It's almost here. It carries a surreal sensation - something I've never quite felt before. I can't wait for it to come, but I want these next few weeks to last forever (except for waking up at 7:30 AM, I could do with a more manageable sleep schedule). It's a train, huffing towards the foreboding horizon, ready to indiscriminately trample anything on the tracks. As I witness my time at DSA waning away, I can let go of all the petty high school drama and the long stressful nights of doing procrastinated homework while savoring the best memories.
Joining clubs, navigating my way through DSA, and learning how to use basic Adobe software filled my freshman year. My sophomore year brought more good and bad experiences. Math was the epitome of this: struggling to sit still during lectures and then laughing and talking with new friends. I'll forever remember the shenanigans we did and how I managed to survive even the least interesting of the classes. This was the year that I really got into 3DS Max in Digital Design class, furthering my digital art skills. Junior year was weird - an entire year online on zoom - but I grew nevertheless. I forced myself to adapt to a new environment and began learning how to code in C#. This year. Senior year. I've learned so much this year - not only academically and in AGAD through honing my 3D modeling and coding skills, but also personally. I've done so much this year that's helped me to grow as a person. I've learned so much not related to school and I feel much more prepared to be an adult now than I did at the beginning of the school year. I've grown in maturity, honesty, and patience this year, and I think I just might finally be prepared to go out into college and eventually into the real world. Attending DSA the past few years has been boring, exciting, stressful, but right now, it's mostly bittersweet. I'm leaving this school that's shaped me academically and personally, and although I won't ever be back as a student, I'll forever remember the amazing people and great memories from DSA. Graduation is only a few weeks away - and I think I'm finally ready for it.
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As it turns, I hear an unquestionably painful squeak. I can sense the mechanism grinding against its prison. The screams of the screws, locked in a fight to the death with the wooden body, are easily audible. The cold metal glares at my hand as I touch it. I can feel it yelling at me.
And then it's gone. The portal has been opened. There has been a ceasefire established. The violence which plagued the last paragraph - which conceived such drama and emotion - has been defeated. Who is the savior of this battlefield? Who is this traveler, who dares to end the combat? It is I - the same who dared to start it. I turn to leave this dimension which I have just entered, preparing to manufacture another assault. I grip the brass like a knife, pulling it clockwise by its neck. Sympathy is not an option. I must force the metal to continue its jihad, pushing against the wood. Suddenly, in a matter of seconds, there is total defeat. The portal has been opened once more. The cool brass, my puppet, is victorious. I glance at my hand. The perpetrator. The commander-in-chief. I have done this. I have been the true aggressor. Bounding down the hallway, I am quick to forget the crimes I have committed. I feel the soft beige carpet fall to my toes like a fortress besieged by the best veteran troops the world could muster. Every step is an attack; every movement of my foot an act of violence. The fluffy carpet resents me, despises me, and wishes my fate would come and carry me away. It begs me for release from its reality, pleading and crying. Yet there is no remorse. I march on, a beacon of imperialism, indiscriminately encroaching on the ground beneath me. I peer around the hallway. There is another portal ahead. I prepare for war once again. I reach out for the brass, which curses me and hisses at me. It does not want to be manipulated - an infuriated child that never desired war. Then, my arm swiftly retracts - by my own free will! I have given up my violence. The incursions are over! I forgive the carpet and the door and its knob and I realize that it's this excruciating pain that we give the world. As our doorknobs bend to our every whim, so does our globe. We are the rulers of this realm. The entire planet is powerless against us. We are free to continue our conquests of this world. What are the consequences? Which sanctions will a lake throw at us for polluting it? How many protests will be angrily and passionately targeted towards us by the forests for murdering their brethren? We are the only ones who can stop ourselves. Will I be alone in my venture to prevent ultimate destruction? Will you join me? Do you want to prevent the world from burning? Summary
The thylacine was a carnivorous marsupial in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea that thrived for hundreds of years. That is, until it went extinct last century (probably, there's a decent chance small populations still exist, but for the sake of this metaphor, let's ignore that). 3DS Max might be the next thylacine: a unique, interesting thing wiped out by humans. However, 3DS Max won't be incidentally hunted to extinction. It will be destroyed intentionally.
