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I recently moved and in my new house I have a pool. As such I’ve needed to learn the basics of pool care so that I can make sure to maintain it well. I figured some of you may want to learn how to take care of pools SO i figured I’d share the basics.

To start there are 3 keys to pool maintenance known as the 3 C’s: Cleaning, Circulation, and Chemistry. If you can get all of these to healthy levels then you will have no problem maintaining a pool.

Lets get into cleaning. There are a few steps to properly cleaning your pool. The first is skimming where you use a net to skim the surface of the pool to get any debris off the top of the pool. After you skim the pool you will need to brush the sides, then you will need to vacuum, and finally skim again.

The main tools that you will need for this are: a net with a long pool pole, a brush metal brush head, and a vacuum. Using all these tools will help you keep your pool spotless as long as you follow the above steps.

Next up is pool circulation. Your pool has at least one jet that should be pushing your water either clockwise or counterclockwise. The main thing you need to know is whether or not the water in your pool is being circulated well. If this is not happening then you will likely have buildup occur. If you can adjust your jets I recommend tilting them downward to help get some circulation on your pool floor.

The final and most complicated part of pool care is pool chemistry. This part of pool care is also the most finicky as you need to understand how all the chemicals and elements react. There are 7 main things that you need to track in terms of chemistry. They are as follows: Total Hardness, Total Chlorine, Free Chlorine, Bromine, Total Alkalinity, Cyanuric Acid, and pH. These are all measured in PPM or Parts Per Million. (except pH it has its own scale and has to do with the acidity or lack there of in a substance like water).

The best way that I have found to track all of these with high reliability is with multi test pool test strips. These strips have little squares that all react to different chemicals that can tell you the amounts of certain elements in your pool. I test the pool daily and record these results in a spreadsheet.

For the final segment of this blog I’ll include the healthy values for all of these chemicals in your pool. To start the ideal total hardness is between 120-425 ppm, the ideal total chlorine is between 1-5 ppm, the ideal free chlorine level is between 1-3 ppm, the ideal amount of bromine is between 2-6 ppm, the ideal pool alkalinity is between 120-180, the ideal amount of cyanuric acid in your pool is 30-100, and finally the ideal pH levels are between 7.2-7.6.

That’s it for today’s post I hope you enjoyed and I’ll see you next time.

I’m sure this has been something on everyone’s mind despite the fact that you likely don’t want to think about it. There’s no way to avoid it however and school is starting in a couple of weeks so I figured now was a good time to recommend school supplies. So lets get started!

The first item I recommend are Mr.Pencil mechanical pencils. I used these all of last year and they have lots of variety. The pencils come in 5 different sizes: 0.3, 0.5, 0.7,0.9, and 2.0. This allows you to use these pencils in any situation and they also come with lots of extra lead and a case. I would give these pencils a 5 star rating.

The next back to school product I would recommend would be five star note books. These notebooks are extremely durable, have easy tear pages, and an app that allows you to scan your notes. On top of that the paper is high quality and each notebook has hundreds of pages perfect for any class. I’ve also had a lot of teachers recommend these as well which is a testament to their quality.

Next up I have Mr.Pencil erasers. I know that I just went over their pencils however they also have amazing erasers that are super durable and erase really well. They are also super affordable and they come in a pack of 10. I personally often lose my erasers but with 10 I didn’t have that issue at all last year.

Another product I just have to recommend is the TI84 graphing calculator. This calculator can be used for just about anything from graphing parabolas to square roots. It is definitely pricey for a new one however, I think it is a worth wile purchase as long as you don’t get one every year.

My final recommendation is to buy a high quality binder from amazon because they have all sorts of different types for any purpose. Lots of teachers have different binder preferences which can make it hard to decide which one to get so I get mine from amazon so that I can get any variety that my teachers want.

That’s it for today’s blog I hope you enjoyed and I’ll see you in the next one!

