Updates

That was rather long celebration, but I promised to share the news as soon as i was done, so... USA WON!!!! 2-zip. yay!

Today, at 12, was the Canada vs. France game and for the first time in the tournament a team scored more then 2 goals. France won, 4-0 (WOW) and it may not sound like it but Canada put up a good match. A debatable maybe off-side goal, a great shot by the same person, a header by Thiney (i think..?!) and a great beat-the-goalie-one-on-one score to end it up.

I missed the game before that (there are two games a day, one at 9, one at 12...usually) because my couz and my aunt are going to India (BYE GUYS! <3) and ya... sorry!

But the game I did see, France vs. Canada, were played by teams in the A group. The other two teams in that group are Germany and Nigeria. Germany played Canada in the opening game and won, so Canada's only chance to go farther in the tournament is for Nigeria to beat Germany, which, at this point, seems unlikely.

So from group A i am expecting France and Germany to continue. USA is in group C and they beat N. Korea, so i am also expecting them to continue too! Plus their the #1 team in the world right now!

Other updates will come soon!

Sabrina <333!

Oh ya, women's WORLD CUP!

Who? Usa Vs. North Korea. What? Game. When? NOW.

Watching the game and it's a great start! Updates on previous games are coming soon, but right now, Korea just got a foul...

So far, 0-0 and ... A great shot! It's a pretty awesome game and Korea's young players put up a good fight. Any other observations include: Abby Wombat got a HAIRCUT!!!! She looks different! But she still plays her game, thank God.

Go USA! I hope they win! I'll share the news as soon as I finish celebrating!

Sabrina

-------------- HALF TIME! ----------------------

It is half time, and the score remains zero zero! It's surprising because 10 people, TEN!, from N. Korea are teenagers!!!! ya, you heard me, not drinking age yet! And USA is the oldest team in this tournament. So oldest team vs. youngest team, plus USA title and #1 team in the world, and NO SCORE! Scary!!!!

Lots of shots and good defense, but the possession and shooting needs a little work. The defense is working well, and only slipped up a few times, and the offensive part is doing great but they need to range there shooting and not shoot at the keeper :) The main problem is the middle of the field is a little too congested and N. Korea likes it that way. It's harder to move the ball from the defense to the offence and the center mids aren't getting too many touches on the ball.

Hopefully the middle clears up and the full field can be USA dominated. Go USA!

Sabrina

Solar System

So few posts back I had my attempt at an example to explain the scale of the Earth to the Sun... an attempt. I do not consider my self as accomplished at that task. So now, in this GRANDER scale, I will probably fail even more grandly. I don't know if that was grammatically correct, but prepare to see another attempt at an example!

So... The Solar System! Big place! The Earth is a speck compared to Sun ladies and gentleman, so if you think your bad, your not! The Sun kills you in comparison! So say there's a basketball, aka the Sun. The basketball is placed on a football field. The speck, aka the Earth, is like, 60 yards away. 60! More then half way!

Now Jupiter, which is bigger and badder then the Earth, is a ping pong ball. Scary. And place that about THREE football fields away! Tres! So just IMAGINE that in your head. Small world we live in, eh? Understatement.

Because, Saturn, the Queen planet, ya, she's TWICE the distance of Jupiter. So when they say a place, far, far away, they mean Saturn. Or no, they could mean what's BEYOND Saturn too, but they could still mean Saturn.

And we all know... We all HOPEFULLY know the order of the planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and the debatable Pluto. Well, there's more to that in the Solar System. Yup. More!

There's the Kuiper Belt... or something like that, I'll look up the proper spelling later XD and it holds asteroids. And that's right outside the outer planets. Then outside that belt... eh, i'll continue later!

(As you can see, it is to be continued!)

Sabrinaaa <333

Soccer

I am so tired, so I'm not going to make my brain concentrate (not the orange juice people, THAT JOKE IS OLD!) on more videos right now. So how about a break, and me telling you what I did today.

