Riley's Adventures

Ballston Spa School District 1st Quarter Honors Congratulations to everyone who got on this list! I am the principal's list, which means my average grade for all subjects is about 95%.

Now, I'm currently at my sister's volleyball practic at the Malta Community Center. I am on the computer's in the library right now. I decided that I would write on my blog a list of things I do not like about middle school so far this school year. Things I Do NOT Like About The Middle School:  The lockers are about half a foot wide, so I can barely get through between periods everyday. The annocements are on second block, not first, so when I don't know what rotation day it is, it really is not handy when they say second block into the day. Many kids swear as if it is the word "the", and it bothers me because some of the kids that were in my class last year do that, too. Last year if they said a bad word, they would be sent down to the principal office and have a harsh punishment. Now, the teachers do not even care. At lunch, some random kid sat down next to me and started swearing. I asked to one of the "deans" (punishment deciders) if

Just checked the stats of this blog and now it has 13,00 pageviews! Awesome!

Hello everyone! I am at school right now. It is 8:43AM, and since I finished all of my work, I get to do whatever now, so I decided to write on my blog. I just updated the template for this website yesterday, and as you can see if you are reading this post online, it is christmas-themed. There are a lot of free Blogger templates you can download through third-party websites. Blogger doesn't offer a lot by default, and they are sort of plain, boring and unapeeling to me. And so you know if you do not already, instead of typing http://www.rileys-adventures.blogspot.com/  everytime you want to visit my blog, I have set up a free shorter domain for http://www.dot.tk with I love. You can access this shorter way to get to my blog by typing http://www.rileyblog.tk with is a lot shorter. Christmas is coming up and I have done most of my holiday shopping  so far for my family. I love making "perler art", which may sound weird but it is a really cool process that I started doing

Today is Friday, November 29th, 2013. Today, we will most likely go bowling. I am at Grandma and Grandpa's house still. Aunt Jen and Uncle Jeff went shopping at the mall an hour ago, and we don't know when they will be back. I'm bored. The technology talk net cast network ( TWiT.tv ) is not in operation this Thursday and Friday, so I can't watch anything.  Well, hopefully if I remember I'll post later writing the scores of bowling (if we even do go). Happy Black Friday!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Well, I thought I would write down everything that happened today: I woke up at about 8:30AM to 9:00AM. When I went downstairs all I smelled were onions, which I hate the smell of. Apparently Mom was cutting one open. At noon we went to my Aunt Marijo and Uncle Matt's house for the meal. I'll name all of my family that went: Mom, Dad, Maggie, Justin (my cousin), Julia (my cousin), Aunt Jen, Uncle Jeff, Grandpa Homer, Grandma, Uncle Matt and Aunt Marijo. I will also name all of the dogs that came: Mickey, Cocoa, Wilson and Chipper (Guppy is too crazy, so we decided that he would stay home). I'm spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, where Justin, Julia, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jen are staying this week for Thanksgiving. Although Julia is staying with Maggie at our house.  Again, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  

1. My entire family   2. The food that I eat   3. TWiT.tv for making awesome technology video podcasts   4. Apple, INC. And all the people that make me the way I am. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This morning I did a test on software called "Type Fu", to test my typing speed. Here is a screenshot from when I typed: " shah fall add flash slag dad hall sad half glass " Pretty good, I guess, right?

Mark Kleinzschachwitz, a smart college student studing at RPI in Troy, NY, was looking down at his laptop, with his headphones on, listening to Tech News Today, an online technology news show. All of a sudden, someone had gotten on the intercom and said "Nachste haltestelle: Dresden". He knew what this meant: that the next stop on the train he was currently on was going to Dresden. This was his stop. But just to make sure, he took out a crumpled paper out of his pocket, which was his intinerary, that told him to get off at the stop called Dresden. Mark was traveling through Europe on his spring break, which he had always wanted to do. His friend, Riley, had lived in Dresden for a year when we was in 3rd grade. Mark had ever wanted to visit this town after hearing of all of the awesome things he heard from Riley. He looked at a tram map after getting off of the train. He quickly calculated whick tram to get on, which was the 8 tram going in the direction of Hellerau, a small,

