Monday, April 25, 2011

Scratch


This Software is used to make entertainment,games,etc.

It is called Scratch and it's free!

My first Scratch project is called crazy dance.

But I didn't put any projects on the site yet!

There are 8 blocks: Motion, Looks, Sound, Pen, Control, Sensing, Operators, and Variables.

Motion is exactly what you think - moving.

Looks is how you look, talk, hide and show.

Sound is just sound.

Pen controls the sprite's pen.

Control is the first place you need to go, and if you get the software you'll see why.

Sensing is all the sensors for the sprite.

Operators helps with motion, looks, etc.

Variables have 2 parts: a variable and a list, though I don't get neither of them.

If you right-click a block you will see a help tab.

Thats pretty much about it in Scratch!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New Chess


These are the things I have learned in Chess:
  • Skewering
  • Castling Queen-side & King-side
  • Forking (check and regular)
  • The four-move checkmate
  • En Passant
  • Discovered Attacks
  • Pinning
  • The values of the pieces

A chess game is divided into 3 parts: the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame.

In the opening, it's important to castle quickly and to develop your pieces. Castling defends the king and allows the rooks to work together later on. Knights are important in the opening because they can hop over pieces on a crowded board. The most important thing is to control the middle of the board.

In the middlegame the bishops become more important.

In the endgame the rooks are very important and even a pawn if it's passed.

Queens are always important, BUT if she comes out too early your opponent can harass her all over the board while developing their pieces.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Frogs and Turtles







Yesterday I went to a science class on frogs and turtles with homeschooled kids.

It was 40 miles away it was really fun and interesting.

Here's a fact about turtles - a turtle's shell is like the brain of a turtle, so if the shell is cracked the turtle will die.

Here's a fact about frogs - frogs will cover themselves with all sorts of stuff(slime, pollutants,etc) to protect themselves from predators.

I saw a dead snapping turtle and a live turtle.

I heard 1 frog: a Spring Peeper.