Mars One

The Mars One project has many Astronaut requirements, some of which I think I meet, and others which I do not.

1. Resiliency

In terms of the Resiliency, I think I meet these requirements very well. My thought processing is very persistent, and always thinking ahead and outcomes of different events. I will persevere through anything, and will do my very best to be productive at a constant rate. And when a situation is at its worst, I always think the best I can to make the situation much better. And I will be able to trust anyone who will be there with me, will have the same skill set, if not better than me, so I have no reason to not trust them. I feel as if I can't be taken down into a lower, more unproductive mindset, which is really good, and always keep my positivity, so I can always help my team progress.
 
     2. Adaptability

I know for a fact, that my adaptability is the best it can currently be. Playing a game called Super Smash bros, you always have to adapt to different situation, and styles of play. Which can be applicable in very, very many different real life situations which require adaptability.

    3. Curiosity

I am a very curious person. I always wan to know more, if there is something I don't yet understand, I will make time to learn what it is I don't understand, and I will learn to understand it.

    4. Ability to Trust

I know I can trust my own skills, I am very confident in what I know I can and cannot do. After all, I would be up there for a reason. And I think I will be able to trust the others, because if they were able to be up there with me, that means we should be capable of a mutual trust relationship.

   5. Creativity/Resourcefulness

This is where I believe some of my issues occur. I am flexible with solving issues, but I am not the very best at approaching how to solve an issue. If somebody else kind of starts me down a line, then I will follow it until the end, but starting without help is my issue. I do have e very good sense of humour, but I think that sometimes my positive nature will kind of over ride my sense of when the time is appropriate or not, and I will make jokes or something at an inappropriate time.

Medical and Physical Requirements

This category right here, is why I would not be legible for this. Everything is fine, and meets the requirements, except for my sight. My right eye is 20/20, but my left eye is a lazy eye, so it is basically 20/200, and cannot be corrected. Basically, for my left eye, if you can read something perfectly at 200 feet, I can read that same thing, but from only 20 feet away.

I meet the requirements for country of origin and language spoken, but that is a given, seems how I do speak english, and english is one of the most spoken languages in the world.

We're Back!

I would recast all the dinosaurs From Jurassic Park as animated dinosaurs from movies like "We're Back! A Dinosaur Story" and "The Land Before Time" because I think it would be much better. I think with the removed realism, it would be more kid friendly, thus lowering the rating making it easier for all audiences to watch. 

Here you can see the iconic screen from the First Jurassic Park movie, but much better. It now includes Rex instead of the T-Rex that was originally there. I think this would be a much better version of the movies we all love and cherish. 

Historical Person Poster

SHIGERU MIYAMOTO

Careers

The two Careers I want to do most, is Computer Software Engineering, and Computer Hardware Engineering. The education needed for either of these isn't too much.  At least for software engineering. For Software Engineering, you only need a bachelor's in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, but some companies may prefer you have a masters. For Hardware engineering, it is a little bit different. For entry level, you need a bachelor's in Computer Science, or Hardware engineering. You need  a Master's for Advancement, and a Doctoral for Research positions, be it Ph.D or Eng.D (I think I would strive for Eng.D).

Schools that Offer these Programs.

1. BCIT 
2. UBC
3. UFV
4. UVic
5. SFU
6. CAPU
7. UAlberta
8. UToronto
9. U California
10. MIT

There is a difference between a Job and a Career. A job is generally short term, only used to get money, ultimately helping you get a career. A Career is a long term pursuit of a lifelong ambition. Usually whatever you have a passion for will become your career, whether or not it pays more than a job. The two most likely candidates that I want to work for for either of my careers, is either Microsoft, or maybe even google. My career is very important because it will help evolve the technological infrastructures, and other technological advancements. Like finding a different way to use fuel so we can veer away from fossil fuels. There is a need in my career. The Job outlook for computer Hardware Engineering is even expected to increase by 7% in between 2012, and 2022.

The Median pay for Software Engineers is &78084 USD. While Hardware Engineering is $140250 USD. 

The First thing I would buy, is probably a way to better my education. I don't know why, but I just want my education to be the best it can be. 

Using this tool, I was able to calculate my living costs. 

