Monthly- Archives: March 2016

March 20, 2016


JONATHAN JU

 THE HOBBIT
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is truly a masterpiece. Tolkien brought in the idea of something new, which would eventually be a hit all over the world. Tolkien worked in and developed the genre we know now as fantasy. In 1937, when the book was published, it was misunderstood and was perceived as “a children’s book which has somehow gotten out of hand” (Edmund Wilson). This book exceeded my expectations, and I am glad I made the choice to read it, even though I was hesitant at the beginning.

The Hobbit is about a hobbit, which is a short, furry, and nimble creature. This hobbit’s name is Bilbo Baggins. He goes on an adventure with dwarves and a wizard named Gandalf. Dwarves are short, brave and hairy people that have an obsession about gold. Wizards are creatures that look like men, but have power over magic. On the way they encountered many troubles like giant spiders, fierce short green creatures called goblins, vicious wolves and Wood Elves to get the treasure back from a dragon called Smaug who stole it from the dwarves. They even encountered hill trolls, who are tall dumb creatures that turn into stone when exposed to sunlight.  However, Gandalf defeated the trolls. This proves to us that the quote, “the bigger is not always the better” is true. And short Bilbo has a streak of the Took clan in his blood – the hobbit Tooks have been known to be adventurous and even perhaps somewhat connected to elves.

At the beginning of the book, when the dwarves and Gandalf are at Bilbo’s hole, and he overhears his name being scorned, he gets angry because he wants to prove what being Took really means. During the end they accomplish what they were there for. The Battle of the Five Armies takes place too. The five armies are made up of both good and evil characters. At the end when one of the side wins, Bilbo retires. Frodo, Bilbo’s cousin is the main protagonist in the Lord of The Rings, the next book.        (Martin Freeman will be playing Baggins in the film of The Hobbit)

Reading the first few chapters in The Hobbit over again allowed me to understand what was happening in the book. As you read more and more, you begin to understand what is going on. The end was more exciting than the beginning because there was a lot more going on at once. However, the middle was my favorite part, since it included lots of adventure. If I had to pick what would be the most likely first fantasy book, and I did not know the answer, I would not have guessed this. Compared to other books though, this is great for readers new to fantasy. This book is really different from the others I have read, such as the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer and books by Rick Riordan. Their ideas about elves and many other creatures were probably all based off of The Hobbit and its predecessor, The Silmarillion. Tolkien was a philologist, a scholar of languages, and he specialized in lost tongues.  Tolkien got his ideas from the Voslunga Saga which is a late 13th century Icelandic legendary saga that interprets the descent of the Völsung clan. The Völsung saga is from Norse Mythology, and is in poetic form. An underworld, which is a place below the earth where other creatures dwell, was one of the settings in the books from the Rick Riordan, Artemis Fowl, and of course The Hobbit.

One of the themes in The Hobbit is that you shouldn’t judge people by one thing that they do. This was shown when the dwarves did not think that Bilbo was worthy to be in their group, just because he fainted. However, he bravely saved their lives more than once. Also, there is a good and evil theme that shows that there are only two sides, the positive and the negative. I am glad I remembered the quote “Never judge a book by its cover” when I was at the library looking at books, because the cover had green forests and mountains, and that did not show what was really inside the book. The Hobbit is a fantastic book.

March 20, 2016


JONATHAN JU

Recycling      
The man grabbed his soda and guzzled the last drops down. He playfully shot it into the recycling can like a basketball. (Did you know that an aluminum can is able to power a TV for three hours?) Luckily, he didn’t throw it into the garbage. The can landed with a hollow plunk. Flies buzzed around each day, attracted to the sweet smell. Soon, the can was crushed from all the other recyclables that were piling onto it.

