New Rogue One Trailer! Epic!

Hello Everyone!

Hello, Everyone!!!

Just to give you a short introduction, my name is Eric Xu and I am going into 6th grade. Meng Xiang was part of my Book Fight group and he became friends with me just like that. (He was also in my tennis class.) 

      Later, he introduced me to his blog and gave me permission to edit it. And that's when a thought hit me. 

What if I created a blog too?

After a while, I decided that it could work out well. So, I started my own blog. Here it is:

http://ex.siteofeverything.org/

I know it doesn't really have that many things on it right now, but my goal is to make it popular by the end of the school year.

***Note: http://ex.siteofeverything.org is not competing against http://techxiang.blogspot.com/. 

End Of Summer POST SPECIAL!!!

               As you read, this post is an end of the summer special, so I decided to make this post to end the summer posts. (And to say farewell to summer.)



                First of all, this was a great summer for me and I hope it was for all of you, my viewers! Second of all, for anybody who hasn't seen this post, you deserve to see it. Here is the link:

http://techxiang.blogspot.com/2016/07/congrats-we-got-to-5000-celebration.html

Also, I would like to ask you for opinion, which was the best funny picture of the summer? Answer in this google form. (You have to describe it or give it a name.)

https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/d/1anDRXUrGz-Mk2DXVm8uAQnFWD1UP8kTWhhYxAEa1KFg/edit

In addition, I would like to thank those people who joined my blog this summer:




Speaking of the recruitment, here is the link for any last minute-ers:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GbTBVrMoqTQGYAbJo1T7HapBJ_FzYfgXlRWB5ZzdGNw/edit

Now to announce the top viewed post of the summer, and of all time! And the award goes to the post, Star Wars Rogue One Explanation! (By me.) with 114 views! For authors and administrators on the blog, keep working to earn a top post award! (Since this award was won by me, there wasn't anything special.) The post is available at the top ten posts place.

Now, I would like to thank the following people who joined me this summer:

Eric Xu

Pineapple

Kevin

Still waiting for response:

Anastasia

Other Guy (Don't know his internet name.)

Again, I hope you had a wonderful summer break and I wish you luck when you get back to school (especially for to-be sixth graders!!)

This is not the last summer post since there is one more! (Meh heheh.) For now, BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

P.S

Keep in tune with techxiang.blogspot.com!

Arca: All three weeks of my Turkey Trip!

Week 1: Bodrum

Above: My family and my Uncle Soner's family pose for a picture on the balcony of our resort room in front of the scenery. From left to right: Aunt Nermin, my dad, my mom, me, Uncle Soner, and Onur.

My family stayed there with Uncle Soner and Aunt Nermin. Their son, Yiğit (who is now in college), also came. Bodrum has a great beach right in the Ege Sea. I really enjoyed swimming there. The water wasn't too overheated, nor too cold, and there wasn't any waves. This was because the beach was in an mostly enclosed area, so most waves didn't get through. However, there was occasionally a few waves made by boats passing by, but they ended quickly.

The resort we stayed in was called Hilton Bodrum Türkbükü. I decided to give it a review here. I will divide it into five sections: food, beach, pools and water slides, activities and entertainment, and hotel rooms and the look of the place.

My overall rating for the place is 4.7 out of 5 stars. 

Above: All of use sitting down at a restaurant in the resort.

First of all, the food was pretty good. They had ice cream everyday at the buffet, as well as tasty Turkish food. Not only was there Turkish food, but also food I am used to eating all the time, like spaghetti, pizza, and burgers. They had plenty of Turkish deserts.

Above: A photo of some of the water at the beach.

In my opinion, the beach was my favorite thing there. It was great to swim in, and there were many decks that I swam across to. I noticed that after swimming to a small hut that looked abandoned, that it was actually a massage center. We swam back to it a few times, but it was always empty and looked like it was in the same exact condition as before, with the same water bottles and towels lying around in the same place day after day. I really think someone should look after this place. Since if anyone orders a massage, I do not think they would want to have it in a dirty place like that!

Above: A photo I took from the balcony there. It shows the overall view of the pools and water slides.

The pools were actually a lot bigger than I expected. I only swam in them a few times, so I feel that they are basically your average pool, except a bit cleaner. 

