Summer Adventure Gallery: July 12–18

I am in a Lego cab

I made art. This parrot and the wood, leaves, etc, are made of dyed modeling clay and the back is cork my name is written is a white some material marker.

I draw roses and stars. I used markers. I love my art piece!

I got my book gift and tote bag today. I am so happy. Thank you, Fremont Library!

Today I went to summer camp early. I went at 7:35am. My summer camp opened at 7:30am. My friends came at 8:20am. I usually come to summer camp at 9:30am. They even had morning snack! I took two! I enjoy playing at the park, and watching the other kids play while I waited for my friends to come. After I got bored so I went to get a bicycle to ride on. I ride close to the playground and the fake grass I biked in a circle. I biked for about ten minutes.

Pearl (AKA Pearly, Pearly Girl, Pearly Pop, P-Dot, Miss P, Little Tiny) Pearl is a playful, observant, and cautious kitten with a big appetite! She loves toys of all kinds but she goes especially wild for the laser pointer, racing up and down the hallway and even throwing herself at the wall. When she doesn't have the zoomies, Miss P likes to lie on her back, with her paws up and belly exposed. My favorite thing about Pearly is that she tucks me into bed at night! While I brush my teeth, she waits patiently for me on the sink and when I get into bed, she hops onto the covers and purrs and makes biscuits—just like she's tucking me in! She has also invented a game to play during mealtimes: using her paw to fish out one kibble at a time from her food bowl, she then sends the kibble flying across the floor so that she can chase, dribble, and then finally eat it. My partner and I call this little game of hers "Pearlball."

I read Elatsoe by Darcie Little Bear. It is a story that brings in the relationship that the indigenous people in Texas have with different animals and animal spirits. The main character Elle is able to call back animal spirits for a fun twist on a murder mystery.

I recently read a book called Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath . This book explores why some ideas stick and others are lost within minutes. The authors identify six traits that make ideas succeed: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and through Stories (they call this SUCCESS). The Concrete chapter was the one that stayed with me the most. The authors give the example of a newspaper editor telling a young reporter to write stories that people would actually repeat at the dinner table that night, rather than just report the facts. That reframed something inside of me. People easily forget abstract statements, but they tend to remember a number or some particular detail. I’ve begun to use it in how I speak about my own work, particularly in interviews. I don’t say I “improved system performance” anymore. Instead I might say, “I cut the response time on a clinical data query from 40 seconds to under 4 seconds.” It’s a small shift, but it makes the story easier for the other person to picture and remember, and it makes the impact feel real, not vague. Altogether, the book made me think differently about communication in general, not only in writing, but how I explain my projects, pitch ideas or even just answer questions like this one.

Es un avión de origami

I loved reading Adrian Tchaikovsky‘s Green City Wars. It’s a fun sci-fi book about Skotch, a sentient raccoon living behind the scenes in a futuristic solar punk “eco-friendly” society. He’s tasked with finding a mouse that is harboring a secret, which will supposedly change the world. I enjoyed the Germanic aspect to the story and the naming conventions. It make my knowledge of the German language come in handy!

Today I was pumping up my bicycle tires and my dad’s too. It was hard work but for my dad it was easy. Afterwords I went bike riding with my dad to test our tires. We also collected some cards on an app that my dad has. We collected two of them. And the max is seven. When we got home we pulled something in the car and the back seat popped up we pulled another thing and the seat rest popped down too! It made the trunk bigger to put our bicycles in there. And then my dad said it is not good to leave the bicycles like that for a long time.

My mom read me a book on moma loves you so and little dinosaur

I made a whale!

I reread Watership Down, a classic novel about rabbits and an allegory for our society. I enjoyed rereading it and diving deeper into the meanings of the actions of certain characters such as Hazel and what the author is trying to say about the way our society and government is run.

I got someone with water balloons!

I rented a lime e scooter in DC

I built a house. Around the house is a lake. I put some roses and daisies. I put the sun and clouds.

Today I went to summer camp. We had a field trip, we went to the USS Hornet. We keep going back and forth. The people who work there told us a lot. After the USS Hornet we went to Crab Cove. Me and my friends built something, I forgot the name of the thing that we built. The water was cold, I got wet. One of my friends found a claw of a crab!

I'm at the edge in the mirror room and at the top