Letter to the Whitehouse

Dear Mr. President:

We would like to acknowledge the great effort you have taken on international relations and domestic issues. We thought we would collectively voice our opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. You may wish to consider this combination of solutions- they may be flawed, they may have issues, but we find that they are, at current, with a little fine-tuning, our best option.

The first issue we would like to address is the Palestinian refugees. We understand that a large Jewish population in Israel were acknowledged as refugees. While this may justify previous actions of immigration, we have to look beyond that. The current problem is that the Palestinian refugees in various places, such as Jordan and Lebanon- the fact that refugees do not get citizenship in those countries, has caused many problems that have been detrimental to a peace solution. We believe that the best course of action would be to give them a citizenship to the country they have been immigrated too. This would provide better education and healthcare for the refugees. This would not only detain the “weapon” of empathy that Israelis have claimed that the Palestinians were using but it would also calm the protest against israel of those claiming it was against human rights.

This problem leads to the issue of housing settlements- who gets them? They are, according to the international law (Geneva Convention IV, Article 49, Paragraph 6), illegal. To allow them to stay under Israeli influence and law would result in severe legal complications, and takes a large chunk of the land promised to Palestine. But forcing Israelis to leave their settlements will be highly disruptive- thousands of dollars will be taken from their rightful owners, a steep rise in homelessness and poverty in Israel will occur, and the entire process will result in thousands of protests and terrorist attacks. So we believe that it would be more logical to give Israelis in housing settlements a choice- leave their homes and return to Israel, or remain under the influence of Palestinian law. Laws concerning Israelis in Palestine will be negotiated publicly, not established by Palestine, as they may become draconian if Palestine attempts to dislodge Israelis from the land.

Security has also been a very controversial problem. Checkpoints walls, surgical bombings and strikes are all very problematic- Israelis are too scared to remove them, in fear of terrorists. Palestine is completely disrupted because of them and execute hundreds of protests against them. So we ask Israel to do something radical: slowly replace Israel counter-terrorism systems with Palestinian ones. Inner checkpoints will be handed over to the Palestinian authorities, allowing them to relax their laws. Then we transfer checkpoints closer to Israel, until eventually the only remaining Israeli-controlled checkpoints are on the Palestine-Israel border. Israeli soldiers in Palestine will slowly pull out as they are replaced with Palestinian counter-terrorist soldiers. Air strikes will be heavily regulated by established laws, then become veto-able by Palestinian authorities, then fully outlawed. Eventually, Palestine will have a fully independent counter-terrorism force. They will be trained as a more defensive force. Acting more as a police force rather than a militaristic force. Funding for the Palestinian Internal Counter-Terrorism Group (PICT) will be the US.

An issue that regards both Israel and Palestine is the ownership of Jerusalem. While most debates on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are more about politics, peace and security, Jerusalem takes a new stance- religious beliefs. Neither Palestine nor Israel are willing to give up Jerusalem, so we cannot give Jerusalem to either. We must make it international territory- similar to the UN headquarters in New York. It will become a semi-independent nation, with logistics, law and order regulated by a single authority established, regulated, and funded by the UN. Jerusalem must not become a fully independent nation- as two neighboring countries has claims on it, it cannot simply leave their care fully. At least two thirds of the government of Jerusalem must be composed of Israeli and Palestinian representatives.

We thank you for taking the time to read through this letter. We understand that we may not see the whole picture, but we hope you are willing to take our idea into some consideration nonetheless. This was an attempt at a neutral and just view on the topic. Thank you for your attention and patience.

Sincerely,

Kimin Kim, Ethan Aoki, and Lukas Daniel-Pedersen

Grade Eight Students at Singapore American School

Drugs PSA- Spidders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW0jtIZ7iCY

You Are the Sum of Your Choices

Dear Future Me,

Don't take anything too seriously. It'll just cause you problems. I mean, nobody really cares if you think something is funny, as long as you keep it to yourself. If you don't, tread lightly. Make sure the person you're talking to has nothing to do with your joke. Slap a "Dark Humour" label on your jokes- it makes them feel less insulting. Make sure no one overhears you.

