Year: 2019

Stuart Gibbs Books

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment General Topics ,

Stuart Gibbs is an amazing author, in my opinion, and his stories are the absolute best and a thriller for mysteries. His stories include, The Funjungle series, The Spy School series, Moon Base Alpha series, The Charlie Thorne series, and the Last Muskateer series. So far I’ve only finished the Funjungle and Moon Base Alpha series and am currently on the Spy School series, and about to finish it, but I hope to read every book he publishes. If you have never read one on his books, I’ve got you covered because I’m going to review each of his books in The Funjungle, Moon Base Alpha, and Spy School series and give a brief summary about what happens throughout the books.

Funjungle Series:
 The Funjungle series is 5 books, Belly Up, Poached, Big Game, Panda-Monium, and Lion down. Each book has the same main characters, a twelve year old boy named Teddy Fitzroy whose  famous parents work for the largest zoo, Fun Jungle, in Texas, owned by rich J.J. McCracken. Teddy befriends J.J’s daughter, Summer, in Belly Up while trying to crack the mystery of who murdered Henry the Hippo. In Poached they’re trying to find a stolen koala, Big Game, discover who’s trying to kill a rhino, Pana-Monium, who stole their panda when transporting, and in Lion Down, did a mountain lion really kill a dog, or is she innocent. Each time a mystery breaks out, Teddy and Summer are on the case, stepping into danger, threats, blackmail and hungry animals, all in the Funjungle series. In my opinion, Belly Up was the best book. It was a fresh idea, new, and Stuart Gibbs was trying something. The plot was well done and the culprit(s) was unbelievable. How the culprit(s) did their crime and why and who they did it with was just phenomenal. It was a bit boring in the second one. You could easily guess who did it and the reason why wasn’t that exciting. Big game was different, it was like Belly Up but a bit strange. Soe of the clues were misleading and make the mystery better, but the culprit(s)’s didn’t seem to make sense of why they were trusted. In Panda- Monium, the plot and culprit(s) story felt the same with Poached’s, but different. The culprit(s) was a bit obvious, yet the story was still intriguing and humorous. In Lion down, there were two mysteries to be solved, and I was impressed. The culprit(s) were unbelievable and you could see why they did it. The most interesting part was the first clue in the first mystery, and it mixed well with the culprit(s). It wouldn’t matter which book would be the best if judging them as a series as they are all interesting and well done and without every one of them they wouldn’t tie the book together.
Moon Base Alpha:
The three books in this series are Space case, Spaced Out, and Waste of Space. This series actually takes place in the future where we supposedly live on the moon and have a more advanced technology.
The main character is a 12-13 year old boy named Dashiell Gibbson who lives on the moon with his family and groups of other families or scienists, and a jerk trillionare family who are spoiled and rotten. He becomes friends with a girl named Kira Howard. In Space Case the two become friends and solve a mystery on who killed Dr. Holtz. Dashiell discovers another surprise after solving Dr. Holtz’s death, which is a bit unique. Spaced Out is where Dash and Kira are solving to find the moon base commander who has mysteriously disappeared. I think Spaced Out is the best book, because Dash and Kira actually wouldn’t have been able to solve this without Dash’s little sister’s help. The mystery was intense and every small clue was a perfect buildup to the suspense. In Waste of Space, Dash’s 13th birthday is interrupted as the trillionare father is poisoned. This story is full with an interesting solution of who was the poisoner and the smallest clue in the beginnibg which everyone supposedly missed. This book is really good and would have been my favorite, if the ending had not been so sad. The ending was very heartbreaking as the surprise Dashiell discovers is no long with him and had departed. The rest was meant to be fun as it showed the future he has along with Violet’s, his sister, and Kira’s, but the part before that just set a sad voice to read the ending in my head.
Spy School:
The spy school series it the largest, I think, and one with a full different plot than the other series, Funjungle and Moon Base Alpha. The Spy School series is about a 13 year old kid named Ben Ripley who gets recruited to a spy facility for kids, who work for the CIA. There are 7 books, Spy School, Spy Camp, Evil Spy School, Spy Ski School, Spy School Secret Service, Spy school goes south, and Spy School British Invasion. I am currently on Spy School goes Southa and unfortunatley can only go up to Spy School Secret Service. In Spy School, Ben learns how to be a spy with his level 16 math skills and poor reflexes, and developed a crush on top student Erica Hale, who’s family are legendary spies, except one. A new organization called has decided to show themselves, after targeting Ben in the middle of the night, and continues to do so in the whole series. Ben discoveres a mole in the school and tries to thwart the secret organization they work for, who attacked him. In Spy camp, Ben’s in summer camp, and hopefully discovers the secret organizations’s plans while trying to rescue Erica and her grandfather with his new friends. In Evil Spy School, Ben is expelled from school, and recruited to the evil organiztions’s school, where he is actually a mole, rooting out info for the CIA. Ben befriends a rich Chinese buisnessman’s daughter, only as an act to destry her fathers’s work with the evil organization. In this book Stuart Gibbs incorporates skiing, avalanches, girl and friend drama to create a unique story with a twist and a new recruit. Spy School Secret Service is Ben’s lucky oppertunity, and exasperating oppertunity, to be undercover to discover who’s trying to kill the president. He’s a pretend friend of the presidents’s son, only to realize he’s a jerk, making a huge mistake or save along the way. Now on the run, Ben tries to clear his name with Erica, and solve the mystery before he gets caught. My favorite book is a tie between Evil Spy school and Spy School secret service. Both books are full of exciting mystery and drama, that I couldn’t decide which I like better, for now. So far, all of Stuart Gibbs’s books have a bit of romance in them and I personally don’t like romace, yet, the books are so well written or well planned out that they will overpower the romance so all you remember is how the mystery was solved or what it is, and what the story is about.