Why would Autodesk want to discontinue 3DS Max? There are actually some good reasons. Autodesk is the parent company of Maya, another 3D modeling program that I've used. Unlike its sister software, though, Maya can run on operating systems other than Windows. This makes it possible for Mac and Linux users to run it without building a virtual machine or switching operating systems. 3DS Max simply can't gain a wider demographic due to its limited availability for different types of computers. Additionally, the age of the program makes it harder to update than Maya, which has a staff that knows the software better. Lastly, it doesn't make a lot of sense for one company to have two 3D modeling programs - especially when one is more available than the other. Is there any merit to the rumors of discontinuance, though? It seems so. Autodesk has already announced that they are discontinuing the 3DS Max Asset Library. Autodesk got rid of Softimage in 2014. However, 3DS Max still has an active and large community which is full of workers who won't be willing to give up on the software they have trained and made a living on. That being said, as Maya becomes the industry standard, I wouldn't be surprised to see 3DS Max going extinct in the near future. Summary
Recently, Activision Blizzard, a prolific video game development company, has been exposed for a very toxic work environment. There were many reports that surfaced of harassment and abuse that occurred daily at Activision Blizzard. However, it's still a company and still working on games.
There's been an array of great quality, best-selling games produced by Activision Blizzard, some of which I've played. Crash Bandicoot, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush, Overwatch, and the Call of Duty series are all games made by the company. There are, of course, many future games expected to be produced by the game development studio, including a new Call of Duty game set to release this year. But how realistic is it to expect new games from Activision Blizzard, and, if so, is purchasing them morally wrong? First, let's take a look on something essentially every business has: a work environment. Whether it's bustling cubicles or a peaceful private room, the atmosphere is crucial to productivity. With heightened tensions only being added with the past year's exposure of Activision Blizzard's toxicity, it's safe to say that delays should be expected. How about the moral situation? To start off, the CEO, Bobby Kotick, who has been accused of continuing harassment, is still employed despite calls for his exit. It's clear that Activision Blizzard isn't completely committed to the safety of their employees. However, many video game companies overwork their employees in times such as crunches in order to release a game on time and not buying from Activision Blizzard would their harm their employees as well. Although occasional overworking is nowhere near as bad as daily abuse, it's important to consider that no business is perfect. That being said, I can understand the perspectives of both sides of the argument to boycott Activision Blizzard. Summary
I'd be surprised if anyone who spends a decent amount of time on the internet has never heard of the word 'gamer.' But is it just someone who likes games? Or is it something deeper?
Video games have basically taken over the world during quarantine. Twitch, a platform based on video game live streams, has seen extreme growth. In February 2020, the average viewers were 1.41 million. May 2021 averages 3.17 million people viewing a stream. As I'm typing this, over 2,800,000 people are watching a live stream on Twitch, most of which are probably watching someone else play a video game. That's more people than the entire nation of Lithuania. League of Legends, GTA, Fortnite, and Minecraft are some of the most popular games on Twitch - and in real life - right now. They've gained players during quarantine, and with that comes subcultures. Sometimes, though, these subcultures go a little too far. There have been doxxing incidents in gaming communities and "stans (super fans)" of certain creators, notably the uber-famous Minecraft YouTuber Dream, have cyberbullied and been extremely toxic on social media. However, on the other end of the spectrum, fans of Grian, a fellow Minecraft YouTuber, donated over $150,000 to SOS Africa, a South African charity, during a fundraiser livestream. Gamers don't have to be constantly watching gaming content, though. Just playing a quick game of Tetris or Temple Run fairly regularly is enough to be a gamer in my opinion. It doesn't matter whether you play Animal Crossing for 30 minutes every other day or take five hours to play Call of Duty daily. Being a gamer shouldn't come with the weight of having to cyberbully or give money to support your favorite creators. Just do what you enjoy - and try not to criticize Dream on Twitter. Summary
Bibliography “Twitch Statistics & Charts.” TwitchTracker, twitchtracker.com/statistics. We've seen computers go from massive, classroom-sized boxes to small watches in just a few decades. We've seen storage and processing power go up exponentially. We've sat by and watched as computers have evolved, led by the competition between Windows and Apple. Machines have lived and died so fast, with new phone models coming out annually and old devices becoming virtually useless in a matter of years. But what might the future hold for computers?
