Spring Break With My Go-Kart

"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."

Charlie Chaplin

When building a go-kart from scratch or from a kit from online you will mess up a lot. At the beginning of this year (January) I was surprised with a go kart kit I figured that out as soon as I put my go-kart in my house. When my dad and I started to work on the kart we already had several problems. Being very inexperienced as one can be I had many mistakes, but many included bolts and parts that needed tightening. From day one with my dad I knew we would have a lot more work to do than we expected, because we both have little knowledge of what everything is and how it goes. After we broke a pump and a pair of pliers we got everything within our power and supplies done on the kart. Granted, we still have ways to go before the kart is functional, but now it is down to mounting the engine, fixing the brakes, and pumping up the tires. This process has helped me learn how to use a socket wrench and to plan for everything related to my go-kart, like persistence, scale modeling, and much more. This will help me when my car breaks down, if I become an architect, or to just get through a tough spot in school or life.  Here are two pictures of the kart at its' current stage, and a picture that shows where I started from.

It has been a long unfinished journey to get this kart where it is today, but I am proud that I kept going through the beginning part of this project. Soon I will be ready to ride, and I can't wait.

Go Kart Update

HELLLOOOOO, viewers!!! I am super excited about my go-kart because the whole thing is starting to come together. What I mean by that is I bought my engine (also first Craigslist deal), and I primed my frame and it is ready for me to paint. I bought a nearly new 3.5 horsepower engine that was bought for the same purpose as mine but was never used other than to see if it worked. My dad and I had to drive to Lawerceville on Saturday to get it. My dad thought it was going to be in a shady part of town, but  it was in a wealthy neighborhood and the man was just as nice.
The I primed the frame on Friday with the assistance of my dad. He gave me some tips to reduce painting errors, and I am proud to say there are no paint runs (An area where there is so much paint it starts to trickle down). I did about ninety percent of the painting, but I will paint it myself only with the green paint I received. Once I paint the frame and let it dry I will be ready to start building the systems onto the frame.

My Predator 99cc 3.5 HP engine 

The primed frame next to my engine 

SEM

I have some crazy news! Starting this September I will be attending Wyoming Seminary in the Wyoming Valley in northern Pennsylvania. I am so excited and can't wait to go. The reason I am going to SEM is mostly because of wrestling, but I also wanted hard academics and SEM defiantly has them by being a college preparatory school. I already received text messages from some of the wrestling team, and it sounds like they are just as excited as me. The only struggle now is to get up to 106 pounds from 92, but I know I can do it in six months. I will have to work hard this summer to gain the weight, but I am ready for the challenge. Also they said that by my sophomore year (I think) they would have a brand new wrestling facility.
I have wanted to go to a boarding school since I thought of where I have wanted to attend high school. Before I visited the school I thought that I wanted to go to Blair Academy in Blairstown New Jersey. It had a bigger campus and it was number one ranked in high school. Also one of my friends is attending Blair, so it would seem that Blair would be the better choice, But when my dad and I arrived at SEM I changed my mind instantly. It is kinda of in the middle of an old town, and it has a homey feeling to it. I knew right away that it was the school for me.
My dad and I sat through a seminar about the school, and it was very interesting. The people doing the seminar told us about campus life, school work, classes, and athletics. After the seminar all of the students attending the visit got paired up with a senior from the school for a shadowing day. I went with my student tour guide to two of his classes, so I could get a feel of how the classes worked. We went to Civil War history and drama. In history we had the "strictest" teacher in the school, but even after hearing that I enjoyed my time in his class. After that it was off to drama, and I wasn't sure I would that class. As soon as we started the class I loved it, and it was mostly because of the hilarious teacher. We were reading a script from a book that was definitely not suited for younger children. The teacher was constantly over explaining the love related scenes in a funny way that made the class almost die laughing. I had a ball on my tour, and I really liked the smaller school. I believe that those are the main reasons I chose SEM not because it was better on paper, but that it was better for me.

