I totally forgot about the trackwork during the long weekend. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but I had to go to the economics seminar today.

It was alright, but I was very tired.

Leaving was the hardest. On one of the streets that I walked past, the temperature was only -0.6°C, and then I had to wait for 10 minutes before the train arrived.

...and you can't spell smart without art either. Well, I've printed my "You can't spell smart without art" logo onto a t-shirt, and that's what I wore to school today. One teacher even told me that I should've done art after seeing it. Many of my classmates have said that to me before, but I think it's the first time I've had a teacher say that.

Assembly was cancelled, but I didn't get to sign out early this time.

The highlight of the day was after school. I went to see the opening of the "Art Expressed" show at the Ku-ring-gai Art Centre. There's a lot of variation in what people do for their HSC major work. There was a meaningful speech made by someone who's teaching there too. One quote I remember the most is "You can't have art without love".

It was such a coincidence that I was still wearing the t-shirt that said "you can't spell smart without art". I got the idea for the phrase from a maths teacher (who's not at my school anymore) who commented "What's a smart girl like Anne doing art for?" after being told that Anne was on an art excursion. I hope that wasn't serious.

What a good day! So what if the maths extension 1 assessment had a really difficult question in it?

Tuesday is early day, and as usual I go to school early for maths. Well, starting from next week it won't be like that any more! YAY! It's not hurry day for me either, because the class has been moved to Wednesday afternoon.

Surprisingly, the maths scientist is actually very picky about words. He picked on whether it should be "daylight saving" or "daylight savings", and I took the chance to mention RAS syndrome, and we had a great laugh about it.

Choosing to watch the Da Vinci Code movie during my spares probably wasn't such a good idea. I was watching a movie in faith class, so that involved staring at light, and then I watched the Da Vinci Code movie after school, and then I was lampworking in the evening. Normally it's bad enough with the solar flares, and then I was watching the two movies during the day. I think that's why I have a headache now. (Well, it might actually be the carbon monoxide, but if that's the case I'd be dead by now, right?)

The Da Vinci Code wasn't that good, especially since it's supposed to be suspenseful, and I've read the book so I knew the story. The good thing is that the scenery was beautiful, and just the fact that quite a lot of it was in French somehow made it a lot more interesting.

OK, I'm going to put my maths smileys up here. I've drawn them quite some time ago, but I've finally put them on a PNG image.

How many of these do you get? Post if you want the explanations.

Well, I drew a pair of mice arranged in the shape of a heart. As usual, I bring my sketchbook around with me to show people at school. One teacher was so used to me showing him stuff that he said "show me!" before I even had a chance to tell him that I have something to show him. Am I THAT predictable?

Of course, I show it to just about everyone, even the evil maths scientist. He asked me why I have so much time for these things. Somehow, I decided to tell him the story about how the people at the Thursday sculpture class asked me how I have time for anything when I do maths extension 2. Bad idea. I ended up getting another maths question from roll call. This one's a graph I have to sketch - that's what I get for showing him a sketch. Someone in year 11 said "A maths question the first thing on Monday morning? That's so cruel!" and he said "She loves it!" (may be that's the cruelest thing to say - what will the year 11 girls think?) - what kind of roll call is this?

The moral of the story: I should stay away from the maths scientist in roll call.

Today I saw my physics half-yearly paper. I got the same mark as the top person in the other class, although there are a few people in my class who got higher marks. The teacher commented about how the top person wasn't in the top class for science in year 10, and someone said that the classes weren't graded, and I mentioned how the classes were divided in the school I used to go to. The teacher then told me about the students in China, and I talked about how the systems are different, and I ended up mentioning that I'm in this year because they systems are different, and she asked me how old I am, and I told her, and she said "Oh, you're a baby!" - well, I am actually the youngest in my class, but Hannah's only 6 days older, and there are people in the year who are younger.

Well, if a teacher at school said that, then I don't know what the people at the art centre will say if they found out about my age. I was told that I'll have to hire the gas bottle and take it home because the tutor can't keep bringing all these bottles each time (it's very dangerous), and I'll need a credit card to make a deposit. I told her that I don't have a credit card, and she was shocked - there has never been anyone in her class that doesn't have a credit card because most people do. That was totally awkward. That said, I actually feel quite awkward in that class most of the time, because it's actually a very dangerous activity, and I sometimes think that I'm making it more dangerous for everyone else.

