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Hi for this week of the blogging challenge I’m going to talk about WordPress vulnerability’s and how you can protect yourself from them. Surprisingly there are tons of different vulnerability’s in WordPress and they come in all shapes and sizes the first one I’m going to talk about in this blog post are vulnerable themes. After researching the majority of vulnerability’s were xxs (cross site scripting) or sql injection (code injection technique) in case you want to know more about these exploits I will link two helpful articles sql injection xxs. Now some ways you can protect against these attacks the easiest and really the only way is to just download a theme that isn’t vulnerable. But how can you do that you ask well there are a few different ways but I would recommend just doing research for example if you are not sure just put the name of the theme into this database and if it’s vulnerable it should pop up for example here a photo of me searching up the theme I’m using right now

For the next vulnerability I’m going to talk about one of the most simple yet where the majority of people screw up which is your password fun fact did you know in a recent study the uk national cyber security centre found that 23.2 million people had the password 123456 (you can find that here)so if that’s your password you should probably change it. Even though that password seems as though it would be easily hacked even more complex passwords can be hacked relatively easily using a technique called a brute force attack more specifically a dictionary attack. What is a dictionary attack you ask well a dictionary attack is a form of brute force attack where whatever tool you are using takes a list of anywhere from 100 to 11000000 passwords (the dictionary) and it tests too see if any of them match with your password the reason this is so effective when it comes to cracking passwords is the fact that most dictionary’s contain password from hacks for example you can download a dictionary that contains every password leaked in the Ashley Madison hack from August of 2015 which if I’m not mistaken was multiple million. In my opinion the reason that is so important is because just like me from a few months ago the majority of peoples passwords follow this formula some significant name or thing with some letters swapped out for numbers and maybe an exclamation point at the end just to top it off. for example I took the most popular male dog name which is Charlie and did exactly what I just said to it I think it would look something like this Ch4rl13!. Now doesn’t that look secure to most people it probably does but thinking about it if you have a password like that there is a significant chance that someone else has the same password as you. So how do you protect against these attacks and try to make your account more secure first of all I would recommend making you password a combination of random characters for example +6^5yFcPKtfcL=56~5_ the reason I say that is because a password like that is almost impossible to guess and the chances of someone else having the same password are around 1 in 2 Billion. The only issue with this type of password is it’s super hard to remember so what I would recommend is if there’s nobody in your house that may try to steal your password to just write it down on a sticky note and put it somewhere you won’t lose it if you can’t do that what I would recommend is to use a secure password storage program for example personally I use last pass because it’s secure and it’s easy to use. One more thing I like about last pass is it also generates passwords so you don’t have to come up with them yourself.

in conclusion there are ways people can hack your wordpress blogs but there also ways you can protect against them. That being said I’m not guaranteeing that by following my tips your blog will be hack proof so just stay safe and have fun blogging.

Hi for this week of the blogging challenge we were given a list of eight different music themed tasks out of those eight we had to pick three I picked create a survey, create a quiz, and make a playlist. The first two were pretty easy for the survey I just wrote down some pretty basic questions for example what is your favourite music genre. If you would like to participate in that survey just check it out here. The second thing I had to do was the quiz which was harder because although I listen to a lot of music I don’t know much about the musicians themselves or like any trivia facts so making the quiz was pretty hard. But after some research I came up with a few good questions if you would like to tests your skill you can do that here. Finally I had to make a playlist which wasn’t the hardest. I started by picking a theme which was like chill/mellow music so being a person who already listens to that music a lot I just kinda threw together some good songs and I think it sounds pretty good so if you have Apple Music here’s a link to the playlist.

Hi, my name is Matthew. I’m a 9th-grade student from Vancouver British Columbia. I enjoy computers, video games, programming, and politics. I have a dog named Rex and a cat named Coda. I mostly spend my free time playing around with my computer while watching something. I also really enjoy hanging out with friends and watching movies.

For this year I will be changing my avatar to Howard the duck from the live action movie Howard the duck. The reason this will be my new avatar is because the Howard the duck comics that the movie is based on were the first comics I ever owned. Another reason I decided to pick this as my avatar is because I find the character quite funny like it’s a duck that smoke cigars and fights villains how is that not funny.

