Gatsby and such

1. Why, ultimately, did Daisy choose Tom instead of Jay?
1. Daisy is absurdly concerned with keeping up appearances.  She worries about what people will think of her, and balks at the notion of running away from her husband with a suitor from "new money" (insert condescending venom).  Daisy's also concerned about 
2. Which aspects of the major characters do you admire?  Why?  (Say which character, which trait, and why you admire it.)
1. I really respect Gatsby's tenacity and willingness to do anything to gain Daisy's love.  He never gives up, even to the very end.
2. I don't really respect the characters in the book very much.  They all act kind of trashy and depressing.
3. Which aspects of the major characters do you not admire?  Why?
1. Daisy is very fickle and selfish.  Even in her youth, she would go on seven dates a day with seven different people.  She doesn't respect men and tosses them aside like garbage when she doesn't think she can get anything more.
2. Gatsby is willing to destroy an already fragile marriage by stealing Daisy away from Tom (not that Tom deserves her)
3. They're all super pretentious.
4. I am not a fan of the opulence and excess displayed in this novel.  I seriously doubt any of these characters would vote green.
4. Who is the protagonist of this novel?  Who or what is the antagonist? Explain your answers.
1. Gatsby is the protagonist of this novel.  He takes the most action, and the reader empathizes and thinks about him the most.  He is an unbelievably optimistic guy, and everyone and everything that brings him down collectively serves as the antagonist of the story.  Daisy leads Gatsby on and then abruptly drops him on the ground.  Tom yells at Gatsby and forces him to confront the reality that Daisy doesn't really love him.  Everything that brings Gatsby down and makes him realize that the world isn't perfect becomes the antagonist.  Daisy and all of those other haters are the current ceaselessly beating Gatsby down.
5. Jay Gatsby's life does not follow the arc of a typical tragic hero.  But do you as a reader sense some tragedy (of the Shakespearian variety) in his death?  In other words, is Jay Gatsby a character capable of eliciting a catharsis (Links to an external site.) in the reader? Explain why or why not.
1. Yes, Gatsby's death relieved a lot of emotional tension.  After he died, Nick felt as though he could move on and forget about the whole east-coast sordid affair.  Tom and Daisy also just want to move on after he dies.  All of the anxiety and emotional tension that collects throughout the story is suddenly relieved when he dies.
6. If this book is an argument, what is its thesis statement?  (Try to come up with two or three answers to this question, and don't settle for the simplest statements; honor the complexity of this text by trying to discover its subtleties and nuances.)
1. Fitzgerald doesn't believe that we can escape our pasts.  Everything Gatsby does is for his lost love Daisy, and Nick gets roped in with Tom and Daisy's garbage.
2. Excess and wealth can corrupt people.  It's hard to stay morally straight with so much money.
7. Francis Bacon says we should read to "weigh and consider" the ideas presented to us in novels.  In what ways does The Great Gatsby challenge your personal view of the world of 2015, your values, your assumptions?  What is your response - for now - to that challenge?
1. The Great Gatsby is a perfect example of how difficult it is to escape the past.  Our previous actions haunt us in the present and modify the opportunities that we have.  After reading this book, I will much more carefully consider how my background has contributed to where I am now.  I feel much more aware of how my actions now will change what happens to me later.
8. According to Thorstein Veblin, conspicuous consumption is not unique to the "leisure class."  He says, "No class of society, not even the most abjectly poor, forgoes all customary conspicuous consumption.  The last items of this category  of consumption are not given up except under stress of the direst necessity.  Very much of squalor and discomfort will be endured before the last trinket of the last pretense of pecuniary decency is put away."  Do you think that's true, that conspicuous consumption is inevitable no matter your wealth?  Should we try to minimize our own instances of conspicuously consuming?  Or are we wrong to assume, with Veblin, that buying things for show is inherently immoral (or at the very least, unseemly)?
1. In general, I don't think the poor participate in conspicuous consumption.  It seems rather ridiculous to presume that people on a small or fixed income would waste money on unnecessary objects when they have to pay for rent and food.  I don't think conspicuous consumption is inherently a bad thing.  There's nothing wrong with showing the world that you have a little bit of wealth.  Instead of focusing on restricting the behavior of the rich, we ought to learn to be more accepting and less judgmental.
9. In Chapter 4 of Plato's Republic, Socrates argues that both wealth and poverty are antithetical to virtue.  He states, "Wealth, I said, and poverty; the one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent."  I think Fitzgerald - based on his portrayals of Jay, Tom, Jordan, Daisy and Wilson - would agree with Socrates (though you may read it differently). Now, the lifestyle you currently live (whatever that is) probably has more to do with your parents' choices and circumstances than your own at this point in your life.  But as you consider the social and economic lifestyle you hope/expect to have as an adult, how do Socrates' and Fitzgerald's views of wealth (and poverty) inform your aspirations?
1. I hope to have enough money to be happy and comfortable.  Being rich or ridiculously wealthy is not important to me, but paying for my kids' education and the things they will need is.  All I aspire towards is contentment; I don't need excess.  Gatsby, Tom and Daisy seem like they are almost made less happy by all their money because life's pleasures begin to lose their appeal.
10. Veblin says, "As wealth accumulates, the leisure class develops further in function and structure, and there arises a differentiation within the class. There is a more or less elaborate system of rank and grades."  Readers see that even among the uber-wealthy in Gatsby's world, there exist gradations of status.  Do you know where your household ranks in comparison to other American households?  Check out this calculator.  (Links to an external site.)(You don't need to write anything for this question....just play around with the numbers and see if it's interesting.)