Don't be an idiot. Nothing will go catastrophically wrong if you aren't an idiot. Everything will go slightly wrong even if you aren't an idiot. But you'll spend less time picking up the pieces if you don't decide to jump into the swimming pool from the roof.

Don't believe anything they tell you about sex. Don't believe anything they tell you about religion. Question everything, but never question it out loud. People get very mad at you when you question them. You might know that shouting loudly doesn't make your argument reasonable, but it does help you win the argument. You might know that insulting your opponent doesn't make your argument reasonable, but it does help you win the argument.

Be a happy nihilist. Nothing matters, so why give? Don't do something right, do something noticeable. They both make you famous, but doing the right thing is always the most difficult of the two.

Be concerned about your exterior. Nobody really cares about what you are on the inside- if you seem like a good person, you must be a good person. Hide your inside from most people. It's more ugly than what's on your inside. Show someone your inside once in a while, or you might go insane. Make sure the person you show isn't scared away by your inside. Try to access others insides. You can't predict what someone will do if you can't see their insides.
Don't steal quotes off the internet if someone is going to read your work.  Imitate other people's work- it's probably better than yours. Don't steal work from idiots. Don't steal work from average people. Don't steal work from smart people. Steal work from bloody geniuses.
Act smart. You don't have to be smart, just act the part. If you can't make it, fake it. Pretend you're awesome. It's good for your self-image, and you might just trick someone. Exaggerate. It's more funny that way. If you're in a position where humour will get you slapped, hide. Be silent. Avoid contact. Wait until the anger has passed. It always does. Trying to cheer someone up if they're mad is suicide. Trying to cheer someone up if they're sad is very effective.

Gas, Sir, Gas!

“Gas, Sir, Gas!”

A British Male Mark V tank, identical to the one used by Mitchell during the Battle of Amiens

April 24, 1918. The forest of Bois-l'Abbe in France. Three tanks lay covered in camouflaged tarpaulin deep inside the woods. Three tanks crews of seven to eight men lay sleeping a short distance from their vehicles, completely undefended.

Tank commander F. Mitchell was woken just before dawn by an orderly shaking him violently. “Gas, sir, gas!” he whispered, before rushing off to wake the others. Mitchell grabbed his gas mask and slipped it over his head, but the foul odour kept coming. His breath came with difficulty and his eyes were swollen shut. He was stricken with panic- it was clearly  too late. His gas mask wasn’t working. He was going to die.

And then he realised he had forgotten to attach his nose-clip.

Holding hands with his Section Commander and the orderly, he stumbled through the pre-dawn light toward where his Mrk. V tank was camouflaged. Shells exploded nearby with massive bangs as a few wounded men straggled back toward camp with depressing news: Mitchell had new orders. He was being deployed directly to the trenches- support the rapidly falling infantry line at Cachy, or die trying.

The three tanks burst from the woods at full speed and began the advance toward the allied trenches in Cachy. But soon after arriving at the Allied infantry line, Mitchell saw something that would cause him a great deal of pain.

Three squat toad-like forms were advancing backed up by several waves of infantry. And all three of them, painted on in vivid relief, bore the stylized black cross of the German army.

…

A German A7V tank, the only tank ever actively used by the German Empire during the First World War.

Mitchell’s six-pounder gunners crouched near the floor as the tanks trundled back and forth across the cratered terrain. A first sighting shot burst a short distance from the enemy tank. Then a second, just to the left.

And suddenly, Mitchell’s tank was filled with a myriad of sparks, clanging metal and cracks of bullet against armour. His crew dropped to the ground, hiding from the armour-piercing bullets. The driver drove his crew straight on, running from the furious hail-storm of metal. Mitchell managed to duck into a crater just out of range, and turned his tank so his left gunner could take a shot.

Sensing an opportunity, the driver broke the first rule of tank combat: never stop moving. The breach was justified, and a 6-pounder shell slammed into the turret of the enemy tank. One shot, that was all it took.

One shot, and the enemy stopped moving.