For my second blogpost of this year I will be talking about one of our smaller projects we’ve done so far which was our game of exponents project for math. For this project what we had to do was make a boardgame based around exponent laws in groups of two although I was in a group of three. The first thing we had to do was come up with our game idea so being that me and my group mates (Brenton, Ryan, and me) are pretty political we decided to make a game where you run for president which I thought sounded pretty fun. After we came up with our idea we had to get it approved by the teacher which we did thankfully. Now that we had our idea approved by the teacher it was time to start writing the rules.

In my opinion coming up with the rules was the second most fun thing we did in this project aside from actually playing the game. How we ended up doing the rules was we brainstormed and then Ryan would write them down with detail which worked well. After we made the rules it was time to start on the actual board and game pieces. Our board just ended up being a map of America cut up into regions. The more interesting thing we had to make for our game was the cards because for the images on them we found political memes or got funny images that fit with what it said on the card. The final thing we had to get for the game were the game coins and the die which ended up being pretty easy because for the currency we ended up just using cents.

now that we had our game pieces and board done it was time to show it to other people to get feedback so in class there everybody swapped with another group and they would play our group and we would play theirs and give them feedback. We got decent there were a few things we had to change for example they said it was a little slow. With that feed back we had a few days to fix our game which we did. Now that we had the final versions of our games it was time to show it to a different class by that I mean another class came to our class and groups of twos played our games and I have to say our game had great reception from the group that played it.

in conclusion this was a super fun project and I learned a ton about exponents and truly this is a project that I would do again.

Here are the rules

For the first blog post of this year I will be talking about about one of our most recent projects. This project was about how place effects us. The first thing we did in this project was getting the driving question how does place effect us which led to an introductory assignment on how place specifically effects ourselves. For this I made a mind map with four categories weather, Healthcare, Deep Cove, and Wilderness from those categories I listed some ways those things effected me for example under weather I put used to the cold because Vancouver tends to be a pretty cold area so as you grow up you slowly adapt to the heat/weather.

After we finished that we started our next milestone where we had to write a paragraph about an article we read except there was a catch we were in groups of four and each person was given a lens for example mine was political. The article my group read was an article about the pipeline and making more jobs. I liked the article my group was assigned because it was political and that was perfect because that was my lens.

The next things we did was get the groups that we would have during the Alberta trip for me that was Jude, Angelo, and Alex. We also got our peoples groups which basically means the specific group of people you would be interviewing about how Alberta effects them. For example my group got Albertans so we had to ask Albertans about how living there effects them in different ways. Another thing we had to do for this was pick lenses to use when interviewing I picked political. After we got our groups and peoples we had to start planning for the trip by making a trip planning sheet. The planning sheet was so we knew what we would need to do while in Alberta and so our teacher knew we knew what we were doing.

By the time we had finished our planning sheets it was time to go to Alberta which was hard due to the fact we had to get to the school by 6:30 which meant getting up at 5:30 so I could make sure I had everything I needed for the trip. After having a shower collecting my bags I left for the school. When I arrived I was met with the news that I was in the van which from experience can either be a blessing or a curse so when I got in the very back seat and there was tons of leg space I was like 🥳 and it was that way for around maybe like 3 hours until we had to pick up one of our teachers and bam 💥 no leg room but enough with that. after that we went to lunch and stopped at the last spike which was interesting after that we went to the three valley gap where we would be sleeping the night but first we would have to film a video for our maker class but I’m not going to get into that. Before I talk about what we did next I would like to talk about something I forgot to earlier which is the daily note what we did in the daily note was each day we were given a question to answer for example what are you most looking forward to. Now I’m going to skip to the really important part of this trip which were our interviews our first two interviews were at a market where we talked to a very nice man named Bernie who owned a farm we also talked to a younger man who worked as a a brewer for a gin distillery the next guy we interviewed worked at a ski resort that we visited who was very interesting the final interview we had was with a nice lady who worked at the world’s largest dinosaur.

before I finish off with the trip part of this blog post I just want to talk about a few highlights. One beakerhead I really enjoyed beakerhead because it’s all about science and art my favourite exhibit/art piece was one where it tracked your movements and made like a digital copy of you. Another thing we did was beaker night which is like the bigger brother to the beakerhead event we went to the night before and if I’m being honest it was better mostly because it was a lot bigger of an event and there were sculptures that could breath fire.

once we got back from our trip I had two things I still had to do for this project edit and revise my video and finish my now late daily note the daily note was the easiest thing I had to get done where as the video took longer because we had two do a draft before our final video. Overall finishing the video wasn’t too hard even though I ended up procrastinating on some of things we had to do for it.

in conclusion I think this was a great project and overall I learned a ton whether it’s how place effects people or about dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrell Museum I can’t truly say this was a great learning experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.

