JJ’s Jots

It’s almost the end of the school year and I’ve done a lot. My top 3 memories are playing basketball in front of PE class, making my first pen in wood shop, and my 20% project. First of all, there’s playing basketball in front of PE class. The teacher had asked for someone to demonstrate the game that we were playing. My goal was to shoot a layup, free throw, and then a three point shot. I made the layup, then made the free throw, and I made the three pointer. The class went crazy and it was definitely the most memorable part of PE class. Secondly is making my first pen in wood shop. I enjoyed this memory because of how well it went. The pen was very well made and I had a lot of fun. Another good thing about making my first pen is that it certified me as a pen TA so I could teach others how to make a pen. I really enjoyed so it has to be one of my favorites. Finally, there’s my 20% project. I really enjoyed this project because of how fun it was to learn and play chess. It taught me about strategy and planning ahead. The presentation night was great, hanging out with my friends for most of the class was great, and I loved practicing at home. I also enjoyed playing my friends and achieving my goal. It was overall a great experience and I had a lot of fun. So, overall, those were my top 3 favorite memories of my 7th grade experience.

This week is my last 20% project blog and I worked on spotting great and brilliant moves. A brilliant move is as chess.com states, “The best move – and tricky to find too!” What I did to try and spot these moves was watch a video on what to do to find them. The video demonstrated that I should look at what is stopping me from getting a checkmate, and if I can sacrifice something in order to stop it preventing me from winning. After this video, I played some more games of chess. Some successes of this week were getting the mindset of trying to find brilliant moves, and I beat my brother who is very good at playing chess. However, something that wasn’t successful was actually finding a brilliant move. There’s not much I can do now except for waiting for one to come by. Something that I noticed change in my gameplay is a huge recede in blunders and noticing if my opponent can checkmate me. These things have helped me get much better at chess.

This week in my 20% project I worked on my chess endgames. The first thing I did was watch a video on what to do if I need to promote a pawn and only have a king. I learned that I need to keep the king ahead of the pawn and block the other king from taking it. I also learned a strategy to see if my pawn was able to get killed by the king. I know this by using an L. If it has an equal amount to the side as to up/down, then the king is able to take the pawn. If they’re uneven squares then I am able to promote the pawn. I was successful in the endgames and it was seen in the final game of the period I was working in. I had gotten into an intense endgame where he had five pawns and I only had four. My opponent had created a wall that was preventing my pawns from promoting. In order to stop this I had to get my king around the pawn wall and take them out. Once I did this I thinned it down to one pawn for each team. He had moved his king in the wrong position, opening my pawn for promotion. I spotted his mistake and won the game. Another succession was that I reached 700 elo on my phone. Something I struggled with this week was my openings. Whenever I started the game, I would lose control of the center of the board and would have to make a comeback. I fixed this by changing my opening strategy for the color I would be. If I was white, I would put my queens pawn up and if I was black I would put my kings pawn up. Overall, it was a very successful week.

When you first look at this image what comes to mind? Maybe you think that poor kids should get support, maybe you think it shows that spoiled people aren’t grateful. These opinions are valid and respectable, but I believe it demonstrates the importance of perspective. You can see that the kid on the right is much happier than the kid on the left, despite having much less. Why? Because of their perspective. If we go into something and expecting everything to be perfect and it doesn’t turn perfect, you are less happy. But if you go into something thinking about how your situation could be much worse, you end up being grateful for your current situation. You can see that the kid on the right is an example of having this kind of mindset and is happy that they have a toy because before when they didn’t have a toy, they had nothing to do. When you don’t have this mindset your expectations heighten and it leads to sadness when your expectations aren’t met. It is important to have perspective because it leads to gratefulness, happiness, and peace within yourself.

My house has a lot of rooms. There’s my own room, my parents room, three bathrooms and more bedrooms. However, there is one room that I enjoy the most. That room is the game room. The game room has a raised fence in the back which shows into the kitchen which is behind it. Inside of the room are two couches, a large glass door, and a flatscreen TV. I like the game room because of the memories that were made, the TV, and access to the kitchen. First of all, I like the game room because of the memories that were made there. One thing that stands out was when I was around seven years old. Me and my family were playing monopoly when my mom looked outside and yelled “IS THAT A BODY?!” When she looked outside. Everyone thought it was an actual person based off of the yell but it was actually a bunny that my dog had killed. Another reason why I like the game room is because of the TV. The TV is a very high quality product that is very large. I really enjoy the TV because I can watch all of the Lakers games and football games when I want to. I also have access to Disney+, Netflix, Prime Video, and more. The final reason why I like the game room is because of the access to the kitchen. Whenever I’m watching a movie or show, I could get hungry. All I have to do is move a bit to make popcorn, get leftovers, or eat some chips. The access to the kitchen is also nice because I can watch shows from the kitchen if I have to finish my food.