If I were to work for Microsoft, I would live in Seattle, with a living cost of approximately $6023 USD a month. I could also live there if I were to work at the Google Seattle Location. And that would be enough to live there, I think. That would be more than enough money to suit my lifestyle, I think. Most of the stuff I want would be easily attainable, and have no plans of living in a humongous house, so I should be fine.

3D Printing Keychains

For my two keychains, I did the Star Wars logo, because I think it looks really cool, and also because starwars is pretty great. Here is my modeling work, I think I did a pretty good job, so I got that going for me.

For my second keychain idea, I did the Triforce from the Legend of Zelda video game series. I made it so the inside of the triangles are actually lower than the borders of the triangles. The Legend of Zelda is my all time favourite video game series.

and as much as I would like to do this one, I think the Star Wars logo would be much better, and also the star wars logo I would have to paint, I would only have to sand it a little bit.


Here you can see the final version of my keychain.

3D Printer Questions

The 6 different types of 3D printers are:

1. Stereolithography (SLA)
2. Digital Light Processing (DLP)
3. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
4. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
5. Selective Laser Melting (SLM)\
6. Electric Beam Melting (EBM)

The Maker Bot 3D printer the school has is Fused deposition modeling 3D printer. It works by laying down a certain material in layers. The material it ejects from its nozzle is most commonly  a type of metal, or a plastic filament. The type of material our 3D printer uses is just a plastic filament.

You can't have one single definitive average printing time for a desktop 3D printer. Many factors can change the speed, factors such as the resolution you are printing, what material you are using, the heat you are using, and the size of the object. even the complexity of the object you are printing can change the time it will take your printer to print your object.

A 3D printer can be used for many different things, such as:

1. Replication

2. Prototyping

3. Medical Uses

4. Printing Robotic Components

5. Recreation

In the scientific community, 3D printing has been used for many, many different applications. I think the most astounding that I know about it probably 3D printing prosthetics. Effectively making them cheaper to manufacture, and in turn, making them cheaper to buy for people in need of artificial prosthetics. It has also been used for human enhancements, like leg extensions to make you run much faster. It has also been used to print robotic pieces, and even using stem cells it has been used to 3D print human organs that can, and eventually will be used for organ transplants.

6 3D printed keychain ideas that I think would be interesting:

A Batarang

The Star Wars logo

The Captain America Shield

Triforce from The Legend of Zelda series

Agents of Shield Logo

Deadpool Logo

House Exterior

Here I have my house. I do not quite have the real life picture, as I have not been staying at my house for the past little while. But I will go back soon to take pictures so you can get an understanding of it as well. But you must believe me for the time being when I say it is very accurate, if I do say so myself. I do live there after all! But soon enough, I will have pictures.

Front, and right side.

Back, and right side. 

GJ - Day 5

On the second day, I made sure I did everything I didn't do properly on my last experience, I had everything built by the second day, I even changed landing permissions, and I was positive that I was going to succeed this time. I build a bigger windmill, and a bigger solar panel, and a bigger storage container so I didn't have to worry about power for a little while. Which actually was the right choice to make in the long run. I also learned that resources can decay when left outside, so I made a storage unit as well. 

I built another windmill, because wind started slowing down, and I needed to not run out of power through the night. I had a medbay too, which was a first, and I started getting more colonists to do more work, which was good.  I built a control panel so I can eventually get a telescope. 

I build my telescope, and an antenna so I could attract more ships to me for more colonists. It did end up working, but they consumed a lot of power through the night, which I only realized when it was too late. 

You can see quite the improvement from my last attempts at this game, even the colonists were going up.

As you can see, I started disabling certain domes, and stations because of the power they consumed, and I started running out of food. All of my colonists except for one died of starvation, which was because of my wrong doing, and making the landing permissions wrong. I could have made it so the right people would come more often, but I didn't, I made the wrong people. 

Well, this game did prove to be a very challenging game for the likes of me. And honestly, because I didn't get to were I would have liked to, so I might play it on my own time to see if I can beat it on my own. Because I would like to finish it. 