So i woke up around 7:30 and got ready to go to this really fun soccer camp. It's this new team that's starting up in the Premiere division (one level up from travel i guess?! for those of you who don't know what that means). And it's coached by high level coaches and even though it's really fun doesn't mean it's not educational. I went there on short notice, the camp was monday-thursday w/ optional foot skills friday and i started on Wednesday, haha. And even in these 2 days i learned quite a bit.

This camp was co-ed from ages below 8 to 14 year olds. We played together at times, and we also split up into our age groups. It was REALLY fun. We had a girls vs. boys scrimmage yesterday.. We KILLED them! <333

The team is called One United and just was organized. I think it'll be a great club for those who are interested. They still need some players who have some soccer experience. I'll probably play with them too!

Sab.

Left Hand

Hey guys! As I told the world a couple of posts back, my life DOES consist of more then just Khan Videos :) so I'll tell you about my newest interest... Learning how to write with my left hand! I think it's really cool how some people can write with both hands, being ambidextrous, and thought "why can't I give it a shot?"

So the idea sparked when I was really sleepy and my right hand wouldn't co-operate. I sleepily picked up the pencil with my left hand instead and wrote a few things, and the hand writing didn't look half bad! By that I mean it didn't look like it came from a foreign language. It looked like it was a kindergartens scribble, but I could deal.

Then I really concentrated and started writing with my left slowly. Pressing harder helped because this way you could keep more control. Stupid left hand has a mind of it's own otherwise... Can't blame him, he's mad for not being used all these years.

So ya, I tried that and it worked! Looked sorta bloated thought, like it drank too much water and was expanding to the other lines like it couldn't handle being in that little space... I wonder if letters could be claustrophobic? Maybe that's why some letters always cross the line.

Anyways! Then I tried writing more and more sentences and the letters were cured! No more claustrophobia!

But the letters were deformed... I think I need to go to a letter hospital.

But for now, my wonderfully deformed letters will do! I'll keep practicing and by the end of the summer I'll be a pro B-) ... that's a lot to expect by the end of the summer. Learning so much from the Khan videos and learning how to write gorgeously with my left hand...

Oh well! I will do it! <3

Sab :) <3 XD!

Astronomy!

So the past few posts have been about biology because that's my favorite subject, but I got tired of watching only those videos, ESPECIALLY after watching that MIND BLOWING (literally) video about DNA.

So now we start with, ASTRONOMY!!!! Yay!!!! Woo-peeeii!!!! And other less dorky celebrating phrases!

So the first video was the scale of the Earth and Sun. And WOW the sun is huuuuugeeeee!!!! And I know, everyone says "The sun is way bigger then the Earth, cupcake." (imagine that in an old lady granny voice) ladidadala, and I'm like, OKAY, I'll go with that. But you REALLY need an example before you get the scale down in perspective.

So, it would be pointless just to repeat the examples he used in the video because you could just click on it and listen for your self. But! I can try to come up with my own examples with out my head exploding like yesterday!

So. Say the Earth is a bouncy ball... ya I think I could do this. Bouncy ball... and umm, Earth is a very NON-bouncy bouncy ball... wouldn't that just be a ball? You know what, Earth is a marble. okay? a marble. And say you place the marble on a ... soccer field. And the Sun is the goal. Oh, i faiiiiled at this example, lol.

LIGHT BULB! WAIT! I got a better idea!

OKAY! SO! The Sun is still the goal, but the Earth is the soccer ball! Now pretend the goalie, or if in real life, Green Lantern, took the ball/Earth and punted it across most of the field until it reached the top of the 18 on the other side, and that's where it landed.

So as you know, goals are generally way bigger then the ball, right? And the ball is really far away from the goal/sun. And there's a non-mind-blowing example of the scale of Earth to Sun! Well... it actually IS mind blowing as to think that the Sun is so much bigger then the Earth and how far we are from the Sun.

Some other things to know!

- Light travels super fast, but it takes 8 mins for the light to travel from the Sun to the Earth. So if the Sun spontaneously conbusted then ... well, we kinda would all die... so never mind! So say the sun's light went off, then we wouldn't know until 8 mins later!

- The Earth is about 40,000 KM in Circumference

- The Sun is 109X bigger in Circumference!

And did you know that a good bullet can travel about as fast as a jet? wow. XD about 280 Meters/second!