The water slides were all really fun! There were 6 of them total. There were three yellow ones, which were all the same. There was also a big blue one that went around in circles.

The most fun one was the red one. It was very steep and fast. Even though it only lasted about 5 seconds to ride, it was very fun. However, I have a few complaints. The green one was never open. I think that it may be broken. They should have fixed it already. Also, the slides were only open for a limited time each day. I am not saying that they should be open all day. It just may be better if they keep it open for at least a few more hours. 

Above: Me and Onur walking out onto the deck on the beach.

There were many activities that you could sign up for. They had many water sports that you could try lit, including water skiing, sailing, and paragliding over the water. I didn't get to try any of them, but I want to do it next year. They had games of dart and volleyball that you could go to anytime you wanted. There was also a kids club. The only thing we did at the kids club was sign up for this contest where you could win an iPad or a vacation package by playing an online game. That will happen sometime in the winter. Every night there was some sort of show or trivia game. There were two places where the show took place: the amphitheater and the stage. The shows were nice except that you could only participate in the trivia challeges if you were 16 or older, so I couldn't do that.

Above: The lobby of the resort.

The resort looked very nice. In the lobby, the entire main back wall was made of glass, so you could always look at the view, whether you were on the balcony or not. There were a lot of plants everywhere. Some of the floor tiles were just plain white and boring. A few of them had fancy designs and patterns. The hotel rooms were decent. It had everything you would expect. It also had a balcony for viewing the scenery. In my opinion, the balcony was too small. You ended up in a tight space. The better place for viewing was the balcony next to the lobby. The room I was in was decently sized. There was only one bed, so me and Onur slept in the couch while my parents were in the bed.

If you want to see more photos from the resort at Bodrum, check out this new YouTube video I made using Magisto photo montage creator: https://youtu.be/bmM8fn7AO20

That is all for my resort review. I also want to show you some more photos that we took there.

Above: The cockpit of a F104 fighter plane attached to a cupboard.

We visited my mom's cousin's house. Her cousin's father was once a high ranking Turkish Airforce officer. He is now retired. He showed us a part of the cockpit of his plane, his special helmet, and an award he received. Me and Onur got to try on the special helmet with an oxygen tube. You can see the pictures of this below.

Above: Me wearing the pilot helmet. It looks kinda like the X-Wing pilot helmet from Star Wars.

Above: Onur wearing the pilot helmet.

Week 2: Ankara, the capital

Above: A photo I took of a street in Old Town Ankara.

This week, I was in Ankara. Most people think that Istanbul is the capital of turkey. But that is not true. Ankara is the real capital of Turkey. Istanbul is just the most well-known Turkish city (other than Batman, no kidding, which is the name of a city there). In Turkey we visited my mom's side of the family. This includes my Grandpa İlhan and Grandma Nurten, Uncle Yilnir and Aunt Gülay, and my cousin Alkim. In this post I will be showing you some photos we took there and a summary of what we did there.

Above: All of us at a restaurant in Old Town Ankara. Left side of the table from top to bottom: Onur, my mom, me, my dad. Right side of the table from top to bottom: Aunt Gülay, Grandpa İlhan, Grandma Nurten

There, we visited Old Town Ankara, where there are some famous old-fashioned houses. We ate at a Turkish restaurant (obviously) there as well.

Above: Another street-view photo I took at Old Town Ankara.

Above: My mom and Onur stand in front of a statue of the poet who wrote the Turkish national anthem.

Above: My family along with my mom's side of the family sitting down at a restaurant in the city of Ankara. I am pretty sure you can recognize the right side of the table as my main family, so I will instead list everyone on the left side of the table from top to bottom: Aunt Gülay, Grandma Nurten, Grandpa İlhan, my cousin Alkim, and Uncle Yilnur

Where my grandpa and grandma love in Ankara, there is this ice cream place called Mado. They have really good finger-ice cream cones. They are basically ice cream in very tiny cones, covered with a layer of white chocolate or milk chocolate. I give them a rating of 4 and a half stars. They may taste very good, but not the best I have ever tasted. Turkish ice cream in general is my favorite type of ice cream. It is way better than American ice cream, in my opinion. Turkish ice cream is creamier and this makes it tastier.

At this one Burger King there, they constantly played the same two songs over and over again. They were "My Heart Is A Ghost Town" and some other song I forgot the name of. I am not sure if any of the people working there even noticed!