This week in getting better at chess I worked on spotting checkmates. I did this by watching a video that taught me about spotting and forcing checkmates. They showed me six different ways I can force a checkmate. My favorite way is the ladder way. I do this by slowly forcing a king to the edge of the board with two rooks/queens. Once it reaches the edge, you can pin it and move down one more which causes a checkmate. This was successful and I beat my opponent in a game of chess multiple times. Something I struggled with was spotting threats that my opponent would make. An example of this would be when they would be in a position to fork me or double attack and I wouldn’t spot it which made me lose material. I attempted to fix this by analyzing my opponents pieces and not just my own. This helped me win some more games of bullet, blitz, and regular games. Next week, I will work on my endgames so I can beat my opponent with little material.

This month, I finished and enjoyed Patron Saints Of Nothing by Randy Ribay. Patron Saints Of Nothing is about a boy named Jay Reguero who discovers that his cousin in the Philippines has died. Jay feels bad about his cousin because he had cut off contact from him 6 months before his death. In his grief, he try’s to justify his cousin’s death and faces a difficult truth. What I loved about this book was how it made me think about the possibilities and what would happen at the end and I was always on the edge of my seat and interested in what’s going to happen next.

My favorite character from this book is Jay. This is because he is curious which eventually makes him learn to respect his culture. A piece of evidence that shows he is a curious person is found on page 170 when he talks to his aunt about what happened to his cousin. The book states, “I clear my throat. ‘So what happened next?’ Tita Chato rubs her jaw. ‘He left.’ ‘Why?’” Said Jay. This may look like some regular dialogue but you can see that it proves Jay’s curiosity because he constantly asks questions about what happened and is not giving up to find answers of what happened to his cousin. Someone who wasn’t curious would just say “Ok” and move on with their life.

My favorite quote from this book is found on page 293 when Jay’s other cousin asks “‘…do you think it would be a good idea could hold a small memorial for him?’” I like this quote because it means that they’re finally going to have a memorial for their dead cousin. Most of the reason why Jay came to the Philippines is to try and justify his cousin and this quote shows that he finally reached his goal.

In this week improving on the game of chess, I have learned about openings. I did this by seeing some openings online and on chess.com. The first opening I was trying was the Kings Indian Defense. What I did in this defense was set up for a pawn attack that would help me win the game. I also learned the Queen’s Gambit. The Queen’s Gambit is used to help you’ve guessed it, the queen. This gambit is used to open up the bishops, pawns, and queen which is nice for controlling the board. Some successes of this week was my ability to force my opponent into checkmates. Another succession was that I was able to force my opponent into doing things. However, something that I struggled with this week is finding checkmates that I did not force. Next week, I am going to try and spot checkmates easier without forcing it.

This week in my 20% project I worked on forking pieces. Forking pieces is when I attack multiple pieces at the same time. This is useful to learn because in a match I can get free material from forking pieces. Before learning anything, I played my friend in a game of chess. In this game I had no forks. In order to learn some ways to fork, I went to YouTube. I found a video that teaches me some forks like the king/rook fork. After watching this video I played another game of chess against the same friend. This game was very successful in the range of forking his pieces. However, something that did not go well were my blunders so it appears that what I learned last week isn’t sticking as well as I would have liked. So, when I play chess again I will make sure that I am watching out for blunders. Next week I will learn better openings so I can know what to do in the beginning of the game so I can win at the end of the game.

If I were to invite 3 people in the world living, dead, or fictional, to dinner, it would be Nick Di Giovanni, my Grandma, and Jesus. Nick Di Giovanni is a YouTuber who makes cooking videos that are very entertaining. I would invite him because he’s really good at cooking and would make the dinner delicious. He’s also a pretty cool person. Finally, I would invite my Grandma because she is really good at making conversations just about anything. It could be the weather, it could be the food, it could be religion, or it could be sports. My grandma is also a very good cook. Finally, I would invite Jesus. I mean, how could I not invite Jesus with him being the son of God and all, and even if I weren’t Christian, it’d be very interesting to hear his story from his perspective of his time.