Sign-ups for Echo Mountain!

If you're interested in hiking with Acadec to Echo Mountain! 

Please comment below with your FULL NAME and ID number ASAP! 

The hike will be from 8 AM to 12 PM, Friday December 28th. Spots are limited!
If you know of an ADULT 18+ who can drive, please comment below [We'll help pay for gas !]

PLEASEE! T___T We still need one more driver to make this trip work!
Remember to bring your speeches, plenty of water, sunscreen, and dress in layers! Please wear appropriate close toed shoes as well! ^_^

MEETING DAYS UPDATE

HEY EVERYONE,

THERE'S ONLY ABOUT THREE MORE MONTHS UNTILCOMPETITION.

I hope you're studying well, and we've decided to add in an extra day to our usual meeting days to hopefully give better comprehensive lectures.

We will now be meeting from 3 to 4 after school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays! ^_^

SEE YOU ALL THERE!

SECOND SCRIMMAGE OF 2012

HEY MY LOVELY DECATHLETES. Sorry this is like a two days before notice, for those who have not been attending the meetings. We will be having our own little scrimmage at SGHS in Mr. Olivos's room, A208 ! I believe we will be testing on all 7 subjects [excluding essay, speech, and impromptu], and hopefully keep breaks on the shorter side compared to last scrimmage so we can be done by 12 ! ^^ Bring money or snacks in case you get hungry! We're planning to split a pizza! :D TIME: 8 AM to 12 PM DATE: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10th

FACEBOOK GROUP!

HI NEW MEMBERS! <3

If you still haven't joined our Facebook group, you should! :D

Here is the link to the group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/176757552374606/

Don't worry! It's not mandatory, so don't go making a Facebook just to join the group. LOL

The blog gets updated regularly just like the Facebook group, but if you have any questions about the material and such, it might get answered on Facebook much quicker than if you asked here. ^_^Y

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Hi everyone!

YES! There will be a meeting after school on Tuesday. It will be at Vincent Lugo park. We will be starting promptly at 1:00 PM and end at 2:00 PM. (We get out at 12:18 PM) That should be enough time for everyone to eat lunch at school or elsewhere! See you then (:

Missing Resources! CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THEM!

Hi!

If you're new to Acadec this year, you probably haven't realized that we're missing some of the subjects.
But no worries! We're going to use the ones from last year since it's pretty much the same and it saves on costs. It's also more fun to read since they are from DemiDec. ^_^Y

To make things easier I uploaded the resources onto Mediafire for you to download instead of having ya'll try to look for them yourself.

Essay Resource
Prepared Speech Resource
Impromptu Resource
Interview Resource

Happy reading everyone!

Scrimmage of 2012

ARE YOU READY?

The series of tests to determine your skills thus far has arrived!

The subjects will be everything excluding Essay, Interview, and Speech.

And yes we realize we have only covered two of the tested subjects, but nevertheless we will eventually get to all of them!

It's only a preliminary test to see how much you know / have learned so far and for those wondering: Yes, your scores along with your G.P.A will determine if you can compete.

Everyone, just try your best! Study! Make new friends!

Good luck to all!

Oh and it would advisable to bring snacks, water or money because we might order pizza afterwards! ^_^

Hello! ^-^

HEY MY LOVELY DECATHLETES ^_^Just in case you were wondering!Tomorrow is a normal general meeting 3:00-4:00 (:We will discuss future dates for Dr. Zhivago, and continue with Raymond Yang & Kristy Duong's awesome science lectures. Also, we're going to participate in Art Club's button fundraiser this year, so if you're interesting in designing one, here is a download link for the template ^^ It would be awesome if you could design one through an editing program, but if you're the traditional media kind of person, that's alright too! Just print it out and go from there. Keep in mind that the buttons are only going to be one inch in diameter though. :<
Please get the design to me by Tuesday, October 2nd! Thank you (:http://www.mediafire.com/file/ihtws7as4pytfu0/buttontalkd.zip

- Tiffany Duong 

Last Post before heading to College!

Dear my decathletes...
I am going away now, off to a nice place called UCSD. But dont think I will ever forget about Academic Decathlon! For me, it was a good experience, I have to say not because I was a good decathlete, and not because I really liked to study. But it really let me step up and try to become a leader, something I wanted to get better at! It highlighted my ups and downs, and let me interact with a beautiful bunch of wonderful people! And I have to tell you, it's not an easy job, but you learn to mold and manipulate the mind. Adolf Hitler, despite his cruel intentions was a great leader. He manipulated people to kill and subjugate and do things people would never think of doing. Similarly, a leader should be able to manipulate the decathletes into thinking studying is fun, and it's not an easy job. So when a leader rises up, and makes it fun enough and effective enough to win medals at competition, I respect you and I will bow down to you!
As for everyone else who is not a leader, I respect you, but in a different kinda way. I respect that you come to this new foreign club and try to do something not many people like to do. And sometimes you find a hidden gem that's really good at this decathlon stuff, and you could even make money off this kind of talent! And I want to tell you one thing... If you get yourself into decathlon and decide that it's not your thing, no worries, theres nothing stopping you from quitting. And if you do get involved, dont give it half your effort, or quit halfway through. Or even if you've given it a year, and you hate it, don't feel obligated to redeem yourself. Dont do anything your heart isn't interested in doing. Just make good use of the time you have, because you have so little of it. Best wishes to anyone who passes this message! I just wanted to share my feelings :3 Good luck to you all!
-Teddy Tea