Thank you for viewing my blog.

Polish Polish Polish

Guess what? I finally got all of my Polish recipes. First off, what am I doing? Our school is doing a national food week for each of our countries, and I am doing Poland. Why did I pick such an odd country? The reason is Julie, my wonderful step-mother, is Polish and Italian. One of our other students, green house girl, was already going to do Italy, so I did Poland. It sounds like Julie will be doing all the work, but that is the exact opposite of what is going to happen. I have recipes and tips from Julie, now it is up to me to cook our school of 7, including the teachers, lunch.  

For an appetizer, we have Kielbasa sausage. What I am going to do is simply make the sausage, cut it into small pieces, and use ketchup, barbecue sauce, and/or make honey mustard as a sauce. 

For the main course, I will be making stuffed cabbage rolls or Galumpkis if you use the Polish name. I got this amazing picture from Designs by Pinky while looking for a yummy picture. This is similar to a stuffed pepper, but this has more of a crunch. The last time Julie made this my family ate every bit of it. 

Lastly, I will be making jam kolaches. It is basically a sugar cookie with jam, or preservatives wrapped up in the middle and baked. I want to use blackberry jelly to get a unique flavor of sour and sweet. It is optional to put powdered sugar onto your cookie. Julie and I made a batch with blueberry preservers topped with powder sugar, and they tasted amazing!

I can't wait till next week! 

Soda!

I have not been blogging lately,but that is about to change. Today, I was attempting to make the flavoring for the soda. It looks and smells awful. I never thought that oils could smell so bad. Here are some pics with captions of what they are, and why I posted them. Also, check out our new student: everyone go follow http://atticusconn.blogspot.com/.


Thats me with my oils and the flavoring in the bowl

The flavoring is not completly mixed in.

La Petite, Mrs. Kolbeck, and I went for a walk at the Kennesaw National Battlefield.

Me at the state tourney, and I won!!

Go-Kart Suspense & Super Bowl

HELLLLLOOO, VIEWERS! I wanted to tell you about my go kart frame that I received for working hard on my schematics. I sent the final draft of my persuasive business format letter to the owner of ACS of Georgia, the paint company, to ask for some paint. It took me over a week to get it to it's prime. Now, I know that you guys are probably thinking," What paint color are you going to do?" Well, that's the thing I don't even know, but even after I asked some people last time I still couldn't think of a good color for my paint job. I should get a reply sometime this week, so comment away with color choices.

I don't know about you but this years super bowl was pretty crazy. For the most part the game was better than most of the commercials, and the team I was pulling for the one and only, Baltimore Ravens,  won the game 34-31 of the San Franciso 49's. I wanted them to win becuase their Quarterback, Joe Flacco (#5), was before the game the most underrated QB in the league, but now no one can overlook the new Superbowl MVP. Also the Player from The Blind Side, Michael Oher (#74), was also on that team as an offensive tackle. Lastly, that was the last game Ray Lewis (right), Arguably one of the greatest defensive players ever to play the game, will ever play.

                          

Thanks and don't hesitate to comment I love them!

The Baylor School

I have some crazy news! I was visiting the Baylor School this past Tuesday to shadow a student athlete, and I loved it! I had to wake up at five thirty am to embark on a nearly two hour car ride to get to Baylor. After the long ride I arrived to meet one of the admission ladies. Her name was Virginia Ann Manson, and she helped Julie(step-mother) and I to get with the student that was going to give me a tour of the school. I walked around and went to all of the student's classes. It was a long tour with many twists and turns, but it was very fun. Then after my tour with the student I came back to Mrs. Manson's office to get a golf kart campus tour. It was very cold that day, so it was not the most fun thing to be in the back of a speeding kart. I really liked the campus, but some of it was flooded because of the past couple day's rain. I also got to visit a couple of dorm rooms, and it made me want to go on a cleaning spree. I was so tired after the tour, but I had so much fun with the Baylor School.
Thank you few people that actually view my blogs it is nice to have the support.