This is a copy of my speech for this year, I thought it would be useful for all who want to read it.

www.myspace.com, www.facebook.com, www.bebo.com . . . skype, msn, iChat, yahoo IM, AOL . . . bluetooth, infrared, pxt, txt, Nokia, Samsung, iPhone, Vodafone, Telecom, Telstra Clear . . . Now’s Good!  Wikispaces, edublogs, Ultranet!  X-Box 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii.  Blue-ray high defintion, My Sky, HD Digital Freeview.  The list goes on!

It’s technology overload for Generation Mum and Dad!  For example Dad thinks that Bluetooth equals blue teeth from the lollies you just bought and ate from the corner dairy with the money he gave you after saying “In my day they were only a cent each!”  And Mum, well she thinks that MSN is actually MSM where you waste all your time talking to your friends instead of cleaning your room, and emptying the dishwasher and getting the washing off the line, and bringing in the wood and putting out the compost, and taking the taking the dogs walkies!  In fact MSM is the mathematics text book which she used when she was at primary school!

We all have parents - and they are all ICT immigrants, although some still seem to speak a different language of reading, writing and arithmetic.  Some have learnt some key phrases in the new language but most struggle to have a conversation or fully comprehend what it is their tweens are actually talking about!

For example Generation Mum and Dad still look in books to find information, when we know that the easiest way to find out what we want to know is through Google!  And what’s the point of writing in our written language books when we could just as easily post a new entry on our blog or ePortfolio.  So books vs. Online Learning environments - tweens 1, Generation Mum and Dad nil.

And what about those LP’s lying around in the lounge that they claim represent the “Best Years Of Their Lives!?!”, and “Quality music!?!”  And then they moved to those cassette thingies and who would ever want to use those when the sound you get from your iPod is such good quality.  Apparently you still need to go down to the CD and DVD store to get music when it is so much faster and easier to go to iTunes and download the tracks and albums you want!  Tweens 2, Generation Mum and Dad nil.

Now apparently in the olden days they used to have party lines, where everyone in the street had one telephone line and people picked up the phone on their specific ring . . . and now we have personalised ring tones on our mobiles for different people so we know exactly who is calling or texting before we answer.  And why would you pick up the phone and ring someone when it’s just as quick to text someone and get a reply straight away.  Tweens 3, Generation Mum and Dad nil.

Now this may seem like a pretty one sided argument . . . but let me continue!

When you want to buy a present, it’s just as easy to go to eBay and have it delivered as it is to get in the car and go in to the local Warehouse.  Shopping from the leather seat in the office at home, in your PJ’s at 11.00pm at night is becoming the norm and online shopping outlets are finding that the most traffic through their sites happens overnight.  So what does that make it now?  That’s right, score tweens winning 4 - nil.

Now a lot of Generation Mums and Dads have done away with their old tube televisions . . . however there is the odd one that still lurks around.  You know the one that has it’s own special box and has push buttons for each channel and actual knobs that you move up and down for the volume - and NO remote control (and even sometimes - it still has some bunny ears sticking out for reception)!  My how things have changed.  Now I’ve got My Sky for pause play, picture in picture and HDMI input along with my Digital HD reception.  Crisp, clear, high definition home theatre experiences in the comfort of my lazy-boy!  Yep - tweens winning 5 - nil now.

I don’t know about you, but I often hear the comment “I can’t find my diary” or “I’ll check my diary for a night that’s free!”  Generation Mum and Dad - WAKE UP!  You have a calendar function in your cell phone - SO USE IT!  You always have your phone with you, and perhaps not your diary . . . so it makes a heck of a lot of sense to use it!  “Do you want to meet up for coffee?” - “Let me check my phone . . . . yes how does Tuesday at 10.30 sound?”  See how easy it is?  

You know the result now - Tweens 6 - Generation Mum and Dad nil!