And that's it for now!

Sabrina!

DNA... jeesh

Well, I have got to admit, that video was a wee bit overwhelming! Like, a lot. :) And if I try to go through all the new concepts neatly and clearly this post may be longer then The Bible. So I'm going to have to smush things together and hopefully the concepts like each other and get along because they're just going to have to deal w/ being smushed.

Which video you ask? The Khan Academy Video about DNA...jeesh! I get confused just thinking about it! I didn't know DNA was capable of making me this confused. I just thought it made me me and left it at that. I tried going over the concepts I didn't understand, but after the 56th new concept I just kept what I got and hoped what I didn't get wasn't that important. And don't get me wrong, he did an awesome job of explaining DNA, but I just think it's too much to take in at once! :P

So, first things first, DNA is what makes us... us. I bet everyone has seen a picture of DNA before, those windy things that sorta looks like a Chinese staircase or a ladder. So say DNA is a Chinese staircase (not the bracelet type :P). The structure would be called a "Double Helix" and the stairs them self, the things you put your feet on and climb up, are made up of Guanine, Cytosine, Adenine, Thymine. Or for short, G, C, A, T. The letter corresponds to the first letter of the actual name of the molecule. So, G = Guanine.

Now, there are certain bonds with them. G bonds with C, and A bonds with T (and visa versa). These are the base pairs. So if the strand was,

GCATTGACCAGT

then the bonding strand would be

CGTAACTGGTCA

As you can see, the C is below the G symbolizing that the C bonds with the G and visa versa. Now, this much I have down, but now is when I get utterly confused and I really don't have the authority to teach or explain this because I'm just as clueless as half the people reading this. I got few concepts here and there but I'm probably going to have to sit down and watch the video again with my dad or mom and ask questions, because it's just too much information!

(for those of you who plan to watch the video, I encourage to do the same thing. Watch the video once even if you don't understand everything, and then go over the parts you're sketchy about w/ a parent and/or friend, sister, uncle/aunt etc.)

So now I'm going to say some concepts that I think I know for sure....

- It take about 3 Billion base pairs to make up someone... like you... or me... about 3 Billion base pairs.

- When the base pairs split up, (So say the example above, the strand and it's bonding strand, they split up, break up, they don't like each other anymore, they've moved on ) it can transcribe to something called a MRNA (and btw, DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid, so RNA would stand for the same thing w/out the "Deoxy" part in the front) and in a MRNA the Thymine molecule is now a Uracil. So in other words, where ever you would expect a Thymine you would get a Uracil. S0 A would bond with U now.

So for example the split strand was

ATGCTA

The MRNA strand would translate to this:

UACGAU

- Once the MRNA is transcribed (which takes place in the Nucleus) it detaches it self from the DNA strand and goes to a place outside the Nucleus called the Rybizones (i don't think that's how u spell that particular word, but that's how it sounds!)

Then some more stuff happens and that where my concepts get even more foggy. I really need to get my concepts cleaned up...

But i think that's a lot of information for now! Once I get my concepts cleaned, I shall share more about the dangerously confusing DNA we have in us.

And just some other fun facts!

- We have 23 pairs of Chromizones (I don't think that's how you spell that word either...).

- The 1st Chromizone is the longest. It has a TON of information! It has 220 MILLION base pairs!

- Girls are XX, guys are XY ...

Now my head hurts from all this information, confusion to the next level, so i am going to enjoy some meaningless television!

I hope i didn't give you a head ache!

Sab <3 :) XD!

As you may have noticed...

As you may have noticed I have few Khan Academy videos in my posts. I am going to do a LOT of those now, and just thought I'd let you know that my life consists more then just videos of the Khan. :)

If you ever want to try out the videos, then you can go to this website: http://www.khanacademy.org/.

Sab

MORE VIDS!

WARNING!

BEFORE i start this post, i APOLIGIZE! i aaamm SOOO! VERY hyper right now! and i may make typing errors, and or may giggle uncontrollably!!!!!! Thank u!!!!!!

NOW! i was watching the NEXT video!!!! AND it was about MONKEYS!!!!! It said, eh hem

APES DO NOT HAVE TAILS! THEY DON'T! u see us having tail? maybe some of ya'll do, but I DON'T!