No Country for Old Men

I didn't ask to be born into a family with enough food.  I'm well-positioned to go to college, but it wasn't my choice to have parents that value education.  The house I ended up in could have easily been in Rwanda, Brazil or Ukraine.  My socioeconomic status is the result of a bunch of chromosomes being mashed up in just the right way.  I could've been born without feet or hands; I could have developed leukemia.  In light of all the bad situations I could've been born into, I feel particularly lucky.

This used to make me feel guilty, but then I went on a service trip to Peru.  While there, I discovered my passion for helping others.  I realized that if I invest in myself now, I can use the skills I learn in college to help the world more later on.  My conflicted conscience was appeased when I promised myself to do good in the world.

My experiences serve as a contrast to Sheriff Bell's spiritual journey.  I've reconciled myself with my position in the world as I've grown older, but Bell becomes more and more disillusioned with his ever-changing rules.

Like Chigurh, I'm a cold-blooded ladykiller.  I also like to think I share a small amount of Moss' spontaneity (I believe I would have taken the money as well).  I don't think I'm very similar to Sheriff Bell because I don't abandon my friends when they need me most.

I believe I'm an "authentic" person in that I live in the situation presented to me, but I do complain a good deal.  My battles with the tech department have left me cynical and jaded, but I still work hard to give my fellow classmates an environment where they can learn to program in spite of the challenges I face.  Rather than giving up and telling myself this school district is impossible to work with, I've accepted the bad and try my best to move forward.

Utah is a pretty conservative state.  There is an abundance of Mormonism here.   My extended family is ardently opposed to gay marriage, but I support that movement wholeheartedly.  Park City serves as a microcosm of liberal-ness in an overwhelmingly red state.  I imagine myself to be a critical thinker, so I've tried my best to formulate my own moral values based on objective logic.  That being said, I am an American and as such I'm sure I've been forced to adopt certain principles as inherently evil without thinking.  Socialism is bad and Communism is godless.

I understand that Sheriff Bell's job has changed around him, but I have a hard time relating to his situation.  I like to think I'm an adaptable person, so in his position I would hope I would be able to change with the times.

Visualizando dimensiones superiores

Dibuja una linea.  ¿Lo has hecho?  Bien.

La linea

Ahora, dibuja más lineas perpendicular a el primero.  ¿Que tienes ahora?

Un cuadrado

Ahora, dibuja más cuadrados perpendicular a el primero para tener un cubo.

El Cubo

Ahora, imagina que puedes dibujar más cubos perpendicular a el primero cubo.  Si pudieras dibujarlo, el objeto sería mirarse como un "hypercubo".

El hypercubo

No podemos hacer este objeto en realidad porque necesitamos cuatro dimensiones.  Podemos construir un sombra como el foto, pero no es perfecto.  Como el foto de cubo no es perfecto porque estamos dibujando el tercero dimension en dos dimensiones, el hypercubo es muy malo porque estamos dibujando el cuarto dimension en dos dimensiones.

Si has leido "A Wrinkle In Time", más o menos entiendes.

Radiación Cherenkov

La luz azul

No es posible para materia ir más rápido que la luz en un vacío.  Es la ley universal.

Pero, es posible para materia ir más rápido que la luz en otros medios, como agua o vidrio.  Este es posible porque la luz no mueve tan rápido en estos materiales.  En vidrio, la luz es lento porque vidrio es más denso que un vacío.  Hay más partículas que necesita evitar.

¿Que pasa cuando partículas mueven más rápido que la luz?

La respuesta es "Radiación Cherenkov".  A través de agua o vidrio luz no puede mover muy rápido, pero para las partículas no hay una problema.  Como con un estampido supersónico, una acumulación de luz forma enfrente de la partícula.

En tiempo, la acumulación esta liberado.  El estampido de luz forma y luz azul esta emitido.  Este cosa se llama Radiación Cherenkov y es responsible para el brillo de reactores nucleares submarinas.  Muy interesante, ¿no?

¿Por qué es tan difícil para aprender Español en la escuela?

Para aprender Español, necesitas trabajar mucho.  Hay muchos palabras, reglas y otras cosas que tienes que recordar si quieres hablar bien.  Puedes memorizar uno o dos palabras y frases como "adios", "como te llamas" y "me gusta", pero toma muchas horas para entender Español verdadero.

