Hello everyone,

This is just to let you know that I will be having little-to-no activity on my blog over the next few weeks, as I have a very busy couple of weeks coming up, between preparing for two AP tests (along with associated practice tests) and SAT Subject Tests, missing 4-5 days of school for a State PTA Convention that I’m working at, etc. Therefore I will be forcefully diverting my attention away from blogging and many of my frequent internet activities until things calm down for a little bit. I appreciate your understanding.

Tags: announcement, AP exams, Blogging, busy, Convention, hiatus, PTA, SAT, SAT Subject Tests, School, tests

It’s April, and for California public schools, that means STAR Testing time. This thing called “Standardized Testing And Reporting” means nothing more than two weeks of craziness as different grades are given tests in different subjects requiring a bunch of confusing schedule changes even though there’s still six weeks of classes left in the year. Crazy? You bet. Welcome to California.

Tomorrow (4/8) will be the California Language Arts Standards Test, which mostly boils down to reading stuff and answering questions about it, and then correcting badly written “student drafts.” Wednesday (4/9) will be the California Mathematics Standards Test, which is a bunch of math problems written by people who obviously AREN’T mathematicians or people having ANYTHING to do with math because of the idiotic way that at least 10-25% of their questions are written. (As someone who excels in math, when I say that the questions are worded stupidly, I know what I’m talking about.) Thursday will be the California Social Studies Standards Test (aka U.S. History), which probably is the most topical of all the tests on the plate. And then, finally, next Tuesday (4/16) will be the final STAR test: the California Science Standards Test, which is again mostly a drill & grill of science subjects. Woop dee do. And then, I get a super-late start on Wednesday (4/17) because that’s a Sophomores-only test.

The crazy thing about these tests is twofold. First of all, they really don’t say much about me, but about my school. As in, if there aren’t enough kids proficient in these tests (or even if not enough kids are there for these tests), the school gets burned on this magic number called the API. But worse, by the year 2014, if 100% of all students in the school aren’t proficient, then the school gets marked for Program Improvement (PI), a very scary thing which eventually spells doom for the future of public schools. And can you realistically expect that 100% of all students will be proficient? No. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the #1 flaw of No Child Left Behind.

The second problem is that as an assessment of my personal academic performance, these tests STINK! Math is my best subject, I got a 710 on the Math section of the SAT, and yet on the STAR tests, Math has been my lowest score for the past four years. Why? I can tell you why–all those math questions are worded so darned strangely that a good portion of them are near impossible to figure out what they’re trying to get across! I swear, there is something VERY WRONG with those tests.

Luckily, next Tuesday, I will be able to celebrate. As an eleventh grader. this is the LAST YEAR I HAVE TO TAKE THE STAR TESTS!!! After taking these tests yearly for the last ten years, I will be done with these wastes of partially-recycled paper forever! And yes, I am excited about that, and not just so that I’ll be able to get even with those rub-their-nose-in-your-face seniors who get to sleep in for five days while the rest of us are stuck with the tests.

So, here we go with a few strange days at school…

Tags: California, education, rant, schedules, School, standards, STAR, tests

Well, if you haven’t noticed, I’m back from Sojourn. I’m still a little bit groggy, partly due to the time zone changes and to the general lack-of-enough sleep that accompanies Sojourn, along with the fact that I’ve now got a truckload of make-up homework to tackle over the next week or two. However, I did thoroughly enjoy my experiences on Sojourn and was very glad that I had the opportunity to go.

Now, as you know, I didn’t have any kind of computer/internet/electronics-of-any-kind-other-than-digital-cameras type of access on the trip, and so instead of blogging the trip as I would have, I kept a daily diary of what took place each day on the trip. That’s right, all handwritten. Wow. (Actually, with all of the notes and other homework we had, my handwriting actually got a bit of improvement! Not a lot, just a bit.)

Anyway, I’m going to be publishing my Sojourn Diaries here, on my blog, beginning this Thursday, February 28 and ending on Saturday, March 8–essentially, each post will be made two weeks after the day I originally wrote it. It’s not as great as being able to blog the trip live as it’s happening, but for me, it will be the best way of sharing how the trip was with you and everything that we did, because it was quite an experience.

But anyway, I am back and ready to roll! Once all of that make-up work is done, of course…

Tags: diaries, School, Sojourn to the Past, south, trip

I have alluded a couple of times recently to the trip (called Sojourn to the Past) that I am going on a trip during this month. (And, I’m still looking for guest bloggers to provide some content during my absence!) However, as per my usual pattern, it’s probably about time for me to share my itinerary with you all.