Week 3: Gurun

Above: Most of my dad's side of the family in a picture with us next to a lake. Top layer, from left to right: Aunt Ayse (She is behind my cousin Selim), cousin Yigit, my dad, my mom, cousin Omer Faruk, Uncle Zafer, Aunt Semra, cousin Seda, Aunt Nermin, and Uncle Soner. Bottom row, left to right: Me, Grandpa Haci, Grandma Sevim (she is behind Onur), and cousin Ahmet Emre.

Hello, guys! This is Arca. I came back from Turkey one week ago, and I still haven't posted about my final week in Gurun. In today's post, I will be showing you the photos we took there. We stayed with most of my dad's side of the family, except for my cousin Fatih and Mehmet, who were unfortunately unable to attend.

Above: Only a few of the many caves we saw there.

The caves were all man-made, and date back many years. One of my uncles used to explore them as a kid. They were all connected, and one of them was about a mile long. According to him, there was some ancient writing on the walls. Now, you are not allowed to go in them.

Above: Me in front of  a herd of goats in a farm near a village in Gurun.

We visited many farms. We got to see several types of farm animals! (Except for pigs, of course.)

Above: Me and Onur standing next to a Donkey. 'What are you doing in my swamp!' 

Above: A view of a rock peak with the sun behind it. Great for a photo! I may send it to MyShot sometime.

There was a great park there for sight seeing. We saw rocky cliffs, a waterfall, a river, and more!

Above: A view of some of the park's mountains.

Above: Water flowing down rocks into the river.

Above: My main family standing next to a waterfall. We got a huge spray of cold water after that!

Above: Me in a giant hamster ball spinning over a spinning pool.

At this one place next to the lake, you could pay money to go inside a giant inflatable hamster ball over a swimming pool. Me, Onur, and all of my kid cousins did it. We each took turns doing it for about 5 minutes. When they start inflating it with a machine, you have to cover your ears real good or else your ears will hurt because of the pressure. It is kind of hard to control. I made the mistake of standing up while doing it. The result is you falling hard onto your butt! I tried to push myself around the pool a few times before my turn was over. I wish I could put a video of it here!

That was my final week of Turkey. It is always sad to return home, but I know I will go there again every year!

Today's Star Wars Funny Picture!

Funniest Videos Ever!!!

Here Is A Video Of My Own:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rPoOet9dto

My Vacation All In One Post

Our Vacation Trip Overall:


Day One And Two:

               Not that exciting. There was a 1 hour drive to a Mariott Hotel and a half hour to the airport. There were lots of delays. We flew to Las Vegas through a six hour trip.

Day Three:

              We are here! Today, we traveled to Utah to see Zion National Park. However, there was a huge hailstorm that showered on our car, so we had to stop. The clanking of the hail impacting the van was incredibly loud and I actually got to see one of the pieces of ice on the window shield. The ice was as large as a small cherry. It was INSANE!

Actual footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsNuEY1XswQ

Later on, the hail stopped and we continued our hike up. However, it turns out the place was closed!!

            We went back to get a hotel room. But the day wasn't over yet! We drove to Snow Canyon Park where there are lots of cool rock formations and animals like:

Coyotes



Kit Foxes



Quail



Roadrunners



Leopard Lizards



Gopher Snakes



Canyon Tree Frog



The endangered species:

Peregrine Falcons



Desert Tortoise



Gila Monsters



(I swear that I found a turtle burrow and a Gopher Snake hole. Also, it was clear that we saw a leopard lizard!!)

          I also wanted to add the park history here:

          Created in 1959, the Canyon was inhabited by humans such as the Paiute and Anasazi Indians from the 200 A.D. Speaking of the Anasazi's, they used the Canyon's animals for food from 200 A.D. to 1250. The Paiute used it from the 1200 A.D. to about 1850. Mormon pioneers discovered this canyon when searching for runaway cows in the mid 1800s. The canyon is a setting of many movies such as the Sundance Kid and The Electric Horseman.

           At first, we went to some places to take pictures, but the best part was when we were climbing a vertical slope with little handholds. I managed to climb up by using the sides of the cave.





