A Big Disappointment

           Today was Field Day at school. In my opinion, this was the worst Field Day in all the years I've been in school.
           For example, the stations were really unfair. They were all supervised by 5th graders. Once, I was trying to do the rope climb, and a fifth grader hurried over and told me to stand in a line. I saw one other person in that line. Then that fifth grader told the new people, who were her friends from the looks of it, to stand in a different line. That line was around 10 people long now. And then she came over to me and the other kid and asked us what we were doing in that line. She moved us to the back of the other line. I also got delayed around 10 minutes on the three-legged race because the fifth grader was too sloppy in attaching the velcro straps, and the thing broke, so I had to wait for the next race. If it weren't for these unfair people, I would have gotten a blackout and a trophy - I was only 4 stations away!
           Also, there were other unfair things. The most ridiculous of them all was the popcorn stand. I arrived there when there were around five people standing around the stand, and the 6-gallon bag was half full. I waited to get to the front of line, and by the time that I had asked "May I please have some popcorn?" there was a large mob of kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders pushing for popcorn. The woman said to a little kid: "Oh, aren't you sweet?" and gave him an extra helping of popcorn. They didn't say please or say thanks. Then she started serving all the others, and it looked as though she wanted to use up all the popcorn in the world on them. So I waited. And I asked again. And again. And finally, when all of them were gone, there came another mob. I was getting impatient now. All of them ran off with lots of popcorn, happily crunching their treats, without so much as a "I think that random kid should get some popcorn too." After the air horn signalling the end of Field Day and the start of the Spray Mr. Spray with Silly String event sounded, I finally couldn't take it anymore. I asked for popcorn one last time, and she noticed me. "We're out." she said, without any trace of sorriness. She scooped up a few kernels from the bottom and gave it to me. To get revenge, I raided the popcorn stand after the event, when the volunteer was gone, and found that there was still a lot of popcorn in there. A lot of people also cheated. For example, they got their hole punch first, and then just ran away without even doing the station.
           To sum up, I despised this year's Field Day because almost everything was unfair in some way.

Lucky Strike

           Today my class drove to Lucky Strike for a field trip. We only played in the arcade, no tickets allowed. Each of us got a 2-hr. unlimited gaming card.
           My favorite non-video game was the Laser Maze. You walked in, selected a difficulty, and then crept  past the lasers to the end, where you pressed a button to see your score. I completed the hardest mode in <10 seconds without hitting any lasers to get a score of 85.
          My favorite video game was "H2O Overdrive", a racing game. I enjoyed the powerful boats and the great power-ups. Best of all, I enjoyed the graphics. I liked to play the game because it promised new upgrades to your boat every few levels, and also that anyone could win (especially if you got the nuclear power-up.)
           All in all, I really enjoyed Lucky Strike for its Laser Maze and "H2O Overdrive".

Egg Drop Challenge

           Today was the school's annual Egg Drop Challenge. There were many entries, like parachutes, eggs in boxes, and even more commonly, eggs in ziploc bags.
           One of my favorite types of entries were those designs with just one egg in a ziploc bag, with nothing to protect it.  The firefighters tossed it down from around 60 feet, where it started freefall. Then, after zooming toward the ground for around a second, it hit the ground and the egg cracked with an ominous pop! It looked like many people wanted to make a big splash this year - there were a lot of that no-protection type of entry.
           Another of my favorite entries was the humongous parachute. The creator obviously spent a long time - it was an around 6 foot by 6 foot square of plastic bag material, or that plastic that is really easy to bend and is used a lot in plastic bags. The lightweight contraption took around 15 seconds to drop, going really slowly. It almost landed in a basketball hoop because it was blown really far away by the wind - it even went past the spectators!
           To sum up, this was one of the best, funniest, and most creative Egg Drops I've ever seen!

End Of Simulation

           Today marked the official end of my class's city simulation. On Monday the class will wrap up the simulation by counting all the money.
           I won the simulation. I have around $3,500. Nobody else has that much. If all my tickets were paid, though, I would have around $5,000. The closest to me were Rhea, with about $2,100, and Samarjit, with around $2,000. I enjoyed all the fun things that happened during the simulation, and I hope to do it again sometime.
           To improve the simulation, I think that all the wages should be pre-arranged as to not arouse too many disputes in the city council. My wage was lowered, among many others, while other people that didn't do as much had their wages raised. Also, the city council, which represents 4 out of 5 voting officials, voted to raise their own wage - which is really unfair.
            To sum up, I really enjoyed the simulation, but I still think it could be improved.

How I Earned A Lot of Money Today

           I earned a lot of money today in the simulation. Part of this was because five classes and a lot of parents came to the city. The classes were Parkin, Hobbs, Isaacson, Johnson, and another class. Each student got $20, and each adult got unlimited money. I also earned a lot from tickets and insurance.

           First of all, I sold a lot of items, and in total, I earned around $400. Kevin, my business partner, only earned $100. So I had to give him $150. But I still think I earned a lot. I sold two beanbags, a lot of origami, and some "Origamic Architecture". Kevin sold a lot of Shrinky Dinks.

           Also, I got $3963 from Bradley for tickets, but I had to pay away half to the city. I paid $2011, which is $30 more than I should have paid. I still got $1952, though, so I just thought that I already had enough money and I didn't bother to get the $30 back. From insurance, I earned around $700 because around 7 people bought insurance.

           To sum up, I think that the $2902 that I earned today was a lot of money!

First Customers in City Simulation

           Today the first class came into our city as customers. It was Ms. Anderson's 2nd grade class. Kevin and I earned $27 total. There were 26 customers in that class, each with $20. I think I could have improved my service and made more money.
           One thing I think I should do is make my service faster and more attractive. I think this because a lot of people at my store just left before I had a chance to show them some cool products. Other people just walked away, even though they said they wanted something. I think it was because they got impatient and wanted to go somewhere else.
           Another thing I think I should do is have more of each kind of product ready. I need a lot of each product - I only had two beanbags, but they turned out to be very popular among kids. I should take the opportunity this week to make a lot of products at home. That way I will have a lot of products, and I shouldn't be running out of stock. I should also make new products while nobody's asking to buy products from me.
           I really hope I'm sufficiently prepared for the five full classes coming in on Tuesday!

Earthquake in City Simulation

           Today there was an "earthquake" in the city simulation. Desks were turned over, and their contents spilled over the ground, and the garbage and recycling cans were flipped over. It took quite a long time to clean up.
           Our first reaction was chaos. Some people were picking money off the ground, because the money was technically fair game, even though you were supposed to be kind and return it to it's owner. Other people were running around, and panicking. They didn't know what to do, and the classroom was very noisy. People decided not to follow most of the expectations that our teacher had set at the start of the year.
           Then, we started trying to reach a decision. We held a city council meeting, and everyone started thinking of ideas. Then, people started finding notes in places around the classroom. After the notes were found, everybody thought that I should go "help" the city manager, also known as the teacher, because I was the "City Health Officer". But I didn't know what to do. In the end, we just gave up. Ms. Chen told us that we were supposed to come up with an organized solution, and that it wasn't my job to solve the problem.
            The earthquake today sure was a shock at the start, but as time progressed, I think we did cooperate better, and come up with better ideas. I think we did well in the situation.