They're LESSER APES and GREATER APES! we're GREATER apes, cuz we're GREATER! chimpanzees and stuff are also greater apes! (OMIGAWED I MAY HAVE SPELLED CHIMPANZEES RIGHT!!!!!) and GIBBONS and stuff are LESSER apes!!!! (HAHAHA gibbons!!!!)

Just thought I'd let you know!

http://www.khanacademy.org/video/ape-clarification?playlist=Biology

SAB! <3!

Natural Selection

Ever heard of Evolution? Well, another word for it is Natural Selection.

http://www.khanacademy.org/video/introduction-to-evolution-and-natural-selection?playlist=Biology

My mom and dad recommended that I watch a video from Khan Academy everyday. There usually no more then 20 minutes long, and there easy to follow with visual assistance along with a guy talking you through the lesson.

Like "an apple a day keeps the doctor away", "You'll be a comer in every subject if you watch a video a day over the summer!" Not really... but it sorta rhymes right?

Well anyways, I watched the video above while munching on some food, and turns out you can learn something from these videos! In that particular video, it shows how evolution, or natural selection, works.

So, what kids or many people usually think when given the broad subject of evolution is that "Over a bunch of time, something in some animal or something changes to make life easier for it self. The end. " Well, that's not really correct. Say there is a Giraffe. Many people know it developed from a species similar to a horse, but do you really know how? Do you think that the horse couldn't reach the branch, so it urged it's DNA to make it's neck longer?

Well, you may not, but this is what really happened. The horse type creature, species, what ever! It had different variations. This means that there are different types of the same species. Take humans for example. You go to my school, you see short people (GO LIA! <3) you tallish people (Moi XD) and you see people in between. Not everyone is the same height, has the same hair color, eye color, and skin color.

So this means that the horse thing (maybe it was a unicorn? :P) had different length in necks. Some had a little longer necks then others. Not like a giraffe size necks on one, and a donkey size neck on the other, no, but maybe a difference in few inches. Then say as they were living life in a luscious field, the food source came down to a tree. The tree had many branches, and they all fed on the branches closest to the ground. Later on, those leaves all disappeared because the unicorns were feeding on them. So you can imagine what happens next?

The unicorns fly off into the sunset and create rainbows?

No.

The unicorns with the slightly longer necks can reach the slightly higher branches, and the other unicorns eventually die because they don't get the food. It wasn't like these unicorns were smarter, and said "I am going to have a long neck! And eat food the others can't reach!", they were just born that way. (YA I'M ON THE TRACK BABY I WAS BORN THIS WAY!) So ya. Their kids had their DNA so they grew taller too, and then eventually, there were MORE variations and some kids were taller then others. So the taller kids got the taller branches with more food, had kids, lived happy pot belly lives, and the cycle continued!

AND! now we have GIRAFFES! Ha!!!!! So I now told you the story of how a mythological creature turned into a zoo animal!

THE END!

Sab <3!

Writing

In writing class, we were studying about Mozart (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, oh ya, i remembered!) and his music/life. Out teacher went to Austria and took a class there and learned quite a lot about him! From her experience, she educated us, and then we watched one of his operas. The Magic Flute.

Some things we learned about Mozart was that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wasn't really his real name. He changed his name as he went from country to country (to share his musical talent) to match the language and culture better. I forget his real ridiculousness long name (and i don't feel bad because even our teacher did when she was teaching us :) and i don't want to look it up because the point of this is to write down all of what i DO remember!

Another thing was that he came from a musical family. It wasn't like he was a swan born into a family of ducks (not referring to the ugly duckling, but now that i do think about it, it does remind me of that story...), he already came from a family of swans, because his dad and sister were both talented musicians.

His dad pushed him a lot in his music career, and at a very young age, he performed for royalty. As many of you know, he's one of the best musicians in history.

After we watched his opera "The Magic Flute" we wrote a interpretative story about it... it's hard to explain, but I'll post the story later!

ALSO, I learned how to spell musician! Yippeeee, and other celebrating phrases!

SAB! <3

What I learned...