GJ - Day 4

This day, I was planning on being a little bit more conservative with my resources, and play at a faster, but smarter and more efficient manner. I am not planning on building a monolith this time, and focus more on getting colonists to do work and sustain the colony. 

This one I made a lot of progress in the second day, I had everything established, except for one mistake that otherwise I would have done really well in this world. I forgot to connect my mine to an electrical source, and forgot to change landing permissions. This caused me to not be able to get more resources to finish building everything queued up to be built. 

As you can see, after even the fourth day, I had forgotten to connect my mine. But i recycled some stuff for resources so I can get more power. And still didn't change my landing permissions, so I only got trading ships because colonist ships were turned off. And my biologists didn't seem to want to work in the biodome very much. I don't know why, they just didn't want to, which is kind of infuriating. 

After the seventh day, I learned that the reason my mine wasn't working was because I didn't have power hooked up to it. (Thanks Caleb for telling me) And so i had resources to build another power source so I wouldn't run out of power, and get power issues. But, I still had a lack of food. And because of that, some colonists started dying of starvation. most of which were workers, so I couldn't mine because my workers were dying, and I couldn't get more, because of my issues with landing permissions. I was still confused on why everything was failing. Sadly, I lost all of my colonists on this day, so I just quit on that day.  My issue here was still being careless with resources. 

GJ - Day 3

Today, I started my Planet base. My goals were to get the anti Meteor Laser and to Sustain My colony and invite more colonists. Both of Which failed miserably after the 9th Night. It Was going well until the 13th Night.

Day 2 (Night 1)

On my second Day, I had the bare essentials for the first day or so. Some energy sources and storage. And a place to eat your food and drink water. 

Day 3 (Night 2)

After the Second Night, I had a dorm room, a place to grow food, and a place to mine and a place to process raw materials.  I thought I was going at a good pace, and that I had this planet base thing in the bag. Little did I know, things can get crazy in a matter of seconds. My whole plan here was to go at it with an aggressive attitude, thinking it would be as simple as the tutorial, but that was a terrible mistake. 

After the fifth night, I had a monolith, and a telescope. Both of which were terrible mistakes to make. The monolith took a lot of metal to make, and I didn't even have anybody to operate the telescope. My colony was pretty stable until after that, I started using more power than I had and I couldn't keep up because I forgot I could have recycled the monolith for metal to make more windmills. Which is what gave me an untimely failure. 

Here you can see my final set up after my failure, and I had very little colonists to do work, and they were unable to operate the food pads, so they would have starved to death if I didn't just quit early. From this experience, I was able to tell that you must do everything right, otherwise you will pay the ultimate price, in this case, aggravation. 

GJ - Day 2 - Tutorial

Setting up a basic colony in Planet Side is relatively Easy. You start by placing the basic components.

The very basic being an Airlock, an energy source and energy container. And a biodome to grow your food. You must  connect all these biodomes that the colonists need access to, to the same oxygen array that way they get access to the Oxygen. But you also need an Oxygen generator.
You need an energy source(s) which can be a windmill and a Solar Panel. At least one of each.

The difference between the Tutorial and the Walkthrough Video, the walkthrough video, the guy was just building the things you need to build without an in-depth explanation as to why. While the tutorial, it showed you what you need to build, and gave you reasons and an explanation as to why you need to build it. Keeping it relatively simple. It seems simple enough, as long as I keep my resources in check, and don't get careless with conserving my resources, I should be fine. 

Here you can see all of the basic structures. A mine to get bioplastic and Ore. A landing pad to get trading ships and Colonist Ships. My energy sources, and an energy storage container. That way, if I have no wind or sun, then the energy in the container will be distributed. I have my biodome, my canteen so people can eat, drink, watch TV, and make their food. A dorm so My colonists can Sleep. A Health bay, so medics can heal people when they get hurt, a processing plant to process raw materials into usable materials. 

Trapout: The Commercial

Here is our commercial for Trapout ©

GJ - Day 1 - Reveal

I learned that the game called "Planet Base" is about going to a remote planet and building and establishing a stable colony to survive natural disaster and everything else the planet has to offer. The video basically showed an example of everything that can happen excluding all the disasters. I am anxious to start this project, as I hope it poses a challenge to my gaming skills 3:D

Here you can see a colonized remote planet, which is obviously based off of Mars. 

