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About infographic1/5/2023 My infographic is on the book Renegades. In this book, it portrays society as a place where there are good guys and bad guys, but which side is truly good? Every side, even the seemingly good ones, have a dark secret they're hiding. To represent this, I added a lot of bright patches of color and effects to represent the Renegades, or the good guys saving citizens from evil. I also added some more dark and muted colors that look a little tainted to represent the lies and deceit the Renegades have to do behind the citizens' backs. I added these colors sparingly, and are sometimes hard to spot since these are the true colors the Renegades try to hide.
The first quotation I used from the book is relevant to the conflict between Adrian and Nova since this is what Adrian's mom said to him when he was a child. This phrase is only known to him, and yet Nightmare said those exact words during the battle between her and his alter ego (The Sentinel). This gives Adrian the reason to pursue Nightmare and follow his own path of justice. The second quotation I used is to show the discovery Nova made near the end of the book about the true nature of the Renegades. From then on, she realizes she not only has to fight the Renegades, but fight everyone supporting them. The last quotation I used was to show the origin of how the Anarchists came to be. They weren't trying to kill for the sake of killing, they were trying to fight in an environment that favored suppression. Renegades is not just a book about superheroes fighting villains, it shows how society is affected by these conflicts too, and I highlighted that in my infographic.
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Little Brother second half12/23/2022 Little Brother was a bad book. It was super boring, with little to no action or drama, and was clearly directed at an audience that liked computer tech and are political. The seconds half though, was way worse than the first half. First, the book is unrealistic from the start. Overthrowing the governments number 1 force of defense is already incredibly hard to execute in a book, since there's no possible for it to be done anyways. The author thought that a few articles on some newspaper would shine a light on how bad the DHS is? It seems pretty anti-climactic, especially the first half of the book spent time showing us how powerful and ruthless the DHS was by capturing Marcus and his gang. The plot only really advanced 2/3rds into the book, where they met Barbara, while the other parts like the concert could be removed from the book entirely and it wouldn't affect the story. The ending of the story was just as bad too. While the author was trying to make the DHS a big threat, he threw away a valuable character, Darryl. He was reintroduced in the end of the book, being saved and recovering. It was supposed to be a touching and emotional moment, but I just didn't care since it Darryl had no character development whatsoever in the book. He was kind of picked up at the start of the book and plopped at the end and the author just expects us to care about him? I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone even if they like the niche the book was written for. It's just a bad premise with bad execution, better books I would recommend with this type of tone are: We All Fall Down, Renegades, and United We Stand.
Why YOU Should Read Renegades12/21/2022 Renegades is one of the best books I've read this year. With aspects of action, drama, and emotion, this book has it all. The book is about the Renegades, a prestigious organization of superheroes who protect the world from the evil Anarchists. Nova Artino, an Anarchist that goes by the name of Nightmare, wants to overthrow the Renegades from the inside. She becomes Insonmia, a Renegade that never sleeps. There she meets Adrian, a young black man who has the power to create anything he draws. Nova has a little crush on him, and over time, gets really close with him and his team. Nova is now faced with a dilemma, whether to betray the Anarchists or to kill the one she loves. This book tackles the hardships one faces with being superhero or a villain, but blurs the lines between. It shows the loss one must face during battles as well as the bravery they show while protecting the city from each other. Every battle that occurred in this book has heavy emotional weight to it as well as action. For example, the final fight of the book between Adrian and Ingrid. Adrian, thinking Nova is dead, fights with no remorse, while Nova is dealing with the ultimate betrayal of her once friend, having to even put a bullet through her chest. Who wouldn't want to read a book that comes with such depth? The cast of characters are very likable with the main 2 people, Adrian and Nova being incredibly fleshed out. As their bond becomes stronger, so will the impact of their secrets be to each other when they get revealed. The book really builds up a huge anticipation for the inevitable fight between Adrian and Nova at the end of the series. The setting of the book, Gatlon city is also an incredibly interesting place. It's a futuristic city, rebuilt by the first 2 Renegades (Adrian's dads) after the fall of the Anarchists. This gives the author a lot of creative freedom with unique inventions installed into buildings and even the superheroes. For example, Adrian's ultra strong and powerful suit of armor. Overall I would give this book an 8.5 out of 10. A great book with just as many deep and meaningful pages as action ones, but not being boring at all throughout.