Hello everyone! I just got a comment on one of my recent posts saying: " Hi! I realize this is sort of off-topic however I had to ask. Does managing a well-established website like yours take  a massive amount work? I'm brand new to running  a blog however I do write in my diary on a daily basis. I'd  like to start a blog so I can easily share my own experience and views online. Please let me know if you have any ideas or tips for new aspiring bloggers. Appreciate it! "                                                                                 -Anonymous Dear Anonymous, Well, thanks so much for saying my blog is a " well-established website "! That really does mean a lot. Just like writing in a diary or a journal every day, like I do, too, you get in the habit of doing it, which is what I have done on this blog. In my opinion, Blogger , the hosting website I use to publish the blog you are currently reading is the best blog hosting website. Wordpress  i

I was on the Tech Guy Radio Show! On Saturday's episode, I called in and was on the show! Sorry I can not embed it onto the page, because YouTube will not let me. But here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q_6-Ae9hHc?t=1h42m16s

Here is a Christmas countdown timer (Eastern Standard Time) for you to use for your website. The preview is below:  I got the countdown from timeanddate.com. You can access the code at the following like:  http://instablogg.com/q.hlIF. Also, edit custom settings at http://www.timeanddate.com/clocks/freecountdown.html. Enjoy!

You know how I love taking pictures of Guppy, right? Well, I just found one that I think really looks funny: Download the picture above by clicking  here .

For the past few days in English class, we have been making a scary story. I decided to type mine during lunch today, so I figured I might as well just publish it on my blog: One Saturday morning at the LaGoy home in Malta, NY, Cade woke up. He turned on his side to look at his alarm clock, which read 9:21AM. He got up, and walked across the hallway to Callie, his sister’s, room, to wake her up. Cade was often very funny, so to wake her up, he would always say “ Hey Callie girl!”  Callie got out of bed and was about to walk out of her room when she saw a spider, about the size of her dad’s hand, on the wall, crawling all over. Callie screamed and quickly ran out of the room. Cade was still in there, though. He wasn’t that afraid of spiders that much, but was still creeped out by the spider. As the spider went on the floor and was on it’s way to go underneath Callie’s bed, Cade stepped on it. It looked dead, so Cade exited Callie’s room and went to go tell Callie that the spider had bee

So last night, on Halloween, I dressed up as Steve Jobs. I stopped at one house with Maggie as we were trick or treating, and when the lady asked who I was dressed up as, I said Steve Jobs. Then she said "You should fix the Health Care website." I thought that was really funny.

Just a photo slideshow I made at PhotoSnack. Hope you like it! Note: If you subscribe to my blog and are reading this post via Email, the slideshow will not appear. Please go online, and you should be able to view it there.

Well, hello everyone. I am once again on the same computer that I was last post, also during lunch like I was last post, too. Just thought I should tell you about what happened this morning: My alarm clock goes off at about 4:46AM, and I wake up maybe 5 minutes after that. Then I eat breakfast and get my backpack ready and brush my teeth and all of that stuff. Maggie's best friend, Callie, is coming over every morning (school day) at 7:30 to be dropped of at school with Maggie. She came down the stairs right before I went outside to get picked up by my bus. (Just thought of another random thing to write: I couldn't do my online homework, or get information from a client I am working on some podcasts and videos on for because our internet always seems to go out every so often. This is not a router issue, this our ISP's problem. And if you are curious to know, it Time Warner Cable. They can't fix it, well all they can seem to think of as a solution is to replace our modem

Hello everyone. How are you? Well, if you want to know, I am currently at school. In is lunch time. At the Middle School, most teachers allow you to go in their classrooms during lunch to finish unfinished work. I'm in the English room right now, but I just like staying for lunch because it is quieter than in the lunchroom, which is crazy loud (in my opinion). Just if you are wondering about the "What's On My Mind" blog series, I only post about that series on weekdays, and do it after school. Even if I wanted to do it now then I wouldn't have time to do so, because I have 6 minutes left (we have 30 min. all together), and last time (on Friday) it took me a whole 30 minutes or so. The computers at our school (at least most of them) run Windows XP. The computers are SO SLOW! One kid came up to me the other day in study hall as I was finished up a book summary project on the computer. He said "I think these computers are older than us." They most likely ar

Maggie carrying her karaoke machine and wearing her headphones as we take a walk around town.