Firstly, we can simply look at past data. It's rational to predict that storage and processing power will increase. However, size can't keep getting smaller forever and there may be a drastic slowing of storage and power innovation sometime. We can also take a glance at new technology. Artificial intelligence will certainly be integral in computers of the future. it would also be safe to say that face and voice ID will be increased in use, especially in Apple products, as they have already used face ID technology. Windows seems to me moving towards a detachable computer - a tablet and computer in one. Elon Musk is even developing a brain chip, but I don't think that'll take off, at least not in the next few decades. As cool as these new technologies sound, there are some setbacks. With the worsening of anthropogenic climate change and a decrease in available resources, production and transportation of computer products will need to be vastly changed to keep up the current rates. I'm very worried about the resources aspect, as it's exclusive to the industry and is extremely vital to it. I want you to sit down and think. Where do you want computers to go? Why? Is that realistic? Summary
The economy is always a divisive topic, but we can all agree that monopolies and ripoffs are both detrimental to companies. However, in the video game scene, the market is abundant with them. Let's begin with ripoff games. Games that are carbon copies of existing popular ones - except much worse. If you've watched a second of YouTube, you've probably seen ads trying to get you to click on images of Among Us and Minecraft, but redirect you to a ripoff site. The Among Us games are offline and obviously fake. The countless Minecraft frauds are terrible and ugly. These are objectively bad for both the consumer, who loses sanity, and the company, which loses customers. One obvious alternative to ripoffs is monopolies. It sounds great: no one is stealing a company's ideas and taking away their customers, who are happy with the product. But that becomes irrelevant when looking at real-life examples. NBA 2K holds a death grip on basketball video games, meaning they pack in as many in-game purchases as possible and barely improve the game each year because they know that anyone who wants a basketball video game has to buy their game. Without rivals, companies can price gauge and lower quality of their games without punishment. So, what's the solution? Competition. Pro Evolution Soccer has for years been a rival to FIFA, the more mainstream soccer video game. It wasn't good enough to take away all of FIFA's audience, but encouraged EA to improve their game. Nowadays, although all annual sports video games are pretty repetitive, FIFA is a game of decent quality. Crackdowns on ripoffs and new games made to be competitive with mainstream ones are direly needed to improve games for everyone. Hopefully these things will happen soon so that we all can enjoy video games. Summary
When you think of a gamer, 'couch potato' usually comes up. Maybe you're picturing a 9 year old screaming at a television. Maybe you're imagining a famous gaming streamer saying something racist live on camera. However, a new vision of a gamer is emerging: someone focused on creating positive change in the world. Games are no longer just about having fun. Games have a massive impact on the world and the people who play them.
Gaming icons like MrBeast have helped plant of millions of trees, content creators have donated to reputable causes, and as the world has cried out, gamers have joined arms to improve the world. From Minecraft adding anti-racist splash texts to seeing my favorite gaming YouTubers spread the word about protests in India, support the Black Lives Matter Movement, and stand up in other vital moments, it's clear the positive difference gamers make to the world. But what about the negativity? What about violence? What about streamers saying racial slurs? These are legitimate problems in the gaming community, but most gamers aren't like that. It's important for platforms like Twitch to monitor and/or remove this behavior, but you can also make a difference. Be a part of positive gaming communities and don't encourage toxicity or hate. Games often put you in someone else's shoes, fostering empathy, and content creators being committed to making the world a better place while harboring wholesome communities are some of the ways that games make real change. It's up to us to choose whether we game to be toxic and violent or positive and peaceful. It's up to us to show the world that gamers are just like the rest of humanity - if not better - by doing the right thing and surfing the new wave of gaming activism. We're all stuck at home. That is, if everyone lived in the United States. Many countries have dealt with COVID-19 much more efficiently than the US. From allowing US citizens to come home without quarantining them to mass protests against lockdown, America has made some bad decisions focused around the coronavirus pandemic. Let's take a look at some stats.