But don’t worry . . . we can make a difference.  Let’s move Generation Mum and Dad from the Collins Dictionary (gathering dust), the heavy yellow pages, rabbit ears on the television, videos, cassettes, Windows ’98, gramophones, party lines, bills in the mail box and using Office and Publisher from 1997 to the wonderful world of bluetooth, infrared, pxt, txt, Nokia, Samsung, iPhone, Vodafone, Telecom, Telstra Clear . . . and don’t forget “Now’s Good!”

Last friday, completely out of the blue my sister turns up to my school walks into my class and has a quiet whisper to my teacher and before I know it I’m on my way home. She later explains that my other sister (Kirsten) has been admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain. as soon as we get home I get my laptop, movies and my book at the moment “Cricketing Safari,” and got ready to set off for Hamilton Boys High School as Dad was the only person who could take me home because Karlyn was at work, Mum and Miriam were on their way up to see Kirsten and that left me and Dad. When we got hame Dad was immediately out into his beloved daffodil patch to prepare for the show on the next day.

The next day he was up in the early hours of the morning and left before I got up, the only reason I stayed home was because of soccer. Unfortunately we lost Two-Nil and that  put our team second ranked. Afterwards Karlyn and I set off for auckland to see Kirsten. When we got up there she was in a lot less pain as the doctors had performed surgery. We gave her food, drink, a helium ballon, and flowers. I think she was grateful for family and freinds supporting her.

Today, she is feeling better and should be back to university on tuesday. As for me… well I might be coming down with a slight case of the flu, oh well, you never know what’s coming round the corner.

Yep, its that time of year again. Speeches. Most people dislike speeches and get really nervous, I have to admit I was one of those people last year, I didn’t even think that I would get into the class final. But hello, I went all the way and won year seven speech finals. Last year I used one of the set topics for my speech, does New Zealand need more immigrants. However, this year I had a lot of trouble picking a topic, originally I was going to speak on New Zealand police should be armed at all times. Unfortunately, I found it very hard to write about, so I changed my topic to technology overload for generation mum and dad, its about mums and dads not keeping up with the technologically advancing world. I found it was easier to write and I think this is because its something I know about but it also effects me. Well, I’ve got my fingers crossed for a result like last year.

One of the extracurricular things we do in school which is also one of my personal favorites, is design, also known as wood work or metal work as it’s a combination of both of them. Mr Monk, our design teacher took me aside at the end of our lesson on Tuesday and asked me to think about what I wanted to make next as I found our previous task (a night light made with a LDR) a bit easy so for my next project I decided to do something I wanted to buy but couldn’t afford. So I decided to build a remote controlled plane, it may sound easy but it isn’t. I have to take into account aero-foil wings, remotely controlled control surfaces (elevators, rudder, etc.), balance and my main problem, the power to keep it in the air. As I don’t have access to an old petrol motor I have to use an electric motor. The motors I have are okay but have a max input of 4.5 volts which might be enough if I use its power more evenly, to do this I’m going to take some advice from the Wright Brothers and their plane Flyer 1.

The idea is that the plane only has one engine but distributes it’s power to two different propellers, I hope this idea will provide enough thrust to keep the plane in the air. Most of the other things are taken care of with except the remote control. The RC unit I had lined up to use in the plane only has controls two things, speed and direction but I need speed, direction, elevation and roll. As all of these are needed to control a plane.

I’m sure most people think I’m slightly mad which I could well be, but think of people like the Wright Brothers when they thought of powered flight people must have thought they were crazy but turns out they became the first people to achieve powered flight. By the way their teacher might have set back human flight by years because when they were about Seven they had a toy helicopter which they broke so they made they their own one. However their teacher confiscated it from them, who knows, he could have made human flight possible 20 years before it did happen.

Ever sine the Royal New Zealand Air Force sold their Sky-Hawks New Zealand hasn’t had any fighter aircraft to intercept any airborne attacks on New Zealand. If we were attacked, chances are we would have to rely on Australia’s air force to protect us. But what if australia was attacked as well, just like the Japanese planned in World War Two. We would be practically defenseless and the only chance of defending our country would be the army’s low altitude anti-aircraft missiles. so, what we need is a type of aircraft that can intercept any airborne assaults, have good speed, handling and firepower, but still be safe to fly. One type of plane that covers all of the criteria is the F-15 Eagle, as used by the USAF.