For the final school related blog post of this year (I hope to make a few blog posts this summer.) I will be talking about the spring exhibition or more specifically blue sky. Just to start off I have to say blue sky was one of my favourite projects this year.

Now its time to actually start talking about specifics. When we first started this project we were given a launch journal to keep track of everything we had done. I found this quite helpful because I knew we would have to make this blog post and I also knew that the launch journal would make that a lot easier. 

The first thing we had too do in this project was the section look listen learn. In this section we had to do a few tasks. The first one was we had to come up with a few things that bothered us that we wish we could have changed ex. The biggest issue facing our school is vaping. The second task was we had to come up with some other challenges that face our earth for example seniors fall victim to tech support scams usually because of lack of knowledge. The final task was we had to come up with some products for example you can modify a sphero to make it a kind of dog toy.

The next part I actually forgot to do so I’m just going to skip to the how might me for how might we we had to make a statement then answer it for example How might we fit all of the electronics in a ball that’s small enough for a dog A: I plan on modifying a sphero which already has the right sized electronics to make what I want.

For the next page of the launch journal is the ask section. For the ask section we had to do two things a need to know chart and an action plan. For the need to know chart we had to say what we needed to know and how we would find that out for example does it have to fully work then the next step would be ask the teacher. For action plan we had to look at all of the steps and things we had to finish and put a date we wanted it done by for example I will put my chart right under this.

For one of the most important parts but my least favourite because we had to do a ton of writing drum roll… the pitch form. For the pitch we had to to explain seven things those are  an introduction, rationale, research, materials, plan, exhibition, and client. If you want more specifics here’s the actual pitch form.

For the understand section we had to do two things our primary sources and secondary sources for that I did a survey and looked at some tool. What I learned from that survey is people and I kinda agreed about the idea which was that the ball would go fast it would be bright coloured ext. here’s the survey.

This part of the book was the thing we had to do just before we got approved to create. For this section we had to bundle all of our ideas then sort through them I sorted mine into my ideas ideas from the survey and then there was another section for after I got rid of ideas that wouldn’t work which was called ideas that survived the culling. After I handed in this page I had to make a few changes before I was ready to create.

Once I was ready was ready to create I had to do the create stage of our launch journal where we had to do two things rapid prototyping and live prototyping sadly due to being not smart and screwing up I didn’t get the second part done but I can’t dwell on that. For rapid prototyping I made a 3d model of what I wanted to make which was a shell for a sphero to make it more dog friendly. The second rapid prototype was the actual code to make the sphero move around random so the dog can chase it. 

Now for the part you have all been waiting for the actual exhibition the first thing we did for this was we were put in groups I was in a group with Emerson, Sam, Jason, and Lauren. The first thing we actually did as a group was come up with what snacks and where everybody would be in our Area I was in the back. Also around this time I actually struggling with finishing my project because I wasn’t able to 3d print the shell and it was too close to the day of the exhibition so sadly I wasn’t able to finish my project. Now back to getting ready for the exhibition I was in charge of bringing kook aid and some props for our area.

Now the night of the exhibition was very fun I talked to tons of nice people and it sounded like they liked my idea. Throughout the night I also looked at tons of other peoples stations where I saw cool products my favourite was a slide that you put on your stairs. After all of that it was time for cleanup this is a video of that made by a person in my group Jason. Ps. Here’s the full launch journal in case you want to see it.

For this blog post I will be talking about the project we have been working on for the past month which is a tableau version of the tempest with a twist. The twist was that we had to use the tempest and the history of New France to stage a dramatic tableau to help an audience understand the lasting effects of colonization. If that sounds a little weird that’s because I basically just took the driving question and pasted it down to explain the twist. 

How we were introduced to this project was pretty fun but it was also a surprise. So what happened was our teacher ms.Willemse told us that we were going to be working outside which was a surprise because we hadn’t done it before but it kinda made sense because well it was a nice sunny day. When we got out and down to the designated outside work area we were told to read a short Shakespeare play and make still image with our bodies to represent it. After we did that we did a few other things and she told us that this was our new project we had to make a Shakespeare tableau after that the day ended the next class we start the first part of the project.