And then, the gunner fired a second shot. And then a third. All three slammed into the enemy. Mitchell signalled to his machine-gun operator, and he poured wave after wave of bullets at the retreating figures.

The two other enemy tanks began advancing. If they both concentrated fire on Mitchell’s tank, he would be knocked out instantly. His gunner, elated at his previous victory, fired a few sighting shells. To his relief, the tanks began falling back, leaving Mitchell as the sole possessor of the field.

This position had numerous disadvantages. Being the sole possessor also made you sole target for artillery.The German cannons made savage attempts to wipe Mitchell off the map as his tank pushed onwards back to the tranches.

Before Mitchell had made his escape, another German A7V emerged near the city of Villers-Bretonneux and opened with a trio of shells. Mitchell tested his new tactics, and ordered a turn to the left, giving his left gunner another shot. The tank turned, and turned, and continued to turn until the left gunner could no longer see his opponent.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” roared Mitchell at his driver. The bewildered driver tried to turn again, but to no avail. Mitchell glanced out the window and saw one of his tank tracks doubled high in the air. The artillery had hit at last, and one of his tracks had been blown off. Mitchell decided to quit, and the engine stopped.

Gingerly, Mitchell exited the tank. Only three men exited behind him. They made their way back to the trenches, dodging several bursts of machine-gun fire on the way. Soon, the four crewmen arrived at the parapet of the Allied trenches.

Their eyes were bloodshot and they were covered in dirt and grime. The inhabitants stared up at Mitchell and his crew like they were phantoms from beyond the grave.

“Take your bayonets out of the way!” he shouted- and all three tumbled into the trenches.

Alcohol Prezi

https://prezi.com/6kzjrvgalsc8/alcohol/

History Alive Project Research

Project Details 1.     What is the topic and thesis for your project? 2.     How did you learn or become interested in your topic? 3.     How did you research your topic? 4.     Why did you select this category? Exhibit? Performance? Documentary? 5.     How does your topic fit our unit theme (Civil War to Civil Rights: Protest & Perseverance)	Albert Einstein proves that minorities are capable of achieving greatness despite powerful oppression. On the topics list! Using the google search function. iMovie made Documentary. Perseverance, minorities.
Logistics of the Project: 1.     Where will notes/work be stored? 2.     How will resources used be tracked and separated into primary and secondary sources? 3.     How will time in class and outside of class be best utilized?	Step Two document. During research, I sort them into primary and secondary sources. It’s rather easy- anything that looks official is probably primary. If it only looks half official, look it up. Organized into small brackets- we make the script on monday-wednesday, we find images on thursday-friday, and iMovie on the weekend!

Humanity- the Conquerors of the Universe

When humanity comes to a new place, it's generally not very nice.

Today, mammoth kills caveman in self-defence. Tomorrow, human comes back with flint weapon and kills mammoth. Next day, human comes back with cannon and kills mammoth's family. Soon enough, the human comes by, enslaves the mammoth populations and places them in the animal equivalent of a labour camp. Now, the mammoth's only job is to serve humanity until death, whereupon it is eaten. Notably, by humanity.

That's what science has done.

If we didn't have the technology to kill the mammoth, we couldn't eat it. If we didn't have the technology to capture the mammoth, we couldn't enslave it. If we didn't have the technology to obtain milk from the mammoth, we couldn't use it. We are one of the few animals in nature that develops technology not only at a prodigious rate but also almost exclusively for the purpose of personal gain at all costs. Honestly, everything we do is out of greed- such as building mammoth farms. Farms make food. Food can be used to sell. Money can be used for one's own enjoyment. Food can also be used to eat for one's own survival. And you may claim that food can also be used to give to others- but why do humans give things to others? Only because the human brain is wired to enjoy charity. Giving to others makes you happy. Seeing other people happy makes you happy. Giving to others is exclusively for your own enjoyment. Think about that next time you sign up for volunteer work, you selfish human.

And therefore, all the new technology we develop- computers, cars, even Hadron colliders, they're all for personal happiness. And technology develops quickly- a half year old phone is already considered outdated. So, progress! But in reality, nothing we do is considered "noble" or "good". It's all greed. We have progress, but is the world better? Ask the mammoth. If his opinion isn't censored by humanity, he'll tell you no. No conquered man, no enslaved population will ever tell you life is good. But if you ask the conquerors...

