Chess!!!

Chess one of my most favourite hobby, I love learning about it, how much?[I can talk about it for hours] It encourages me to critically think; thinking far ahead, being creative with your moves and knowing how others think as well. It is an amazing game, as mentioned before I try to practice and learn more about chess at least an hour a day. One of my most favourite chess player, Vassily Ivanchuk, ever since I saw how he played, it baffled me how much creativity he has. One of my most favourite games played by Ivanchuk [often called Chuky] was his game against the then World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov. It was an excellent game, it contradicts the rules/guidelines of chess and it is simply phenomenal. In the game Ivanchuk had the white pieces and Kasparov had the black, only several moves in the game Chuky exchanged his bishops for Garry's knights. In the chess world, this can be considered as a huge advantage to give to the World Champion[giving him the bishop pair]. However, as the game progresses the advantage that was thought Kasparov had, was crushed and crumbled to pieces.  Quite simply the bishops of Kasparov became quite possibly the worst bishop pair in the history of chess as the bishops were on the last rank of the board while the king was in front. It was an amazing achievement by Vassily Ivanchuk; there are quite a lot of stories about Vassily Ivanchuk more than any chess players as I would say, some say 'One a great day, when Ivanchuk is on his best, he can beat any chessplayers whatever the time format.'
He is a big inspiration and is a big reason why I play chess as much as I do now. For that I thank Ivanchuk along with some of my other favourite chess players; like that of Mikhail Tal, Rashid Nezhmedinov, Maximillian Ujtelky, etc.

P.E: Made-up game

This session in our P.E Hurumanu,  we had a time where we could create a game using the different equipment provided by our teachers. Six teams were decided and were divided into 3; two teams facing each other. When the teams were divided we were then supplied with around 10 mins to build a game [using a dodge-ball ball and a frisbee]. Our game was based on softball/baseball, using the frisbee as a bat and the dodge-ball ball as our ball.  Teamwork, giving ideas per se, it was mediocre all of us could've contributed more, a lot more; communication-wise it was lacking, a few group members were not listening to the other members. There were quite a few sparks of conflicts, it was not the greatest time being in that place. One thing that we might need to change is the ball that we used, a smaller ball is required as well as more space.

But there were some things that went well, enthusiasm and resilience were, in my opinion, were the biggest achievement that we have accomplished. The level of enthusiasm differed in the period when we played our games. It varied, however, consisted enough as I would say. As mentioned, resilience was also a big part of our accomplishment; even if we had trouble around the first few minutes, we stayed resilient around the whole session. 

Food Tech: Apple Turnovers

This term we have had several lessons in our technology subject [Food Tech]; we have been making a variety of dishes, sushi, burgers, but in this lesson, we made Apple Turnovers. A simple dish, however, it needs a fast pace when making, the ingredients needed for this is are apple chunks [baked, macerated or basic meaning without extra process] (macerated or baked apples will not need of the extra ingredients such as sugar and cinnamon when placed in the puff pastry); a sheet of puff pastry; sugar, cinnamon [optional] and egg/s.

Method:

1. Quite simply a sheet of puff pastry is quartered [place it so that it faces you in a diamond shape]; in each of the quartered pieces of the puff pastry, a sufficient amount of apples [macerated or baked slices/chunks].
2. The chunks, slices, placed in the middle, leave a space about 1 1/2 cm around the edges; [basic/straight-up apple chunks may need a pinch of sugar and cinnamon].
3. On the side facing away from you lay water around the edges using your fingers.
4. Take the side facing you and flip it directly to the other side.
5. Seal rim/edges by pinching and further seal it using a fork by pressing like that of a pie. 
6. Using the fork poke the top until small holes have been made, brush with egg wash and put into a preheated oven of 200 oC degrees in 20min or until golden brown.

I had an experience using puff pastry before, some like dessert such as this, one of my most favourite quite a simple dish. Millefeuille, it was a simple yet delicious dessert. I wound highly likely recommend Gordon Ramsay's recipe as it is the first one that I have tried, and have had great success in.  I look forward to learning more about culinary arts in future lessons. 

Guitars

This week we return to our music hurumanu, for these periods of our hurumanu we happen to have a very special guest. That being Mr Mitchell, Mr Mitchell [a teacher here in our school] knows quite a bit about music, he happens to be a guitarist and so he now helped us to learn more about guitars. He brought with him several kinds of guitars, an electric, two acoustic guitars and a backpack guitar. Mr Mitchell played several pieces, he also gave us knowledge about several chords and different ways to play the guitars as well.

Acoustic Guitar - Dreadnought - the dreadnaught is one of the most common guitars that you might see, it doesn't need an amplifier, though amplifiers can be used as well. The sizes differentiate according to teh size of the person playing it, however, most are just in the average size just right for the average-sized person. Normally acoustics can be used for country, bluegrass and rock/pop.

Electric Guitar - There are many different styles of electric guitars, but most are designed for style; as stated in the name, electric guitars are meant to be plugged in an amplifier. Though could be used without, playing an electric guitar without an amplifier would sound quite quiet; as there is no soundhole like as of the acoustics. They produce a 'crisp' sound a more rock on sound, ironically it is commonly used in rock, heavy metal as well as pop.

Acoustic -  Backpack -  Cutaway - Backpack and Cutaway guitars are both from the family of Acoustics; Cutaways are slightly different from a Dreadnought as the design allows players of Cutaway guitars to go down the guitar easier than the Dreadnought. Backpack guitars look quite different from the common guitars as it is meant to be carried easier as it is smaller than the more common sized guitars.

A little about me....

Good day to everyone.

In this term, Miss Birtch will be teaching us a period every week [period 5 on Wednesdays]. Being that Miss Birtch might not know us as well as she knows her class our first task in working with her is writing a blog post about ourselves.

I mostly like all the subjects, writing, reading, math, P.E, etc. There mostly isn't a subject that I know which I would hate. One of my most favourite sports are basketball, another one is billiard/pool and finally chess, my most favourite out of the three. I try to train for chess, learning new strategies every time I can; an hour a day is the minimum that I spend learning chess.  I also like literature very much, I tend to read challenging books and pieces of writing; reading manga is quite an enjoyable hobby that I do. One piece is my absolute favourite manga and anime, it is simply amazing [I could go on forever talking about it]. I'm also a big fan of comedy, in my opinion, the past decades have "killed" the comedy that I really tend to like, Don Rickles is one of the best comedians that in my opinion have ever stepped on stage, a legend.





Art is a passion of mine as well; when I'm not busy I tend to try and improve my art.

Now I shall talk about...FOOD... Again another passion of mine, I like to cook and bake, I try to cook as much as I can, look for different combinations of flavours in foods; croquembouche is a dessert that I like to eat, though I still have some trouble perfecting making it.
That is most of what is about me, I hope that by writing this, Miss Birtch would know a bit more about myself as I know a bit more about her.
I look forward to working with such a teacher.