Well, since SOMEONE won't believe me when I told him how we put the hole in a bead, I had this photo taken as proof:

While I'm at it, here's a bead that I made last time (I couldn't take it with me last week because it hasn't cooled down yet and it needs to be in vermiculite to slow down the cooling, and I didn't have a bucket to take vermiculite with me):

My hand hurts because I've acidentally put it in the flame. (I know, that sounds ridiculous.) Yes, it's the glass bead making class. It's totally information overload. It was kind of funny when the teacher told us that ventilation is important when using torches to avoid the build up of carbon monoxide, because she used the example that if you connect a hose to the car exhaust and put it back in the car, you can kill yourself. Really, teaching us how to kill ourselves? Not that she was encouraging it, but still. As usual, I'm the one odd high school kid in the class that is mainly older people. No photos because the first bead that I made is totally uninteresting, and the second one hasn't cooled down enough for me to take home. This class isn't really that suitable for me, because I have trouble judging space and my hands aren't very steady. Really, the burn wasn't too bad. I was worried that something worse would happen.

I actually dressed up for the athletics carnival today, but a cheerleader costume isn't exactly interesting. It was noisy, and needless to say I hated that. What's more, the teacher telling me to join in with the cheering ignored my complaints about the noise, and he was the one who said that I can tell him if there's anything wrong. At least it was fun playing with my lasertemp. Someone's shoulder heated up to 40°C from the sunlight, while the teacher that I've just mentioned was actually cooler than the surroundings. I'm sure that something else must've happened, but I can't remember.

Guess what, it's another thing that I made.

This is what I've been planning since before the holidays started. It didn't take me too long to come up with this idea. The idea of making a necklace / bracelet that looks like a Möbius strip originally came from the time when I brought my DNA bracelet to maths class and the teacher thought it looked like a Möbius strip when I asked her if it reminds her of anything. Well, this one is really intended to look like a Möbius strip.

See, if you wear it as a bracelet, it looks like a Möbius strip. It says "PLEASE TURN OVER", but of course, you can't turn it over because Möbius strips are one-sided. It's a bit too long, so the letters don't always stay in place, but there is a reason why it's done like this.

This can also be worn as a necklace. When you cut a Möbius strip (which has one half-twist) along the middle, you get a longer and thinner strip with two half-twists. This, when worn as a necklace, is the strip with two half-twists. I think this looks more special when worn as a bracelet because that way you can actually see that it's supposed to look like a Möbius strip. The idea that this can be worn either as a bracelet or a necklace is good as an idea, but I'll have to say that it doesn't work very well.

First of all...
Happy birthday to Ashley and Joyce!

Hey, that's the second post in a row that started like that. Well, I don't have time to make anything this week because of the half-yearlies, but I have something planned. Actually, I've started on it, but I don't have time to finish it off... At least it's not another "finishing what I start vs. an assessment task" scenario.

he exams last week weren't too bad. The worst of all was the English listening task because we all crowded up in the stairway of ILC level three and it got noisy, and if you're reading this you probably know that noise from crowds make me nervous. The chemistry task was another one where I had half an hour left, and this time I almost fell asleep.

I've been told that I sound very happy even though there are exams. Well, the first week wasn't too bad. One exam per day and then I have the rest of the day to myself. What's not to be happy about that?

Of course, the worst is yet to come. Maths extension 2 on Monday, and then economics and physics on Tuesday. It'd be great if it's physics before the other two. At least I'll probably have some time to sleep at the end. xD

First of all...
Happy anniversary to Leighann and Thaddeus!
Happy birthday to Marty!

Well, Friday's the day where I have afternoon spares and still have to stay at school. Today I didn't feel like working during my spares so I started sketching the umbrellas that I normally sit under... That's just like me to do that - I have exams coming up next week, and I spend my spares drawing. xD (Guess which teacher totally encourages this. xDDD)

Of course, the good thing about sitting under the umbrellas is that there'll be people walking past and talking to me. The head of senior school decided to tell another teacher about my drawings. It was only on Wednesday when the maths scientist told her about it, and now she's spreading the message too.