          The best part was when we went to a very rocky place where the thrill of the day was! On the highest rock, there was a big white, DIXIE and there was a D on a mountain just east of the DIXIE. That is why the park was originally named Dixie State Park.

              We got to climb a lot and I saw lots of rocks with holes in it. You can even crawl through them! At last, when I reached the highest rock, I saw lightning!!!!!!!! I actually got a video and some snapshots!!!! (credits to my dad and I) Here is this amazing video I took of some of the most powerful thunder strikes of the day:



Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu5UTyBJQnM






Golden Clouds:



At the end, we went to Panda Express to eat dinner.

            Day Four:

              First of all, we went to see a dam. There was a huge lake! The cool thing about it is the contrast! On one side of the lake, it was a sky blue color and on the other side, there was emerald green water.

              We then went on a cave tour. The name of the place was called Navajo Valley. The cave was called Antelope Canyon. There used to be a lot of antelope near the canyon, but they moved away due to too much people moving in.

We first have to ride on a truck that looks like this:

               It was a really bumpy ride. Our tour guide was named Jaz.  In the cave, there are so many beautiful structures! Also, the tour guide told us that if there are flash floods in the canyon, a whirlpool could start!!!!!!!

Here are some of the best photos taken:





                  We then went to a place called Horseshoe Bend. It was a really long and dry trip there. I scaled a really big rock and to mark that I was there, I constructed the largest, highest, and heaviest stone tower. I built another before that, but Dad accidentally knocked it over along with another person's tower.

                The last part was the highlight of the day. WE WENT TO LAKE POWELL!



The lake is really beautiful as well as cold. However, if you jump right in the water, and you get used to it, it will be warmer! The experience was totally epic even if the water was not totally clear. I got to swim and if you are gonna ask if I snorkeled, I will tell you this thing:

There is almost no wildlife around which is good (no sharks.) and bad (a little fish would be better.)

                   At the very end, we got to swim in the pool. When we were back at the hotel, we drew Bob the Builder. (By the way, this is the funny picture of the week. In addition, coming up in another secret project, this time a post, is a poll to see which summer funny picture of the week is the best.)

Day Five:

            We made another attempt to go to Zion Park. However, it was also closed. AGAIN. But this time, it wasn't the hail or any dramatic weather generally. A big rock rolled down from a cliff and blocked part of the road:



              They told us that we could take the detour and go around Arizona, but my dad thought it wasn't worth it. Therefore, we drove to Bryce National Park.

There, the wildlife include:

Great Basin Rattle Snakes (I found one of these.)



Violet Green Swallow (saw this one)



Clark's Nutcracker (I saw this one too)



Pronghorn



Deer



Mountain Lion



Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel



Stellar's Jay (saw this one.)



Uinta Chipmunk (more fit than New Jersey chips.)



Utah Prairie Dog



How the park formed:

What Caused Bryce Canyon Wonderland?

           "Water/ice are the creators of Bryce Canyon's Wonderland. Melting snow and rain erode the stone and carry it downhill, leaving behind ginormous pieces of balancing rock. Ice cracks the rock apart as it freezes and thaws, weathering it into fins and hoodoos that spark curiosity imagination."

(Quoted from benchmark.)

            At first, we walked to someplace that smelled like horse poo, so not getting into the details of that. We traveled another place called Sunrise Point where you could see lots of amazing geology. The geology there looks like part of a king's/queen's palace.

               After sunrise point, there was a sunset point! I saw a Violet Green Swallow when we were entering the stairway down. It was pretty small. After the stairway, there was a spiral path that lead to a cave that you can go through. At the highest rock in the cave, I was the first one to put a pile of rocks to mark my visit! Exiting the cave, walking on a path, in a bush, I heard a buzz or hiss, couldn't tell. But then, when I looked closely, I SAW A BABY GREAT BASIN RATTLESNAKE!!!!!!! It was epic and awesome! I have a few pictures that my dad took. But by the time he came, the shy Rattlesnake slithered away to hide in a bush.

             We saw a few squirrels and chipmunks (Utah kind). At the one part of a path, we saw a hummingbird. Skipping the boring parts. We took pictures at "Thor's Hammer" (a rock obviously).