This project should pose to be a challenge to me, and I can't wait to start.

The Martian: Movie Review

THE MARSHUN IS VARY GUD

***CONTAINS SPOILERS***

   The Martian, starring Matt Damon, directed by Ridley Scott is a great Movie from Book rendition of Andy Weir's New York Times #1 Best Seller novel, written in 2015. And that has to mean something. Most book to movie films don't get the point or story off very well. But this is a very good example of an exception to that curse. The beginning to the movie isn't too long to get the point across of him being stranded, and lays the movie and its plot out very nicely, and doesn't give much room for continuity errors. Although not every part of the movie is Scientifically possible, it does prove to be interesting, ie. The Dust storm that causes the team to leave Watney behind on the desolate planet that is our sister planet Mars. When certain events that could end up in catastrophe happen, you are stuck on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next, waiting to see what Watney or the people in Houston will do next. Events including the depressurization chamber malfunction, causing the side of the HAB to be blown out, taking out many of his potato crops. 

Even with all the circumstances taken into consideration, Watney still keeps a humorous spirit to the movie. When his Potato crops start to grow, he proceeds to say "They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially colonized it. So, technically, I colonized Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong!" Or another one of my personal favourites, "I don't want to come off as arrogant, but I'm the greatest botanist on this planet."
  What makes the movie particularly good, is when you get to watch scenes that keep you wondering and foreshadowing. You always wonder what the next move is going to be, or what the next unfortunate event is going to be. You predict whether he will get off the planet or not, the entire film. Things like that are what keep me enjoying, and interested in the movie.

All in all, I think I would give The Martian (2015) a really good 8/10. 

   The humorous, yet serious nature of the film  proves to be a good mixture for a well thought out entertaining movie. Although there are some scientific issues in the movie, it didn't make it too bad. Still really enjoyable. 

***END OF SPOILERS***

My Spring Break 2016

My Spring break wasn't that eventful. I pretty much relaxed the entire time, spent about 80% of my time in my bed. Ya' know, staying up until 4am playing video games, and staying in bed until 5pm trying to bring yourself to get out of bed. That sort of thing. So that was nice, no needs to wake up for anything. But I did go to this party one night, and that was pretty cool, a lot of stuff happened. I got to watch some people do a "Bro Scrap". A "Bro Scrap" is basically a fight for fun, full contact, no hard feelings, and you are still friends at the end of it. But other than that, it was exactly how I described it. Probably gained some undesirable weight that I am going to have to work off in the coming days and replace with the more desirable weight. But my spring break was pretty calm. I didn't go on any neat adventures or car rides, just pure Zen and Relaxation. Doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to. Also taught my dog some new tricks, but that is about it. 

Satire Article

WHALE GROWS ARMS AND MOVES TO LAND

This just in, a whale seemed to get bored of living in the ocean, and moves onto land. Here we have an all exclusive image of this said whale with arms (Balaenoptera Armulus) taken by one of our photographers as it was emerging from the deep blue.

The whale appears to be red because of the setting of the sun. But the arms appear to be much like that of the Western Lowland Gorilla. It appears to move much like one too, except the fact that it drags its tail, much like a seal, as you may be able to envision from the tracks we received as a photograph from the same area. 

The middle piece you can see is a constant trail, which we believe to be the tail fins, and the ones on the side appear to be the newly grown Gorilla fists dragging the body. Scientists were baffled by thsi discovery, but emphasize that it is just evolution in the process. Here we have an artists rendering of what it might look like underwater.

It is said that it would use its arms just as a human would underwater, effectively making it a stronger swimmer, despite the lack of fins to assist in balance and speed swimming. As said before, this is said to be a stage in a naturally occurring evolutionary process. Scientists now believe that due to this evolution of the Balaenoptera Armulus, it may evolve into a subspecies of a much larger human, possibly like giants. But this is just a theory. Keep it right here, on my blog for everything on the Whale with Arms. 