I have yet to read the rest of the spy school series and all of Stuart Gibbs’s books and hope I do.Stuart Gibbs is such an amazing author who tells remarkable stories, each coated with a full mystery and drama. I hope he creates many more books like he has already published, and they will be even better than the last. I want to Thank him very much for creating these books, becasue without them , I would never have been able to love mysteries as much as I do today, and have a better entertainment to read instead of fantasies. Again, Stuart Gibbs is a truly amazing author who creates the most wonderful and thrilling mysteries, and I hope everyone enjoys his books like I do.

BMM 2019

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment General Topics, Social Responsibilities ,

From July 11-14 I attended BMM as a volunteer helping my mom and the committee from early in the morning to late at night. We stayed 5 days and 4 nights in the splendid Omni Hotel which had a skywalk to the convention center.  Now, for those who don’t know about BMM or know but didn’t come, I’ll explain from my point of view.

Wednesday: This was the day we left home to go to the Omni hotel. My dad was at work and would come later, whereas I and my mom were finishing packing all our clothes and shoes and supplies for those 5 days and 4 nights. We had 3 suitcases of 3 different sizes, an IKEA bag full of shoes, a big cloth bag with fete and our cowboy hats, and some purses and simple carrying bags. Luckily our house is only an hour away including traffic but it was less crowded so we only took 40 minutes. The staff at the hotel unloaded our luggage onto a cart and waited for us while we checked in, and brought our baggage to our room. After he left we unpacked the simple things, our special clothes which we would need soon, our toiletries for the night, make up for my mom, nail polish, for my mom, and our important stuff into the safe. Once we settled down and explored our room, we ordered a delicious chicken club sandwich and cheesecake which came withy silverware, a cloth napkin, a glass of water with a plastic sheet on top, 3 sauces, mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise,  with your dish covered by a cover to protect it. The cheesecake and sandwich were so good and amazingly made that I never wanted to finish eating it. Anyway, I finished it and looked outside our window which was ceiling to floor length with an amazing view of the buildings around it. We settled down, my mom was doing her nails for the event and watching TV while I sat on the comfy orange chair with my blanket and iPad watching my own videos. My dad was running a little late so my mom had to take me to the registration that was happening because she’s part of the Host and Hospitality team. After finally finding our way there we got to work. My mom at the desk of the donor booth while me at the side not knowing what to do with 3 teenagers from the volunteer team helping at the back. Finally, my friend came and saved me. We went to the other booth for non-donors and helped out, me finally knowing what to do until my dad came and picked me up. We went back to the room and I got ready for bed while my dad worked a bit. He was going back to our house because we forgot to bring his work clothes for the next day. So, I quickly fell asleep because I was so incredibly exhausted after working for so long.