I first mentioned the trip on my blog three months ago when I was fundraising for it. Well, I completed my fundraising, partly thanks to a timely scholarship award that I was given from the good folks at Peace Action of San Mateo County, and so next Thursday, I will be off. Here is a look at my very busy schedule while I’m gone.
Continue reading »

Tags: Civil Rights Movement, itinerary, School, Sojourn to the Past, speakers, trip

In Physics class today, our teacher was talking about the Hydraulic Press, and showed us this great video that he happened to find on YouTube. It’s from a very very old David Letterman, in which they crush various things under an 80-ton Hydraulic Press somewhere in New Jersey. As if the virtual gore wasn’t bad enough, you get Letterman making one-liners through the whole thing! Absolutely hilarious and amazing to watch! And I thought Will it Blend? was awesome…

Part 1:

Part 2:

Tags: crush, hydraulic press, Physics, pressure, School, Video, YouTube

Well, I’m fresh back from my trip to Macworld Expo, courtesy of the tech group at my high school that I’m an “honorary member” of. (The “honorary” part means that I don’t actually do anything with them due to my busy schedule.) But yep, we got to go to Macworld as a field trip, meaning we got to legally miss all of our classes today to do so. Oh, I can just feel your jealousy rising.

The general consensus among us was that there was too much stuff for the three and half hours that we were there. (We finished getting all registered by 10:40 AM, and had to leave at 2:15 PM.) It didn’t help that there were two exhibit halls in separate buildings, a block apart from each other. Obviously not the ideal setup, but Moscone North was hosting the United Motorcoach Association of America or something like that. Wow. So, my schedule pretty much involved registering at Moscone West at about 10:20, then going through the West Exhibit Hall at 10:40-12:15, then getting lunch nearby until about 12:45, and then spending 12:45-2:15 in Moscone South. Unfortunately, I only got to see about half of Moscone South’s exhibit hall, which is very, very big.

However, this year, I spent most of my time talking with the smaller developers, which took up the majority of the West Hall and most of whom were together in the Developer Pavillion (aka “Tiny Town”) in South Hall, behind Apple’s humongous booth. I actually really enjoyed that, because in general, the smaller developers are much more approachable than these huge companies with the humongous booths, and they’re much more interesting. I actually got exposed to quite a few new apps that I’m going to have to check out (look at wallet, here comes the fire…). So although I obviously didn’t get to see everything I had hoped (the MacHeist, Micromat, and Microsoft booths were all on my to-do list which I didn’t get to), I still had a good time, a much less stressful time, and came back with some great goodies.

Included in my goodies was the official Macworld San Francisco T-shirt, this time a black T-shirt with blue and white lettering. I also got a WireTap Studio T-shirt from Ambrosia Software. WireTap Studio just looks so cool, so I’m really going to have to try it out. One of the companies actually was interested in doing a promotion with PreviewCast, and gave me his card, so there may be some interesting news coming from that soon.

Oh, and I got OmniFocus, the totally-awesome GTD application from the Omni Group for only $30. The regular list price is $80, and I got more than half off through a Macworld discount and a student discount. I’ll definitely be spending some time trying out OmniFocus and you can expect a detailed review here soon.

Don’t worry, you haven’t heard the last of my Macworld experiences yet, but I thought that I’d share just some of what I did at the exhibit hall today. One of these days, maybe I’ll actually be able to spend a full week at the conference.

P.S.: Sorry, but I didn’t get any pictures there this time. But I did get something else just as good! Hint hint…

Tags: Apple, developers, exhibits, Macs, Macworld, Moscone, Omni Group, OmniFocus, PreviewCast, recap, San Francisco, School, trip, WireTap Studio

If there’s one way to summarize one of my biggest questions about what was announced at Steve Jobs’ keynote on Tuesday, this has to be the best way. Overall, this year, I was never really excited about this year’s keynote, and there’s not much there to excite me. Time Capsule definitely looks interesting, and (when I can afford it) may actually improve my recent 1.5 Larry-head rating on Time Machine, although I’m not in a position to get it for the time being. I have a number of qualms about the MacBook Air, and as for the Apple TV, iTunes rentals, and iPod touch/iPhone updates, I’m maintaining a solidly neutral stance on those.

Now, hold on Douglas, you’re thinking, why aren’t you coming out and either praising or bashing Apple the way you normally do? Well, for most of these, I can see pros and cons on both sides, so for me, the jury’s still out on my opinions of these. I’m holding off until I get a chance to play around with things before I start to come to conclusions, and I will be sharing these conclusions on this weekend’s “Macworld in review” episode of PreviewCast, and later elaborating here on my blog.