Life's good for humanity. As opposed to, say, the rest of the world. And as soon as we get done with figuring out space travel, the rest of the universe. Look out, here we come!

The Five Stages of Service Learning

The Walk For Water

or,

28 KM of realistically unnecessary Pain

1. Inventory and Investigation

In all honesty, the Walk For Water was not my first choice. I had originally identified an organisation promoting the survival of coral in South-East Asia that I could join in on and help with constructing a semi-artificial environment in a small atoll that would allegedly be beneficial to the growth of a new reef. Later, when that became impossible due to its substantial distance.

Decent Games

Beholder
Fire Emblem style. Style trying to get it to work- glitches are completely game-breaking.


Kobold Valley
Farming game! And this time, a backstory that's actually told through conversations. Characters. It's a pretty advanced game.


The Dead Kid Game
Pac-man-ish horror game. Get to security guard, get to the door, then escape through the back door.

Super Spaceship Adventure
Randomised storyteller like adventure game. It never really got done, but you can go off and defeat the evil Space Whale Queen. Name your characters. Don't get them killed.


PT Duel
A Driving Game! Technically. Two players control ships. The ships try to sink each other. There are alternate skins. It's pretty cool.


Serenity Valley
Missile Command-esque game. Never really finished. You can still shoot down missiles, but there is no health system, so...


Traveller
My response to Uriel's Fedora Man adventure-style game. Based off of Firefly- go from planet to planet, trying to get a job. Please note: outer planets pay more, but they're rarely the best option.


Hammer Engine
Playing 40k on an 70s computer. You input thousand and thousands of variables, data, and stats, and the Hammer Engine runs a procedurally generated battle. Oh, but it's only one turn. Then you have to reset everything and edit the variable. Six times in a row. Crack out the supercomputer, boys, we're playing a round!


WIP- Skitarii
Top-down point-and-click shooter. Currently does not work, I'm just testing lighting effects.


Welcome to Cabbageland
Strategy Banished-style game. Build yourself a thriving city, then get everyone killed. One of my better games. Remixed a couple times by classmates.


The Adventures of Fedora Man
Top-down two-player duel game. The first appearance of "Fedora Man", the sharply clad psychic death machine.


WIP- Portal to the Dark Realms
You have a few seconds to kill as many demons as possible. The more escape, the higher your chance of being OBLITERATED.


Blue Steel
A complicated symbol based submarine game. Currently my most advanced game- has an eight page manual with friggin' pictures. PICTURES.


Regicide
A doodle jump-style platformer. The longer you stay in the hill, to more points you get. Avoid touching the Splurges.


Tank Warfare
A primarily visual game set in the First World War. Animations for fuel, control levers, ammunition, damage, and just about everything else.


S4A- Hegemony-
My first decent game. Control using the arduino. Dodge the bullets. Shoot the spaceships. Some cool dialogue screens and three alternate endings. Oh, and a backstory!


And by the way, here's a quick shoutout to a great coder that a lot of my games are inspired by:
https://scratch.mit.edu/users/RememberNovember/

Science Reflection #2

Honesty!

Our teaching of chemistry is currently dropping into a more complicated form- temperature, mathematics, and even particle physics are being integrated. Notably, we happened to be studying equation solving at around the same time we were first introduced into heat, temperature, and calorie calculations. A good amount of time is spent on common misconceptions, f.x. temperature vs. heat, dissolving vs. melting. However, more time is spent on proving concepts physically than introducing new information, which slowed progress slightly. States of matter was not exactly a total cranial detonation moment. Many of its concepts had already been introduced in previous grades.

