STOP RIGHT THERE

have a Thursday progress report

From

To

now continue.

yes

Heeeyyy there. I managed to write this before entirely forgetting it, but it already has been 2 weeks. Well nothing much happened the week before, so ...
let's start

Creativity: WE MADE A GAME.

*(aka. meand2morestudentsfromschoolwenttosomethingcalleddesginfestandmadeanabridgedgame ofdoodlejumpwhereyoucouldonlyjumpovertheboards.itwasfun.)

I have also realized that my drawing skills have been improving immensely these months. It has been, what, only 9 months since I started doing it seriously? By serious, I mean drawing for an hour every single day. It's fun.                                                                  I swear I did this
 I'm trying to modify my workspace as much as I can to subject my hands to less pressure, like lifting the tip of the drawing tablet that I stole from my sister and stuff. It helps.
.                                                                                                                            
Oh, also my sister's film got a jury award.                                                    

Activity: Well, the girls basketball team was not really able to meet for practices because of the exam week and the stuff our school decides to do, so I decided to focus on getting my body back in shape, increasing my flexibility and fixing problematic areas.
I'm talking about Yoga.

I wonder if every person entering the world of yoga thought it was an easy practice and got their buts kicked like mine. I have been following a Yoga challenge video series on Youtube and it's surprisingly ok. I thought there would be some absurd poses I'd have to do. I'm happy to say that only 10% of the ones I did where stuff I'd never do in a yoga class. I'm fine with the comforts of the hard floor and the uncomfortable beach towel.



Service: Nothing much to do for service these days. Not many people have been
signing up for bookmobile because of the exam week and stuff, so there weren't enough people to go to the schools. I don't think the things I did these last 2 weeks counts as service either. I still try yo help my sister with her homework but she'd rather not have me.

Is this turning into a monthly thing?

Sooooo

it has been 3 weeks

...

let's go over what happened in that period, shall we?

Creativity: It looks like I'm transferring to the Maker club from STEM. The former seems like a good opportunity: I'll be able to learn a lot more about coding and how Arduino works, as well as some programming languages such as Python. We'll se how it goes I guess. I've been doing some computer programming courses in Khan academy ass well, though that only teaches JS as far as I know. The club member tasked with teaching us Python recommended a website called Sololearn. It's simple enough but will definitely only teach the basics.
As for drawing, I think I'm getting better? Currently I'm trying to focus on the body shapes, their "line of action", etc., and also a bit of pixel art as there is a game making workshop event in Istanbul and I'm the graphic designer of my group that will make our own game, just one of every 3-(wo)men teams from different schools. I think it's kind of a contest. I'm really excited about it. Sadly, it seems I need to go to the workshop of my designated role in the group. So I won't be able to learn much about  game designing and coding. Maybe I can ask my teammates what they learned.

Activity: I have been trying to get back at exercising, at least once a week whether inside my dorm room or elsewhere. Sadly our basketball team was not able to come together for a very long time because the gym is always scheduled for some other team.

Service: The teaching is done for the school year. For now I've been only doing bookmobile, though not much have been planned these past weeks. Last Sunday I was the photographer for a school welcoming/information event, for parents that thought about sending their children to our school. I had to walk around for 3 hours with some occasional breaks. I have no idea why they got me for the job. I'm not really confident about my photography skills. But I guess it turned out alright.

I'll have to make special effort to go back to the weekly reports, it seems. As seemingly simpler and easier, mostly posts leave out too many things, a lot of details lost.
So, see you next week I guess.

I guess it's been a while

It really has been a long time since I wrote in here. Not much has changed I suppose, so even though a few weeks has passed, it probably won't be too long to explain what happened during that time.

Creativity: I've been continuing to draw almost every day. I'd like to think I improved when I compare my new drawings to my old ones. I learned quite a lot more more about anatomy, posture, figure and am (I think) better at choosing my colors. The Arduino project is still not done, mostly because I'm not sure of the code I need to use. Thankfully I joined the maker club in my school and the first thing we'll do is to learn how to code. I'll have the opportunity to ask more experienced students on the kinds of commands I need to use.

Activity: These days, I haven't been able to do much sports because of the pains on my forearms (that are likely to be the cause of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from too much test solving and drawing in a short time period - I've been doomed to a bracelet thingy on my right hand). Still, I've been trying to stay active, either by walking or running, though there were more walking then running. I believe I am better these days, so I'll continue my basketball training tomorrow, but I'm afraid I lost too much strength from the fear of agitating my hand.