As for trying them out, that’s what I’m going to be doing tomorrow! Indeed, tomorrow, I’ll be going with the Aragon group (about six of us in total, plus chaperones) to Macworld to tour the exhibit hall for the day. This will be my third consecutive excursion to Macworld’s Expo floor, and according to what all the websites are saying, we’ll actually be able to play around with the new stuff, rather than just looking at a rotating object in a bullet-proof* glass case. Which actually sounds exciting.
* I have no idea if the case was bullet-proof or not, and am just making this up.

However, this year, I hope to spend some more time talking to the people whom I really think should be the stars of the show: all of the little developers. (Merlin Mann likes to call the “little devs” section of the show floor Tiny Town.) It’s THEM that make the show possible, because it’s their contributions of their applications that helps the Mac platform succeed. So, I’m hoping to spend more time there this year.

I have one class tomorrow–Calculus, my first period class. After that, the group of us are carpooling up to the Millbrae BART station and taking BART to Powell Street, a block away from Moscone Center (and right next to the SF Apple Store). Last year, we tried to drive to Macworld and had the worst nightmare with parking. We’ll get there shortly after the 10 AM exhibit hall opening, get all checked in, and then have just under four hours to do stuff to our heart’s content. We’ll gather up around 2:15 to head back to BART and catch a 2:30 train back to Millbrae, and then we’ll drive back to school and get back there around 3:30.

I have not yet exactly decided what I’m going to do there. (Well, actually, I have, but I want to save some stuff to talk about in an “after Macworld” blog post!) However, I definitely intend to visit a number of booths. I plan to definitely check out Office 2008; after all, I don’t feel right truly making fun of something until I’ve had the chance to play around with it with my own hands, and I also want to find out, in plain English, what “Special Media Edition” means. I also want to find out if the Omni Group is offering any nice discounts on their new OmniFocus, which sounds like a really exciting app (and did you hear that it won a Best of Show award), and of course come home stuffed with a Macworld 2008 shirt. (I outgrew my Macworld 2006 shirt. As for my Macworld 2007 shirt, in February, it got a huge red stain after an alcohol thermometer broke in Chemistry class and splattered all over my shirt. Yeah, Macworld 2007 was just NOT a good one for me.) Oh, and I intend to gather up as many freebies and handouts as possible! There was some great stuff last year, so I wonder what I can scrounge up this year.

There’s also been lots of other things happening in my life recently, which I’ll try to catch up on in other blog posts, as it is time for me to hit the hay.

However, I will close by mentioning that this is my 300th blog post since I resalvaged this blog back in October 2006. My blog has had a number of incarnations before that, but I’ve never been able to keep a blog steady enough to keep going continuously for 300 full blog posts, which have been put together in 15 months. (You math whizzes can figure out that I’ve averaged out at 20 posts per month, or about 2 posts every 3 days. It’s not quite at one-post-per-day, blog365ers, but it’s pretty doggone close.) Thanks to the many of you who have been subscribing and sticking with my various ramblings. I do this blog mostly for myself, but it’s great to be able to bring you along for the ride and be able to share things that may interest or entertain you.

Tags: Apple, Aragon, BART, blog, exhibit hall, expo, itinerary, Keynote, Mac, MacBook Air, Macworld, News, opinion, plans, School, Time Capsule, Webmacster87.info

2008 is going to be a year of travel for me, without a doubt. In fact (subject to change), I will be traveling away from home for at least one day, usually more, out of each the months of January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and October. January’s trip happens this week (January 10-12) at my next State PTA Board Meeting in Riverside, California. Hopefully, it will be better than my last board meeting in Long Beach. The good thing is that there haven’t been any recent fires, and my allergic symptoms have been moot for a few weeks now (although I’ll bring some allergy meds JUST IN CASE). Also, given Riverside’s great distance from LAX, I will not be taking Virgin America this time; instead I will by flying with Southwest Airlines (Skoker’s favorite) to Los Angeles/Ontario Airport. As I have posted before, here’s my itinerary.
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Tags: AirPort, BART, Board of Managers, California State PTA, flight, itinerary, meeting, Oakland, Riverside, schedule, School, Southwest

UPDATE: I have completed fundraising for Sojourn. However, if you are still interested in supporting the organization that sponsors the trip, you can get donation information on Sojourn’s website.