I’m sure this something that a lot of you don’t want to think about yet. However school is going to start for most people in a few weeks and there are a few things that I recommend you do. I would start doing these things at least a week before school starts for best results.

The most important thing for me personally is being able to get up early. In California because of a new law that was passed school now starts almost 45 minutes later. This doesn’t really affect me as I have 0 period so I have to get up earlier anyway. Knowing that I have a 0 period I have been waking up at 6:55 am daily to get into the habit of doing so. This way when school starts it wont be nearly as difficult.

The next thing that I recommend is to start having a more structure routine for your day that’s similar to one you would have in school. Because when you go back to school you can’t just do whatever you want whenever there is structure and order for a reason. Personally I made a schedule that I follow with reminders in my phone so that I don’t forget.

My next tip might not apply to some of you but if you have summer homework you should definitely finish it as you have lots of time. If you already have or don’t have any summer work I recommend reading some books that you find interesting and at least slightly challenging. That way you give yourself something to do that should be at least a little bit educational.

On the topic of education summer workbooks or summer school are 2 great things that will make sure you don’t forget everything you learned. They can even help you get ahead to make next year easier. I used workbooks through middle school during the summer and I also did some academic summer programs. In high school however I am not using workbooks I am just taking extra courses via summer school.

Going to bed on time again might be another habit that you will have to get used to. It’s been pretty hard for me because I was going to bed super late and waking up early. Getting more sleep will improve your mood and how you feel so it is definitely a good idea to try to get to bed on time. I would recommend that you don’t use your phone about 30 minutes before you go to bed and to do at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day.

I’ve also limited the amount of video games that I play as during the school year I only play on the weekends. If I keep playing a lot during the summer I wont want to stop during the school year which can have serious repercussions. However you should definitely still play them as it is a good way to relax.

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog post and I’ll see you next time!

Today’s blog post is also quite unique and different from what I regularly post as I am going to start doing debate at my new high school. Seeing as that is the case I figured I would explain the 2 types of debate my high school offers and compare and contrast them.

Ill start with the type of debate I’ll be doing which is policy debate. In policy debate teams of 2 people advocate for and against a resolution that usually calls for a policy change by the United States Government. It is also called cross examination debate as you can cross examen your opponents claims. Then a judge or judges decide who supported their perspective the best and they are the winners.

After each teams constructive speech period the other team has 3 minutes to question their entire argument. This second speech/set of questions is called a rebuttal. The point of the rebuttal of course is to try and convince the judges that your perspective is correct by finding issues with the other teams argument. The affirmative side has to convince the judge for change and the negative has to convince the judge that the current policy is better than the affirmatives proposed situation.

The other type of debate is called Lincoln Douglas debate. In this type of debate people debate 1 on 1. The formats questions often place heavy emphasis on logic, philosophy, and ethical values. Lincoln Douglas debate is named after the debates between President Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. Because their debates were about slavery and the morals, values, and logic behind it.

The biggest difference between these 2 types of debate is that in LD debate you make your claim and your opponent makes a claim and a judge simply decides which one they thing is stronger. Whereas in Policy debate you can point out any possible errors in your opponents argument and you can use those errors to your advantage.

I also want to do policy debate because I think being able to actually argue with the other team and having a teammate would be more fun and interesting. Also in LD debate you are simply stating your case and hoping that its better than your opponent’s and in my opinion there’s no actual debating. However this just my opinion and you should pursue whatever type of debate you would like or not at all.

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog post and I’ll be back with another one tomorrow see you then!

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted sorry for that I was really busy with summer school finals and projects but now I’m back and ready to upload more blog posts and content which is where the title comes from. As you probably know by now my YouTube channel is mostly gaming focused and recently I’ve been playing a lot of brawl stars. So I’m going to start a series of Brawler and general game guides to help people push certain brawlers and their overall trophies.

I figured this was a good place to announce it, now lets get into the details! My first guide will be on the legendary character Leon as I used to be a leader board Leon player when he first came out and I understand his mechanics extremely well. In these blogs I will include more supplementary information that I may or may not include in my videos. So it will be a good thing to refer back to.