Just under a third of worldwide cases are in the US, while we have merely 5% of the world's population. Russia, Spain, and Brazil are the only other countries comprising more than 5% of the world's positive cases. Additionally, the United States is the only country with over half a million cases. Well over 1,580,000 people have tested positive in the United States, with Russia being second with around 300,000 people. China, the country from which the outbreak originated, is 13th in total cases and fourth in Asia. They are 162nd in cases per 1 million but don't have many tests. China has under 5,000 current cases, compared to over a million in the US. The US is twelfth in cases per 1 million people, but 35th in tests per 1 million. The only glimpse of hope for America is that we're first in recovered cases. Let's ensure that number grows and the number of new cases shrinks by practicing social distancing and staying home. Of course, these numbers are always updating and without ample testing, we can't know for sure, but they're very worrying. The United States will have a harder and longer time recovering from the pandemic than most other countries. Summary
“Coronavirus Cases:” Worldometer, www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. 1720 was a year of plague for France. 1820 brought a terrible cholera pandemic, and 1920 hosted a massive Spanish flu outbreak. Now it's 2020, and a coronavirus epidemic in China has recently caught the news. But is it really a serious plague?
There are over 71,000 global cases, but most of them are in China. As of 7:00, there were 1,770 deaths. That makes a death percentage of about two percent. But is that actually extremely lethal? The horrid Spanish flu pandemic killed between four and ten percent of its victims. In comparison to coronavirus, it's much more deadly. The Black Death ravaged Europe and killed around a third of its population in the middle ages. The death rate was at least 33 percent, which is a lot worse than today's coronavirus. So far this year in the state of Connecticut, there have been 1,705 hospitalizations related to the flu, resulting in 40 deaths. That makes a death percentage of around two percent, but keep in mind that many more people are infected with the flu. However, the 2019-20 flu season has been exponentially more widespread than previous years. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I had a fever with flu-like symptoms. Does this mean that the flu will actually become more dangerous than coronavirus? Probably not. The flu generally kills very young unvaccinated children and very old adults. The coronavirus also does, meaning that it likely isn't an existential threat to human existence. Stay safe and healthy knowing that coronavirus isn't the new Black Death. Remember to wash your hands, don't cough into your hands, and stay home if you're sick. Summary
“Influenza Surveillance and Statistics.” CT.gov, portal.ct.gov/DPH/Epidemiology-and-Emerging-Infections/Influenza-Surveillance-and-Statistics. “Coronavirus News and Live Updates: More than 68,000 Cases Globally.” CNN, Cable News Network, 16 Feb. 2020, www.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-16-20-intl-hnk/index.html. Right now, an impeachment inquiry is going on in the United States. I've been pretty confused about what started the whole event, so I decided to research the matter. This is what I found.
President Trump has been accused of calling the president of Ukraine to get dirt on Joe Biden. An anonymous whistleblower in the White House wrote a complaint about Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian president. An imperfect phone call transcript included Donald Trump telling President Zelensky of Ukraine to tell him information on Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who worked in Ukraine during his father's term as vice president. Incidentally, just prior to the phone call, the White House rejected a move to give Ukraine millions of dollars for defense. Trump, of course, has denied the notion that his call was tied with the money, but a senior official in the administration said that the two events were related. Trump has allegedly essentially bribed Ukraine, as well as seeking help from a foreign nation to win an election. These are blatantly illegal acts, but is there any proof Trump actually committed them? That's what the impeachment inquiry is about. Many Republicans are trying to prove Trump's innocence, while most Democrats want to see his impeachment. To impeach a president, the House of Representatives must first reach a majority approving the removal. Next, two thirds of the Senate has to vote against Trump, and if they succeed, Vice President Mike Pence will take over as president. It seems unlikely for impeachment to carry out with a Republican dominated Senate without glaring proof of a crime. However, as more evidence is being unveiled, the first successful impeachment of a US president is becoming more plausible... Summary
“Trump Impeachment Inquiry: A Simple Guide.” BBC, 14 Nov. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39945744. Yes, I'm Christian. Yes, I attend church every week. Yes, I support the LGBTQ+ community. For a lot of Christians, these statements are mutually exclusive. I believe that Jesus and God calls on all of us to love and embrace our neighbors no matter what they are or believe. Last week was Holy Week for Christians, featuring Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Maundy Thursday revolves around Jesus giving his disciples a last supper and foretelling them of his death the next day. The bible scripture surrounding this important event includes chapter 13 of the book of John. Verses 34-35 read as follows: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” To me this obviously means to love everyone. LGBTQ+ people are just like the rest of us and God calls all Christians to love them. Just because I don't know what it feels like to be gay doesn't mean I should disrespect gay people. Some people rely on a bible verse to defend their homophobia. The 26th verse in the first chapter of the book of Romans. It reads: "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones." This verse is about to Gentiles worshipping gods other than the one God worshipped and believed in by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The sexual relations mentioned are purely a sexual ritual, not related to loving and caring relationships. If you're a Christian wondering if being gay is unclean and sinful, ask yourself this. When Jesus calls you to love everyone, does he call you to love only certain people?
