Joseph's Blog

Loser Have you ever lost something very valuable to you? Unfortunately, I have lost many things, including something that I considered “priceless to me”. It was worth almost $100, and what’s more, it was my life savings. That day was horrible, especially when my mom said I did not care at all about it. One day, out of the blue, my mom told me that we were going to the shopping mall. I asked if I could buy whatever I wanted. My mom said that I could, as long as I pay for it with my own money. I was overjoyed! I absentmindedly put my whole life savings in the front pocket of my school bag and walked with my parents in the subway. I kept a good eye on my money. Very soon, we got to our destination. “63 rd Drive, Rego Park. Transfer is available to the – M – and – R – lines. The next stop is 67 th Street,” the artificial voice on the loudspeaker said. We hurried up the escalators and ran to the mall. As we browsed around, my mom bought many things. I looked for interesting thin...

Have you ever noticed that the view count on new videos  temporarily freezes at 301 (or a little bit higher) views? This is because of the way YouTube is programmed; if the number of views are  ≥301 views, the counting stops  for about  ½ a day to a day . But, if there are views coming in at the same time, it will count  all  of them, and it will freeze at that amount.   For more information, go to the link:  Numberphile: Why do YouTube views freeze at 301?

My Dream Invention       If I were able to invent anything I wanted, I would make a machine to find lost belongings because I frequently lose my possessions. If everything I have lost were gathered in one place, it would probably fill up a large table!          I love to watch movies. After finishing my big load of homework, I like to sit back and relax on my big comfy chair in my room and watch a movie.  One day last summer, I went to the Stop and Shop supermarket with my mom and asked her to rent a DVD from the Redbox machine. I also wanted to pick up a few snacks and a cake to eat while watching the movie. For the cake, I searched for the perfect chocolate cake — the one with two or three soft chocolate layers stuck together with creamy chocolate cream, covered with rich chocolate frosting glazed with chocolate syrup, and sprinkled with chocolate pieces. I was dazed by the various choices of chocolate cakes available. To compare...

Have you noticed that at some nonprofit hospitals overprice the cost of some things such as CT scans, X-rays, and diabetes test strips? As stated in the main article in the TIME magazine issued on March 4, 2013, this problem may let those hospitals rob a lot of money from you. For example, a patient was charged $333.00 for a chest scan. Medicare makes you pay $23.83. Another patient was charged $24.00 for a 500-mg tablet of niacin. Drugstores sell the same thing at $20.00 —for a pack of 400 of them.  Sometimes, they even charge you for ridiculous things such as the reusable gown the patient uses and the blanket covering him or her, or the make you take more of a thing than needed (a patient was charged $31.00 for using the gown and $32.00 for the blanket). You even need to pay to mark a place using a pen (the same patient paid $3.00 for it). If any of you out there reading this know the answer to this, or would like to discuss about this, please comment!  The magazine issu...

Please note that I have another blog at  translateparadox.blogspot.com .

            You know that there are atoms. But did you know that there are smaller particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons? They are the particles that make up the atom, and even protons and neutrons consist of smaller particles called quarks (electrons are also called leptons). Some scientists propose that these extremely small particles are made up of even smaller particles called preons. But many experiments either consider the size of a quark as 0 or as 0.1 to 0.02 % the size of a proton. Because of this — and the fact that it would have to fit inside quarks, which have to fit inside the proton/neutron itself — proving the fact that preons exist might be disapproved. If we came up with a nonzero (or even better: a more precise) size for the quark, the proof for the theory of the quark will be supported. More information about the article this post was based on is here:  Scientific American Volume 307 No. 5

What’s Your Sport?      I have many favorite sports, but one of my favorites is kickball. Kickball is a sport similar to baseball, except that there are no specific “spots” or equipment, and an inflated rubber ball is kicked. Kickball is fun, makes me feel better, and a great way to get exercise.      Every time my friends or classmates play kickball with me, I feel jubilated. I feel excited on the field. When I wait for my turn to come up, I cheer for the runner. When I kick the ball, everybody on my team gets their hopes up that I will kick the ball hard, far, and good. As I sprint toward first base, I hear everybody cheering for me to get a home run or at least a single. If I go back to home base, everybody is glad I got another run. Even out in the field, I feel encouraged to play. When I pitch the ball well, I feel good because I didn’t get a penalty for my team. If I catch a fly ball or tag a runner out, I get cheers from my team. When a...

