Ah, Our Tragically Unaware Generation...

Recently, my mom was sitting in at a class at Boston University on current trends in the business world. During this class, the professor posed a question asking how many people knew about the massive water contamination catastrophe in West Virginia. Out of the 45 students in the class, not 20, not 10, not 5, but 2 students raised their hands. It seems that our generation has become less and less aware about things that are going around in the world around us, and more focused on what is happening in our small section of the globe. This event happened to be one I had heard about on NPR, but do I read the newspaper daily? No. Should I? Probably, if I want to be able to be a global citizen and have any sort of effect bigger than my family or school. Now if the professor had asked who was arrested for DUI and drag racing last weekend, I guarantee that hand upon hand would shoot up. This is the fundamental problem with the world nowadays, we focus on what is fun, and lighthearted, and don't care about other problems that don't effect us, or even some that do.

Reflection on Unit One and Collaborative Work

Just like this year has proved, English class has been different. From a paperless classroom to an informal exam, it has been unlike any other English class I've ever taken. Using a seven day "unit" system is just as abnormal, but abnormal doesn't mean bad. Having the unit system is a new idea, and one that needs to be refined before use. It has its strengths, but like any system, it has its flaws too.

The unit system creates a environment of organization, as each student and the teacher know what the general idea of the day should be. This could allow for the teacher to think more narrowly about what is being taught on any given day. More importantly for me though, is that each students knows what to expect each day. A unit system combined with Schoology, where every day can be posted allows students to look ahead, and see if they need to plan there time differently. It allows us to learn to manage our time better, and if we don't, then we are missing an opportunity.

However, the system was not without its faults. The unit system does fail to provide creativity. While having an organized schedule, the system only will work if it is followed, and cannot be abandoned at random times. So each day can only have a select amount of ideas to choose from. The only way to solve this is to create broad topics for each day.

The unit system accomplishes many goals and provides organization, with little downside other than a little bit of restriction, but not much. Refining this system could allow for interesting possibilities, and I look forward to seeing the progression of the system over time. I think the system is good, and with some refining could be great.

FTL: Faster Than Light. Game Review

I recently started to play a game that I bought awhile ago, but never really put much time into. FTL: Faster Than Light. FTL is a rouge-like game, where you micromanage a starship through eight randomly generated sectors. The game is not very complicated on the surface, but gets much harder as you progress.

In FTL, you travel through 8 randomly generated sectors, fighting ships, collecting scrap, upgrading your ship, finding crew members, and much more. Each sector consists of "beacons", which are randomly generated. To travel from beacon to beacon, you Faster Than Light Jump. (Hence the name).

A map of one sector:

 

When I first sat down and played FTL, I thought that the game was going to be very easy. How could a game where I can breeze through the first sector in under 5 minutes be difficult? I was so hopelessly wrong. FTL requires you to be able to strategize your final boss battle from the second you start the game. If you reach sector 7 and don't have the right things upgraded, you could lose to the first ship you find. FTL isn't a game you can beat the first time you play through. It requires you learn what to prioritize, and what to ignore. I highly suggest everyone go buy it on Steam for $9.99, and I will have a gameplay going up soon!

Rating: 9/10

The only reason this would not get a 10/10 is because the game can be kind of boring when first starting a run, as you have little options until later on. I sometimes don't want to play because I know I'll have to go through the first 3 sectors, which are easy and boring. This can be solved by playing on normal instead of easy, but normal is incredibly hard.

Is Global Warming a Myth Because of One Cold Weekend?

Last weekend was extremely cold. No one can deny that. For some reason, one way or another, North America has had a cold couple of days, and everyone reacted a different way. Some people just accepted the cold as a weather pattern, and as nothing more. Others , mostly those who are skeptical of global warming's existence took it as an opportunity to prove their claim. They said that, "How could it be possible to have global warming when we get this cold weather?" and "Forget global warming, we have global cooling." While this may make sense to them, looking deeper shows that their claim is completely inaccurate. Yes, while we have had cold weather this winter, global warming is a real thing, and isn't disproved by two sub-zero days. It seems as if now days, every event that doesn't seem to match up with a particular idea is wrong, and nothing can prove it anymore. This happens in all areas, not just the environment, or politics, but everywhere. I think that we all need to start to respect each others opinions more, and be able to look beyond one example where the idea may appear wrong, or show the opposite of what is actually happening. So as you go on, try to looks at any idea through a different lens, not just the one that you see now. Don't disregard anyones opinion for one exception, because you could end up looking really stupid.