I will be reviewing this Satire Article

Ben Carson Slowly Floats away from Earth

This article actually seems like it could be true because of the persuasive text used in the article. Obviously, it isn't true for a few reasons, one because, humans simply cannot float through the air as if we are made of air. Secondly, anybody who floats through the air, would not treat it as if it happens all the time. If it were to happen all the time, I am sure it would come as a surprise to anybody there. Because he would probably be trying to keep it as a secret. And people only being surprised, Mankind is such a weak species, and many people would probably be screaming, thinking he was getting abducted by aliens or something.  But like I said, the article is pretty believable because of the style used in the text. The professionalism of the article is also something to take into account when thinking about this article being true. I could easily see my 9 year old, gullible self believing this if I had read it on the right occasion. But, it is just simply impossible for a human to just float skyward with next to no resistance from gravity. 

Article Link

Caleb's Misadventures: Through Teleportation!

When reading, you read from right to left, just like a normal book. Now, without further ado, here is Caleb's, and my comic strip.

Flash Story: My Weird Dream

Zack Nordell

My Weird Dream

For my flash story, I decided I am going to write about what I believe to be one of my more screwed up dreams I had while sleeping.  Enjoy….

My dream started off with me getting dropped off into what looked like the entrance to the Abbotsford flea market. I walk in, and all of a sudden, the entire road became dirt, and there were these children jumping off of a bridge into water to the left. So, me having experience of jumping off of bridges into water, I decided to join them. So I go to them after changing into swimming gear. I ask the leader of the bunch who looked a lot like Chunk from the movie called “The Goonies”

I asked him if there is a certain area I need to jump so I don’t hurt myself. He point to the close-left corner of the small body of water and said “You need to jump there, that way you don’t land in the piles of dirty needles, razors, and thorn bushes.” And I promptly replied with “ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY?” and then another child who looked like Cole Sprouse from “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” replied with “CRAZY FUN”

Then he said, “don’t be a wimp!” And I wasn’t about to let my pride be hurt like that, so of course, I jumped. I landed in the right spot, but as I submerged under the water, I opened my eyes to see that the water was absolutely FILLED with dirty needles, razors, and some thorn bushes with some wilted roses on them. I rose up and said “You guys weren’t kidding about this whole thing being filled with needles and what not!” And then the guy that looked like Chunk said, “Well what did you expect? This is a Biohazard waste dump after all!” And then I just said “Oooooh!” (I have no clue why I didn’t get mad like I did the first time they told me about the needles” Then I asked how to get out, then he just pointed to the other end, and said “You just gotta swim through everything, man!” And so I did. The thing is, on my way out, I happened to swim through a bunch of needles and when I got out of the water, one needle was sticking out of my leg, and it looked like stimpak from the Fallout Series. I just removed it and started walking along the piping on the side of the body of water. I noticed a snake coming our way, and it had to be at least 30 feet long. But it looked like a boa constrictor so I got confused on the length, but still warned the others of the dangerous situation. They proceeded to run away and lock me in the area with the snake in it, in an attempt to keep the snake away from everybody else. The snake started coming after me, but I was able to put my parkour skills to the test and get out by climbing and jumping over various walls. I started running away and noticed the snake was hot on my trail, so I ran into the nearest structure which was the lower level of the willowbrook mall. I ran through the mall to get to my mom’s vehicle, and she told me to go back in to find my siblings. So I find 2 out of the 3 that I needed to find, and as I was looking for the third, I find this HUGE theater, and in that theater was my friend Liam, with a Sloppy Joe in one hand, and a Polish Dog in the other with his mouth full of food. He swallowed his food and said to me “You want a Sloppy Joe or a Polish Dog?” And I thought to myself “Well I do have to look for my brother Hunter, but I do like Sloppy Joes more than Hunter…” Then I decided to stay and eat a Sloppy Joe. Me and Liam decided to play some Super Smash Brothers for the Wii U as we ate,  and I asked him why he is the only one in the Theater. He replied with “Because my Dad owns the Mall and we live in it.” And I turn around to see his dad in the projector room searching up a movie to watch. And his dad looks like this guy named Dan Avidan.