Pero, es posible.

En la escuela, todos hablan Ingles (o otro idioma que no es Español).  Si no estas usando Español para comunicarse todo del tiempo, no vas a hablar muy bien.  Para hablar rápidamente y sin acento, practica fuera de la clase.

Puedes aprender mucho de otras idiomas en la escuela, pero no es la misma como ir a otro país donde hablan diferente que tú.  En mi opinion, la única manera a aprender otras idiomas muy bien es para sumergirte en la vida y la cultura.  Soló una hora tres días de la semana no es bastante.

Por favor, practica tu Español todo el tiempo.  Entiendo que no puedes usarlo en cada situación como en México, pero hay muchas lugares que puedes hablar Español.  Si puedo hacerlo, tú puedes hacerlo.

¿Como podemos limpiar la agua?

Gracias a spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com

La agua es una cosa muy importante al mundo.  Si no tuviéramos agua limpia para beber y crecer comida, no podríamos vivir.  Cambio climático y problemas con el medio ambiente van a tomar mucha agua de nuestro suministro.  Por eso necesitamos encontrar maneras para limpiar agua y usar agua de sal.

Ahora en California hay el peor sequía en más que cien años.  En el pueblo de Porterville muchas personas han perdido sus suministros de agua.  Es una emergencia, pero si pudieran usar agua del mar (o otra cosa) no sería una problema tan malo.

Bill Gates inventar una máquina que 
convierte excrementos humanos a agua potable.  También, este máquina genera electricidad.  En lugares como México y Perú, agua limpia es difícil para encontrar.  Si trabajamos mucho, podemos poner las máquinas en muchas países pobrezas.

Yo tengo un gran respecto por personas como Sr Gates.  Todos somos humanos y solo tenemos una tierra, entonces debemos ayudar otros y cuidar al medio ambiente.  En el futuro quiero trabajar en las ciencias de agua para ayudar los pobres del mundo.

Solicitudes para la Universidad (porque los odio)

Solicitud

Yo odio trabajo extra.  Tengo mucho tarea en mis clases, y también necesito equilibrar presiones de familia, amigos y otros obligaciones.  Necesito más dinero para manejar el carro y salir con mi novia, entonces quiero un trabajo.  Totalmente, tengo mucho para hacer.

Entonces, no necesito más.  Otra vez, no necesito más.  ¿Escuchan las universidades a mi súplica?  La respuesta es un "no" rotundo.  En lugar de ayudarme y disminuir mi trabajo, ellos quieren que escriba un ensayo (o más) para todos y cada universidad.  Todos de las preguntas son un poco diferente, entonces tengo que escribir casi la misma cosa una y otra vez.  Estoy enojado y estoy aburrido.

También, muchas universidades me mandan a escribir todos de mis clases que he tomado y las notas que recibí.  No es necesario porque ellos necesitan verificar mis notas de todos modos.  Ellos van a ver mis notas y clases en mi transcripción, entonces ¿porque necesitamos poner cada clase en la solicitud?  Es demasiado trabajo sin sentido.

Websites como commonapp.org ayudan un poco, pero muchas universidades no usan el common app (MIT, UC Berkeley, Colorado School of Mines), entonces necesito escribir las mismas cosas cientos de veces.  "¿Donde vives?"  "¿Tus padres han asistido universidades?  ¿Cuáles?"  "¿Cuanto dinero ganaron tus padres?"...etc.  Es excesivo.

El gobierno debe obligar las universidades a usar el common app.  Es un buen idea, pero muchos no usan (y no entiendo porque).  Es una pérdida y es trabajo extra para estudiantes y las universidades.  Cuando estoy presidente del mundo, voy a cambiarlo.

Porque me interesa la etimología (why etymology is cool)

Un árbol idioma / A language tree

Según el Real Academia Española, etimología significa "origen de las palabras, razón de su existencia, de su significación y de su forma."

Etymology is defined as "the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history."

La etimología es muy importante para entender idiomas modernas.

To understand modern language, it is very important to understand etymology.

Etimología puede enseñarnos porque existe palabras y ortografías raros, y puede explicar la forma de las idiomas ahora.

Etymology can teach us why our language has strange words and spellings, and it can explain the form and function of modern languages.

Cacahuete feliz / Happy peanut

Por ejemplo, si quieres aprender un poco de la palabra "cacahuete", puedes buscar en el internet para entender más.  Este palabra es un poco raro porque no es similar de otros palabras en Español, entonces debes aprender sobre la historia para entender mejor.  Según Wikitionary, este palabra es de otras lenguas nativos como Tlalli y Cacahuatl.  Esto tiene sentido porque en España, no hay cacahuetes, entonces necesitamos usar una palabra de otra lengua.