No Meeting Tomorrow

Hi everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your second week of school. Just to let you know, there is no meeting tomorrow. So I will see you guys on Thursday. You might even see some new people joining us on Thursday too. (:

Resources

Hi. I hope you all had a great summer and are ready for another wonderful year. Here is the link to this year's resources: https://usad.enlyght.com/tc/OrderReview.aspx?DistributionCode=YCAKKNYJXYBS
Also, we will be having meetings every Tuesday and Thursday afterschool for now, so I will see you guys tomorrow. (:

Goodbye Seniors

Hello! The year has finally come to a close, and we must say goodbye to the seniors. Thank you for making Academic Decathlon such a success this year and making it so much fun. We will never forget all the memories we made. We wish you all the best of luck to whatever you pursue. We will miss you. I hope you all come back to visit and keep in touch. By the way, we hope the seniors liked their senior gifts, and special thanks to Teddy Tea for being a great president.

As for the rest of us who remain, thank you for a great year, and we will be having meetings this summer to become even better and more prepared for the coming year. Check the Google calendar for meeting dates. I hope to see you all there. Have great summer everyone!

Calendar

Hi! I hope everyone has been well. Even though we haven't really been active lately, we have some events coming up soon and some meetings during the summer. Here is a link to our Google calendar so you can find out when they are.


https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=dragon.fly0139%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FLos_Angeles

Sign In Questions

Hey! How have you all been? I just thought I would post the answers to the questions I have been putting on the sign ins. I thought you might like to see the responses. Don't worry, I didn't put your names on them. (:


What kind of stuff can you get away with in the dark?
- Being a ninja! ^_^
- Assassin in the dark
- Showering in public
- Playing under the covers
- Punching your mom
- Hiding


Do you believe in ghosts?
- Yes, because the drama bathroom is haunted
- Yes, I've heard actual ghost stories >.<
- Yes, my cousin is loved by a ghost
- Yes, I can smell their scents


What can happen on rainy days?
- Bad exam scores
- You! You can happen!
- A chicken can fall from the sky and give you a concussion
- Me crashing, period
- The world is a giant slip and slide thingy o-o
- Drink hot coco
- Getting wet
- Affect something with physics


How many scented expo markers does it take to get high?
- Depends on how hard you smell them
- At least one
- Uno
- Infinity, not enough
- Scented? Just one <3
- One long sniff


How was your winter break? What was the most exciting thing you did?
- Good! Spending time with you guys (:
- Great, went on a hike.
- Fun; Hiking where I almost died ;^;
- Cool; Open Christmas gifts
- Swim dinner, exciting but not great
- Volunteering, playing games
- Great! The best part was getting to see Betty <3
- Aww <3 Well beating Yuyen at Just Dance and playing with the other members


It's been a while. How have you been?
- LOL I have been wasting away my life at games
- Like ^
- Same ^
- God dammit, me too ^
- Been good! I miss AcaDec ): Me dos ^


I just put the questions that I thought got the most interesting responses. Hope you guys don't mind, and I hope you guys have been doing well lately.

Meeting 2/22/12

Hey! For those of you that missed today's meeting, we discussed the plans for our Teachers vs. Students Showdown. We have not confirmed all the details for this event yet, but we are working on it. We are also trying to compile a list of teachers to invite to compete against those of us during this competition. We would like each of you to please leave the names of three teachers you would like to invite to compete below. Thank you, and we'll get back to you with more details soon.

Meeting on Wednesday 2/22 after school mr Olivos room. Bring ideas for teacher showdown, an next year!

Meeting tomorrow after school! Discussing teacher jeopardy and last social for Acadec and next year! Bring your ideas!

GOOD LUCK SGHS!!

I wish all the ACA DEC competitors the best of luck at tomorrow's competition at El Rancho!

LETS SHOW THEM WHAT WE'VE GOT !!!

And burn them up with our awesome speaking/ writing skills.

To Competitiors:

- Get Your Speeches Memorized

- Eat Breakfast

- Dress Nicely

- Get a Ride (Dont Be Late, registration ends at 8:30)

AND GOOD LUCK

*Diana T.

Have your speeches done! (again)

Meeting tomorrow, sorry we need one meeting even in closed week... Competition is nearing, I heard kindles are here. Excited.

