Andrew's School Blog

Hey.

Andrew Smith — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:12:19 +0000

sorry i haven’t posted in a while, i have been busy with other things. I now am a black belt and i am working towards my 2nd degree. I also have been told about a game called minecraft, and i would like to share it with the community. Go to here, and check it out. you can try out the game on their site, and buy it later if you like it. Thanks, AnDrEw

Happy valentine’s day

Andrew Smith — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:09:00 +0000

Here is a recipe for some delicious blueberry pie pops

Kudos to http://allrecipes.com/recipe/blueberry-pie-pops/ for this recipe

Ingredients

2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts
1/2 cup white sugar, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/4 cups blueberries
1 egg
1 tablespoon white sugar, for sprinkling
16 sturdy cookie pop or lollipop sticks

Directions

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll out one of the pie crusts to 1/8-inch thick; cut 16 3-inch circles from the crust. Line 16 mini muffin cups in a 24-cup mini muffin pan with the crust circles. Refrigerate to chill, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, roll out the other crust to 1/8 inch thick, and cut out 16 2 1/2-inch circles; lay the 16 circles onto the prepared baking sheet, and refrigerate.
Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon zest, and cornstarch in a bowl. Stir in the blueberries, and toss lightly to coat with the sugar mixture. Whisk the egg in a small separate bowl. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of blueberry mixture into each crust-lined muffin cup (don’t overfill). Place a cookie pop stick horizontally into the filled pop so the end sticks out by several inches. With a pastry brush, dab a little beaten egg evenly around the edge of the filled crust; place a 2 1/2-inch top crust circle onto the filled crust, and pinch edges together to seal in the filling and close the crust around the stick. With a toothpick, poke 3 or 4 steam holes into the top crust. Brush top of each pie pop with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake in the preheated oven until the tops are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before gently removing from muffin tin cups. To help pops release, run a small knife around the edges and under stick.

Probationary Black Belt Testing

Andrew Smith — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:13:35 +0000

Yesterday I tested for my probationary black belt. This means I am only one belt away from black in taekwondoe (a form of martial arts). I succeeded and one of the criteria was I had to come up with two breaks. Which were flying sidekick, and horizontal hammer-fist. My dad only got some pictures of my flying sidekick but it was awesome!

The first one you see is the board and the person I’m jumping over. The second one is me snapping the board with my kick, and the final one is me landing.

Also, I had to do several self defense and I chose to spar a black belt that was 1.5x my size.

Negative comments will be ignored.

Anorexia Nervosa (The Eating disorder duology post 2)

Andrew Smith — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 02:44:45 +0000

As I’ve said before I am making a duology on the 2 main eating disorders. The thing that made me think of doing this was a school essay I did yesterday for health. This article is going to be on Anorexia Nervosa, or the starving disease.

In Anorexia Nervosa, people eat as little as possible and get the minimum nutrition they need. Still, they don’t get enough nutrients. Victims of this mindset often suffer chronic hunger, malnutrition, being severely under weight, and sometimes death. The people affected will be super thin with bones showing. This is the result of malnutrition. The body will start eating it’s own muscles. Not replacing them, EATING THEM because of not having enough nutrients or calories. People, this is unhealthy!People affected by this often are influenced by the media when they portray models. The media sends the message that you have to be thin to be beautiful. THIS IS NOT TRUE. True beauty is on the inside. GET RID OF THE EQUATION THINNESS=BEAUTY!!!!!! Why do we need to think thinness makes someone look good?

THINK ABOUT IT

Compulsive overeating (the eating disorder duology post 1)

Andrew Smith — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:14:03 +0000

I have decided I’m going to do two posts on the 2 major eating disorders: Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa.

Today I’m going to focus on compulsive overeating, which is also known as binging.

Here is the first of the duology.

In compulsive overeating, the person affected goes on an eating binge, which is when they consume a lot of food in a short period of time. People affected end up gaining lots of weight and become unhealthy. They end up getting teased about their weight and turn to food to make them feel better. As a result, they eat more and more and more.Usually they eat in private because they feel self conscious and they don’t want to be teased any more then they have to be. What food they eat ends up being unhealthy and end up needing medical and mental help.After a while, their mental state turns into an addiction to food and binging, making a very unhealthy habit. When the people go shopping, they usually buy a lot of food at once and after a while end up stealing to support their binging. I think this eating disorder, which is mental and physical, is disgusting and revolting, but it can’t be helped so people with this disorder should get help to stop doing this. I think this could be caused by a mix of ads that confuse you by telling you to eat this, that, and the other thing. Also, we focus so much on getting people to buy this food at this restaurant or a big whopper at MC Donald’s. We make it very good but it ends up being very unhealthy and ultimately, the producer only cares for the money, which is revolting, and doesn’t care about the health of his customer. Overall, compulsive overeating can be caused by a lot of things, but mainly is caused by unhealthy but delicious food.

Self defense

Andrew Smith — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:55:44 +0000

I was choked recently and my dad got me thinking. How would I defend my self without a weapon and without martial arts? Well, my dad showed me a thing called a tactical pen that is a pen with a point on the back end. My dad told me it could be used as a kubotan (Koo-ba-ton). There are several videos on how to use a kubotan for self defense and I found a really good blog on self defense videos that includes the kubotan. Here is a link: http://www.fighter-arts.net/videoblog/ . I had to look around the house for black pens for a project and I came across a silver pen that wrote blue and wasn’t a tactical one. It was tapered on the back to a flat point that makes it look cool over all and is balanced nicely. The pen brand name was a Cross pen and is awesome for writing. The light weight makes it practical for daily carry. Here is a couple pictures of the pen:

The first one is an over view of the pen. The second is the tip and the third is the back. The point goes out if you twist it one way and retracts when twisted the opposite direction. It’s not quite a kubotan or a tactical pen but I love it.

Injury

Andrew Smith — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:24:56 +0000

I recently got an injury to my right hand and it hurts but I am wearing a brace and it is healing nicely. I am not sure what I did to it but it hurts on the left of my palm. Here is a picture of it:

And here is another:

The bottom one should be better since the top one I was taking with my left hand with a right handed camera and the bottom I had my mom taking the photo.

Bus update

Andrew Smith — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:04:37 +0000

Sorry it has taken me so long to put another post but here is an update on the bus. We received a new bus driver and the rules have gone lax so I am loving the ride. I still sit in the back but I am not squished as I was before so the ride is sweet. I sit near my friends and I am not annoyed by anyone.

Bus ride

Andrew Smith — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:12:20 +0000

I wasn’t on the bus yesterday afternoon and apparently they cracked down. Big time. We have permanent assigned seats, a new bus driver and bus instructor, and the rules are strictly enforced. I now sit all the way in the back with a high school kid and I can’t move up as the bus empties. Today though, the bus driver went a real long way just to drop a kid off. The other bus driver usually waits until everyone else is off then he goes and drops the kid off. Instead, he goes down the road and takes a left and pretty much makes a circle around a building. All of that took a whole 10 minutes and as a result, I was 15 minutes later than usual.

Book fair

Andrew Smith — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:19:33 +0000

Today I went to the book fair and put 3 books on hold. Just so you know, they were “Torn” By Margaret Peterson Haddix, “Darth Paper Strikes Back”, by Tom Angleberger, and “The Medusa Plot” by Gordon Korman. The grand total was… $28.59. Pretty cheap compared to what I’ve had to pay for other types of books. They also had several neat and some not so neat things such as… a skeletal finger pointer, iPod touch erasers, chocolate bar shaped calculators, and a variety of posters and erasers. I wasn’t able to get the book by Tom Angleberger unfortunately.