Want a Pet?           Would you like to own a pet? I would want a pet dog or cat because they remind me of good friends. However, they would need to meet certain requirements, such as being hypoallergenic and friendly. I would love this kind of pet.           I used to have a best friend named Joshua about 5 years ago. We lived directly across from each other and played a lot together. We played new games and old every day from right after school to when we had to sleep, and we often ate together. We even sometimes went together to fun places like amusement parks and water parks. He had 4 cats that were really nice, but I was allergic to them. My mom had to give me allergy medicine every time I went over to his house. When I had a mild allergic reaction to them, it was very annoying, especially if I was playing. I would like to have a cat like Joshua’s except it will have to be hypoaller...

Place of Solace           Recently, I was working on an important science project on the computer in my living room. The project took me quite a long time to work on, and I was feeling really good because I was almost finished with it. I had to take a break to go to the bathroom. My mom was cooking, so she didn’t see what my 5-year-old sister Grace was doing. When I came back, I found out that my sister walked to the computer and   completely   messed up my project. I felt like I wasted so much time and work for nothing at all! She typed in random characters everywhere to ruin the   autosaved   Word document, and then closed the file without saving it. She even corrupted the original file, which is almost impossible to do! Since I didn’t know about it, I opened the original Word document, which was partially incomplete. Next, I opened the Excel spreadsheet in the Word file, but it went back to a period where it was even less complete. I...

The Y2K “Catastrophe” and My Fear           On December 31, 1999, almost every computer owner in the world panicked. Why? They believed that the shifting of the first two digits of the year would confuse the computers and make them crash. This belief had existed ever since computers were programmed, and to stop people’s fear, I would have tried to convince them that their computers wouldn’t crash just because of having to change two digits. As for me, this reminds me of the time when I was really scared of something but ended up liking it: a steep amusement park ride.           When the shift to the year 2000 came, people feared that the change from _ _99 to _ _00 would confuse computers and crash them. Most people probably thought the ascending order of the last two digits would be “disrupted” and make the computers think the date is “19100,” “1900,” or other years. Even the government was afraid. However, I would have...

My Favorite Food           One of my favorite foods is “galbi”( 갈비 ), a Korean barbequed short ribs. I like it because it is very healthy, delicious, and memorable.           Galbi is very healthy because it uses many good ingredients such as lean meat, garlic, kiwi, and Korean soy sauce. In these ingredients, there are low amounts of fat, calories, and sodium. There are also many nutrients and antioxidants, including calcium, Vitamin B 6 , and Vitamin C. There is a chemical that eliminates hunger, which can help with weight loss.           Galbi is very delicious. When it is put on the grill, the sizzling sound and the scrumptious smell tempt me to eat it right away. A pang of deliciousness fills my mouth as soon as I put it. I like it so much that I can eat a lot of it until I’m full.           To me, galbi is memorable. I went to South Korea two mont...

George Washington   When I think about what a person I admire was like, I think of a brave, determined, loyal, hardworking, or important person. One of the people I admire the most was George Washington. He was a great leader, and he was courageous, determined, and loyal. He affects my life in several ways. Washington was a great leader because he led the United States to independence. He controlled a huge army and led them to victory, despite the fact that it was huge. Another reason he was a great leader was that after the war, he governed the   whole   United States as president. He was so excellent that everyone wanted him to serve three terms, even though he only wanted to serve two. Washington was also courageous, determined, and loyal. He wasn’t afraid to go to war. He even tried to fight a country stronger than America! Another reason he had those character traits was that even though at first the U.S. was losing the Revolutionary War, Wash...

Many times, I will be posting  unedited essays. If you have any comments but can't post them, post them here and include the title of the essay. Please note that because of a flash  drive  failure , some              |       essays will be missing.           _ |_          \  |  /            \|/