Art Vocab

Post Here

Recap and Scandinavian Romantics Notes

Hi! So today, a couple of us met up at Teddy's house to take notes on music. Basically, we continued where we left off a couple weeks ago. We split the notes up into three sections: German and Czechoslovakian Romantics, Italian and Russian Romantics, and Romantics in Scandinavia and other places. For those of you that missed today's meeting, here are the notes that I took for Scandinavian Romantics and I will finish taking notes for Romantics in Other Places and post it up later. The notes for the other sections should be up soon.

Scandinavian Romantics
- History is long, complex, and filled with fighting (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland)
- Finland was not its own country until 1917 when it finally declared its independence and broke away from Russia and Sweden
- Norway was not its own country until 1905


Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)
- born in Bergen (located southwestern coast of Norway)
- mother was a musician and made Edvard one too
- when he was fifteen, Ole Bull (famous Norway composer) visited and heard the best musicians play for him
- when he heard Grieg, he insisted he go to Leipzig Conservatory in Germany
- his professors taught him Classical and Romantic music forms, but he hated both
- he returned home determined to become a musician/composer
- he moved to Copenhagen and studied with Niels Hage and J.P.E. Hartmann and met his wife, Nina Hagerup (his cousin) and married after he wrote I love thee
- when Rikard Nordraak died, Grieg wanted to carry on his idea of an independent Norway
- he became a success and a national hero, devoted to Norway's culture
- composed Holberg Suite in honor of writer/philosopher Ludvig Holberg (Five moments based on Baroque music forms of his time)
- key of G major, but 4th movement, Air, begins in G minor
- in Baroque era, prelude = brief intro, but in Romantic era, prelude = whole movement
- he had a good and happy life compared to most Romantics
- 1907: He had a heart attack on his way to a music festival that he tried to attend despite poor health


Solveig's Song
- 1874: Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen asked Grieg to write a song accompanying his play Peer Gynt
- play drawen from Norwegian fairytale Per Gynt
- called for short pieces to enhance play with Grieg enjoyed composing
- Summary of play: Peer Gynt was a rogue. He seduces almost every woman in the play, has a child with the daughter of the king of trolls, chats with the Sphinx in Egypt, and confesses sins to the Devil in disguise. Throughout, Solveig (girl he fell in love with) remains true and waits her whole life for him. At play's end, her love is his last hope for salvation.
- reorganized into two suites and without the play to complete Henrik's request
- "Solveig's Song" is the 4th and last movement of 2nd suite
- introduction to song is w/ strings w/ legato articulation
- texture menophonic (only melody is played)
- strings, harp, and flutes continue in A minor
- when vocals begin, texture accompanimental (provides harmony while singer carries melody)
- minor key and andante indicate melancholy tone
- vocals split into two portions and at end of each verse, singer vocalises (sings meaningless sounds to emphasize work's instrumental quality and equivalent to singing "la, la, la"
- during this section, meter changes 4/4 to 3/4
- this section more cheerful because switch to A major, change from andante to allegretto, & lighter-sounding rhythm
- tranquillamente is marked as style here
- he wanted a peaceful, hopeful mood and song ends w/ A minor, giving melancholy ending


Jean Sibelius (1863 - 1957)
- Finland's most famous and beloved national composer
- interest in music developed at early age
- briefly attended Helsinki University as law student but dropped out to attend Helsinki Music Institute
- sent to school to learn native languages and developed interest in folklore
- Finnish nationalism didn't develop till he met wife, Aino Jarnefelt in 1889
- after meeting her, he received several grants to study in Berlin and Vienna and became interested in Romantic music
- returned in 1892 and married
- gave up his dream of being violin virtuoso and turned to composing full-time
- 1899: composed Finlandia to protest against Russian rule in Finland
- symphonic poem w/ brass fanfare opening, followed by horn melody
- Finlandia Hymn follows, plated by flute and violin and then brass fanfare closes
- still considered best of his time though he stopped composing in 1929 and lived peacefully in his home till 91 even though people tried to get him to leave because of WWII
- his death became a national day of mourning


The Swan of Tuonela
- best known of Sebelius's programmatic compositions
- took 4 years to adapt ancient Finnish epic Kalevala into 4-movement tone poem
- Lemminkainen is hero of legend
- suite represents his adventures
- in 3rd movement, he goes forth to battle with a magical swan that guards the underworld
- he dies along the way and his mother sews his body parts back together
- the song depicts the swan as it swims in Tuoni RIver and border of underworld
- strings represent scenery and English horn represents swan
- Horn solo is famous in music
- Other main player is solo cello which alternates w/ horn to create antiphonal texture
- it is odd because written in major-minor seventh cord (played in order by cello, arpeggiating a chord)
- notes: A, C, E, G-sharp
- accompanimental texture and homophonic texture comes later when orchestra plays a melodic line and harmonic line
- use of different textures is typical of Romantic composition
[ Side Note: Texture
  antiphonal: two solo lines alternate with one another
  monophonic: only one line is played
  homophonic: a melody and a harmony are played
  accompanimental: one clear main line and other instruments in the background]


I believe there is a meeting tomorrow at Betty's house, but you should check our Facebook page.
I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break.


- Kristy