Today I learned that I get really sleepy after I exercise and then eat... I also learned that 10 teachers could take out all of the 8th graders in dodge ball... AND that the current 7th graders in our school make terrible spies.

You happy Dad? I learn things!!!!

With love, SAB! <333

Old time favorite

If you don't already know, I love to read. If I can't reach a computer, readings the next thing. Sadly, I was out of books yesterday (just finished Lament by Maggie Stiefvater, it's amazing, high level reading, and a great mystery/adventure/romance. Also great for musical people and poetic readers) and computer was off limits, so I fished out an old time favorite book of mine.

Now it's not Cinderella (because I always loved Rose more anyway... she's WAY prettier, right?!), and it's not any Dr. Sues books. Actually, it's a book about human biology.

As a kid, till this day, I was always interested in Human Biology. Maybe it was a trait from my parents (both doctors), but I always loved learning about it. So as a kid, my parents got me this set of books. They're called "A child's first dictionary" books, and they go from "How the Universe works" to "Architecture" to, of course, "Human Biology".

So now, at the age of 12, I went back to these books and I actually learned somethings from them!!!! ... Well, haha, what I learned was from this little box on the side that says "To the parent", but whatever, it counts!

You wanna know what i learned? Well you probably do, otherwise you would have stopped reading... so anyways!

1) THE STUFF THAT TURNS YOUR HAIR BLACK IN CALLED MELANIN! And when you get older, that stuff is harder to make, so your hair turns gray! Isn't that sad?!

2) Girls hair usually doesn't fall as much as boys hair... we don't get bald, IN YO FACES!!!! ( i kinda already knew tht, just thot id brag <333) and also, girls hair stays in for like 5-6 years, when guys hair only stay for 4-5 XD! ooohh ya <333. AND! Girls hair grows fasterrr XD!

3) The tears your eyes make are produced from a gland in your upper eyelid. It's called the Lachrymal gland. (omigawed, i didn't look at the book once!!!! I remember all this!!!!)

SO! i hoped you learned something, cuz i did! yay!

- Sab XD!

Med Vs. Mex

Guests are coming to our house, and we want to make some pizza! Average pizza won't cut it this time... Though, home made regular pizza does tend to lighten everyones day. We decided to make either Mediterranean pizza, or Mexican pizza. Here's what we found:

Mediterranean pizza is quick and simple to make if you just use regular pizza tortilla to start the process. Lightly layer sauce on the tortilla. Then equally layer mozzarella on top of the sauce, but don't cover up the whole tortilla. Leave some space open, for the cheese will expand. After the mozzarella is properly set, add cheddar cheese by covering the open spaces the mozzarella missed. As a result, the cheese will melt together. On top of the cheese, put a layer of tomatoes, again, equally distributed on the tortilla. Once the tomatoes and in place, put one more layer of the two cheeses on the tomatoes, but leave some space open so the tomatoes can be seen.

(Additional topping may include, pepper, garlic, olives, and mushrooms.)

After the toppings are set, bake the pizza around 350 Degrees F for about 30 minutes, which should be plenty enough time for the crust to brown and the cheese to melt.

Now I know the most satisfying part of the process is eating, but since most people are too lazy to make their own pizza and will probably go out and eat some pizza and Pizza Hut or what not, let me inspire you by showing a picture of the result! <3

(I'll post a pic of our finished result after we make the pizza, haha.)

The other option was the Mexican Pizza. It's pretty easy to make as well, but in my opinion, a little less appetizing. I believe Mexican food tastes best in burrito form :). But I'll explain the process anyhow.

Take a pizza tortilla and layer it with beans. For this pizza, the beans will sorta act like the sauce. After the beans are spread out, put a layer of salsa on top of the beans and sprinkle it with tomatoes, chilies, green pepper, onion, olives, and cheese.

(Additional toppings include whatever Mexicany food you like, haha :) )

Again, if your like me and think that burritos are the best Mexican food... We have something in common! But I encourage you at least TRY this recipe! Because they DO taste pretty good! Here are some pics I found from the internet:

I hope I inspired you to try to some DIFFERENT types of Pizza! ENJOY!

Sabrina <3!