Science goes forward as usual, however changes do occur. The problem is, the majority of these improvements are not held for long enough to be of any effect and only serve to disrupt activities. The substitute teacher was clearly necessary, and she was a competent teacher and generally knowledgeable in the subject of Chemistry, however her presence caused a change in the normal science schedule: we complete an entry task, the teacher grants a short lecture, we perform an experiment, and then fill out some worksheets. The simplicity of this plan makes learning easier, but also forces us to adapt to this particular schedule. When a substitute, who is not thoroughly fluent in this planning, takes control of our class, the schedule is broken. And then, when the schedule is reverted, things fall apart again. The repercussions were not far too large as the majority of our work with the substitute was pre-planned and low on instruction, making the substitute more of a resource than a teacher. Our current schedule could be improved, but is currently working. Perhaps a running resource point could be provided, or some kind of more tangible note-taking method could be provided, as at current many students must remember formulas or numbers from the start-of-class lecture that are often only repeated once.

Roconstruction

Causes of the Civil War

https://docs.google.com/a/sas.edu.sg/document/d/1EXOBdEZelVAMMutBvCz8Fh4-JWALJgojIVUf9RfKHAg/edit#

There was some difficulty in creating a hook- combining reasonable writing while still pushing my point got difficult very quickly. Often times, there were issues with

Fitness Card

The fitness card is currently unavailable, due to its misplacement. The results of second quarter are as follows:

Mile Time: 8 min. 9 sec.

Push-ups: 8

Sit-ups: 32

Sit 'n' Reach: 3

Balance: R: 9, L:7

RLA Persuasive Recording

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B38tFRoUNOIlUG1mN3l6MVFpQjg/view?usp=sharing

Reflections and Resolutions

1. The translation of one grade to the next feels primarily like a changing of names- the rules and regulations, homework ethics, studies and perhaps even teacher's (defined by personality) seem to copy along a line from grade to grade, semester to semester. This repeat of events makes is far easier to perfect from mistakes as new ones arise very rarely. The monotony of this is apparent, but it makes everything behind (thereby including the last semester) feel much akin to a practice session- a re-do, with the questions shuffled.

2. Little to nothing. Grades translate directly into each other, teachers are similar within their individual studies to all but physical appearance. Changes of any noticeable form seem only to occur between intermediate and middle school, middle school and high school, etc.

3. Managing a thousand levers at once that seem never to interacts with each other but with individually cause havoc if not watched. Every subject has its own quirks 

4.

5.

6.

Semester One Math Reflection

Math, for the first time in seven years of schooling, actually attempts to stop the problem of students learning something once, and forgetting is immediately after the unit test. But then again, that doesn't inherently mean success. Yeah, I'm not too good at review, and easily forget things if not reiterated several times. Although I master skills quickly, I lose them quickly as well. I'm not too capable at requesting assistance either, and I rarely attend help sessions due to at the time the sessions are laid out, I already understand the topic. I do possess fellow students to question, but they themselves do not exactly have oodles of time. I can try, however. One of my major liabilities is my trouble with operations, which is problematic for units such as factoring or properties of exponents, where the main skill is primarily operational. Most other units I understand reasonably well, except my requiring a refresher on inverse relationships (which was a minor unit anyway). All in all, the units have been reasonably successful, but just requiring some extra help.

This organizer defines all the different forms of equations

Map Goals: It's pretty clear that I need to get better at basic computation skills. Particularly the most simple and obvious calculations of six times two can cause a fatal mistake at a crucial time which can be catastrophic for several questions. I may also require work on geometry, but not nearly as much.

Presedential Campaign Speech

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/#folders/0B38tFRoUNOIlY3h1eGstdk4wSXM/0B38tFRoUNOIlbkF6c0xMd0Vqc00/0B38tFRoUNOIlX3J4WklPbzVpazQ

Tech Ed Blog Final

This isn't much of an ending!

The box is unpainted, the wires are unperfected, the edges are unsanded, the code is uncompressed, and the lag is bloody murder! It's an achievement you can still call it a game when it has an FPS of three! But odds are, while we did make a Gantt Chart, and checked up on progress every now and then, I think we began to falter in progress because of an... absence of planning, to put it nicely. The game was begun with the sole message, "We need to make a game, and it will be a 2d platformer, and it will involve Nyan Cat". Really not a good place to start. Remember kids, always plan for stuff! Even the stuff you don't plan for! Like when we figured out that our configuration of gravity wasn't usable with platforms. Plan for that too. It's difficult, though, but things go very wrong otherwise.