For example, if we want to know the history of the word "equestrian", we can look on the internet to see what language it comes from.  According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the English word "equestrian" comes from Latin "equus" (horse).  Many English words come from Latin and other Romance/European languages.  English has many different linguistic roots, so it is helpful to understand where individual words come from to understand the language as a whole.  English borrows many words from other languages.  The English word "abalone" comes from the Spanish word "abulón".  For a list of English-Spanish loan words, look here.

Para entender las lenguas, debes usar el internet para investigar palabras interesantes.  Una buena comprensión de etimología vas a ayudarte a comprender tu idioma primera y también como hablar otras lenguas que aprendes en el futuro.

To understand languages, you should use the internet to investigate interesting words.  A good understanding of etymology will help you understand your first language as well as other languages you may learn in the future.

Noticias de tech club

¡Buena noticia a todos!  El tech club, que ha luchado para existir, está floreciendo.  Hemos recibido un donación de muchas computadoras, entonces ahora podemos trabajar en lo que queremos.  Antes de hoy, no podíamos crear nada porque no teníamos computadoras libres.

En mi escuela, los estudiantes reciben computadoras gratis del distrito.  Podemos usarlas por un poco, pero están tantos cerrados que la mayoría de las cosas que puedes hacer con computadoras, no podías hacer con estos.  No entiendo muy bien porque la escuela no quiere que las usemos para crear apps, videojuegos y web sites, pero no podemos.  He preguntado la administración porque ellos restringen las computadoras, y ellos me dijeron "No podemos abrirlas porque necesitamos asegurar el red," pero ellos pueden tener seguridad aunque los estudiantes pueden usar sus computadoras.  Es un poco loco en mi opinión.

De todos modos, ahora tech club tiene computadoras que actualmente funciona.  Vamos a aprender a programar y ganar mucho dinero con nuestros ideas :)

Si quieres aprender a usar computadoras y hacer apps, videojuegos y web sites, debes ir al tech club.  Vamos a crear un sitio para ordenar comida en un restaurante.  También, vamos a programar robots, quadcopters y aprender a medir el cerebro humano con el muse (¡de veras tenemos un muse!).

Para estar competitivo en el mundo moderno, necesitas aprender a usar computadoras y programar.  Si no aprendes, no vas a estar empleado por mucho más tiempo.  Creo que quieres un trabajo, entonces debes leer mi blog, ir a tech club y buscar en el red para aprender a programar.

Este video explique porque necesitas a aprender a usar computadoras (link):

IBM TrueNorth (y mi primero entrada de blog en Español)

Murphy, en todo su gloria

Hola mundo, me llamo Max.  Estoy aprendiendo Español en el clase de Sr Murphy.  He aprendido mucho en su clase porque él es un buen maestro.  Me gusta hablar y escribir en Español y quiero practicar mucho más, entonces voy a empezar escribiendo entradas de blog aquí en Español (y en Ingles).

Me interesan la tecnología, matemáticas y las ciencias, entonces a lo mejor voy a escribir de estos tópicos.  Sin embargo, trato a ser una persona muy equilibrada, por tanto escribo de literatura, las lenguas del mundo y arte también.

¡Tengo noticias emocionante!  IBM acaba de crear un chip de computa que simula el cerebro mamífero (como los humanos) se llama TrueNorth.  Este chip es radicalmente diferente porque funciona con neuronas artificiales.

Una neurona, de Wikipedia

En el pasado, hemos construido computadoras con "arquitectura de von Neumann".  Estos funciona con procesamiento información "en serie", o exactamente en orden uno por uno.  Pero nuestros cerebros, la mejor computadora en el universo que conocemos, funciona en paralelo.  Procesemos mucho información en el mismo tiempo, pero las computadoras que han existido solo podía interpretar una cosa en un momento.

Porque el TrueNorth puede entender muchos datos simultáneamente, el chip puede interpretar el mundo mucho mejor que computadoras ahora.  Con el TrueNorth, creo que podemos crear robots que interactuar con realidad como un animal, no una máquina.  Ahora, podemos construir robots que pueden andar, pero un perro puede correr en cualquier lugar con coordinación, una cosa que robots no (ya) puede hacer.  Con este chip, vamos a crear robots inteligentes, como "tars" en Interstellar.

Estoy animado por el futuro.  ¡Hasta la próxima!

My take on Fences

Set in the late 1950s in an poor black neighborhood, Fences is a poignant account of broken families, poverty and blackness.  A recurring theme in the play is that of boundaries (or, eponymously, fences).  The characters in the play are corralled into socioeconomic, racist and matrimonial/familial fences.  There is a sense that the characters are being 'held back' by real or perceived borders, and the act of defying these limitations and becoming something more is a powerful element of the story.

I have plenty of 'fences' in my life.  I have an intimate knowledge of how it feels to be restricted, abridged and censored.  I attend a school that provides every student with an incredibly powerful computing machine, and I'm forced to use it as a glorified typewriter.  The fences put around my ability to interact with the digital world are very real and very painful to me.  I constantly feel the presence of Big Brother watching my shoulder making damn sure what I do doesn't violate the precious Acceptable Use Policy.

