is Roman and Wax Paint is Greek. Also they used some of the Romans realism.

The Fayum Portrait Wikipedia article: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayum_mummy_portraits

Here are some real Fayum Portraits:

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:07:54 GMT

This is from class.georgiasouthern.edu/writingc/handouts/doublenegatives1.html

Double Negatives Worksheet

Negative words: no, not, nobody, nothing, none, never, hardly, scarcely, barely, only.
Using two negatives in the same sentence gives the opposite meaning,
but it does the job awkwardly. Avoid double negatives!
In these sentences, underline each correct word in parentheses..

1. She couldn’t eat (anything, nothing).

2. I didn’t see (nothing, anything).

3. We (could, couldn’t) hardly see through the fog.

4. She did not have (anything, nothing) to read.

5. I could not see (no, any) way to help.

6. I cannot find my money (anywhere, nowhere).

7. You (can, cannot) scarcely recognize her.

8. The children do not need (no, any) candy.

9. We barely had (any, no) money.

10. William (could, couldn’t) hardly wait.

11. Jim was not carrying (no, any) packages.

12. The tear in his shirt (was, was not) barely noticeable.

13. The lecturer did not say (anything, nothing) interesting.

14. Of all the cars I tried, I did not buy (none, any).

15. The baby (cannot, can) hardly walk yet.

16. Isn’t there (nothing, anything) you want for Christmas?

17. Haven’t you (any, no) size 10 dresses?

18. We did not meet (nobody, anybody) at Jane’s party.

19. I could not find my purse (nowhere, anywhere).

20. The wind was so strong I (could, couldn’t) hardly stand.

Quilt

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:44:00 GMT

This is the back of the quilt we are going to make. It is back-up because we pinned it together to sow it together. Each one of us had his own stencil and color, and we took turns printing it on the same piece of fabric. This is a quilt for my future cousin in Moscow.

Andy Goldsworthy

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:33:13 GMT

I just tried once and going to do more of it soon. These are some links to actual Goldsworthy movies:

www.artofproblemsolving.com/Books/AoPS_B_Recs.php

www.youtube.com/watch

Here are some images of what Goldsworthy did:

images.google.com/images

This is my try at Goldsworthy art:

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:07:39 GMT

Did

Score	90%
Right	9
Wrong	1
Seconds Per Problem	10.6

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:46:59 GMT

Here is the map of my trip.

View Larger Map

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:31:42 GMT

I did triplets in www.thatquiz.org:

Length: 100
Level: 12
Score: 95%
Right: 95
Wrong: 5
Sec per problem: 53

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:28:46 GMT

Тест на логическое мышление: 30 logical problems (in Russian).

It goes like this:
Shmudrik is afraid of mice as well as coackroaches. So:

Shmudrik isn't afraid of coackroaches
Shmudrik is afraid of mice
Shmudrik is afraid of mice, but more of coackroaches,

You have to pick the right conclusion out of three. I scored 15 out of the 15 I wanted to do.

Hiking from San Francisco to Los Angeles: equipment

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:23:30 GMT

A list of equipment for a hiking trip.

For two people:

(weight capacity: ~100 lb together)

2 person tent ( ~3 lb)
water, gallon bottle for each person ( ~20 lb together thats if one plans to go in civilized places where you can refill them)
clothing, pants including extra pants for both people ( ~3 lb), extra shirts (together ~1 lb) sweaters ( ~2 lb) (altogether ~6 lb)
Food,

2 person tent
sleeping bag(s)
water
food
spoon(s)
pocket knife(s)
matchbox(es)
extra clothing
cup(s)
bowl(s)
pot
waterproof boots
extra cold-wether clothing
walking stick(s)
water filter
foam pad(s)
map
binoculars
camera(s)

I need to calculate total weight of equipment to see how much food we can carry. Next, I'll plot the route and plan supplies.

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:18:20 GMT

Yesterday, we went hiking up the Deer Hill.
Today we went to the Mount Diablo. The weather was fair, but there was dust in the air, so we couldn't really see very far.
We saw a movie about rock formations in the visitor center. It said that part of the rock Mount DIablo is made of is made out of shells and sea creatures skeletons.
I made "shambols" out of pieces of string and grass. Shambols are witch's tools from Terry Pratchett's "Wintersmith" book I just finished.
After that I fenced with my mother and my brothers. We use foam swords, which don't hit hard. It is still rather scary.

Photoshop: animated button

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:34:54 GMT

Make an elliptical selection. Fill it with your choice color on a new layer.
Apply layer effects: bevel and emboss.
Select your shape, expand the selection by 10px and fill it with new color. Move the layer under your button layer.
Apply filter: add noise.
Duplicate the layer and re-add the same noise filter (this can be repeated many times.
Select your shape, make a new layer, paint a few random stars, do this at least 3 times.
Go under "window" go to "animation" and click.
Make one of the frame layers open while the others are closed do this with each one of the frame layers, in the same animation windows do the same with the stars.
Go to the topmost layer and go to the text tool, click where you want the text to be and wright whatever you want
Apply layer effects: bevel and emboss, stroke.
If you want it animated wherever you put it on the web when you go to "file" to save choose "save for web and devises" under "GIF".

Screen print

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:59:23 GMT

What to use:

screen (a strong wooden frame over which a nylon mesh is tightly stretched)
masking tape
fabric
old fabric you don't care for
squeegee (a hard thing with an edge)
paper
EX-acto knife and/or scissors
anything that draws best are probably pen / pencil / marker
iron (the kind you use to flatten fabric)
paint
spoon
little cup
tub of water

What to do

Prepare the screen, use the masking tape to: cut eight pieces of tape half as long as one length of the rectangular screen and the other half the length of the other. Tape the edges of the screen on both sides to protect it from the paint.
Prepare the stencil, take the paper cutting and drawing thing draw a picture REMEMBER YOU ARE GOING TO CUT IT OUT SO MAKE SURE YOU CAN if you are going to do lines to be cut out remember to make the lines thick. Cut the picture out.
Mix paint, take the little cup and mix the pain until you get the right color. Add some water, if needed.
Spread old fabric, blankets or towels you don't care for on the floor.
Put the fabric you are going to print on on top. I seem to be using a lot of personal pronouns.
Put the stencil where you want it, and the screen on top of the stencil mesh side down, carefully aligned.
Spread some paint over an edge of the screen.
Push down with the squeegee and spread the paint on the screen.
Carefully take of the screen and let the paint dry.
Wash the screen and leave it to dry
When the printed-on fabric has dried iron the parts you paint you want to keep, after the first wash you can iron it all, but the first wash will wash of everything that has not been ironed of so if you don't want some part of what ever you've printed DO NOT IRON IT.