I never saw another butterfly...

               "That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don't live here in the ghetto."

Recently we our school put on the play "I Never Saw Another Butterfly", which is about a concentration camp called Terezin during the holocaust. Over 15,000 children passed through Terezin, and only 100 survived. Terezin was made out to be a place that was "nice" and it was staged as propaganda to show that the Germans were treating the Jews better than they were. The story the play follows in a girl named Raja, and her story throughout her life, before Terezin and after, as she was one of the hundred. It tells the story of Irena Synkova's school, her family, and her lover. The whole story is incredibly awful, and really strikes the emotions of anyone who watches or performs in it. If you haven't seen it, or seen the book of the pictures the children drew while in Terezin, I would tell you to look at it. It is incredible and eye-opening on such a horrible event in our history. Getting on a different note, the play was fantastic. Our dress rehearsal did not go so well the night before, but something about being in front of the whole school scared into shape. We had an almost flawless run through, and the story was conveyed well, and with much power. I would like to congratulate anyone who was in it, actors or techies, and tell everyone that it was a job well done! Now, let's sit down and memorize a monologue for the musical auditions on Monday...

Religion and Government, where do we draw the lines?

With rights for marriage equality on the rise, a debate has been raised on where religion should be able to affect our laws and culture. One of the arguments against Gay marriage, and maybe the most widely supported one, is that God and the bible says it is wrong, and so it is, and gay marriage should not be allowed. But the issue is raised, "Should we base our laws on a religion that not everyone adopts? Also given that if we do, rights will be stripped from some individuals?". For me, and many others, the answer is a firm, solid, NO. Basing our laws just around the dominant religion is not only oppressing other religions, it is oppressing the rights of people in this nation. People then say that it does not oppress people's rights because being gay is a choice. People have done work on seeing if it is a choice, mainly on genetic, hormonal, developmental, social and cultural influences on sexual orientation. Though there is no consensus about exactly what causes people to be gay or lesbian, however, most scientists believe that it is not a direct choice. So basing our laws around the fact that Christianity prohibits it is cruel, and is also breaking the establishment clause. It says that the government is not allowed to "establish" a religion. By proclaiming our laws, we are establishing that we are a Christian theocracy. While people can argue other ideas, in the end gay marriage is about either giving everyone the same rights, or giving a gourd of people less rights because of a predisposition.

Longer Review of Team Fortress 2

I found that the way I described Team Fortress 2 (Tf2) in my previous blog was good, but I need to go in deeper to truly explain the gameplay and why this game is so good. To start of with the basics, Tf2 is a FPS (First person shooter) based around nine classes. The way the game is played is simple. Regardless of the game type, their is Red and Blu teams, each with separate spawns rooms. (Usually on the opposite end of the map.) These truly are rooms, and the team that it doesn't belong is not allowed to enter into the enemy spawn. So you choose a class and go into battle, where the other team, (Who has the same selection of classes) fights you. Each class have different health and speed, and that is what makes this game so unique. The balance is great, and each class has counters and advantages. For instance, one class, the pyro, is very good against spies, but spies are very good against snipers. When you lose health there are three ways to get more. You can get a health kit, which heals for 1/5, 1/2 or all of your max health based on what type of pack it is. You can also go to a dispenser, built by an engineer, which gives you health and ammo at a steady rate based on what level the dispenser it. You can also find a medic on your team, who can heal you with their "medi gun", which gives you health and also can "overheal" you to 150% of your max health. Here is a quick description of all the classes and their weapons.*

*Their are unlockables with either changed stats or a completely different ability, these are the stock weapons you start with.

Scout:
Primary: Scattergun (Shotgun)
Secondary: Pistol
Melee: Bat
Health: 125

Soldier:
Primary: Rocket Launcher
Secondary: Shotgun
Melee: Shovel
Health: 200

Pyro:
Primary: Flamethrower
Secondary: Shotgun
Melee: Fire Ax
Health: 175

Demoman:
Primary: Grenade Launcher
Secondary: Stickybomb Launcher
Melee: Bottle
Health: 175

Heavy:
Primary: Minigun
Secondary: Shotgun
Melee: Fists
Health: 300

Engineer
Primary: Shotgun
Secondary: Pistol
Melee: Wrench
PDA1: Build PDA (Can build sentries, dispensers and teleporters.)
PDA2: Destroy PDA (Destroys your buildings)
Health: 125

Medic:
Primary: Needle Gun
Secondary: Medi Gun
Melee: Bonesaw
Health: 150

Sniper:
Primary: Sniper Rifle
Secondary: SMG
Melee: Kukri
Health: 125

Spy:
Primary: Revolver
Secondary: Sapper (Disables, then destroys buildings made by engineer)
Melee: Knife (Hitting from behinds results in a "backstab" and a one-hit kill, no matter how much health target is at.
PDA1: Invis Watch (Turns you invisible for a limited amount of time)
PDA2: Disguise Kit (Disguises you as a opponent)
Health: 125

New YouTube Comment System

Recently YouTube updated their comment system with new measures of security and filtering. However, it broke everything. People have been posting screamers, scam, spam and inappropriate comments. Also, the reply system makes NO SENSE. NONE. Also now you must link your YouTube to Google+, which is just plain makes no sense and is just another plan form Google to get people to use their awful alternative to Facebook. A revolution has been started with the symbol being "Bob", a stick figure who hates Google+ and has assembled tanks, guns, and an army to fight the comment system. However, even with all the uproar, Google, vain as they are, will probably do nothing to change the comment section. So everyone with a YouTube, send Bob all over! We want to take back the site that we love!

Oh my god... This game...