Chinese Mythology Project12/1/2022 The Chinese mythology project was one of the first experiences I had of creating a presentation in high school. Here are 3 things I learned about mythology, 2 things that went well in my group, 2 struggles I had working on the project, and something I would do differently in my next project.
The things in this project I think I did well in was my picture to word balance. The slides weren't cluttered with information but they weren't just pictures either. Another thing is how organized we were. We had a research document and divided our roles well, and communicated with each other about what we learned about Chinese mythology. I learned many new things during this project. Though I was familiar with many of the myths and stories since I am Chinese, I still found very interesting information on Chinese mythology. For instance, I learned that the world was created from the remains of Pangu, and what each part of his body represented. I also learned how the Chinese explain the birth of disabled people, being that the clay humans were damaged in the pouring rain. Two of the most popular origin myths I discovered were more connected than I first realized, which the was the couple Chang'e and Hou Yi. In respect to their own stories, Hou Yi shooting down 9 suns and Chang'e going to the moon, they also shared a bittersweet marriage which really shows how intertwined the world is. Just as this story had its struggles, our group had struggles during this project too. We hard a hard time getting in touch outside of school to work on the project, since we all had vastly different schedules. Another struggle was that I procrastinated on the first few days of the project, giving us less time to complete. If I do this type of project again, I would make sure to work on it consistently everyday and finish it earlier than later. Overall, this project was a good stepping stone onto my other English assignments. Though it wasn't perfect, it was a great way to find our flaws and improve in the future. Little Brother12/1/2022 Little Brother is one of the most disappointing books I've ever read in my life. The characters are one-sided, the plot is boring, and the execution is horrible. One of the big flaws of the book is how many pages the author spends trying to explain advanced topics. For example, a good portion of the first chapter was the author trying to explain how footprint detectors work. It didn't even properly introduce the characters yet! The characters are also very one-sided since they don't get any page time and character development except Marcus, who is just an unlikable and naive character. He's too determined to stop the DHS it becomes annoying. He cares about this more than his friends, and Van and Jolus leave him early, destroying any potential character development they could've had. The only good character is Ange since she's the only one who has a personality. Other than the characters, the world building is horrible too. Instead of focusing on other aspects that make a story good, like setting and characters, they focus only on pushing Marcus's political views onto the reader and make us sympathize with him. This makes it hard to relate to any characters either since the only one who is fleshed out is the one who only talks about his political views. Overall, this book is horrible, it has the bare bones of a book that needs much more development in areas, especially characters, to be a good read.
Why Traditions are Important9/28/2022 Traditions are important to people because they represent who we are, our culture and our identity. Traditions can be fun things to do every so often, or they can be serious things that you have to follow no matter what. They are important to distinguish people of one culture from another. It gives each culture originality, and most traditions have a backstory to why people do them, which can tie into history. My family doesn't celebrate traditions, but if we did, we would follow Chinese traditions. An example of a Chinese tradition would be eating moon cakes on a certain day. This is because way back in the day, there were 10 suns in China and it was excruciatingly hot. Crops wouldn't grow, and everything was miserable. But one day, someone shot nine of them down and thus became the festival. Traditions can really shape how we live and I think that's incredibly cool.
The best TED Talk for Teenagers9/15/2022 Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | TED
Procrastination is something that we all face at some point in our lives. It can really hinder our productivity, especially in high school where you need to manage your time accordingly. It can be a struggle dealing with sometimes, and this TED Talk by Tim Urban can really help with understanding how procrastination works in a clear, and comedic way. Tim Urban does everything a good public speaker should, hand gestures, a loud voice, a slideshow, and a dash of comedy. He starts the TED Talk in a lighthearted tone, but can change his tone when things become more serious, like at the end when he talks about how procrastination can add regrets to someone’s life. This can really hit hard, especially since procrastination in the long term can change someone’s life for the worse. Tim Urban also explains procrastination in a simple way, using a logical stick figure, a hyper monkey, and a panic monster to illustrate how it works. Tim knows that having a TED Talk about procrastination would be a very boring presentation, so he added a comedic factor to it. He took the struggles he had with procrastination and added comedy to it, as well as giving the viewer a better understanding of the topic. This video would be perfect for Grade 9s as it’s not boring, there’s no fluff, and Tim keeps it as lighthearted as possible. It’s also the most viewed TED Talk on the Youtube channel! These are the reasons why I think Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator is the best TED Talk ever. AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
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