Max’s Marvelous Memoir

For this week, I struggled a bit with winning games. My elo dropped a bit but I learned a lot about time. The thing that took me down was my time. I was too slow to respond and this is why I lost chess games. The important thing was that after that I played some blitz games which is three minute games. This helped me because before I was playing rapid which is 10 minute chess games. (Disclaimer: I am trying to get my rapid chess elo up to a 1500). After I played a few blitz games, I became faster and was able to make my moves a lot faster than before. Now, that my speed is acceptable, I need to work on not hanging pawns. I can do this by looking at the whole board not just my side but my opponents too. This will make it so I don’t hang that much pawns anymore.

You move into a new house. You see your neighbor in your garden look at you sternly as you drive up your new curb. You want to greet them and become a good neighbor, but you don’t know how. Here’s a few ways you can become a good neighbor. First, make a tradition with them like bringing them baked goods or fruits and vegetables to their door. Don’t do this too much though, it may get annoying. Always knock on their door first and if they don’t respond don’t keep knocking just leave your gifts on the front door. Secondly, when you drive in your car or go outside your home to grab your mail always wave at them or tell them a joke. This will make them think you are more trustworthy and they will wave to you back or laugh. Thirdly, invite them to your party’s. If you’re throwing a party for your birthday just tell them they can swing by. This will give them the idea that you want them at your party and will invite you to their party’s. Only invite them if it’s for your birthday or something you accomplished and not for someone else or it will be weird. In conclusion, these three examples will surely make you the best neighbor in the whole world.

For week two of the 20% project, I played a few chess games. Also, I watched a few videos on how to checkmate with a pawn. This week was amazing because I was able to win a few games and reach a elo high of 1275. In my game review I struggled with my middle game. This was because my opponent had better pawns in the middle of the board while mine was still at the start. In the end my endgame was still better than his and I won. I might make some adjustments like learning more middle game strategies and tactics instead of openings and endgames. I will pick up next time with playing a few more games to reach 1300 and watching a few videos about middle game tactics. In conclusion, I accomplished a lot and am happy with my progress as this is still just week two for the twenty percent project that we are doing.

Once upon a time, there was a hidden village in Panama which in that hidden village lived a Blue Platypus named Perry. Everyone in the village would always tell mean things to Perry because he was the only blue colored platypus in the village. Perry never cared what other people thought. His dream was to reform his village. This was because of all the problems that were going on in his village. One problem that stood out from the rest was the lack of water in his village. A few weeks ago the river that the platypus got their water source from, suddenly the water disappeared from the river. This meant that the platypus had to travel a lot farther than where they usually go and would face dangers getting there. Perry knew he had to do something. He had been staying up all night trying to figure out a plan. One day, while Perry was brainstorming ideas, he looked outside his casement to see some baby platypus digging up in a small sand pit. Then it struck him, what if there was water under him and they could make their own river channel. Perry then fled out of his house and went straight to the village leader. “Village leader! Village leader! I propose a idea to bring back our water source!” The village leader looked at him sternly, “well what are you waiting for then, tell me!” Perry then told the village leader his idea about digging a water source. “Hmm, let’s give it a shot then” the village leader stated. Perry bursted with joy and went back to his home. The next day the village leader, Perry and the whole village went outside to dig. What they found surprised them. There was a whole water source under them that they never knew! The village cheered and gave a round of applause to Perry. No one ever teased Perry anymore and praised him as a hero. He now has a statue and a cartoon made after him.

Hi my name is Max and for my twenty percent project I am going to get better at chess for 6 weeks. My mentor is my mother and my goal at the end of the school year is to get passed a 1500 elo. Right at this moment, I am a 1220 elo. You may ask this is pretty easy going form a 1220 to a 1500 elo. Well, your wrong each win you get on chess.com, you get a +7 through 10. You can lose up to this amount too. With all that stated, this will not be an easy task. This Friday, I watched some videos about openings and some tactics. This will help me win a few matches at the elo I am at right now. I would say this week I accomplished what I needed to accomplish and hope to do the same next week. If I continue this path I am sure to hit 1500+ elo by the end of the school year.

There are so many people I would want to invite to dinner, but these are my top three: Ash Ketchum, Kreek Craft, and Gojo. Firstly, Ash Ketchum is from a TV show called Pokemon, where he catches creatures called Pokemon and becomes the strongest Pokemon master. I would want Ash Ketchum at my dinner because he would be able to give me some of his Pokemon that he doesn’t need and I would be able to battle him every time he comes over. Secondly, Kreek Craft is a Roblox YouTuber who streams videos on YouTube. I would want to invite him to my dinner because I would be on his streams and we would play Roblox all together. Lastly, Gojo is a character from the anime Jujitsu Kaisen and is a jujitsu sorcerer. I would want him at my dinner because he would teach me his strong magical powers that he uses and also teach me how to do things blindly. In conclusion, I would have a blast at dinner inviting Ash Ketchum, Kreek Craft, and Gojo.