One cold winter day the garbage truck rolled onto the curb.  A large shaggy man with a poorly shaved beard in a dirt-smeared greenish uniform jumped out from the back of the truck. He picked up the bin and dumped all the materials into the back. Suddenly, he pulled a large lever and there was a grinding sound at the back. Everything was immediately smashed flat. He opened the door, and the garbage men drove away into the distance. Every time they went on any speed bump, all the garbage at the back would be thrown up and down. The garbage was thrown back and forth once more when the driver made a sharp turn into the entrance of a facility and screeched to a halt. He began to back up while red lights in the back flashed repeatedly. Another man to his right gave the driver the signal that he was backed up enough, and the driver pulled down the lever, opening up the back of the truck. The man picked up a sleek black walkie-talkie and gave a brief message. Suddenly, the gate of the port opened up. Inside, there was a large container connected to a giant conveyer-belt. A lever was pulled and down came the garbage, flying down in a flurry. If you pictured it in your mind, it would look like geese in flocks suddenly seeing bread on the ground and coming down in waves. Workers each had material to sort, which included newspaper, cardboard, aluminum, steel can, glass, and plastic.

 

Garbage tumbled down a chute landing in a giant tray. The workers pushed the cans into the eddy current separator.  The eddy current separator uses eddy currents, which is the act when something that contains movable electric charges is exposed to a changing magnetic field. There are many forces created by this, propulsion, attraction, repulsive, and drag affects. The eddy current separator uses propulsion and repulsion. Repulsive forces are used to separate the metals and the non-metals. Then the eddy current separator uses propulsion by launching the metals off the belt, while the non-metals fall due to the effect of gravity. This is like when two magnets from the same pole pushed against each other; except all they do is push away from each other. The same concept is shown here, except the poles don’t make a difference.  The aluminum can face any way and be launched off the belt.

 

Next, the cans are cut into equal blocks so the machines have an easier time doing their job. Then they chemically and mechanically clean the blocks of aluminum to minimize oxidation losses. Oxidation is the act when oxygen combines with another element, particularly metal. The effect of this is a chemical reaction: if aluminum oxidizes, it might become flaky or weaker.

The orange flames danced back and forth, as blocks of aluminum rolled into the furnace. They crackled while the blocks began to degrade into mush. The crisp wavy smoke rose to the ceiling, finding its way out of the furnace. This is the next step in recycling aluminum. Temperatures inside start from 1202 degrees and can reach up to 1562 degrees Fahrenheit. Dross is a mass of solid substances in a confined amount of liquid, gas, or solid on a molten metal.  It is usually found on low-melting-point metals.

Dross actually is fairly easy to skim off. Moreover, the dissolved hydrogen is then removed, typically by chlorine and nitrogen gas. Furthermore, aluminum is the most recyclable material; it only takes 5% of its own energy to recycle it. Then they take samples of the aluminum for spectroscopic analysis.

They do this to test if they need to add more high purity aluminum, zinc, copper, manganese, silicon, and/or magnesium depending on the final product wanted. They can be formed into ingots, billets, and rolls of sheets.

In addition, aluminum is the biggest saver out of all; it saves 64,300 kilowatt hours per ton of material reclaimed. Aluminum is so efficient that 75% of aluminum cans that are in use today were created in 1988. A brand new can rolled fresh out of the line. Then, it took another long journey. One day, a man walked up to a sleek vending machine. He inserted a crumpled dollar and the machine responded with a whir. The thud of the can dropping echoed, and the man took it slowly sipped it, and threw it into the recycling bin.

March 20, 2016


ZHUO-WEI LEE

Zhuo-Wei is also working on a poetry unit, and has responded strongly to the light verse of Shel Silverstein. Light verse is defined as poetry that attempts to be humorous.  Some of the notable light verse poets are Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, Phyllis McGinley, Lewis Carroll, and the inimitable Shel Silverstein.  The below poems follow the form of specific Silverstein poems, but are Zhuo-Wei’s.

First though, let’s start with a totally original poem:

 

Friends

By Zhuo-Wei Lee

The unhappy, downed spaceship that met a

mushroom was extremely surprised to learn

how kindly and perfectly grounded their

life changing, undeniable friendship was.