My preferred topics of discussion are also fenced in.  It's taboo to discuss religion and politics in most scenarios, especially in Utah.  When I talk about what I really want to talk about, I alienate and upset people.  My classmates simply don't want to discuss fractals and the implications of the singularity.  I'm so excited about new discoveries in outer space and on our own planet, but most people would prefer to discuss the weather or who's going out with who.  I'm tired of being fenced in.

My parents love to build fences around me.  They have a very narrow and specific notion of success and will accept nothing less from me.  What if I don't want to go to an Ivy league school and slave away at school, studying concepts that I'll promptly forget after I take the test?  I'd vastly prefer to go 'do my own thing'.  I wish I could spend every night programming and researching and every day skiing and socializing, but my reality is studying and pleasing my parents.  I'm getting pretty sick of it, but at least I get to move out soon.

Speaking of moving out, I'm chomping at the bit to fully experience the fabled 'coming of age' everyone's always talking about.  I recently turned 18 and I can't wait to burn my childhood fences down.  So many things I couldn't do before are available to me now.  I can open my own bank account and sign my own lease.  I already started my own company, and I'm ready to pour my heart and soul into that venture.  I can't wait to see what the world looks like beyond my fence.

The play Fences really resonated with me.  I never understood the boundaries that a young black man might face in the late 50s, but I really empathized with Cory (a protagonist in the play) and his broken relationship with his father.  As a privileged white male I'm no stranger to struggle (ha ha), but I never knew what life could be like for a poor black family in that time.  I'm glad I read Fences and feel more knowledgable and worldly for the experience.  I would highly recommend reading this play to anyone willing to listen to my recommendation.

Alright let's Shakespeare a little bit

Ok, let's do some Shakespeare.

1. Which currently famous actors and actresses would you cast in the following roles, and why?

• Cordelia - Only Sigourney Weaver has the raw and blunt honesty required to play Cordelia.  Her matter-of-fact but impassioned speeches are perfectly suited for Cordelia's contemplative monologues.
• Regan - Regan requires a creature of remote beauty.  Uma Thurman can be icy cold but appealing simultaneously, so this is a good fit.
• Edmund - Robert Pattinson has the dark, brooding appearance of a traitor.  Edmund and Pattinson would both suck you dry if given the chance.
• Albany - Albany's kind of a non-entity in this play.  He's a positive influence for Lear, but he doesn't do much of significance.  For him, we need an actor that can fade into the background in an unexciting way.  I think Steve Buscemi could fill such a role.
• The Fool - Hugh Laurie is the perfect fool.  In House, everything Hugh Laurie says has a double meaning and more significance than meets the eye, just as The Fool.

2. Which character (out of all of them) do you most admire and why?

At the risk of sounding trite, I believe The Fool is the most admirable character in the play.  He never acts in a duplicitous manner, though he is often hard to understand.  He starkly speaks and doesn't soften his words in blind deference to the king.  Like a fine wine, Lear's fool is an acquired taste.  Taken with enough thought, The Fool is arguably the most authentic character in the play.  The Fool is a refreshing break from all of the unclear motives and evilness in the play.

3. Aristotle believes a proper tragedy will evoke a catharsis in its audience.  Which scene induces catharsis?  Can you explain why?  (It will help to review the long definition of catharsis.)

King Lear is not a soothing play.  Throughout the work, terrible things happen and continue to happen.  There is no particular moment when the pressure and upset is relieved, but there is quite an epic conclusion.  The great death scene at the end where many major characters perish could be thought of as cathartic.  Though King Lear and Cordelia (the primary positive or empathetic characters) die, so does Edmund, which is moderately relieving.  I suppose the death scene could be considered cathartic, if for no other reason than some bad guys die.  It's also kind of relieving when King Lear finally dies, because at that point you know he's free of his madness.  As far as I can tell, catharsis doesn't have to be positive, just relieving.

4. When Lear and the Fool are leaving Regan's and headed into the storm, Lear is concerned about going "mad" (crazy or senile).  The storm is a symbol of the brewing madness in Lear's mind.  What aspect of aging frightens you, and what could symbolize it?

Madness is synonymous with the phrase "losing one's mind" for a reason.  More severe mental disorders manifest literally as a shattered psyche; multiple personalities existing in one consciousness.  Lear feels his will slipping away rapidly, and comes to hate and fear this process.  Lear regards the end of his life as something to be conquered and opposed, rather than a natural process to be embraced.  This internal conflict and inevitability of aging is symbolized by the large and tumultuous storm brewing outside.  Just as the atmospheric eddies are barometrically at odds, Lear is at odds with the very process of aging.