Game Design Concept: Lifebars, hitpoints, and health

           In almost every video game, there is some sort of "health" or hitpoints, but almost always, each game has a unique and interesting way that they express this, and the way the game interacts with the health. So today I am going to take a few case examples and talk about each of them, and note the similarities and differences, and which one is the best. I'd like to talk about Call of Duty, Team Fortress 2, The Legend of Zelda, and Super Smash Brothers.
           First up, Call of Duty. Call of Duty uses a very standard health system for FPS games, with a health bar that depletes when you take damage, and will regenerate after a few seconds if you are not hit with any more damage. While it may not seem this way on the surface, this system is based off of numbers. You have a number of hitpoints, and each attack takes a set amount of damage off of this number until you reach 0. Just because the representation of the health is not a number, doesn't mean that a number isn't associated with that bar.
            So moving on to Team Fortress 2, which is similar but at the same time different. In Tf2, health is a number, not a bar, and each attack deals a set amount of damage, much like Call of Duty. However, in Tf2, the way to regenerate health is to pick up a health pack, which heals a set amount of health instantly. This encourages a completely different play style from Call of Duty. In COD, when you are low on health, your best option is to hide and wait until you are at full, where as in Tf2, when you are low on health, sometimes your best option is actually to run towards the enemies and run over some health. Also numbers in Tf2 are a huge deal. If you are under 150 health, you have the danger of getting one shot killed by a sniper, but at 151 health, a headshot will not kill you. So which to I like better? While both are good, I like Tf2's system better, as it encourages being aggressive, staying in the fight, and being strategic, where as in COD, the health encourages hiding, and no real strategy. But this isn't a dig at COD, that will come later, trust me.
             So moving on to the completely different idea that Nintendo uses in the Zelda games. Here you health is in hearts, and collecting heart containers increasing the amount of hearts you can have at maximum. And yes, I cannot compare Zelda to FPS games in the same way, as they are drastically different, but I still would like to talk about it. In Zelda, the hearts are taken away by attacks from enemies, usually in half heart increments. The way you regenerate hearts is by collecting hearts from dead enemies, pots, and much more. The way the life is set up encourages exploring, and pushing forward, as usually there will be more hearts on the horizon. You can go back to find a place where you can get hearts, but that takes time, and going forward is better, and sometimes works out. Also, the penalty for dying in Zelda is not that bad. You start at the beginning of the area you were in, and u get three hearts to start out with, which is about 6 hits before you die again. This also encourages just moving forward, as even if you fail, there isn't much of a consequence. So, do I like this style? I do, however in any other game but Zelda, it couldn't work very well, especially FPS games. Now, Super Smash Bros. is basically taking what I've said so far, and doing something so utterly different, that it is hard to comprehend. In Super Smash Bros., the damage you take from other players increases your "Percent" which as it gets higher, just makes you fly around more when attacked. The only way to kill someone is Smash is to send them flying out of the arena, and damage just makes them easier to send flying. There is really no way to lose percent, except by dying, making any damage you take matter. So again, is this idea good? It's different. I like the way it's set up, but much like Zelda, this mechanic wouldn't work in other games. So overall, each game is different, and there is no right way to express health, but what I'd like you to take away from this is that there are so many ways to express health, that almost any way is viable and good. So think about games you love, and their health systems, because you may like the game a little less if you do. (I'm looking at you COD)

Podcast on the decline of the Republican Party.

It uploaded to Hayden's soundcloud account, please ignore his face. Anyway a podcast on the decline of the Republicans and how they can fix this. Make sure to comment!




The link I mentioned to Paul's blog. Gerrymandering.

Black Friday: Useless?

Almost everyone has heard of Black Friday, and most have heard of Cyber Monday. Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving where all of the retail stores and shops have massive sales, lowering their prices by up to 90%. Cyber Monday is similar, but instead of shops, the online stores have huge sales. Now, while some people have the same opinion on both of these, I have distinct opinions on both days. Black Friday in my opinion is an outdated, dangerous, weird, and unnecessary tradition. First of all, online shopping is more convenient, as you don't need to wait outside a store for hours beforehand, and then charge in, and have fights over certain items. It is also incredibly dangerous, as people have died and been seriously injured. Creating such a dumb, dangerous situation is bad, but the danger is not just to the customers that choose to come, but also to the employees that cannot choose to come or not, and some employees have been trampled, fought, and abused throughout Black Fridays over the years. Having people die over good deals on TVs is ridiculous. Cyber Monday is not just safer, but more convenient to the customers. I would like to see Cyber Monday become more popular, and Black Friday begin to die out, as Thanksgiving to some people is just thought as the prelude to Black Friday, and that is sad. Also, interesting fact, buying some items right before Christmas is cheaper than buying it on Black Friday. Anyway, next year, think of this when you are buying something at Macy's on Black Friday: You're part of the problem.