Things that annoy, vex, make angry, make cross, anger, exasperate, bother, irk, gall, pique, put out, displease, get/put someone's back up, antagonize, get on someone's nerves, rub up the wrong way, try someone's patience, ruffle, ruffle someone's feathers, make someone's hackles rise, raise someone's hackles; enrage, infuriate, madden, incense, make someone's blood boil, drive to distraction, goad, provoke; informal aggravate, peeve, hassle, miff, rile, nettle, needle, get, get to, bug, hack off, get under someone's skin, get in someone's hair, get up someone's nose, put someone's nose out of joint, get someone's goat, give someone the hump, rattle someone's cage, get someone's dander up, drive mad/crazy, drive round the bend/twist, drive up the wall, drive bananas, make someone see red; Brit. informal wind up, nark, get across, get on someone's wick; N. Amer. informal tee off, tick off, burn up, rankle, ride, gravel; Brare exacerbate, hump, rasp. ANTONYMS pacify.

Bubble-Wrap
     Apparently it's "too noisy" to pop. So I just have sit around and stare at it allll day. And believe me, i have a shortage of self-control, so this is really difficult

Grammar
     I do not deny that I am a horrible, horrible, horrible grammar Nazi. I, as a word, should be capital. There is a difference between there, their, and they're. You had eight years of education, where they've been drilling into you EXACTLY how to spell definitely, or beautiful, and you STILL fail to spell it right. Guys! It's not so hard!

Imperfection
     Painful if you have OCD. Put the darn stuff back in the right cupboard! Make sure everything is the right way up! turn off your stuff before dumping it into a big pile!

Cliche'd Ideas
     Policy one: If the idea isn't original, it's not a bloody idea at all. Don't bore me with copies of popular stuff. The original is always better. Like in our poetry unit, almost 50% of the class did "descriptive" poem that, let's be honest, meant nothing. Yeah, that's a good metaphor for snow, yeah, that's a pretty picture of a tree... but on poem number fourteen, they all start sounding the same. Not one of the poems that got into the finals was entirely cliche'd description of love or money or loneliness.

Getting stuck with incompetent classmates
     Contrary to popular belief, students work much better with friends. Even problem students. If problem students are with their friends, at least they won't bring down another group of hard-working students. And don't give me the ol' "In real life, sometimes you have to work with people you don't like". In real life, incompetents get fired. It happens all the time! Every single time you pick partners, stuff goes wrong! We pick our friends specifically for the purpose of working well together, and now you're trying to rip that apart. I remember this has happened in my 7th grade final science presentation, my entire 6th grade poetry unit, in my 7th grade Social Studies "Systems of Government" skit. All because you think we can't pick proper teams.

Spanish Semester One Reflection

Many teachers have different philosophies and approaches to stuffing as much stuff into a child's mind as possible. However, one of the prevailing ideas is that if a kid can't use a concept creatively, they can't use it at all.

Our first major unit (excluding the politics of Puerto Rico and the basics of geographic features) happened to be the topic of "deportes" (not deportees) meaning sports- and our final test was probably the most hilariously insane project ever to be designed. In the words of our "instructor", "Design me a sport. Then make a presentation on its rules, regulations, and resources needed". What was insane about this was not the instructions, it was who she gave it to- three impossibly immature and possibly insane eighth graders. For example:

"Objects needed for playing: 1 puck, one court, water, 4 narwhals and 8 unicorns."
It didn't say we had to be realistic, right?
Ah well. It was definitely an improvement over many of the more boring projects we have done. I prefer the ability to actually talk to an audience over to a computer, and the ability to be creative with what we create. This was one of the only school projects which my group actually put in considerable effort, creating a map of made-up countries in which the sport was popular and even drawing up imaginary famous teams of the sport. A model learning lesson, indeed. The last straw in the hat for our first unit, ingraining the concept of sports in Spain permanently (until, of course, the final exam whereupon we all forgot everything).

The presentation is linked here.