Service: The kids haven't been coming to the math lessons for the last 2 weeks. So far I have 2 hypotheses to explain their absence. 1, they found the math class boring and decided to either go to another class or not come to the school at all (which is understandable since all we could do was to solve worksheets and occasionally play math games) and 2, I'm a bad teacher (which is quite possible with my poor communication skills). Whatever it is, I'll continue waiting for them every week, just in case someone appears. Bookmobile in itself is going well. We continue to visit different schools mostly every week and added a new school to our list as well.

And that's it. Hope you have a good day.

I need to write more frequently

I've seen some IB students make their blog entries in sites like Tumblr. The fact that I didn't realize I could do that makes me uncomfortable but no one would look at the entries anyway so I think I'm fine.

*drumroll please*


THESE LAST 3 WEEKS ON "How CAS Takes Over My Life"

Creativity: I'm slowly getting the STEM project's main structure in my head (I'm a bit slow aren't I). I also joined a coding club so it might help me with my project at least. On the other hand, drawing is hard as ever, especially in a digital medium. But I think I'm seeing some improvements. At least I have a better understanding on what my weak points are (like shading, coloring, inking, body proportions, body part placements...). On the other other hand, my sister decided to add some animations to her entry for the school's Film Festival and it seems I'm going to help her. Making animations is a time consuming and extorsive activity that takes years to master, but I think it'll be fun. It won't be good quality but it'll be fun.

Activity: My exercises have gone full basketball-based this time around. I placed my exercises after each training session and found a good basketball strength training program on the internet that I'll be discussing with my teacher. Let's hope that it really turns out to be a good program. Sadly I wasn't really able to go all out because of my injuries on my knees and my feet (yeah, injuries again). But I think I getting better at both shooting and offensive skills.

Service: The teaching is going great. I also started helping a 9th grader with Chemistry, though it seems like I won't be able to go to any after school (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are full most of the time and Friday may be added on to this list later). 4th graders are doing a good job at the papers we give them, though I'm trying to make a little competition at the end of a class every week. Bookmobile is also going good. However, I think I need to get better at being a teaching or getting along with students. There's mostly a barrier between them and me that I create every singe time. Maybe the problem is in my communication skills instead. I guess I'll have to work on that.

The week after the break

This week has been better then I predicted, which is pretty good if you ask me.

Creativity: I've been getting a lot better in drawing lately, is what I'd like to believe. Nevertheless, there's definitely improvements. I figured out how to draw better human figures or just doodles that are still a bit enjoyable. For my club project, I'm slowly getting there I believe. What I'll do is better established and I have a better understanding on how to use and Arduino as a switch (probably going to use basic codes but yeah).

Activity: My whole focus has shifted to basketball. I realized that I want to get better at this sport, maybe enough to spar with the boys. My shooting position has gotten better I believe, but I need to work on shooting under pressure. I also started to do extra pushups, squat jumps and planks after training, which means my regular workouts are now really simplified and come after my basketball training. This is so that I can exert as much as energy on basketball without worrying about my performance on my regular workouts,  and I hope it can also increase my endurance.

Service: Afterschool teaching is back! To tell the truth, I feel lazy every time I realize I have to teach that day but end up having so much fun. That might be because we're having more class competitions and the class is small compared to the old class: only 4 students. This makes it a lot more eventful every time but now I promised to give prizes to the winners. I wonder what I can get: my cooking is too terrible and they can get a bar of chocolate from a nearby store. I'll have to ponder a bit on that.

I believe this wasn't a bad week, though I need to prepare myself a better studying strategy.
Have a nice day!

Sorry for not posting much stuff lately

I realize that I forgot ("forgot") to write stuff in here. I guess I have to catch up on what I was doing this past... month? There we go.

Creativity: I've given art quite a lot of priority this last month or so, especially this week. I don't know how many drawing I made during the first week of my holiday. I think we can say I'm improving? I still have homework to do too so this last week is based on finishing those (hopefully). My earplug project is coming along fine as well, I just need to figure out how to use an Arduino as a sensory switch (something tells me it's way easy to find and I'm just bad at searching).

Activity: This week has been poor on activity, if you don't count some walks along the beach and chasing my family members. On the other hand, I'm starting to work more on my basketball skills, especially my shooting. Since middle school taught me to shoot with both hands, my shots have been bad on our plays and it's not really easy to change a habit you had for years. For now I need to work on some shooting practices, which are easy to do at home. I also decided to switch my normal workout with a basketball workout program. We'll see how that goes down.

Service: Since there hasn't been a bookmobile or a math class this week, the service department wasn't really active this week. The weeks before were normal though, except we didn't have the math classes. Instead we once visited a middle school near our high school and donated some books.

That's it I guess. Nothing much happened this last month. I hope your month was more exciting.
Bye and have a great night!