No one wants to get old.  Though there's no theoretical upper limit on the age of human cells, in practice people don't often live much past 100.  After life, there's no guarantee that anything else happens.  At all.  So, I suppose I'm most afraid of approaching death.  After all, isn't that what age is a measure of?  One's proximity to death?

Death is often symbolized.  It's a recurring theme in the human psyche, and many a famous artist has touched upon the subject.  If I were to symbolize death in its most haunting form, I would choose blackness.  Lack of sight and vision implies lack of general sensory perception, which is what I'm afraid death might be.  I want to be sure I'll 'continue', but age is certainly an obstacle. 

5. How does reflecting on King Lear (its story and/or particular characters) make you feel "uncomfortably at home"?

Shakespeare comes difficultly to me.  Languages, especially English, are contextual creatures: to fully understand them, one must understand the cultural background.  English is so fragmented and nuanced that a single word can have several meanings depending on pronunciation, spelling and emphasis.  I have very little contextual knowledge of Shakespeare's time, and many of his words appear foreign to me.  However, with an effective "translation" at my side and much effort indeed, I can comprehend The Bard's writing.  When I do bridge that language gap, the characters in King Lear come into sharp relief.

It is easy to empathize with the characters in King Lear.  The important ones are illustrated as nuanced and multidimensional.  Based on an odd formula of drama, emotion and madness, each character's motives are easily understood and sympathized with.  The characters in King Lear are just as human as you or I.  A rage terrible enough to gouge another's eyes out is comprehensible, if not actionable.  We all feel as if a storm is raging when we conflict with a process that comes from within.  We can love Lear and appreciate his folly (as pointed out by The Fool) at the same time; a process which is not easy, even with real people.

King Lear resonates in an uncomfortable way.  In the inhumanity of the characters, we see ourselves.

A lot goes into the coding process, and it can be confusing.  That's why I wrote up this guide; to help newcomers navigate the sometimes-difficult process of bringing software live.  It's open-source, so if you have any changes or suggestions you're welcome to help out!  You should really follow the link, because the version here won't be updated.

The Coding Process

1. Define your project
   • Clearly state what you wish to accomplish
   • Make sure this objective has measurable goals!
2. Explain your MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
   • This entails the core functionality of your application
   • What does your app need to do work?
   • This is the 80 in the 80-20 rule
3. Break code into small chunks
   • Make user stories - small detailed explanations of the user's point of view when interacting with your app
   • Example: The user clicks on the button in the center of the screen and an alert appears
   • User stories should be limited in scope
   • User stories are rated in difficulty to facilitate project management
   • User stories don't just have to be for the frontend! The API is a user interface too.
4. Write a design doc
   • This resembles a program in structure
   • Higher level than actual code
   • Make a comment skeleton in program files explaining what the code should do
5. Start coding!
   • This should be a minimal amount of work
   • You should have the code already spelled out in the design doc
6. Know when to stop
   • Don't go for 100% perfection - you'll never finish!
   • Once the MVP is operational, stop coding and review
7. Review
   • Make sure the app is operational
   • Check for errors, bugs, codesmells and crashes
   • If any fixes need to be made, spell them out clearly now so they don't cause problems later
8. Code some more
   • Fix any problems revealed in the review process
   • Minor improvements, bug fixes, etc. - no major changes should happen at this point
   • Go back to review when this is done, unless nothing needed changing (highly unlikely)
9. Review one more time!
   • Come on, I know you didn't look hard enough for that bug. Trust me, you'd rather find it sooner rather than later.
10. Finalize and start production
    • Bring your app live!
    • No changes should occur at this time
11. Start the maintenance process
    • You didn't review your app well enough before. I promise.
    • You'll need to make fixes and changes to your app during its lifetime.
    • Follow established criteria for the update cycle.

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Contributions

I gladly welcome updates to this manual! Please, fork and submit your changes upstream.

Tech Club Meeting September 17, 2014

Hey everybody, in case you missed the meeting on September 17th or just want to review the material we covered, here's the video.  We decided to build a breakout-style game in javascript and I covered some programming basics.  We used jsfiddle.net for our demos.  Please make accounts on github and trello if you haven't done so already!

Modern Atomic Theory (in verse)

I wrote this sophomore year.  Enjoy.
Link

Object Orientation

Here's the audio version of this blog post:

These are objects

What is an object?  In real life, a lot of things are objects.  Plants, bicycles, cars, pets, bananas, thoughts, really anything!  Even people could be considered objects (bear with me here).  The question "what is an object" raises some philosophical issues, but it is clear that objects play a large role in our daily lives.

Because objects are so pervasive in our perception of the world, we can say we experience life in an object-oriented way.  For example, take the sentence "I'm going to the store".  Here, "I" refers to the person object that is going to the store.  The store could be interpreted as a destination object, which implies that there is also an origin object.  The subject of our example may plan on driving his car object to the store, or riding a bike object.  At the store, a person can buy food objects.