This March I read the book The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman. The Silver Arrow is a fiction book about how 11 year old Kate gets a huge surprise for her birthday. For her 11th birthday Kate sends a letter to her uncle asking for a present. The next day a train arrives and Kate is ecstatic. Her mother and father do not feel the same way and tell Kate’s uncle to keep it. Kate is miserable and when everyone was asleep at night she went out to her train with her little brother Tom and they both went inside the train. What they didn’t know was that the train was actually a magic train called the silver arrow and they were now going to be conductors for talking animals and sending them to where they need to go.

I liked this book because the main character Kate was so ordinary and then something magical happened to her. This made me feel like that could have happened to anyone and it could happened to me. Also, I liked this book because of the type of magic they used in the book. Usually when you think of magic you would think of powers or magic spells but in this book it was a magic train and talking animals which I liked.

Tom was my favorite character because he always knew what to do when the train was in trouble and Kate didn’t know what to do Tom would always have an answer and lead them to victory. Also, I liked how Tom was fun. In the train they could ask for certain types of cars and Tom wanted a candy car which would be really cool and a pool car. Both of these cars are amazing and cool to be in. A quote to show this is “Why don’t we get a candy car too, Oh! And how about a pool car too! That would be fun!”

My favorite quote from the story is “Don’t feel too bad about what humans have done,” the mamba said with a gentleness in his voice that she’d never quite heard before. “Feeling guilty doesn’t help anything anyway. Humans are animals doing what all animals do: surviving. It’s just that you’ve done it too well, so well that now you have to become a new kind of animal, one who makes sure that all the others survive, too.” I liked this quote because it touched my heart. I realized humans have been treating animals very poorly, destroying all of their homes and forcing animals to find new habitats that are smaller and more dangerous.

If I could have any job in the entire world, it would be a sport’s agent. For those who don’t know what a sports agent is where you are an agent of a professional agent and promote them and represent them with their contracts. If you want to know about how much money they make, it varies. Sport agents make 4 to 15 percent of their athletes income. I would want to be a sports agent because I love watching sports like football, soccer, tennis, etc. Also, I want to become a sport’s agent I would be able to travel the world watching my athletes win tournaments, super bowls or world cups. Thirdly, I would want to be a sports agent because of all the fame you get. You don’t get that much fame where you are bombarded by people every corner you are but are famous where you get to be in your athletes conferences or talking on tv shows about your athletes or just talking about sports. Lastly, I want to be a sports agent because I would be able to play sports every day. When you are a sports agent you have to have an appointment with colleges trying to figure out which athlete you want to choose and most agents talk while playing golf, tennis, or any other relaxing sport. In conclusion, I want to be a sports agent because I can watch sports every day as a job, make contracts, have some fame, and playing sports every day.

This February I read the book The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White. The Sword in the Stone is a fiction book about an orphaned boy named Arthur and his childhood life to become the king. Arthur lives with his brother Kay in Sir Ector’s castle. One day Arthur and Kay stumble upon a magicians home who has a magician living inside named Merlin who tutors Arthur and Kay. With Merlin as Arthur and Kay’s tutor eduction starts to be more fun and they go on adventures turning into different animals like snakes and birds.

I enjoyed reading this book because of all the exciting adventures the boys go on. Each one of Arthur and Kays adventures were so detailed and there were so many exciting new characters that the boys would meet. For example, one of the adventures Arthur and Kay go to is meeting Robin Hood and help rescue some people on one of his missions.

Arthur was my favorite character in the book because he was very kind. Kay was two years older than Arthur and when Kay became a knight, Arthur always wanted to help Kay and even became his squire which is a knights helper. Also, Arthur also wanted to become a knight and vowed to stop all the evil in their world. A quote to show this is “If I were to be a knight, said the Wart, staring dreamily into the fire, I should insist upon my doing my vigil all by myself, as Hob does with his hawks, and I should pray to God to let me encounter all the evil in the world in my own person, so that if I conquered there should be none left.”

My favorite quote in the book was “He was one of those people who would be neither a follower nor a leader, but only an aspiring heart, impatient in the failing body which imprisoned it.” I loved this quote because it made me feel as you can do this in your own life. I didn’t understand this quote at first but it means that you shouldn’t boss people or be a follower in your life, you should understand and try to work with people as a coworker relationship instead of a boss worker relationship.

The possibilities are endless when you are invisible for twenty-four hours! The first thing I would do would steal my neighbors car and drive to a bank and steal all their money! I would be rich for the rest of my life and no one would know because I would never be seen! The second thing I would do would be going to my local Costco and taking each and every bulky item in the store. Then when I have enough, I would go to McDonald’s and take their ice cream machine for my home. After that, I would go to Lucky Strike and steal every single arcade game from there and keep it in my house. After that I would head to the Apple Store and take every electronic there and make someone give me their 5G internet. Now the time should be about 6 O clock at night and the last thing I would do would be to prank my family. I would set up traps around the house and when they wake up they would be bombarded by many pranks. The next day me and my family would have loads of money, food, entertainment. The most important thing is that we would all have loads of fun and no one would ever know that I was the one who committed all of these crimes.