From Riley's Adventures, this is What's On My Mind. I'm Carl Kassel . And here's your host at www.rileys-adventures.blogspot.com , Riley Walz! Yep, that's right. I listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me , NPR's weekly news quiz. I love saying what Carl Kassel says. " From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, This is Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, the NPR news quiz. I'm Carl Kassel . And here's your host and the Chasebank Auditoriam in Downtown Chicago, Peter Segal ! " But regardless of my loving to say what Carl Kassel says, the time is currently 2:57PM, and I usaully don't do my homework I get on Friday afterschool on Friday, I do it on Saturday or Sunday, most of the time on Sunday. I'm here again with the online blog series "What's On My Mind" Edition #2. And I didn't forget. Actually today I've been waiting to do it, excited about it. As you may now, I'm starting a podcast. I should be doing it next week on Saturday. I thi

Hello there everyone. The time is exactly 5:21:11. I just finished with my homework. Oh, I guess I still have some math to do. That can wait. This won't be that long, anyway. I was just thinking as I was walking home that I should start a little series of posts on my blog. I decided that I would try to write 5 things that are on my mind on my blog everyday after school for a whole month . So I'll start now, with Edition #1. (And excuse me if I skip a word. When I say what I'm writing in my head sometimes I go too fast and skip a word or two. I used to do it a lot 2 or 3 years ago, but it is not that bad currently.) BARC soccer, as you may know I've been playing since pre-school, has now set up different times. I guess I shouldn't say times, but instead of having 5 practices in a row and the rest of the season having games, they have now switching it around a little. Not really a little, if you know what I mean. They had 1 practice, 1 game, 2 practices, 2 games, 1 pr

I'm here with my family and the LaGoys' (Cade, Callie, Scott, and Julie) at Pine Lake in the Adirondacks. We got here on Friday night, and are leaving on Monday. We have no school on Monday because of Columbus Day. It has been an awesome weekend. On Saturday, we went on a short hike. We saw the carving of "Walz and LaGoy" on a log that we carved 2 years ago !!! We even reached this little beach. All the kids wanted to go in the water, but none of us had our bathing suits on. The parents said we shouldn't do it, because the water was so cold (It's 60 degrees right now). We put our feet in the water to feel how cold it was. Then everyone but the moms, started putting their heads in the water. I tried doing it, but in the process, fell in the water completely, with no swim suit on. It was funny. I got a small cut, too, but I'm fine now. Then after we got home, we cooked dinner (potatoes, steak, and some more stuff that I forgot). We told some funny campfire s

Instant fun with a camera and Guppy...

This picture is of a praying mantis we found in our garden. I love the perspective of the picture. I took this picture too.

So I was just walking home from school after a meeting with "Future Cities".  Do you know the little white cylinders on top of power lines? Well, I was on West High Street walking East on the right side, and across the street, one of those cylinders sort of blew up. It made this huge BOOOM noise. You could see smoke coming out of a huge brown hole. Then about 10 seconds later, the samething happen. Another boom. But this time 1 or 2 lines connecting to the cylinder thing popped off and were dangling there in the air, about maybe 8 feet from the ground. My mom came home just now. She said her power at work went out at about the same time I'd say the boom happened. Here is a map of about where the power line was:

from Sarah Lane's flickr

This is what Stuart J. Moore (a.k.a. Intentionally Blank) said after I had emailed him asking him what the difference was between his original TWiT.tv   app  and the new TWiT Pro . 

Hello everyone, Just wanted to let you know of two new websites I have created. One is called "Riley's Photographs", where I will post pictures (mostly of Guppy). The design of it is cool because it is very similar to Pinterest. You can visit Riley's Photographs at  http://rileywalzphotos.blogspot.com . The second website is called "techbykids", a weekly podcast I will be hosting with my sister about 45 minutes long about electronics, apps, etc. At the website, you will be able to subscribe to new episodes, watch live on Saturdays at 4PM Eastern Time (start day to be announced), and join an IRC chatroom. You may visit the official techbykids Podcast website at tinyurl.com/techbykids . And the last thing is that I have changed the font of the body of the posts on this website. And don't worry, I'll always blog on this blog. Thanks everyone, Riley

A cool app:

Just laughed out loud this morning. He still makes me laugh.

I decided to test out Chrome and Safari on a Mac with a speed test. I did the test on speedtest.net. Here are the results: Chrome: Safari: Let's compare: Safari had a lower ping with 25 ms, a 2 ms lower than Chrome. Chrome beat Safari by 0.03 Mbps in the Download Speed, which is almost the same. The upload speed was tied. I would use Safari if you're an Apple person because you get iCloud tabs and all that, and Chrome if you're and Android user. But for people you aren't any of those people, you can just choose either, because they are pretty much the same.