This example again raises the question, What is an object?
Let's define some criteria for object-ness:

• An object must have characteristics
• Tangible characteristics:
• Color, size, weight, location
• Non-tangible characteristics:
• Emotions, personality traits, powered on, powered off
• An object must have actions
• Things that it can do or things that can be done to it
• Run, walk, eat, drive
• Power on, power off
• Paint (change color)
• Grow
• An object must be identifiable
• It must be a distinct entity
• I can have two pens of the same model, but I still have two different pens
• 

Notice how we never specified that an object must physically exist.  Our criteria for an object could include thoughts, conversations or mathematical formulas.

Because objects are so omnipresent in life and the human experience, things we create will reflect this object-oriented way of thinking.  Humans can easily think of problems in terms of objects, so we created many software tools to describe and interact with objects.  Programs that simulate icebergs melting or control aircraft scheduling patterns can be developed in an object-oriented way.

Not how it is

So, this means when we write most programs, it is easiest to write them in an object-oriented way.  This results in minimal effort on the programmer's part.  Well designed object-oriented programs read more like a description of the real world than arcane source code.









Alright, let's see some code.

class Pig:
    #definition for Pig object
    def __init__(self, weight, age, name):
        #a pig has weight (lbs), age (years) and a name
        
        #assigning parameters to pig object
        self.weight = weight
        self.age = age
        self.name = name
    
    def oink(self):
        print "Oink!"
        
    def sayHello(self):
        print "Hello, my name is " + self.name + "."

#make a new pig named Spider pig that weighs 40 lbs.
#and is 3 years old
SpiderPig = Pig(40, 3, "Spider Pig")

#make spider pig introduce himself
SpiderPig.sayHello()

#make spider pig oink
SpiderPig.oink()

Here's a link to an editable and runnable version of that example.

The programming language I used to write that example is called Python (named after Monty Python's Flying Circus).  If you want a more in-depth introduction, check out my blog posts Python Intro and Python Intro Part Deux.  I also wrote an introduction to Java, another object oriented programming language.

Argument Unpacking in Python (holy balls!)

Hey y'all, I'm here to teach you about Argument Unpacking.  Please, try to remain in your seats.

Woah that guy just got Argument Unpacking

So I had to do some screen scraping (follow that link).  Yuck, right?  Except no, I get some weird sick pleasure out of screen scraping (I volunteer to do it).

(Skip this if you know what screen scraping is)
So in short screen scraping is when you translate a hard-to-traverse website into a nice data structure like json.

Anyways, I was writing a screen scraper for the paint mixer.  I made classes for my data templates (yay go me).  At first, I thought it would be easy to just iterate through the table cells using BeautifulSoup (a very cool and excellent Python html parser).  That was not good.

for cell in cells:
   if cellNumber == 0:
    try:
     cardNumber = cell.contents[0]
    except IndexError:
     cardNumber = None
   elif cellNumber == 1:
    try:
     firstName = cell.contents[0]
    except IndexError:
     firstName = None
   elif cellNumber == 2:
    try:
     lastName = cell.contents[0]
    except IndexError:
     lastName = None
   elif cellNumber == 3:
    try:
     email = cell.contents[0]
    except IndexError:
     email = None
   elif cellNumber == 4:
    try:
     balance = cell.contents[0]
    except IndexError:
     balance = None

^^^ Holy Mother that is bad

I knew Python just had to have a better alternative to this (the word pythonic is a thing, talk about a language dating itself), so I did me some googling and came upon a glorious find: argument unpacking.

This is going to be you in a few sentences

The Astute Reader (tm):  Wow, that traversal Max was talking about seemed really array-like!  I bet there's an easier way to do that!
Me:  Gee thanks captain obvious!  You don't think I was lamenting that with every line I wrote?  I knew I was so close!
The Astute Reader (tm):  Ok, that was an obvious lead-in to Argument Unpacking.  Let's have it, then.

Ok, here it is...drumroll please.

I have a method that takes 6 parameters:

def method_with_lots_of_freaking_parameters(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3):
 print "Haha I'm not even going to use those arguments!"

And I have a list with those parameters stored just itching to be passed to that method

superswaglist = [5, 1, 3, 6, 6, 6]  #wow this is super contrived huh?

Without Argument Unpacking, this is how you'd have to call that method

method_with_lots_of_freaking_parameters(superswaglist[0], superswaglist[1], superswaglist[2], superswaglist[3], superswaglist[4], superswaglist[5])  #puke

But with this blessed tool (In the Name of Python We Pray), we simply call

method_with_lots_of_freaking_parameters(*superswaglist)  #wow such ease

I couldn't agree more

This tool condensed 56 lines of code into one for my screen scraper tool.  Be excited.

PS If you want a tutorial on screen scraping let me know in the comments!

Tech Club primer

The Beautiful

I recently started a Tech Club at my school.  It's super awesome, and you should go.  If you're interested in science, the future, academia or art, you'll have a place here!  Tech Club is a group of like-minded individuals that love to discuss the future and the possibilities modern technology provides.