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!

My plan for the future of this blog

Up until now, many of my posts have been politics related. I've very much enjoyed this, but sometimes it can be hard to create factual and interesting posts about these subjects. I'd like to be able just to sit down and be able to let something just flow from my head, and have it be informed, and have the ability to express my opinion. Of course, there are many different changes I could make to do this. First, I'd like to start a "series" where I'll boot up garage band, and pick a topic, and just start talking. Also, I hope to try to get some game reviews out there, both for video games and board games. I'll review books, movies, and anything I can. The first game I'll most likely be reviewing is one I currently play. However, if it gets good feedback, I'll try doing more that I haven't played and maybe start uploading to YouTube. Anyway, comment what you think I should do, and I'll try to incorporate it. Also, comment if you blog is missing/incorrect on my blog list. I'll try to fix it as fast as possible.

Gaming for a living?

I recently read a New York Times article about how gaming could lead to a whole new world. There are many professional gaming leagues, across almost every game. Could you imagine being paid to just play your favorite game? People make can make serious amounts of money off of it, not just enough to get by. Also, gaming YouTube channels, most famously PewDiePie, makes enough money to make a good living too.

I find this to be a huge jump the eGaming, and the online area in all. The fact that now you can play games, games, that are designed to bring an entertaining experience to the player, and can make a living? That's incredible. Even if you can't make a living, starting a YouTube channel can earn you some more money, while taking a fraction of your time. If you enjoy this stuff, and want to earn a little money, playing professionally or doing YouTube isn't a bad idea.

To view the article, click here.
To view a gaming league, click here.

Professional LAN Grand Finals (Tournament) Match with 40,000 dollars riding on the series.

The government has just reopened!

The government has officially reopened!

We came to an agreement about reopening the government and it was as I expected. We passed a clean resolution without defunding, repealing, or doing anything to Obamacare. The number for jobs for september is coming out now, because of the delay of the shutdown.   The number of jobs went up 180,000, but kept the unemployment rate still at 7.3%. However, the jobs number for october will be affected by the shutdown.

There will be more news later when I have time to sit down and do some research about the stats.

And of course, take care everybody!

Going to the Supreme Court?

So my father and I have created a plan to go down in November to Washington D.C. to see the Supreme Court. We would leave after school on a Monday, fly down, and spend the night. Then Tuesday we would watch the trial, which will be about having a prayer before town meetings. A more in depth explanation of the trial will be going up after I get back. Then, we would spend the night, and then fly back on Wednesday. My dad is also writing a letter to his former law school professor, Justice Kagan. This would only be to meet her and shake her hand, but it would still be a great honor. Possibly we would also go to the Senate, but that requires tickets given out by your senator, and are impossible to get during this government shutdown. (The offices aren't open). I hope to give a long report on what happened when I get back. And of course, take care everybody!

Creepy Geocaching Day

So recently, my friend Ben and I went geocaching in Burlington. For those of you who don't know, geocaching is when you take a GPS and hunt down small "caches" in the outdoors (Or indoors). You receive coordinates from the caches that people post, go to its location, and start hunting for the cache. Anyway, after we found the last of our 8 caches, we started to head back. All of the sudden, the walkie-talkies, which we had in case we were separated from his dad, starting to make noise. Although the connection was terrible, we could here that it was a young boy. We couldn't quite here what he was saying, but sometimes it sounded like "Help me!" or "Daddy, are you there?" Ben was freaking out, and was going to call the police, but his dad convinced him that it was nothing. I really couldn't go either way. As much as I knew it was nothing, and wasn't a big deal, it sounded creepy. The mystery was never solved, and we still don't know what happened. My bet is that it was nothing, but you never know...

Joint podcast with Teddy coming up!

So Teddy, Louis and I are going to be recording a non-scripted, of the top of out heads podcast while we go to the Head of the Charles. We'll be talking about anything that comes to our minds, even if it doesn't have to do with the race. Click here to visit Ted's blog and view his. But it will be going up on both blogs. Any thoughts on things you want us to talk about, please leave it on one of ours blogs! And of course, take care, everybody!