         Ok, so I would like to talk about something that I believe should happen in any development process. Whether it be games, cars, appliances, even things like blogs. When you start to develop anything, you should have every intention of creating something that is almost flawless, has no problems, and it something that people will want and enjoy. This is the case with most things, but not with some. The most successful games are ones that people enjoy, and that you will respond to feedback and change things in the future. Now, there are two types of games in this way. Updated, and straight released. Updated games are ones that the company updates, fixes and changes based on the community feedback. Straight release games are ones that the company releases, and then doesn't look at it ever again. When you want to do this sort of style, you need to beta test a ton, and make sure everything is perfect before releasing it. While this happens well in some cases, others fail miserably.


The game mentioned in the title is no other than Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. This game is so incredibly awful, no game compares to it. It has the lowest score on any game on multiple review series. It seems like the developers just decided to spit in the face of anyone who bought the game. They wanted money, and the probably made a profit, based on the fact that the game's budget was most likely somewhere around $50. I can't do justice to how bad this game is, so I'll let you watch how bad it is. Some key features include the ability to drive up mountains, the fact that the A.I. doesn't work so there is no one to race against, you can go as fast as you want while driving backwards in circles, and of course the best possible message when you win is "You're Winner"! You're Winner. That's all that needs to be said...

My trip to Washington!

So recently I went to Washington D.C. to look more closely at our government. The main purpose was to go and see oral arguments at the Supreme Court, but we also went and saw the Senate too. So on Monday afternoon, my dad and I flew out of Logon and went to Reagan International Airport in Washington. After arriving, we took a taxi and checked into our hotel. After eating dinner and watching "White House Down", we went to sleep anxious to see the Senate the next day.

The second day was the Senate and Capitol day. Early in the morning, we enter the Capitol Building for out tour. While seeing the Capitol was fun, and interesting, our tour guide was awful, and I didn't learn much. After the tour however, was great. We went and saw the Senate gallery, which was mainly debating ENDA, the Employment Non - Discrimination Act. Seeing the people that represent us talk about this issue, and how the senate ran and operated was a eye opening experience. I would suggest that anyone go and see this sometime in their life, as it is a great learning experience about the people that ultimately control our daily lives.

After leaving the Senate, we went to the Spy museum. While it was fun and interesting, not much notable details happened.

The third day was Supreme Court day. We woke up early, and ate breakfast. With a pit of excitement in our gut, we took a taxi to the Supreme Court. After entering through an obscure side entrance, we made our way to the Marshall's offices. After going through one last security clearance, we made it to the courtroom to here oral argument on The Town of Greece v. Galloway. An more in depth update of the details of what happened during the arguments will come out tomorrow. But the case was about how a town, Greece, has a prayer before each session of a town meeting. For 6 years, these prayers were all of Christian belief, and due to uproar, the last couple years have had one or two non-Christian prayers. Susan Galloway believes that by making all the prayers at a government meeting one religion, this is breaking the Establishment Clause. This clause states in the First Amendment to the Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...". Galloway argues that the town is establishing Christianity as their religion, which would be a breach of this. Oral arguments lasted for an hour, at which point we departed for lunch. After eating, we returned for our semi-private tour of the court. We saw areas that aren't available to the public, like the library, and the meeting rooms. After the tour, we went back to the hotel and I did homework, and my dad worked. So the rest of the afternoon was uneventful. We flew back at 6:30, and it concluded once of the best trips of my life. Seeing the court was one of the coolest things I've seen in my life, and one I will never forget.

My top 5 games of all time that everyone needs to play!

Hey everybody! I did a small review of "The Binding of Isaac" a little while ago, and thought that maybe I should do a bit more about what games I think that everyone should play and that everyone can enjoy. I'll try to get a video of each of these games up in the near future. Click on the name of the game if you want a link to a place to purchase or download it. If you want me to review a game, just tell me! I'd be happy to learn of new games!

Number 5: Portal 2: Where do I begin with this game? It is a puzzle game, where the only way to go through the game is to solve the rooms using, you guessed it, portals. The portals are placed on the walls using the portal gun, and using many other mechanics and puzzle pieces, you must go from the entrance to the exit (Alive, mind you). At the beginning, the puzzles just are rooms which are "test chambers", but as you progress you must go into wide open areas with no clear objectives, and it gets much more difficult. The plot is created by the same person who created Half-Life Two's plot, and again he did excellent. The plot is flawless, and nothing about the games should be changed. More on this game coming out in the video.

Number 4: Half-Life 2. Hl2 is an incredible game. It is a campaign style shooter where you must travel around a post-invasion Earth to try to stop Combine, an alien group. The plot of the story in incredible, weaving many story lines together to create a masterpiece. Again, hard to do this justice, video will explain more!

Number 3: Counter Strike: Global Offensive. CSGO is a great FPS based around the two teams, terrorists and counter-terrorists fighting in a couple very unique gamemodes, such as bomb defusual and  hostage situation. This game is hard to explain, and a video will go up of me playing sometime soon.

Number 2: Civilization V. Civilization is a turn based strategy game with each play controlling a different, you guessed it, civilization. You must fight to create a good military, a wide spread empire,  fight for resources, and demolish your opponents. You must enhance the technology in your empire in order to keep up with the others. There is so much stuff in this game, that I'll talk about it when the video comes out.

Number 1: Team Fortress 2. Team Fortress 2 is a fast paced, first person shooter with some very different qualities than other FPS games on the market. It is based around nine classes, all with very different qualities. Creating a winning team not only requires skill, but also it requires a good balance of these classes. When the screencast comes out, I'll have a description of these classes. Each class has a stock weapon set, however there are unlockables that randomly drop while playing. Usually these are the same weapon with different stats or abilities, there are some however, that change the nature of the class. It is free to play on steam, so I would suggest anyone go and play it jus to check it out!