And then I see his dog which is just a 90lb Beagle with heart problems. And I start to leave because I don’t want my mom to get worried, but as I leave, these goth looking people come in with the snake following them. I run back and sit in the theater beside Liam to see if they won’t notice me, but they sit down right behind us. They start to talk to me and try to convince me the snake is actually really friendly, and just wants somebody to give him a high five. But people keep running away from fear the snake will kill them because the snake can’t tell them otherwise because snakes can’t talk. The snake then nods as if to agree with him. So I reach out to give the snake a high five, and he gave me a high five. Then All of a sudden, hundreds of people came into the room congratulating me for high fiving the snake, and we all played Super Smash Bros for the Wii U for hours on end.

The, End. I hoped you had a laugh or two.

Final Destination: HOME!

We finally arrive home. I honestly would go home, gorge myself in food, then sleep for like, 15 hours from that car trip and exhausting trip. The next day I would visit my family and friends to show them pictures and stories of the trip then I don't know what I would do after that, haha. Probably just get back to my normal life. 

A full detailed document of my trip, including budget, times and distances can be found here.

The Trip Document

12th Stop, Sleep Stop: Deer Lodge, Montana, USA

As per usual, the sleep stops aren't too interesting. We go there and sleep. We are only stopping here to sleep because after this, the olast part of the trip is the trip back home. It will be kind of longer than our other trips, so we should sleep to prepare for it so we can make it without crashing due to exhaustion,

11th Stop: Minneapolis, MN, USA

In Minneapolis, we are only really stopping here because we can stop here to sleep and eat and get accomodation. But that doesn't mean we can't sight see a little bit. In Minneapolis, It has relatively nice looking infrastructure that would be interesting to look at, but nonetheless, we would still enjoy ourselves. 

Then as usual, sleep for 8 hours to prepare ourselves for the upcoming road trip home.

10th Stop: Times Square, Manhattan, USA

Finally, we arrive in Times Square. Our last destination before we head home. Here we will eat food, and go on a little tour around. 

I don't know of any full tourism spots, but that just means we will just have to cross that bridge when we get to it. I am sure it can't be that hard to find a place in there to look at, all i really want is a place to get a good look at the city skyline at dusk. THen sleep for 8 hours in a hotel most likely because we probably won't be able to find a spot for our motorhome. 

9th Stop, Sleep Stop: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Getting closer to Times Square in Manhattan, we arrive in New Orleans. But only for a sleep stop. I don't plan on looking at anything like the Mississippi, or Gulf of mexico, just because they aren't too magnificent in my honest opinion. So we will just sleep for 8 hours then leave after the driver wakes up. Of course we will get some food first. 

8th Stop: Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico

In Tampico, Tamaulipas, we plan to look at the mountainous scenery here, and eat some authentic mexican food! Then once we are done our business with that, we will just find a hotel to take a break from the kind of tight motorhomo. Just find one, sleep in it, then leave to our next stop.

7th Stop, Sleep Stop: Parque Nacional Cerro Azul Meambar, Honduras

I wish we could stay here longer, but being on a tight schedule of our travel plan, it would be very hard to fit it in. But we could maybe sight see for an hour, depending on our current situation. But it is unlikely. It has a nice mountainous scenery that we would be sleeping in our motorhome in. We would just find an RV park then just stay there for 9 hours. 

Regardless, we will sleep here, then be on our merry way to Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

6th Stop: La Concepcion, Panama

Here in La Concepcion, Panama, we will venture around for an hour or so, then go to sleep for 8 hours. I don't know of any landmarks in La Concepcion, but that won't stop me from looking around at the various structures and different food places. and eating some food. 

Once that is over and done, we will sleep for 8 hours and then depart for our next stop: Parque Nacional Cerro Azul Meambar. 

5th Stop: Panama City, Panama

Here, in Panama, is our last destination before we depart for Times Square in manhattan. Here, for an hour, we will eat food, (hopefully some kind of exotic food) and then see the sights like the world famous Panama Canal and also the Plaza De La Cathedral. Once again, strictly not for religious reasons, but tourism reasons.

 

Incase you didn't know (how could you not know!?!) the Panama Canal is a small split in the two continents meant for ships to pass through. It was originally constructed because it was too dangerous to pass through the bottom of south america, so this was made to make it easier. 

After we do all that, we will find a place to park our motorhome and sleep for 8 hours.