Thursday: On Thursday there was a special program for the senior where there are singers who sing classical Marathi songs. I was helping out there after I ate breakfast and I have to say, I loved the breakfast. Even if it was all Indian food, there was a continental section which I had breakfast from. Cereal with toast and milk was what I ate. I and my mom sat down and ate and some of the other members of the Host and Hospitality team came and ate with us. We left after finishing to help out with the program. After five minutes of work, I went downstairs to help my friend, the Hospitality chair’s daughter with registration. It’s funny because I’m the co-chair’s kid and she’s the chair’s kid, and she’s only a year older than me. Anyway, I helped out with her and her friend until they closed for a lunch break. We went upstairs and went to the MAY I HELP YOU? booth our moms’ were setting up. After checking with them, we dashed off to the cafeteria without knowing it opens at 12 and not 11:30. After not being allowed in for a half-hour we waited hungrily and finally went inside. The food is so delicious there. All the food are recipes sent in people so that was even more exciting.  After lunch, I changed into a regular shirt and leggings for my dance practice on the stage. Once our practice was over my mom picked me up to go back to the hotel so I could change for the banquet. For a kid, the banquet would be boring and it was. The food was delicious, but I’m not used to old Marathi songs and it was really late at night so I started to doze off until I couldn’t due to uncomfortable posture. My dad finally took me back to the hotel where I slept to the next day.

Friday: This is the day of the opening ceremony. The Opening ceremony is what my dance classes were for. I was in the second dance, the one with the kids and I loved every moment of being on that stage. The way everyone watched me as I danced, the light bouncing off my face, the way I knew this was the last time I would do this again yet I still smiled throughout my performances, laughing and smiling like it was never going to end, and that it was real, not in dance. I was in a traditional Indian school dancing with my friends in the rain and watching the boys play cricket while we cheer them on. I loved every moment of it. I also love all the other dances. Especially the teen ones, they were so cool. I missed it by 2 years to get into them, yet I still recorded them dancing so I could practice the moves even after the event is done. The entire ceremony passed by quickly, and I changed after it ended. Me and my friend, the hospitality one, went to a program where a famous cartoonist who drew these comic strips of a character ca,e to tell us the story of it. After that, I went to his workshop, late, yet I still entered my drawing for a chance to win in only like two minutes after I came. After the workshop I helped with the MAY I HELP YOU BOOTH? with my friend and we had lunch together. I and my dad watched some of the programs and had to leave one of them early because I was in a surprise that was happening soon. After my mom picked me up and I changed into a white kurta with an orange sash around my waist with black tights underneath, we waited at the MAY I HELP YOU? booth with everyone else in the surprise. Once there was a crowd gathered after the calling, our music started and we rushed to our positions. After 1 practice round to call more people, we repeated this 4 times, excluding the practice. Twice in the same spot where we practiced and twice near a different area. After that my parents and I split up, them going to watch a play while I went to childcare for my enjoyment to be with my friends. Childcare was not what I expected, so please be reminded that childcare wasn’t the best. Later we went back to our room with aching, exhausted feet.

Saturday: On Saturday was Gaurav Yatra where everyone was wearing novaris and fetes. At the front was a sign that said Gaurav Yatra and followed by that were the younger kids all dressed up, looking so adorable. Behind them were the legim dancers. I became one of the very day they performed. Behind us was everyone else from different places, the people who were holding the flags, the dhol tasha people and more. We circled the convention center and danced a bit. When we went back inside I changed and went back to childcare. Only two of my friends were there so not as fun. I came out, had lunch with my family and helped out at the booth for a little while. I went back to childcare and my friends weren’t there yet, so I waited a little while. My dad picked me up surprisingly and asked me to help out with handing out gazras to everyone. We ran out of bobby pins when we were more than halfway through so we had to use safety pins instead. Also, the gazra were cold. After being in a cooler for so long made them freezing. Anyway, after that, I went back to childcare and my friends were there. We played together then did the contests. Jump roping and limbo. My dad picked me up and we went back to our room. Another long day of helping and aching feet.