Leon is classified as an assassin whose main purpose is dealing ridiculous damage. He throws 4 blades in approximately a 45 degree arc. Based on the direction you are moving you can either increase or decrease said arc. This makes Leon’s attack more versatile as when you are trying to hit a target with the maximum amount of blades you can constrict your “spray”. Conversely when you are trying to spread out your attack to do something like check bushes you can do that as well.

Another important mechanic that you need to know with Leon is the fact that his blades do less damage the father they travel. The total damage reduction can be as much as 50%. So it is important to try and get as close to a brawler as you can before you start attacking.

Luckily Leon’s super is the perfect ability to help him do that as it makes him completely invisible for 6 seconds. This can allow him to position him self close to enemy brawlers without them even realizing it. However there is one catch if Leon attacks his invisibility will instantly disappear leaving him vulnerable. Also if Leon gets within 3 tiles of an opponent they will be able to see him. If he moves out of that range he will no longer be seen.

The most effective way to use Leon in almost every game mode is to charge his super. It will allow him so much freedom to roam the map and to position himself in such a way that the enemies wont expect. This is honestly the key to using Leon effectively no matter the game mode or situation.

There is one more thing to talk about in terms of his abilities and that is of course Leon’s gadgets. His first gadget is called clone projector and it does exactly what it says. It creates a clone of Leon that has the same amount of hp as you as soon as you use it and it runs to the nearest opponent stays near them until it expires. There are a few downsides to this clone and they are as follows: The clone cannot attack, the clone only runs straight at opponents, and the clone takes twice as much damage. However it does have some upsides: The clone has the same skin as you, it allows you to track opponents even in bushes and it allows you to do some invisible out plays as players wont realize you are invisible and they are fighting a clone until it is too late.

Leon’s second gadget is called lollipop drop. When activated this gadget drops a lollipop that creates an invisibility circle around it. This gadget has 1500 hp and it loses 75 per second which means if it is not damaged it lasts for 20 seconds. However enemies can shoot it and greatly reduce it’s health. This gadget can essentially be used as a temporary bush and it is extremely useful in team game modes. If your team does not have a sandy whose ultimate creates a huge invisibility field this gadget can be used in its place.

The final thing we have to discuss are Leon’s star powers. His first starpower is invisiheal which allows Leon to recover 1000 hp every second that he is invisible. This is by far my favorite start power as it gives his super a defensive quality along with an aggressive one. His second star power, Smoke Trails, Is in my opinion more aggressive. It allows Leon to move 30% faster while he is invisible . Technically this star power could be used to escape but if you are low it will take a while for you to start healing so your enemies could possibly hit you while you are running away. But if you were to use this star power aggressively it would be almost impossible for an enemy brawler to escape from you.

Ill have a guide on my YouTube channel today so I’ll link it right here. Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrlNUqQVBxLIbdltHQBdcYg

I hope you guys enjoyed and I’ll see you next time.

For most people, to get into well reputed and highly ranked colleges requires not only good grades but also impressive extracurricular achievement. This because you need to make yourself special or different to stand out. Which can’t be done through good grades and good college essays.

There are hundreds possibly even thousands of extracurricular’s that people pursue from sports to cooking. However some of these aren’t as unique unless they are being done at the highest level. So let’s go over some of the most unique extracurricular’s out there!

1. Boy Scouts
   Now this might not sound like a very unique extracurricular because there are thousands of people out there doing it. However very few ever reach the level of eagle scout. This is because of the sheer amount of time and dedication it takes to reach that level. Also boy scouts goes hand in hand with community service as to become an eagle scout you need at least 100 hours of community service. Which gives you a great distinction from the rest of your competition.

2. School Clubs/Teams
School Clubs/Teams are a great extra curricular to have on your college application as they show how you can communicate and work well with other people from all different walks of life. This is also a very accessible extracurricular as anyone can do it however, not everyone can do it well.