 

They went anywhere all over the world,

climbing mountains and surfing big waves; they

were never more than a mile apart. Though

it may seem weird to others they did not

 

care, for they did not mind that which was not

part of their life. They enjoyed their thrills, the

near deaths, the great fun when they had each other.

The mushroom was the spaceship and vice versa.

 

Their life was the greatest, being such good

friends, but this friendship was killed from the

mushroom’s unexpected, odd death, so the

once-again unhappy spaceship went away.

 

What to do, what to do? The sad thing was

ripped from his meaning to live. It traveled

through the galaxies looking for any

good friend, but not one could be found. This

technology was the last of its kind.

 

Life was dull and lonely without a fun loving,

energetic companion, and the

life form was now ripped from his great dream life

so he decided to end his own life.

 

Shel Silverstein response poems:

 

HOT

I thought the weather here was hot,

Until I went to hell.

Now I know there it’s hot and

Here it’s always very swell.

 

The GHOST

I thought I saw the ghost of my dad

Until I saw myself

Then I knew that wasn’t my

Dad and that was my own self

 

SLOW

I thought the internet was slow

until I waited for

the mail. Now the internet

is quick compared to that bore.

 

 

WHO’S FASTER?

Depends on if the timer’s fair

Depends on what you cannot wear

Depends on if you have health care,

Depends on if you are a hare.

March 18, 2016


ALEX LIM

Handheld Games that Stupefy and Amaze

 

I would much rather play video games on a console or PC, but sometimes that’s not available to you. So what do you do? You dig your phone out of your pocket and play some mobile games! Oh what’s that? You don’t have any mobile games? Well let me help you with that! Now, from my standpoint it looks like you need some help in your mobile gaming world. In my world people look up to me, no I’m just kidding… but seriously. My friends are good at some mobile games (*cough* Madden Mobile), but they aren’t very serious about it. I play a lot of games on my phone (probably a little too much… ok fine, I use my phone like a DS), enough to know the good mobile games on the market. You need look no further for the best and the greatest mobile video games.

Geometry Dash:

Kicking off the list is Geometry Dash, in my opinion the best out of these games. This game is like Mario, but on steroids and ecstasy (whatever that makes you feel like?). From the flashing lights to the moving objects to the different levels, it is an original game, based off the idea of platformers: 2-D, jump-as-you-go games. It’s almost exactly like the Impossible Game but… more impossible than that.

Impossible:

The Impossible Game has five levels; Geometry Dash has twenty and that’s not including the user-created levels you can download in the creator mode. All the levels require lightning-fast reflexes and precision timing. With tons of “Achievements” to earn, the reward being a new icon, ship, gravity ball, UFO, dart, robot, (all change the way you play) trail, or color, to the near impossible levels people decide to make themselves, the action in the game doesn’t stop. In Geometry Dash, one’s avatar can switch immediately when traveling through various colored portals. The Ship is like Mr. Cuddles from Jetpack Joyride, except instead of pressing down to go down, you go up instead.

The Gravity Ball is basically the Gravity Suit from you guessed it, Jetpack Joyride. Only with the ball, you can’t change gravity in midair. The UFO is basically Flappy Bird, enough said… Ah yes, the Dart, my personal favorite. This is my absolute favorite because of the skill and speed you need to use it. For example, Blast Processing (the first level in Geometry Dash to incorporate the dart) is rather easy, fun and is a great intro to getting used to the dart. While using the dart you can only move diagonally, so when you need go straight, and especially if it’s in a tight area, you’re going to need to tap, and fast. Last but certainly not least we have the robot, which is the most recently added mode, played when entering a white portal. Really the only thing special about this, (other than the fact that there is a Iron Man and Halo version of it) is that you can control how high you want to jump; you can either jump really high by pressing and holding down on the screen, or you can make a little miniature jump by just tapping it. All the levels (except for the cruddy ones the 5 year-olds make) have a unique sound track that you can use straight off the game. You can download these soundtracks for your level off here. The music goes along with the level and gets you in the groove and can give you hint as to what will come next. But unless you know how to keep your cool you are guaranteed to rage and lose your mind… .