Sunday: As soon as I woke up I started packing our stuff up. It was the last day of BMM 2019 and I was devastated. We loaded our baggage back into our cars and headed off to breakfast. The last day was about Texas. We were Cowboys and wore our famous hats that day. After breakfast, we watched the Shivaji Maharaj powada which I really wanted to be part of but couldn’t. That’s ok though. After that, the opening ceremony really began. It started with the baton passing to Charlotte, which is where BMM 2021 will be, and then with the invitation from charlotte, then the president of BMM stepping down. After that, the play started. Somewhere through the beginning, I was called backstage to finish the closing ceremony with my friends. I had no idea what to do because two of them, there were 4 at first then it expanded,  had done the dance before so learning something last minute was a bit of a challenge. We made it through and gave the closing ceremony a big kick. After that we had lunch and helped out with taking the MAY I HELP YOU? booth apart and putting everything back into storage or taking our stuff home. Once we were ready we went back to the hotel and went electric scooter riding. My mom so so tired she didn’t want to, yet it’s hard to believe that I had enough energy to stand and ride it even if my feet hurt, and my mom didn’t want to. I guess its aging.

My overall thoughts of BMM 2019 are that I loved it. That was my favorite and only BMM I’ve been to but I’m going to see charlotte’s next year. Our video invitation was already much better than their’s so I’m expecting that there’s isn’t going to be as awesome as ours. Yet you never know. I really miss it but I’m reminding myself about it every day for when I wake up after I brush and get my morning milk, I play every video of the opening ceremony on the TV to remind myself about all the things my mandal accomplished in those 4-5 days. And also so I can practice the dance moves of the other dances, just for fun. In conclusion, BMM 2019 was probably the best BMM ever; so, look out Charlotte, Dallas just set a high bar for you!!!!

Space camp -2019

Rovija Khapre 0 Comment School Life

So from June 10-15, I and my dad went to Space Center Houston, which is obviously in Houston and was pretty amazing. We took a 4-5 hour long road trip and came to Houston at abouyt 8;00 in the night. The actual space camp is near a real live NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration,  space station, Jhonson Space Center.

On the first day, Monday, my group and I took a tram tour to the Jhonson Space center and saw a live feed of mission control and an up-close sit and watch experience of Mission Control trainees training to become part of the real mission control. We got assigned to our tables and partner and did a fun challenge which shows how astronauts talk to Capcom. The challenge is where you sit around a table with your friends or partners, and one person is the astronaut, and they have all the lego pieces with them.

