Nicholas’ Soccer Blog

Hi Readers,

A few days ago our class got the privilege to have a guest visit from a robotic engineer. He played a video for us that told us about a robotic competition called First Robotics. He was promoting the competition to our age. The video showed us clips of previous challenges.

Participants built robots to perform a task. One of the tasks was to build a robot that could successfully go through a maze without hitting the edges of blocks. It had to knock blocks of the top of a boulder and other challenging tasks. The robot had to be previously programmed which means there were no remote controls involved. There were also bigger battle robots which could be controlled by remote.

Later on, after we had finished watching the video he brought in his robots. It was very exciting because he had a robot called the vexplorer. We were all going to get a chance to drive it!

Together we figured out what all the different controls did. These vexplorers (the robots we were driving)  could be programed to act on their own but in our case we just drove them with a remote control. Some of the buttons lowered the claw, some opened the claw, others moved the robot around. The coolest part of the whole experience was that there was a video camera mounted on top of the claw that would make everything the robot could see appear on the screen. We were not aloud to look at the robot, only at the screen.

The vexplorer could perform tasks such as picking up a pop can or juice box. Other bots specialized in picking up tennis balls. My favorite robot to drive was the tennis ball robot. I thought it was the most spectacular because it would spin a wheel placed on its claw backwards in order to “suck in” the tennis ball.

The robot shown in the picture was not one of the robots we drove. The robot we drove was similar except with a claw coming out of the front.

Thanks for reading and bye for now!

Photo by: shygantic

When I get home I am always looking for a little something to eat (a snack). Different people like different snacks. Here are my favourite after school snacks.

1. Sushi- I like Sushi because it has a variety of food inside a bascilly one bite snack. The best sushi is sushi you have made on your own and personalized. To make sushi you will need: seaweed, white and sticky rice, a vegetable of your choice (avacado cucumber), if you want…. add a meat of some sort such as fish or crab. Once you have gathered all the ingredients take a bit of meat and vegetables and put them in a little pile. After that wrap the seaweed around followed by wrapping the sticky rice around the seaweed…….. and voila you have your personal sushi snack.  P.S. Don’t forget soy sauce and if you are a vegetarian don’t put in meat obviously.
2. Ham Roll Ups- Ham Roll Ups are a nice after school snack because well…..  they taste good. This isn’t really a snack I need to tell you how to make but anyway if you are wondering you take a slice of deli ham and roll it starting from one side.

          This post was inspired by the Whats For Snack? post written by: Brittany and Brianne

          Photo by: lotusutol

Hi Guys,

Today our class watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama. I think this event had a huge impact on not just American history but history in general. The fact that an African American man can be placed in one of the highest ranks in the world. What a change. A few years ago I doubt an African American could run for president never mind actually winning. I noticed that people were very excited about this transition more so than others. I thought the reason for this might be one of two things. First the fact that he is African American or……. that their economy is not doing well and they just want a change. They being almost the whole world.

I am interested what your opinions are on the topic. Why do you think this transition had such an impact on the world? Also, do you think Barack Obama will do well? Leave a comment and I will leave  a comment on your blog.

Photo: (Barack Obama) by, El Sol

Thanks for reading!

       Today I am going to teach you a few soccer drills to help improve your skill.

1. The Give and Go Drill-  For this drill you will need three players (one defender and two forwards). Using the three players form a triangle. Decide on which player will play as the defender . One forward will start with the ball. He will pass it to the other forward and then immediately run around the other side of the defender to receive a pass. This sort of one-two pass can help you get around a defender in almost any situation.
2. The One on One Drill- This is one of the most basic and most well known drill. To perform this drill you need three players (one forward, defender and goalie). Set up two cones about 3 yards apart to use as a goal. You will only need one net. The Forward starts with the ball with his body facing toward both the goalie and the defender. He now attempts to pass the defender and have a shot on goal. Take turns playing each position to gain both defensive and offensive skill. The purpose of this drill is to help you learn how to take on a defender by yourself when there is no one to pass to.
3. The Warm Up Drill- This drill is great to do before a game. For this drill you will need about 12 players (position doesn’t matter). Get into 4 lines of three two lines spread about 2 yards apart and they other two facing them on the opposite side. Keep the two lines on one side about 9 yards away from the two lines on the other side. Get one ball and give it to a player in the front of one of the for lines. He will then pass it to the line vertical to him and follow his pass to the back of that line. The current player with the ball will than pass to the line diagonal to him and follow his pass. The next player with the ball will pass to the line vertical to him and so on.

