Ramblings of a Home-Schooled Teenager

RMC

2007-03-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

Incredible, that is the only word I have to describe what happened this weekend. As you know if you read two posts down I went to the RMC this past weekend. Now, what you may not have known, is that I went into that tournament with a severe case of pessimism. I figured I would go 1-5 again, and have my partner ready to fire me again, but strangely enough, I didn't. If you read all the way to the end of this you will be able to see what actually happened, but for now I will be giving a round analysis.

OK, thursday morning, start of the day, I'm scared to death, postings go up, and my partner tells me that we get a bye (meaning we get an automatic win and don't have to debate the first round). I'm slightly excited, but when I sit down to think about it I realize that it's kinda a bad thing. The way they do these tournaments is that starting on the third round they start to match you with people who have similar win/loss records, getting a win on the first round starts you off hitting hard teams.

Well the second round was fun. We were negative against a case that we had absolutely no evidence against. I gave the greatest speech of my life in that round (a completely evidence-free 2NC in which I started walking around the podium. Needless to say, we won that round, although it was close according to the judge.

Our third round (technically our 2nd actual round) was one that concerned me. I was slightly afraid that we would hit a nasty team and get trampled. Well, in a way, we did. We debated good friends of ours who had been to nationals before, and they knew our case because they had helped us with it. The judge for that round didn't really know what he was doing, so I can't really say if we should have lost or not. But whatever, we lost that round.

The fourth round (and the last round of the first day) was quite honestly my favorite round of the tournament. The judge was going all dreamy-eyed every time she heard me speak, and I got the other team to admit that uranium has a half-life of 10 years (it actually has a half-life of like 4.5 billion years). We won the round, and came out of it with some good friends.

The fifth round started bright and early on friday morning. We debated a team that we had known from camp, and one that was running a case that had not been updated for the riga summit (where a lot of things had been changed with NATO). We won it, I can't remember much more except that the judge was dressed as a civil war soldier for some reason.

The sixth round I was really scared. We debated one of the top teams in the entire region, and they basically chewed us apart as much as I can remember. Plus I debated badly since it was so late in the tournement. Anyway, the judge gave us the win for some odd reason.

So here we were at the time they anounced who went into the outrounds (the rounds that were win or stop debating for the rest of the tournement). Whoever went into there rounds got to go to regionals (another tournement that is by invitation only). I was nervous, and I didn't think we would do it (bear in mind that we don't know who wins rounds until the end of the tournement on saturday). To make a long story short, we broke, and so did the other utah team. We were set to debate them in Octo-Finals.

This was a sad time, only one of us would continue, and we both wanted (and wanted each other) to. This was also the first round we had where people were watching us, so I didn't do as well as I could because of nervousness. We had three judges this time, and after a round where I screwed up badly, we lost on a 2-1 decision.

The next morning we found out that the other utah team had won, we were ok with it, seeing as we really hadn't expected to make it this far, but I was slightly disapointed.

At the end we came out winning five rounds and only losing 2 out of the seven rounds we debated. We were 10th overall, and could have been better if we hadn't lost too the other Utah team.

Well, I'm just happy I broke to regionals. Expect to see another report after that.

Review of the Movie Spoof 3

2007-03-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

Getting Ready for RMC

2007-03-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

As you all know, not only do I do computer graphics, practice karate, and play the viola, I also am a debater in the NCFCA league. I like it a lot, and it has helped me grow quite a bit. Coming up in a couple of weeks is the next tournament that I will be going to. The Rocky Mountain Classic. Held in Denver, and put on by the club SALT (Seriously Awesome club......), it will be a great amount of fun. However, it's still a debate tournament, which means I have to do a lot of preparing with my partner.

World of Warcraft

2007-02-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I havn't posted in a very long time, mostly due to life, school, life, getting a girl friend, life, school, you get the picture. But now I'm more or less planning on keeping to the straight and narrow path of blogging so to speak. And to kick it off I am posting about a new phase of my life, World of Warcraft.

I'm sure most of you know about world of warcraft. It's the multiplayer game set in the world of Azeroth, the land of the warcraft games. My friend brice recently convinced me to try it out, and ever since then I've been hooked. I'm planning to buy a subscription either tomorrow or over the weekend.