Everyone else is Capcom and gets different steps in building the final product. The real challenge of the game is describing how a piece looks like or where it goes. An example would be a piece that looks like a trapezoid skirt with legs coming out the sides at the very edge. Yeah, you have no idea what I’m talking about. It was really funny when we all were describing the pieces because we couldn’t show the step and honestly, each of us had a bit of a challenging time describing and understanding what the piece was and where it went. We ended the day with rocket building, where we “built”, followed the instructions, our own rocket. 
On Tuesday we launched our rockets and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! The high school groups’ rockets were stage 2, where they would launch, break off and have the parachute come out, and the middle school group, my group, were only stage ones, where, only the rockets would launch and bring out the parachute. Following that, we took another tram tour, only this time we had a rocket briefing and saw a replica of the actual Saturn V, because every rocket is used once, and we saw multiple capsules as well. For our challenge that day we had to build lunar Habitats for the moon. Ok, to be honest, I did not like my partner at all. She was the slowest partner ever, I was ready and had all my research ready for this and our design was spectacular, but she was extremely slow. We had to race the clock for this, and I got my story done in around an hour, while she still was making borders for our habitat, trying to be neat and precise. I understand for that, but she could go faster, and even to make chairs, chairs, she took like 2 whole hours!!!!!! Just cut, fold and glue, how hard is that?! We didn’t place at all, but there were more challenges that I could look forward to. To end the day we explored the lifestyle of an Astronaut and what they need to survive on the moon and in space.
On Wednesday, We had a guest speaker, Ms. Kristi Duplichen who talked to us about the ISS, the International Space Station, and she talked about how her team and her help the astronauts on it when they’re in space. Surprisingly my partner didn’t come so I worked with my friend’s group instead, on a robotics and lego challenge. The challenge was to create a rover which would prepare for the astronauts’ mission to land on Mars. We worked well together, and with my love for creating things with legos, we succeeded in making 3rd place, because our robot seemed to bail on us at the last minute. Oh well, we had great designs and tools though. We toured the Space Center University and played around with the interactions, such as an experience in the ISS, managing your health on the ISS, and a block stacking challenge where you have to stack blocks one on top of each other using a glove inside a box feeling how it is on Earth and in space. 
On Thursday, we took a Tram tour to see the NBL, the Neutral Buoyancy Lab where we saw Astronauts training underwater. The Astronauts have to stay underwater for at least 6-7 hours so they have a small water supply which they can drink, and in they have to go to the bathroom they can go wearing the suit, because, they’re wearing special absorbing underwear which will absorb it if they go number one. Hopefully not number 2. The real space suits have a sort of backpack which weighs 300 pounds itself, so the astronauts underwater wear weights instead because the “backpack” is actually hollowed out. Once their preparation tests were ready and they were underwater, we went back to the Space Center and did virtual reality helmets, where we got to see how the ISS looks like and the different modules. Next, we toured the solar system. Starting with mercury, the surface is a rocky one with no atmosphere, so you could see the stars clearly and the sun which was the size of a button. Venus the sky is covered up by clouds of sulphuric acid, and to me, in the distance, you can see what looks like 5-6 different tornadoes all in a straight line. Skipping Earth and the moon, because we’ve seen them, we see mars which is the red planet due to its rusty iron color. We saw actual selfies and snapshots from the Mars Curiosity and Opportunity rovers, mainly the curiosity because the Opportunity rover could not work any longer due to a storm on Mars. On February 18, 2019, its last words, My battery is getting low and it’s getting dark, brought a sad day to NASA. For 15 years the Opportunity rover had researched and traveled into the vast unknowns, now knowns, of  Mars. Anyway, we landed on what people kept saying was Jupiter, yet they forgot that there is an asteroid belt in our solar system between Mars and the gas giants, so when I said the asteroid, I was correct. The one we landed on had ice caps, was rocky and has no surface, like all asteroids so. We sadly did not land on Jupiter but we saw it’s view from it’s closest moon. Saturn, my second favorite planet, after Earth, was such a spectacular yet cloudy and gaseous sight. Its dazzling stunning rings were amazing from the surface when you look straight up. Uranus and Neptune, the twin blue brothers were blue by an acid, which I forgot, so sorry, šŸ˜ , and on the surface, they both looked like they had a blue swirl like a stick dragged through the surface and stayed that way. Later followed a Thermodynamics challenge, and my partner hadn’t come again so I worked with a boy who’s partner also wasn’t there due to a medical reason, and he was a funny partner. We came up with three creations to protect a screw from 2,000 degrees Celcius using only 4 materials. Steel Smore, which had 2 steel patches of wool and 2 steel screens, Steel Smore MK2 which was steel wool, 2 steel screens, and 1 aluminum foil, and the legendary iron comet which got us the 3rd place for its Steel and brass screen and steel wool and aluminum foil creation.
On Friday we had brunch with an astronaut, where retired astronaut, Mr. Clayton Anderson talked about his adventures as an astronaut with amusing side stories. We toured the starship gallery and Destiny theater after that which was in the Space Center. in the Destiny Theater, we watched a film about the rocket launches performed by NASA, and the missions Apollo,Mercury, Gemini, and more. In the Starship gallery, we toured rocket history and learned about the different mission patches made. We also saw the real and actual capsule from Apollo 17 which the astronauts came back to Earth in, and I touched it!!!!!!!! We learned about the history of the moon rovers the astronauts used on the lunar surface and how they developed and changed and how they were built. Also, in a display, our guide was asking us to look closely at it and I spotted it first, that one astronaut had red stripes on their suit. This was so mission control knew which one was the commander, the one in red stripes. We continued on to learn about Lunar soil and rocks, and I felt a real lunar rock, which was weathered down by being touched. Fun fact: If you run your hand through lunar soil it will end up with cuts and scars all over your hand. We ventured on to the Space Lab replica, which was a lab for astronauts to work in, and a fragment of the space lab which fell to Australia and a kind person generously returned. We had graduation after that and me and dad went to the gift shop where we got a water bottle and keychain for me, and a pretty bracelet for my mom, and a magnet for the family. I wanted a space suit but dad said no. šŸ˜”
I loved my journey and I hope that I grow up to work at NASA and become an astrophysicist or an astronaut one day!!!!