 Use these soccer drills to help you improve your skills. Leave a comment and let me know if these tips helped you or if you have ideas for soccer drills you would like to share. Hopefully I will have another soccer drills post coming soon. Bye for now.

If by looking at the title you guessed I went to Mexico you are right.

My family and I went on a vacation with our grandparents to Mexico. The trip there was quite convenient because it was a direct flight from the Comox Valley to Puerto Vallarta. I almost threw up on the plane though. But I am not very good with planes anyway.

Once we landed in Puerto Vallarta we had to go through a bunch of people trying to sell us time shares. After that was finished we found our way to the shuttle bus that was supposed to take us to our hotel. I was so anxious to get to the hotel. I had been looking forward to the trip for a long time.

Once I got out of the bus I was amazed. The palm trees, sandy beaches and huge swimming pool caught my eye. It is like paradise I thought to myself. We stayed as all inclusive guests (which means you pay money in the beginning and then all the food, drinks and activities at the hotel are free).

The first thing I wanted to do was swim in the pool but it was late and the pool was too cold. I didn’t fall asleep till later on because I was too excited. The noise of everybody else getting up woke me up fortunately because I didn’t want to sleep in anyway, I just wanted to go swimming.

So, right away I was in the swimming pool. The swimming pool had two basketball hoops, one volleyball net and two swim up bars (which are mini bars right beside the pool with chairs in the pool so you didn’t have to get out of the water to get something to drink). There was also a tennis court at the resort. My dad, brother and I played there a lot.

I was so amazed at the temperature, it is hotter in the winter there than it is in the summer here. We spent most of the time swimming in the pool but eventually we decided we better go to the beach before we go back home.

One night there was an awesome sunset like I’ve never seen before. My family enjoyed looking at it for a long time. Unlike a regular sunset this one did not set for what felt like a very long time.

The waves in Puerto Vallarta are pretty good. We body surfed on them all day. My dad and I rented a jet ski and zoomed around the ocean. It was really exciting. One of the people on the beach trying to sell the tourists things was a man with a huge greenish, yellow iguana with stripes and you could get your picture taken with it.

After our day at the beach we went back to the room and I spotted tons of geckos. I love geckos, they’re so cool, the way they slither around like a snake and loose there tail when they are attacked then grow it back. 

That night we saw a Pirate Ship with Christmas lights on it out in the sea. A couple minutes after there were fireworks coming off the ship. It was really cool to watch. Soon after I was looking at a magazine and found out that it was a pirate ship used to take people for a pirate show.

The next day was our day downtown. We saw huge sandcastles, three times the size of me which must have been made out of really wet sand or something because they were very detailed and large. As usual my grandma and mom like to shop so it was a long day, but very enjoyable. After the shopping was finished we saw a church called The Cathedral of Our Lady Guadalupe as shown in the picture. It is a famous landmark. On the way back to our hotel we saw a play with clowns. It was really funny. There must have been about 500 people just gathered around on the street watching these clowns!

While we were downtown I bought a soccer jersey. The team on the jersey was FC Barcelona. FC Barcelona is my second favourite team right after Manchester United. They play in La Liga and their star players are Ronaldinho and Messi.

Since our plane left Puerto Vallarta at about 9:00pm we had lots of time to swim during our last day on vacation. There was a water volleyball tournament in the pool I took part in. There were some pretty skilled players. When you play volleyball in the water it is a whole different sport then playing regular volleyball. You can barely bump the ball in the water.

Unfortunately it was now time to go home. The plane ride home didn’t seem too long, even though it was 5 hours, because I watched a movie and tried to fall asleep. By the time we landed in Comox it must have been about 2:30 in the morning…… Mexican time. 

All Pictures by: My Family

This year I got spoiled. There were so many presents on Christmas morning. I received a lot of games for my Wii, such as: Mario Kart, Rockband and Super Smash Bros Brawl. I also got Wii Fit. My favourite is….. well I don’t really have a favourite i like them all. Mario Kart is a racing game where you play with all the Mario characters. Super Smash Bros Brawl is almost the same as Super Smash Bros Melee except for there are a few new characters. From my Uncle I got tickets to see a Canucks game against San Jose. The game takes place later in the season so both Sundin and Luongo will be playing for the team. Not one of the biggest presents but one of the presents I probably enjoyed the most was….. you guessed it….. a soccer ball. It was an Adidas soccer ball with a star design. I love playing with it all the time.

What did you get for Christmas? Which present was your favourite? Also, is Christmas your favourite holiday? Leave a comment.