We adopted Guppy! Today is his birthday.

Have $13.13 left in my iTunes account... That's an unlucky number so I better buy something!

Spent this morning working on this!

#1:  iFive for the iPhone   is a netcast featuring top five lists of popular iPhone apps and functionality. The show offers visual walkthroughs and helpful tricks in a fast-paced format, with each episode clocking in under 10 minutes. Hosted by   Sarah Lane , the show airs weekly on the   TWiT Network . iFive for the iPhone  is recorded on Mondays at 11:00am PST / 2:00pm EST, during which viewers can watch the live recording without post-processing and with potential outtakes. #2:  iPad Today   is a weekly show hosted by   Leo Laporte   and   Sarah Lane   focusing on the iPad. It covers news about the iPad, as well as reviewing apps and accessories. iPad Today is the first TWiT netcast to have most of the effects done in post production. Therefore, it will take longer for downloadable video to be pushed out. The show currently airs live on Thursdays at 1:00pm PT/4:00pm ET with the on demand download available within 24hrs. #3:  Tech News Today  is the TWIT Network's first daily tec

Right now, we are in the car heading home from our 3 night stay at a town called Hull in Mass. It has a beach there, called "Nantasket Beach". Our hotel is located right across the street from the beach. It was a nice vacation.

We are at a good restaurant today. I had fried scallops on a hot dog roll. It was within my top 15 favorite meals of all time.

Today my fish died. I got it from a science project that ended at the end of the school year, and we got to take home the fish and snails.  The sweetest thing is happening now. This morning, when I realized the bad news. Both of my snails were right next to the fish. Now at night, it seems they are trying to pick the fish up and bring it somewhere. I think it is so sweet. The snails are not only working together, but helping their friend. 

Sometimes, when I lived in Germany for one year, I would just stop walking when I was walking to the tram stop from my apartment and stare at the trams in amazement On the tram moments later, I watched out the window looking in amazement at the things that seemed to belong with me But as I write this, from halfway across the world in USA, I still remember it as home.

Apple has their WWDC (World Wide Developer's Conference) this week, but they had a keynote on Monday, and introduced a few new products. OSX Mavericks Do you know how the current Mac software is called "OSX Mountain Lion"? Will now they are calling it "OSX Mavericks". That name seems so weird to me. In case you have no idea what Mavericks is, like me, here is the definition from Wikipedia: Mavericks Location     Mavericks is a surfing location in Northern California, USA. It is located approximately 2 miles from shore outside Pillar Point Harbor, just north of the town of Half Moon Bay at the village of Princeton-By-The-Sea. There aren't that many new features in Mavericks, but some new cool features were added like: iBooks-  Do you know the app "iBooks" that you can get on your iOS device? Well, the same thing is now available for Mac. iBooks is basically Apple's e-books store and reader. Maps-  Like the app on your iOS device, the Maps app is

Toga, our dog that has been alive longer than I have been, passed away last week. We decided as a family to put him down because he was about to get a lot worse, and didn't want him to die hurt. He was a great dog.  A funny comic Maggie made including Toga A random picture I don't remember taking Toga sleeping like a little boy Toga during his birthday

So I'm sure you've seen this commercial. I can't stand it. IT DOSEN'T PROVE ANYTHING!! Here is a basic idea of the differences. But no one should ever buy a Kindle just because of this ad.

Today, I felt close to my family. First, I had a great breakfast with my father at Coffee Planet. Then we quickly stopped of to recycle some fences we didn't need anymore. Then we stopped at Lowe's to get tiles for our kitchen, changed the oil in one of the cars and got a car wash at Hoffman, and then went to Moe's for lunch. I helped my sister find a Shake It Up CD that she bought yesterday, but in the end we concluded that she accidentally put it into the garbage (the garbage was brought up today). Then after dinner, I helped my mother with her classroom, it went from unorganized to the complete opposite. Just a Wonderful Day...

And in the end, my grand total for Saint Baldrick's is $2,034!

Visit the Typing Test and try! Yeah, I'm that fast... See if you can beat me by clicking the link .

Finally, Winter break! We are going on a skiing vacation next weekend, and may go to NYC during the week.

I'm doing St. Baldricks again this year! Last year I made $3,500. This year, I want to raise even more! Donate now at http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/Rileywalz . And to get updates on how much I've raised, like me on Facebook as a participant at www.facebook.com/stbaldricksriley . Thank you so much!