You do not need to be a 'computer person' to enjoy Tech Club.  If you're interested in discussing the future and imagining things to come, you'll fit in just fine!







To get an idea of what Tech Club is all about, watch this video:



And this one:



Here are just a few projects we might work on:

• A game
• a board game (chess, monopoly, not already an app)
• Chess engine (AI)
• one ai learns lots of games
• Public forum (on canvas)
• a qa system
• Moodle...
• old version of canvas
• mobile end of lms
• Online dance ticketing system
• Better version of canvas
• Math stuff
• visualization
• numerical analysis
• Fractals
• Mandelbrot gallery
• Plasma effect (jakey likes this)
• Recreate twitter or facebook for fun
• bio printer
• quad copter stuff
• bluetooth control app
• music listening stuff
• new iteration of social media
• gps on gopro
• online db of experiences
• PowerSchool screen scraper
• stay signed in
• zupas...
• app to simulate sandwich assembly
• sell to zupas
• (quizlet)
• Booster juice ordering app
• online bus tracking system
• schedule online

If you're interested in attending, fill out the Tech Club Application.  There's zero commitment involved in signing up, in fact, we encourage drop ins!

The Catcher in the Rye (6)

The Catcher in the Rye is an exemplary book about the difficulties of growing up.  Moving on in life is never easy, and the turmoils of adolescence do nothing to ease this burden.  Everyone is glad to move on from that awkward, hormone-controlled phase of their lives.  This is what makes The Catcher in the Rye so relatable: everyone has a hard time during that part of their lives.  Though the novel refers to some specific historical constructs, this book is timeless and has a universal appeal to kids and adults alike.

Why is growing up so hard?  I think it's because of all the rapid changes everyone experiences.  Life seems to accelerate tenfold when stepping up from middle school to high school.  Everyone's growing at a rapid pace, mentally and physically.  This is emotionally taxing, to say the least.  Lots of people are pushed to the breaking point, while others rise to the challenge.  Eventually, though, most people make it through relatively unscathed.

The Catcher in the Rye offers an interesting perspective into adolescence.  Holden obviously acutely feels the drive to grow up and be an adult, much as every other person begins to crave freedom and privilege during adolescence.  Though there exist much worse teenage experiences, many people don't have nearly as hard of a time as Holden.  In either camp, people can relate to Holden.  He's so sensitive and likable, the reader can't help but root for him.  To truly understand this book, the reader must empathize with Holden.

Every teenager should read The Catcher in the Rye.  It can be used as a field guide explaining what not to do, but many positive messages can be obtained from it as well.  I can't imagine that adults can fully appreciate this book to the degree that someone going through the process of growing up can.

The Catcher in the Rye (5)

After sprinting away from Mr. Antolini's house, Holden starts to crack up a bit here.  He fears that he is about to disappear when crossing the street, so he pretends to talk to his deceased younger brother in order to...not disappear?  Anyways, after muttering to himself for a while, Holden proceeds with his emotional breakdown.  Walking through the world as if numb, Holden finds his way to his little sister Phoebe's school and decides to try to visit her.  While waiting to make contact with her, Holden feels physically ill, as if he is about to vomit.  When he finally finds his sister, he is about to collapse.  He tells Phoebe he is leaving for a long time, and shows her a suitcase he was toting around.  She begs him to let her go with him, and he refuses.  She becomes very upset and refuses to talk to her brother, again.  He pretends to give up, and walks towards the zoo, in full knowledge that his sister will follow him.
Sure enough, they arrive as a pair at the zoo, and Phoebe finally begins to warm up to Holden again.  She and Holden bond for a while, until it begins to rain.   Holden remains outside without any protection and gets soaked, but feels a sense of euphoria at seeing his little sister so happy.

After the rainstorm, the chapter ends.  A very short chapter, the last one, follows, serving as an epilogue of sorts.  Holden explains that after the zoo and the rainstorm, he got very sick and had to go to a different school.  However, he makes it abundantly clear that the reader is not to focus on these details, rather, the reader must finish the story themselves.  I like to think Holden went on to live a happy life and everything worked out for him.  What about you?

I think much of this book is about moving on from the death of a loved one.  Upon finishing the book, I was struck by the bittersweet feeling of moving on.  I think, in the end, Holden figured out how to deal with the loss of his younger brother and learned to move on.  The same numbness and bittersweet feelings are abundantly present in the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  The protagonist of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie, also lives life at a rapid pace and to the extreme, and also has a very difficult time with the death of a loved one.  Charlie and Holden are both quite young at the time of the novel, and are both very sensitive.  Both Charlie and Holden eventually learn to move on and grow in the process.

The Catcher in the Rye really resounded with me.  I've never experienced the traumatic death of a loved one, but I feel better prepared for that inevitability having read this book.  I made a deep and personal connection to Holden.