Now I have to be honest I’m a little iffy on the first two things we did so I’m just going to say what it says we did. The first thing we did was  using ethical judgement we had to create an explain everything about the early colonization of Canada. The second thing we did was we had to think critically about Shakespeare’s the tempest during pre and active reading activities.

Now for the things I do remember the first of the things I do remember is starting to pick what scene and how we would represent them. For the first part of this we had to get in groups I was in a group of two with one of my friends Brenton. We were given act 3 scene 2 and had to summarize it in a short video this is that video.

The next day we were given a new person in our group meg who kinda saved us later on but we will get back to that. The main thing we did that day was wright the first draft of the script which was fun after that we fixed it and had to work on our backdrop which we had to re-record after the video was to shaky after we had it recorded I added in a few special effects.

Now that we had everything done we had to do costumes and rehearsal but that’s kinda boring so I’m just going to skip to the night of the show. We practiced a bit then it was about 5 minutes before the show and people started arriving and I was super nervous but that went away after I did my first act.

Overall I learned a ton and it was a fun night if I were to do it again I would probably do less

Over the span of this year I have improved a ton in many different ways the really big one is I have started looking into things and checking sources more which is really important because it really easy to come across fake stuff on the internet. 

Now we should get to specific classes the first class I will be talking about is Maker because I have improved so much in that subject first of all I have gotten much better at working in teams which is really good because that has always been a struggle for example even though DI was  a struggle it was one of the best projects I have done with a team this is because even though we argued we worked together and made something good. At this time I can’t think of anything just due to the fact we haven’t done to many different projects.

The second subject I will be talking about is humanity’s I decided to put this second because it was my second best improved subject. The big way I have improved is my writing skills even though I still need to work on them they have gotten much better for example I used to be able to write a decent blog post in around three hours but now it only takes me an hour to make something of equal quality. One thing that holds me back though is my issue with procrastination and I’m sad to have to say that because that was the thing I was supposed to to work on and I hope I can improve a lot by next year.

For the second last subject science I feel I haven’t improved as much as my other subjects but I have still learned a ton. One of the big ways I did improve is my research skills for example for my spring exhibition telescope project where we had to research a telescope and how it works. The big thing I need to improve which I have been struggling with since the mPOL which is getting distracted which Leeds to me not finishing work and getting a bad grade. I plan on working on this over the summer so hopefully when I get back I am ready to focus. 

Now for the final subject math Over this year I feel my math skills have gotten better but it still needs some work. For example if you asked me last year to solve an algebra question I would’ve said that I can’t but now I can. Along twitch science I really need to work on my focusing in this class to because not focusing can lead to not understanding something and that leads to getting bad marks.

For this blog post I will be talking about destination imagination provincials which happened around two weeks ago. Leading up to provincials we made some changes to our performance.

 The first change we did was Liam made a new backdrop during spring break that was stronger that the last one which was very important because our last backdrop broke pretty early on.  The next thing we decided to change was one of our team choice elements that team choice element was originally a song made by our team but we decided to change it to a monster themed mural like you would see at a coffee shop. We first came up with what we were going to paint and someone in our group made the rough sketch. After around a day we started to paint and in two days we were done and in my opinion it looks pretty good. Now the final thing we changed was we made some changes to the script to make it funnier. To be honest we also probably made a few other small changes but I having trouble remembering.

 

 Any now onto the the day of provincials for this year provincials was held at Callingwood. We had to get there pretty early because there were a ton of teams that had to present and some of them were made up of young kids so they didn’t want it to last to long. 

When I first arrived at Di I couldn’t find my team so I was hanging out with some other people but like five minutes later I found them after that we unloaded all of our stuff but we didn’t have to present for like two hours so we watched some of our friends performances and had some pop but most importantly we rehearsed. 

After all of that it was time for our instant challenge which we did very well in. Now lets just skip to check in time so we grabbed our structure and went to check in. Checking in was pretty easy after we did that we did one more full run through. Now finally we moved our stuff into the room and did our performance. It went pretty well but we were way too quiet and that was our main downfall. 

After that we saw a few more groups then it was the award ceremony which was very fun every team in plp did place except for one. Our team ended up coming first for the instant challenge in our category and third in the main challenge.

 Overall this was super fun and one thing that I would change next time would be not drinking coke out of the cup because the cup had a leak in it.