3. Part Time Jobs
Part time jobs are a great way to prove that you have a great work ethic as well as practical work experience. An especially good part time job could be an internship at a company like Apple or Amazon or even a small local business. I currently am doing an internship at a small robotics business close to where I live. I essentially help mentor kids in robotics and help them build all sorts of different variations of robots to see which one accomplishes a task the best.

4. Leadership positions
Colleges prefer having students with leadership positions in a variety of activities as it shows commitment and of course leadership. Which are 2 very important characteristics for a person to have. A good example of a leadership position is being the leader of a sports team or the editor of a school newspaper. In my case I am currently the Jr. Head of Business on my robotics team and next year I will be the Sr. Head but at the moment I am too young/inexperienced.

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog post see you next time!

I’m sure at least some of the people reading this post, like me, will be preparing for the SAT. So I figured that I should make a post explaining what I am doing to study/prepare for these standardized tests.

If you are just beginning your SAT prep I think that Khan Academy’s resources are extremely versatile and useful for a free program. It’s essentially a good way to “dip your toes in” so that you understand what you are getting into before you spend any money.

Once you start feeling more comfortable then I think that the best course you can buy would have to be from the Princeton Review. They have a variety of courses but they are by far one of the best and most reputable companies out there that offer SAT prep courses. Seeing as they are backed by the Ivy League school. Their cheapest course is 800$ and it is a set of essential skills and ideas that you will need to understand for the SAT.

This is of course quite pricey, however, it is not that surprising if you think about it. The score you get on your SAT does help determine which college you go to which is a decision that could impact your entire life as well as the opportunities you receive. So for most people that price is considerably cheaper than their entire future.

Nonetheless, 800$ can be an exorbitant price for people and as such, I’ll share some other highly rated options for SAT prep. One of these courses is offered by Eprep whose cheapest course is 129$ and it includes practice for the PSAT as well as the SAT. All of E-preps courses are highly rated and they are much more affordable than the Princeton Review. E-preps courses also come with a minimum of a 100-point improvement on the test.

On a quick side note I 10000% recommend that you buy Princeton review books for AP tests. Their books are about 20-30$ and cover EVERYTHING that you will need. They also come with practice tests and I believe the premium books come with digital resources as well. That’s all back to the regular post

The final program I will be recommending is Kaplan. Kaplan has a variety of price ranges starting at their most basic 199$ course all the way up to their 1,999$ course. Of course, their most expensive course comes with all the bells and whistles including prep books for a wide range of AP classes. The most basic course comes with videos, practice questions, and quizzes. I am not sure if they guarantee any score as I didn’t see it specifically mentioned on their website so keep that in mind.

I hope you all enjoyed and be sure to check out my youtube channel for some more brawl stars gameplay.

Link:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrlNUqQVBxLIbdltHQBdcYg

Hey, everyone, this is also kind of a different blog post but I’ve recently gotten back into brawl stars and there was a recent new update so I figured I’d go over it.

This is the 13th season of the brawl stars pass, called deep-sea brawl, it comes packed with tons of rewards including the new character Otis. Otis is classified as a damage dealer. He shoots 3 paintballs that do 420 damage each at level 1. His super, called silent seabed prevents his opponents from shooting, using their gadgets, and using their super for 3 seconds.

I think Otis is going to be an amazing brawler that has very unique mechanics with a lot of potential. He also has a decent range and a good amount of hp so he is not too squishy. If you can get him to power 10 or 11 I would recommend shield gear for power 10 and shield and damage or shield and speed for power 11. As this makes up for Otis’s lower hp and helps increase his damage even more.

There were also some new skins added to the game that is a part of the deep sea brawl skin collection. There was a skin for belle, colt, and fang added. There were also some reworks/balance changes but you can find those online or in the app.

There were also a couple of new modes and maps added to the game. I will go over the new mode mainly because there were a lot of maps added that you can find if you create a custom game.