NFS NL (Need For Speed No Limits) is one of several mobile versions of the Need For Speed franchise, this one being the only one with a real story line (no cut scenes, just subtitles). It has very good graphics for a mobile game, and contains 23 licensed cars, including the ,

Lamborghini Aventador and the Mclaren 650s. Many modifications can be put on each car. It is not like NFS Hot Pursuit, where you can play as a cop, nor is it like NFS Most Wanted, where you have to get through a ladder of different racers to get to the final one. Nevertheless, it is one of EA’s finest mobile games (EA stands for Electronic Arts, they are a big game publisher), having a mixture of a lot of different types of racing games like drag racing, street racing, and crew-style racing (different groups of racers against your crew or you alone). Though, if you download this game it will take over a gigabyte of space and will eat up your time like me… and ice cream sandwiches. This game features a gas gauge (it’s not a very good feature). This essentially means that you can only race a certain amount of times before you have to refill on gas. If a race costs two tanks of gas (represented by a meter) and you have 10 tanks, you can do that race five times before you run out of gas. When you do run out of gas there are two things you can do – the first is wait… the second is that you can pay a small fee using a special type of game currency. This feature can be looked at in two different ways; the way I like to look at it is that EA is trying to get me to spend money that I don’t want to spend. This game gives you a choice: pay for gas, or wait.

The other way some people (I mean people that are actually patient) will think to themselves about this is that “Oh no, I’m out of gas. I better go do something else productive while I’m waiting for more gas”. (And I guess you can tell I’m not patient or productive and I really hate this feature.)

In fact, I really despise this feature so much, and the fact that when I’m so far into the game, it suddenly costs three gas fill ups per race really doesn’t help my condition of “playing too much” (mom). Sometimes it annoys me so much that I feel like I would rather run through a pile of sewing needles, naked. However, Need For Speed No Limits is a great game; it’s very addicting, and I really enjoyed playing it.

 

Turbo Dismount:

Turbo Dismount is the new and improved version of its original version, Stair Dismount. The main difference in the new game is you actually have a vehicle that your character sits in. This game doesn’t really have a point (other than to get a new high score and watch your character get destroyed) and you don’t actually do much in it. It’s pretty much just charging up a power meter and then letting the game do the rest of the work. However, it is definitely more fun than it sounds, because, once you start, you get to watch your character drive into chaos as they go head-on into traffic or go off sky-high jumps into the air. You can even change the obstacles in front of you, which can determine your fate. Playing this game is very simple; all you need to do is pick your vehicle, and press and release your finger on the throttle button. Essentially, with the throttle, you press and hold your finger down on it to charge your power, then your vehicle has you release the button when the meter reaches the amount of power you want. However, you will need to pay some money to get the full experience of the game – everything all together (assuming you buy the premium package) will cost you around 6 dollars but it is well worth your money. With the premium pack ($6) you can get all the vehicles, all the maps, and everything that comes out in future updates.

Fruit Ninja 

Ah, a classic from Half Brick studios, released on April 10, 2010, started off as a nice little arcade game and has evolved tremendously ever since. Now there are tons of new options like the split screen mode and lots more within the game, and the it has become much more fun and enjoyable. It was so original at its time that I can’t even compare it to other games (besides the copies that came out later on). You don’t need to make In-app purchases in order to make the game fun, and it now has a wider variety of blades and backgrounds, as well as a tournament mode with a wide selection of mini-games within it (tournament mode has been taken out of the game because the update for the 5th year anniversary is over).