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“BibleGateway.” BibleGateway.com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/ Human Rights Campaign. “What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?” Human Rights Campaign, www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality As a student, I can easily say that America's public schools are in a poor state. As funding drains, especially in states like North Carolina, they get worse. The main purpose of school is learning what 'they' want you to learn. Schools reward memorization of certain virtually useless material and suppressing creativity. Grades are the only thing that matters in most public schools. Bad grades means it's almost impossible to succeed in life. Tests are solely based on remembering content you're going to forget in a week or two. You have to get the right answer, not a different answer, starving your creativity. Also, most schools have Christian ties. Although I am Christian, separation of church and state is an essential American value. The pledge of allegiance, for example, which I had to recite in elementary school, mentions that we are 'one nation under God.' The Bill of Rights emphasizes religious freedom and that nobody has to believe in any gods. Forcing a habit mentioning religion onto kids's shoulders doesn't feel like religious freedom to me. It's going to be hard to change these, though. I could write a book about saying 'So help me God' when you are sweared into a political office, or the whole idea of having Christian army chaplains in the first place. It's definitely going to be a difficult journey away from religious captivity into religious freedom in the United States, but I think we can make it if we focus on the common good of my generation and the next. Perhaps this has potential to be a free country after all.
Summary
Recently, a scam surfaced about parents paying grotesque amounts of money to get their children into college. The CEO of a college admissions prep company, William Rick Singer, sold two ways for rich kids to be fraudulently admitted into college. One was hiring professionals to take the ACT and/or SAT pretending to be students. Many test administrators were bribed by Singer of the scandal to let in people who were not students. Since the ACT and SAT tests are so crucial for college, good standardized test takers could give children a free ride to university. This could've been prevented by lessening the importance of the tests for success. The other way students were illicitly being accepted into colleges was via sports coaches. Some coaches, including ones from University of Southern California and Wake Forest University, were bribed into pretending that children were athletes. Parents sent pictures of their kids participating in activities to coaches, who showed them to admission officers. Gifted athletes are much more likely to be accepted into colleges, so Singer exploited this method. To prevent this, colleges should've paid less attention to athletes and dig deeper. This scandal has, however, only shown little of the corrupt American university system. Insane tuition rates, dependence on test scores, and pure athletic admissions have taken a toll on the future of low income, low ACT/SAT scoring, not athletic students. Imagine how many more people would be living the American Dream if colleges focused less on easily misused and unfair ways to be accepted. Hopefully this scandal will bring to life the inequalities of college and how well-off wealthy people are.
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Bibliography Yan, Holly. “What We Know so Far in the College Admissions Cheating Scandal.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Mar. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/03/13/us/what-we-know-college-admissions-cheating-scandal/index.html |
AuthorHI! I'm a 12th grader and on this page, I will blog about me and what I'm going through, both in Game Design class and in life. There are a mix of required blog posts and personal reflections, which you can sort, among other things, below the disclaimer and archives. DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Archives
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