The new game mode is quite unique. Essentially it is a showdown but you can respawn and the first person to 6 kills wins the match. You still gain trophies if you place anywhere from first to fourth. The best way to win is by stealing others’ kills as damage is not a factor it is whoever actually lands the killing blow on the opponent. This is why I like playing characters like piper who can do ridiculous DPS and unexpectedly steal kills quite easily.

Thats it for this blog post but make sure to check out my youtube channel where I uploaded a video about Otis and Pipers lunar skin

Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrlNUqQVBxLIbdltHQBdcYg

I’m sure a lot of the people reading this are likely doing a lot of things this summer like jobs or summer school. If that is the case then I figured that this would be a good time to share how I am managing my time during the summer to be efficient while still having some fun along the way.

I start my days very early and I would recommend sleeping until at least 8 Am however due to summer school I am waking up at 5:30 Am. Once I wake up I get ready and then make myself an egg white protein wrap (recipe on my youtube channel link at the bottom of this post) and walk to my bus stop at around 6:30. Then I take the bus to school and get there around 7:15. I am then in class for about 6 hours. After which I come home.

I am currently only taking one class over the summer and when I get home I complete all my homework and eat my lunch. After lunch, I generally take a one-hour break and just watch some TV or play games on my phone. Next, I go swimming in my pool and running for about 1 hour.

Once I’ve done that I go take a shower and start working on other things like this blog post and other extracurricular work like studying for the AP I’m taking next year which is AP European History.

I then eat dinner and then generally relax a bit more before I go to bed at around 9:30. There are a couple of main ways that I am able to hold myself accountable and am able to accomplish these tasks daily. The first is making a plan/schedule which helps you stay on task and track your goals.

The next thing I do is set 5 weekly goals that I have to accomplish and if I don’t then I don’t play until I finish them. Which brings me to my next point which is that I dont play videogames on the weekdays because I have more important work to be completing during that time. However I splurge a little on the weekends and play for about 2.5 hours Friday-Sunday. This may seem difficult but is definetely a good idea.

However when I do feel like I really want to play I game I simply play a mobile game and set a 15 minute timer and then I get back to work or I have an AFK game running that I check in on once in a while. This way it doesn’t feel like a punishment because it’s not.

Finally I like to listen to music and take 10 minute breaks to make myself efficient een for hours at a time which can definetely be hard at times.

Thats it for today’s post tomorrow I’ll be going over how I plan to study for AP euro before I begin that class and overall how I plan to study for the AP test.

As the title suggests this is going to be part one of a multi-part series detailing how you can build your very own PC. I will also include a bunch of other resources that may be of use throughout these posts. With that said lets get into it.

Our first set of steps will need the following pieces of your pc: GPU, CPU, Case, Motherboard, RAM, and powersupply. These are of course your main PC components but we will need them all for todays part of the build.

To start you will need to remove the front panel of your pc case as shown in this picture.

As well as any other panels that you can. Next, we will need to put our RAM and CPU into/on our motherboard. This will require some thermal paste as well as a CPU cooler so make sure you have those for the RAM however simply plug the sticks into their slots

Push these caps open and insert and close the caps and your RAM is all set.

For the CPU however you will first need to unclip the CPU protector from the motherboard which is a small piece of metal that is temporarily hinged there.

Then carefully place in your CPU as shown above and close the clip

Securing it in place. From here on top of the metallic part of your CPU you will need to apply a pea-sized dollop of thermal paste and then put your CPU cooler on top of it as shown in the pictures below.

Make sure to place the bottom side of the CPU cooler onto the CPU as the top side is just the fan, and screw it in. Next, you will need to plug your GPU into your motherboard. Thankfully your GPU is likely quite large and can be put in its own place inside of your PC.

The cables should look something like this and should plug into your motherboard into a similarly shaped hole.

Our final step for today’s post is connecting the power supply which requires a very large cable and socket in the motherboard that should look similar to that of the GPU

That’s it for today’s post I hope you enjoyed and learned a thing or two and I’ll be back tomorrow with another interesting topic.