CSR Racing (fyi – this is nearly impossible later in the game, without in-app purchases)

CSR Racing, for your phone, one of the best and most challenging drag racing games ever, when comparing console games to mobile games, has stunning graphics, a defined vivid story line and tons of licensed cars. It is impossible later in the game, and between the bosses you have to beat three different times (the fourth is optional), and the insane amount of money you have to spend in the game to get a new car is outrageous (unless you are willing to spends tens maybe hundreds of dollars on this game then go for it). But… if you want to play this game without buying anything, it’s possible. It would just take a really long time. Within this game there are more than 95+ licensed cars, it is relatively easy to play, it has a live multiplayer game mode, and it feels very rewarding when you get as far into the game as I did when I still played (I got to the World Tour, Tier 6).

But now you might be thinking to yourself, “hey, what’s the World Tour”? In the game there are six different stages of racers you have to clear to beat the game (look here if you want every Tier and boss in full detail,) the highest stage being Tier 6, and the lowest being Tier 1. All crews contain five racers, the four members and the crew leader.

Tier 1 crew is called the Fangz, and the leader is Papa Biz.

The Second Tier is called the Iron Samurai and the leader of this crew is Yoshiro.

Tier 3 are known as the Stallion Riders and leading this crew is Alieda.

The War Pigs are the crew in Tier 4 and is led by Carlito, but do you really need to see his photo? No.

And finally the final crew before the World Tour (Tier 6), are the Silver Skulls and their leader is Errol. While you may think in this game the fun comes from racing against different crews and it does, the real satisfaction comes from beating each crew and saying “Yes, one down, like 10 more to go…”.

After you defeat Errol, the World Tour is unlocked, and you are introduced to the Italian, European, American, and UK crews – Veloci, Armada, Rushmore, and Spitfire, respectively. Leading the Veloci crew is La Stella driving a Ferrari LaFerrari.

The Leader of the Armada crew is Pierre Yassine and he drives a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.

Shifty Jack is the leader of the Spitfire crew and he drives a McLaren P1 GTR, one of my favorite cars, like ever:

And the last crew, Rushmore, is led by Boss X (interesting name huh?), and he drives a Saleen S7. However, even after this there is still one more stage in the game and that is CSRN (CSR international) and without going into too much detail, it is a nationally broadcast show in which you race the finalists. These final racers are Zoe and her Lamborghini Veneno,  La Sapeur and the Jaguar C-X75. Ivan and his Koegnigsegg One:1 (again, one of my favorite cars), Cypher and his Mazda Furai, and finally Nitro and his Ferrari FXX K:

Clear Vision 3:

Now getting a little more on the gory side of the list is the First Person Sniper, Clear Vision 3. With a loose story behind each mission this game has the feel of a quick and fun way to burn time. There are three different snipers to choose from and an abundance of attachments to put on each one, all which look and correspond to each gun. Now stepping away from the guns, there are three different types of missions. The first type is assassinations, which consists of you sniping a person (or people) in a specific way (for example you making it look like an accident). Then there are special missions where you get to use a special attachment on your gun or have to do some kind of interrogation on someone without killing them. Finally there are a few side events you can do, like placing bets on a fighter in the fight club, as well as little side jobs you can do to earn a little extra cash without doing anything (it just takes a long time to get through the cut scene.)

Cookie Clickers:

*sigh* Are you embarrassed to play this game?

(Me thinking to myself, “why am I writing about this?”) There isn’t much to say, other than it is really, really addicting (you’ve been warned). You tap on the screen to earn cookies – the form of currency in the game. The cookies can be used to buy other things to help you earn more cookies, faster, and so on, and really the process just continues, until you get bored or stop playing. However, this is one of those games and I’m sure everyone agrees with me, that doesn’t really look fun but when you start playing it, you can’t stop. It really should only be used to let time pass by but people play this nonstop. It’s actually really sad to see how many people play this time waster.

Hey you made it to the end! I hope I took up all the Internet bandwidth in your house with these GIFs!  I hope you download some of these games for yourself (if we get 1,000,000 likes on this essay, I’ll be sure to make a part 2! lol). All the games on this list are a great way to make time go by, and a great way to make it go by faster.