RAINBOWS!!!!

I was thinking about what I could post on my blog the other day, and I thought, I’ll post a rainbow. Now if you are wondering how I could possibly do this, then I am planning to do this by typing a bunch of text, and then colouring it a bunch of pretty colours. Do you know what colours are in the rainbow, what order they are in, and how to remember that? I do. Firstly, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Secondly, in that order. Thirdly, by getting the first letter of each colour (Red [R], Orange [O], Yellow [Y], Green [G], Blue [B], Indigo [I], and Violet [V]). If you put all those letters together, they spell ROY G BIV. You could pretend that that’s a famous person, or someone you know, but to me it’s just a cool name that you can use to remember all the colours of the rainbow. Do you know any other acronyms? I can think of a few. Did you know that “laser” is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation? What about NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration] or BLOG [weB LOG or Big Load Of Gossip :) :)]

Quote of the day: Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. - Robert Orben

The effects of light and shadow on photos and paintings...

I was thinking about famous paintings and photos, and I realised what made them so great; effects of light and shadow!!

Here are some examples of photos from Google Images:

I am not that great at said skill, although I am willing to give it a fair try. I think that some areas of art are much harder than others, like drawing lines could be classified as art, but that's not too hard is it? I would say random artwork like Picasso's are much harder to imitate and actually pull off!!

For my artist that we have to attempt to do a self-portrait in the style of, I have decided to do Salvador Dali. He was a Surrealist, and according to "Salvador Dali, exploring the irrational" (a book by Edmund Swinglehurst): he was finally expelled from the volatile group because his art and vision encompassed much more than mere ideology.

He was a fantastic artist, and even years after his time, his artwork continues to astound and inspire. Here are some of his famous works:

The Persistence of Memory (Soft Watches)

The Face of War

Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire

He has some really interesting paintings, especially of his wife Gala, and numerous animals and other cool objects and double-effects (like the picture above, can you see the people and the bust?). Now ... as for the one I'm going to base my self portrait on ...

Possibly The Man with the Head of Blue Hortensias (top), or Sleep (bottom)...

Quote of the day: The world only goes round by misunderstanding. - Charles Baudelaire

MUSIC EXPERIMENT!!!!!

Here I shall publish a bit of work we did this morning:
Learning styles and classroom environments for better productivity
-How does loud raucous music affect our ability to concentrate and/or work?
Today in class we listened to some "drum and bass" style music (by Conchord Dawn) while first just listening and some of us reading, then reading some posts and comments on Mr Woody's and Bubbles' blogs, and after that we attempted to drum out the beat on our desks with our hands. The beat made me more energetic and twitchy than usual, and this made me do reading, writing, and other such activities a lot faster than I normally do.
Music in the classroom affects (or effects) me in different ways: Slow or classical music makes me feel kind of sleepy, and slows me down a bit, but fast-loud-rock-metal type music makes me do things a lot quicker, and wakes me up more. It definitely makes me do more work, and it affects my overall work outcome for the better. It helps me concentrate and think, I am also less affected by the people around me and the overall class when the loud music was playing.
I think that next time we could try some softer music and see how that turns out!
Quote of the day: The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet. - William Gibson

Balloons over Waikato

The Balloons over Waikato festival is upon us once again!!! It is an annual festival where a bunch of hot-air balloons come and fly around Hamilton each morning for a few days, and then there is a "Night glow", where all the balloons inflate but don't fly at night, and they all glow really bright, here is a night glow picture from last year from a website:

This morning the conditions were foggy, though a few balloons went uo later in the day. Earlier on my blog, I talked about Earth Hour, and how it coincided with the nightglow, and I found out that the streetlamps on one of the main roads in Hamilton are going to go out for an hour, two words: ROAD CRASH!!!!!! I also heard that for the hour between 8:30 and 9:30 the balloons will also go out???? This will mean a bunch of people who go along for a nightGLOW will be standing round in the dark for a while!!!!
Here are some pictures my family have taken in the morning when the balloons went up:

Above: a wide spectrum of all the balloons.

Above: the birthday cake balloon.

Above: the lucy the ladybug

For more information, and a guide to the balloons, visit the Balloons over Waikato website

Quote of the day: To teach is to learn twice. - Joseph Joubert

Wear odd socks day!!!

I recently (this afternoon) learned that tomorrow, the 27th March, is "Wear odd socks day". This holiday is to support the blind and vision-ally impaired, and for them, some everyday activities can be very challenging. Choosing matching socks and other clothing are some of the many challenges they face, so this day is to support them. The Royal Society for the Blind (RSB) is a sponsor of "Wear odd socks day", though I think they are based in South Australia. Another place that support "Wear odd socks day" and a school in Gambia is Sicklinghall Primary School in the UK. The Wetherby News says: "Pupils decided to wear odd socks to school for the day to raise money for their chosen charity The James Ogoo Memorial Nursery School in Gambia. The school’s council planned a variety of fundraising events and publicity to help raise money for the less fortunate school in Gambia". I think it's a great way to raise money for charities, and have fun in silly socks!!!!!

Quote of the day: America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up. - Oscar Wilde

Countries in funny places

Today, when I checked my "FEEDjit", I was stunned to find that someone from Saint Lucia had visited my blog!!! I know who it was, but can any of you guys guess who??? When I thought about how many countries I had on my Clustrmap (23 including Saint Lucia), I wondered how many left to go, and what percentage of all the countries in the world I had. After visiting About.com and finding out that there are 195 countries in the world, I quickly found out that I have 172 countries to go, and I have hits from around 12% of all the countries in the world so far. If you believe you are a geographical genius, see how many of the countries you can name. I didn't even know lots of them existed!!! Like Berkina for example, or Nauru and Suriname. Also, if you can do that (unlikely), then try and name their capitals (some have more than one). Now you're never going to get that!!!
There are only 192 member states of the UN, they do not include Vatican City (Holy See), Kosovo or Taiwan. Taiwan was a member state of the UN until 1971 when China claimed them as a province of China. Taiwan meets all the requirements of an independent country, and continues to press for full recognition as an independent country, but it is also due to political reasons that it continues to fail this struggle. The US department of state also only recognizes 194 countries, also leaving out Taiwan.
However, you need to recognize that there are dozens of places that are sometimes called "countries" but aren't at all - they're governed by other countries. Places commonly confused as being countries include Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Greenland, Palestine, Western Sahara, and even the components of the United Kingdom (such as Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England, they come under the umbrella of the UK- they're not fully independent countries).
Either way, I am enjoying blogging, having fun learning all this stuff, and I hope you enjoy it too.
I got most of my information from About.com: Number of countries in the world and Capitals of every country in the world.
Quote of the day: The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be. - Walter Bagehot

Really cool scenery

Some time last year (I think), my family went on a walk around Lake Mangamahoe, and I took some really cool pictures:

It’s near New Plymouth (Taranaki, west coast of the North Island), off State Highway 3. I got a ton of photos, but I only put these ones on. It takes about 2 hours to do the circuit walk, but you would want to stop and admire the view for a while!!

Quote of the day: The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it.
- William Gibson