The F-15 Eagle is a very versatile aircraft, it flys in all weather conditions and can be equipped for short runways and aircraft carriers. As for firepower it isn’t a challenge it carries up 16,000 lb. (pounds) of missiles and has an internally mounted gattling gun for dog fights. depending on the mission it can vary the missiles used, it varies between AIM-7f sparrows, AIM-120 AMRAAMs and AIM-9 sidewinders. To intercept air assaults it can fly up mach 2.5 which is two and a half times the seed of sound, so therefore it can catch up with any aircraft coming to attack New Zealand.  The large tail plane of the F-15 contributes to the handling of the plane, the large tail plane means that turning and diving have quicker responses because the more surface area exposed means more reaction to the air that turns the plane. Despite all this the F-15 is still incredibly safe, there is a story of a F-15 doing an air-show when suddenly he crashes into another plane and looses a wing but still flys home safely. Here’s how it goes:

“At some point I collided with one of the Skyhawks, at first I didn’t realize it. I felt a big strike, and I thought we passed through the jet stream of one of the other aircraft. Before I could react, I saw the big fire ball created by the explosion of the Skyhawk. 

The radio started to deliver calls saying that the Skyhawk pilot has ejected, and I understood that the fireball was the Skyhawk, that exploded, and the pilot was ejected automatically. 

McDonnell Douglas attributes the saving of this aircraft to the amount of lift generated by the engine intake/body and “a hell of a good pilot”. 

This just goes to show that F-15’s are fantastic planes and the RNZAF (in my opinion) should take them into consideration for an intercepter aircraft for airborne assaults.

Yesterday it was my Nana’s birthday.  She turned 79.  Not only did she turn 79 but she is in the best health she has been in for years.  Unfortunately, her birthday was a display of wind, rain, thunderstorms and debris.  The Weather Bomb hit at about 3.00am and continued throughout the day.  Horizontal rain pounded on the window panes of the house.  The man hole rattled as the wind lifted it from it’s position in the roof.  Bolts of lightening danced across the top of the river banks and thunder rocked her to the core of her bones.  The radio advised people in the North to stay in their houses and that was what she did.  My sister filled the bath with fresh water and got out the thermoses.  As she boiled the jug to fill them, the power went off.  After an hour the power came on just long enough for her to fill all the thermoses so that there was hot water for the afternoon and evening.   The phone rang non-stop with people wishing Nana “Birthday Wishes” and equally wondering how she was and if she was alright.  Trees were bending over and splitting in half and the wind chimes in the garden were at right angles to their hook.  Snuggling down for the afternoon and evening, Nana and my sister waited for the power to come on and the bomb to pass.  Nana entertained people by telling them about when she came home from the hospital on her birthday.  Apparently she came home in much the same weather as was occurring yesterday.  In the photograph she was wrapped up tight with her mother, on the back of a sled being pulled by an old Clydesdale horse named Major.  So 79 years ago there was a terrible storm when my Nana was born, and yesterday the same thing happened again.  She really has had a great innings though.

I don’t know about others, but it is always interesting when my cousins come to visit.  They arrive with a bang and there is a lot of hilarity whilst they stay at our house.  It all started with Brendan coming to visit.  He was here for four days with his Mum.  The four days consisted of the usual debates . . . History Channel vs. Disney Channel, Dog vs. Cat, National vs. Labour, Auckland vs. Waikato, Cricket vs. Rugby and our all time favourite Mac vs. Windows.  We also carved up the mud from all this rain we’ve had on our Mountain Bikes and played in the puddles.  Much to Mum’s delight we created a lot of wet and muddy washing for her to deal with.  Following Brendan’s visit, Anne Maree arrived.  She is the oldest cousin on my Dad’s side of the family - 35 years old and still SINGLE!  She came down from Auckland for some R & R before she returns to teaching for the third term of the school year.  As usual with her, much hilarity and funniness followed her around and we spent a large amount of the four days she was here cracking up laughing.  She came to watch my show and ‘wooted’ loudly for me as well as giving me a standing ovation . . . pretty good for old Te Awamutu.  We played many games and heaps of the other cousins came round at nights too, after they had finished their work for the day.  I’m the youngest of the cousins on my Dad’s side of the family and it is quite cool because I can compete with them on any given board game and be a competitor that even sometimes takes out the Queen of Board Games - Anne Maree.  So after much laughing and rolling on the floor . . . today, we have finally got our house back to ourselves.  It’s been a quiet day, but I have a show tonight.  I say, bring on 10 weeks time . . . it’ll be holidays again and I might actually get a holiday where I’m not having to be out every night and following other members of the family around because I cannot stay at home by myself . . . well . . . at least I can dream!