               In all, we walked about a mile or two. After all of the walking, we rode on a bus to the visitors center since on the benchmark:

                  It said that you could take a picture with the benchmark and you could win a prize which turns out that it was a car sticker that said I HIKED THE HOODOOS! (This portion of the park was called the Hoodoos.) The sticker looked like this:

Day Six:

                  Nothing that exciting. We just went to Cosco and Walmart to buy some stuff. In between, we went to Salt Lake City and boy was the lake a nightmare. Don't ask why.

Day Seven:

                   We went to Bear Lake on our way to Grand Teton. We swam in there and built a tiny island establishment on it. After that, we continued our trip to Grand Titan, stopping at Jackson.

Day Eight:

                  Today, we went to Grand Teton. We first traveled to Jenny Lake. The water there is really COLD. We walked to Snake River. However, based on the name, there are NO snakes in there, but instead, the River is shaped like a snake.



A Snake River Fact

”The Snake River twists and turns as it flows over 1,000 miles from Yellowstone National Park through Grand Teton National park ultimately to the Pacific Ocean. From Jackson Hole the Snake turns west to Idaho  and eventually joins the Columbia River, which flow into the Pacific. This designated Wild and Scenic River attracts river otters, bald eagle, osprey, moose—and human anglers and rafters.”

-sign from Snake Lake Overlook

                Our last stop was at Jackson Lake. It was really cold too and I found a stone that could change color based on how moist it is. We headed toward Yellowstone now and rented a wood cabin to sleep in. Actually, make that two beds since we can't fit seven people in one cabin. (That's like fitting four tigers in a pet travel cage.)


Day Nine:

               Today, we went to see the geysers! There are like a million geysers that I saw today. However, I don't want to ruin the whole thing so I am going to describe some of the best geysers.

                First of all, the geyser that won "most powerful" is the Beehive. It can shoot water up to two hundred feet in the air for almost up to five days. However, it is very unpredictable since there is no patter to its "water gun". It is shaped like a tree stump.

                The geyser that won "most popular and watched" is the, drum roll please, the great Old Faithful spring. It gets a huge audience every ninety minutes that gather around Old Faithful, cameras ready.

                The award, "biggest geyser" goes to the Grand Prismatic Spring. It so big that it can not even fit in one picture, even in a distance! Therefore, the panorama option would be put to use to fit the HUGE geyser all into one picture.

                 That was what we saw today. Except, tourists would be able to see a water snake somewhere on a bridge crossing a river! (I saw it!)

                    At the end, at the lodge, our friends (four of them) that also went to Yellowstone came over and we played all the way until they left

Day Ten:

                 Some more geysers. However, the spotlight is now on the animals! I saw lots of animals like Stellar's blue jay, Buffalo and calf, wolf, trumpeter swans, Clark's nutcracker, and the Lesser scaup. I also saw an antelope, a baby one. And a mountain goat too!

                   To sum up the day, we went to see Mammoth Spring. It won the award of both the hottest and most acidic! However, I wasn't able to see it due to a lack of energy.

Day Eleven:

                   I wasn't able to see the first few attractions and my parents saw a female deer. When it was lunchtime, we went to a river to eat. After that, we went to Fire Hole Lake to swim. Then, we drove out of Yellowstone but before, we saw a group of elk female and male at last!!!!! That pretty much sums up the day.

Day Twelve:

                    We drove for three hours to Utah and then stopped look around and explore the city.

Day Thirteen:

                      We went to a place where there are lots of amazing rock formations! There are like so many holes that you could sleep in! (It's pretty shady too!) another surprising thing I found out was that there was an orchard that you can pick fruit such as peaches, strawberries, and apples right from the tree and eat it! The rest of the day was driving. At the end, we went there again to look at the stars. There are way more stars in Utah than in New Jersey! Today was a lucky day! On the way home, we saw a lunar eclipse!!!!!! The moon was orange and I got some pictures although they don't show the actual color. (a little bit.)

Day Fourteen:

                     Today, we successfully entered Zion Park at last! At first, we went to a lookout and in total, I saw 4 lizards not to mention that there are lots of chipmunks and squirrels. After that, we crossed through a dark tunnel that goes through one of the mountains when we were driving to Weeping Rocks. Speaking of the Weeping Rocks, it is called that since water runs through the rocks which makes it look like it's crying. We rented a hotel room to end the day.

Last Day!

                      WE ARRIVED HOME!!