Hello everyone,

I’m going to break away from the regular content on Webmacster87.info to make a more personal post and a request for assistance. I have been invited to go on a once in a lifetime journey with students from my school, called Sojourn to the Past. Sojourn is a ten-day academic tour through major civil rights sites in Atlanta, Georgia; Montgomery, Alabama; Selma, Alabama; Birmingham, Alabama; Hattiesburg, Georgia; Jackson, Georgia; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to visiting such sites as Stone Mountain, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Memorial, Little Rock Central High School, and the hotel where Dr. King was assassinated, I also have the opportunity to meet a number of speakers who are a part of the civil rights movement.

All of the speakers teach lessons about tolerance, acceptance of others, non-violence, courage, compassion, forgiveness, and civic responsibility. Our group will meet Congressman John Lewis, from Georgia, who was arrested over 40 times and beaten fighting for justice and equality. We meet Elizabeth Eckford and Minnijean Brown Trickey, two of the Little Rock Nine, the first African American students to desegregate schools in our country in 1957, fifty years ago. In fact, Minnijean travels with us for part of the ten days! We also meet 85 year old Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, who almost single-handedly desegregated Birmingham, Alabama. We meet Reverend Billy Kyles, who was on the balcony with Dr. King when he was shot in Memphis and spent the last hour of his life with him. We meet an incredible family called the Dahmers, whose father/husabnd was murdered in 1966 while leading voter registration drives. This family will share how they never gave up on justice, and continue to believe in the American system. We meet Chris McNair, whose daughter, Denise, was killed in the Birmingham Church Bombing in 1963. He is the father of one of the four little girls who were killed and shares his story of never giving up on justice and not to hate those who did this terrible deed.

The main reason that I want to go on this trip is because a lot of the extracurricular activities that I participate in are based on principles similar to those of the civil rights movement, and this trip is a special opportunity that I want to be a part of. I am intrigued by the thought of not just getting to learn more about the civil rights movement, but to actually be able to interact and meet the people that made the movement a reality. It’s a very special opportunity because these people won’t be around for much longer to share their perspectives. I’m really hoping to be able to go on this exciting trip.

The reason that I am writing this post is that I need to raise a total of $2500 in order to go, and I cannot personally afford the full cost of this trip, and so I am asking the readers of my blog, if they are interested and are able to, to donate so that I can raise enough money to go on this trip in February 2008. There are a few ways you can donate. The easiest way is through the Donate box that is on the left sidebar of Webmacster87.info–that will allow you to donate directly to me through PayPal. Note, however, that if you are donating via PayPal, a small PayPal fee is subtracted from that total (you may want to use the PayPal Fees Calculator to determine how much I’ll actually be getting), and PayPal donations are not tax-deductible. If you would prefer, you can leave a comment in this thread and I will personally contact you via the e-mail address that you specify with information on how you can send a check, which is tax-deductible (I would send you all the info on the various IRS quirks that are necessary to make it tax-deductible). In the Donation box, I have put a suggested default amount of $10, but any amount helps. If the total that I raise exceeds the needed $2500, then the extra goes toward a financial aid fund that is available for other students to attend this program.

If you would like to learn more about the trip, including the itinerary, list of speakers, and other information, feel free to check out Sojourn to the Past’s website.

Thanks in advance for any support you may be able to offer!
–Douglas Bell

Tags: assistance, civil rights, donations, fundraising, history, Personal, request, School, Sojourn to the Past, south, trip

Today is Friday, October 26th, THE day of Leopard! 130 weeks have passed since the day that Tiger hit the streets, and at 6:00 PM tonight, the middle digit of the current stable version of the Mac operating system will officially increase by one for the first time in two and a half years.

Some people have asked me about my Tiger-to-Leopard series this week, asking me why on earth I would take so much time collecting a bunch of facts from the last two and a half years. Do I have too much free time? (Believe me, the answer to that is a solid NO.) Am I just interested in bashing Apple because they delayed their Leopard release to October? Not really. What I really wanted to do was to capture the essence of just how fast our world changes today, and to highlight just how much things have changed in the last two and a half years to put the distance between Tiger and Leopard into perspective. When Tiger was released, not only did it contain the most updates of any OS X release to that date, it had been the first release to take a full year and a half to go public. Leopard has now trumped Tiger with over 300 new features and two and a half years until release, and so I think that it’s interesting to look at that. The reason that I’ve split it up into a five-day series this week is because I ended up having too many ideas to fill just one post.

Anyway, today, I want to culminate this series by looking back on my personal life. This may be the part of this blog series that you are either the least or the most interested in, but not only has a lot happened in the world (see the earlier four posts), but a lot has happened in my life as well, and here are some of the highlights from the last two and a half years.
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Tags: article, life, Mac OS X Leopard, Personal, School, Tiger-to-Leopard