Ever since the release of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet international travel became common place, but now Airbus (Boeing’s rival plane building company) has out done the Boeing 747 by a huge margin. The A380 is now the largest commercial aircraft in use and the A380 can carry up to 853 passengers but the 747 can only carry 425 passengers, the reason for this is that the A380 is doubledecker all the way along the fuelsulage (body) unlike the 747. One of the main problems with the A380 is the fact the wind behind the aircraft is spinning in a circle and the bigger the aircraft the bigger the affect on following aircraft, so the A380 desingers came up with a fantastic soultion, at the tips of the wings there is a ‘V’ shaped tip this reduces the wind spinning to no more the 747 does. you may thinkthe A380 needs more engines to keep this beast in the air but it uses exactly the same ammount of engines as the 747, so it causes less pollution. Also with large aircraft evacuating the passengers can be a problem but he A380 and its crew escaped in no more 77seconds, just click on the link to watch it.

A380 Evacuation in 77 Seconds

Overall the A380 is a much bigger and better aircraft than the 747 but it will take a while for it to be introduced.

On Saturday the 5th of July TALOS started it’s show The Shoemaker and the Elves. I have got a main role in it starring as “Jingles” - the name most of my class mates now refer to me by. It’s been about two terms since we started rehearsals and it’s been great meeting new people and working with to put on an awesome show. In the two shows I’ve done before this one I wasn’t nervous at all, however on opening night for the Shoemaker and the Elves I was extremely nervous. I guess that is because it’s a show outside of school productions so the expectations of others are higher and more people are going to come and see it over the season.  On opening night there weren’t really any muck-ups.  There was one spot on the stage which was slippery however and I slipped when trying to help the king fit his new shoes.  Lydia also slipped over and she was dancing at the time, but managed to recover.  Despite these few hiccups, the show went really well.  However during the matinee today, Mr Buckle (Andrew) missed out at least two lines.  He also forgot to be wearing his glasses at one point when he came on.  Now we have Sunday night and Monday off and we are back to performing from Tuesday through Sunday.  Yay . . . a break!

These were my goals for term one and two. I will review them and see if i succeded in acheiving them.

1.To improve on time management and to not leave things the last minute. I will achieve this by checking my iCal regularly and putting work that is due into my phone and iCal.  I will aim to watch less TV and play less computer games until due work is completed.

I have improved on time management and have lessened by a considerable my TV watching and playing computer games thus I have not left things to the last minute.

2.To improve my handwriting.  I will achieve this by persevering with linking my letters and practicing throughout all subjects.

I have perservered with improving on my handwriting and in english i have taken more care because of the linking.

3.To produce work that I am capable of in English.  I will achieve this by improving my time management and putting more time into tasks that need to be completed.  I will aim to have others give me feedback and feedforward before I have to hand in a piece of work.

I have tried to do english work to what I am capable of and have succeded  I did this by not leaving things to the last minute and spending more time on them. Also getting feed back and trying to improve on what they have said about my work.

4.To be on-task when using my laptop.  I will achieve this by allowing myself time to explore new programmes outside of school and using programmes at school which will help me to complete work and due tasks on time.

I have used my laptop more eficently and when I don’t need it I leave it at home, at home when I type things up I now tend to use my laptop and transfer it to my USB when I’m done.