But anyway, I'm currently playing a level 16 Night Elf Hunter named NorinMHX and I just started a level 7 dwarf warior named Thrashimus. Overall I have to say that, while not being the absolute best MMO I have ever played, it comes pretty close. The graphics, while not flashy by todays standard are no slouch, and the sheer size of the game map that rivals Star Wars Galaxies in it's size makes me wonder how many poor people spent years to make it. As you travel around in the world (something that has earned this game the title World of Walkcraft, more on that later) I can't help but wonder "where are the freakin' transitions". Each "zone" of the map has a distinct weather, darkness, landscape, etc. In the 5 zones I have traveled I have walked across the border and gone from sunny daylight to dark twilight and back to sunny daylight in the space of a few minutes. Something to be desired there, but still nothing game breaking. The monsters seem varried, and the combat is a little more in depth than you traditional right click, wait, buff, wait, power, wait, loot, but still is nothing like Lineage 2 or ragonok in it's complexity. My biggest problem I have with the game is that there is no way of traveling except by walking or taking a ship until you discover flight paths (which you have to do in ever city before you can fly there), so you wind up walking... a lot.

Overall, good game, I look forward to getting to lvl 60 (maybe 70 if I get the pack). Buy this if you like these kind of games.

Saddam's Hanging

2007-01-01T00:03:00.000-08:00

Early Saturday morning Baghdad time former dictator of Iraq Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging for crimes against humanities. We all waited with baited breath in the hours leading up to the execution. Would he be executed now? Would a force intervene to stop him? Those questions were answered with a short drop and a sudden stop.

While we can all say that justice was served to the man who gassed thousands of his own people, authorized rape and murder. But we should all take a step back and look at the circumstances surounding his execution. Why was the U.S., a country in which murders can sit on death row for 20, 30 years before anything is actually done and a county in which justice must be served to its full capacity, so eager to execute Saddam, a deposed ruler of a country. In my mind, and the mind of many other people, the answer is very complex. But it also has a simple explanation, or as simple as is possible in cases like this. "Dead men tell no tales". Many of the top echelon of society would not want Saddam revealing in one of his appeals that he was actually financed by say the Bush family, or maybe the Clinton family. They would certainly not want to have to worry. And so the simplest solution would be to make sure he could never talk again.

Please pause and consider that possibility. Happy New Year. May God bless America.

Hillariously funny

2006-12-26T17:33:00.001-08:00

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
Uploaded by Dan_of_the_Land

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix Trailer

2006-12-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

Epic Movie

2006-12-16T15:43:00.001-08:00

OMFG I just watched this trailer, and it's on my top 5 list to see when it comes out.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/epicmovie/medium.html

Holocaust Deniers

2006-12-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

Iran--Hundreds of people gather to attend a conference on the Holocaust. Not your standard conference, with people talking about the monstrosity of the Holocaust, but a conference with it's sole reason being to discuss how the Holocaust never actually happened. Not only is this completly against the historical record, but what is truly scary is the people who are running this conference: the Iranian dictator and other Muslim terrorists who would love to see Isrial destroyed along with all jews. Everyone who cares about the world should join with me in affirming that these people who claim that the Holocaust never happened are the absolute scum of the earth and should be killed. Thank you for listening to my little rant.

State of the Union

2006-12-14T19:10:00.001-08:00

This is quite funny, although old, and quite well done.

Superman Returns

2006-12-13T12:23:00.000-08:00

OK, I was probably the last person on the planet to see this movie (I watched it last night), but what the hell, I can still write my own review of it. The new superman is very good, better even than Christopher Reeves IMHO. Other than a few small plot holes (most involving kryponite) the movie is great. In my opinion it is the best superman ever made, but that could simply be because I just watched it last night. It's superman, so don't expect any great story, but it is very moving, and lives up to the great name. I can safely recomend this movie to anyone, there is no vulgarity (half of the "s" word is all) and only a few sexual references that actually are funny.

Overall Impression: 9/10 (It was to short and didn't tie up well)
Graphics: 10/10 (only a few times where my well trained eye could see a computer's hand)
Story: 8/10 (It's superman)
Acting: 9/10
Ninjas: 0/10 (but superman is almost a ninja)

Terminator: 0000AD

2006-12-12T12:30:00.000-08:00

Eragon Trailer

2006-12-11T20:54:00.000-08:00

Star Wars: The Supertrailer

2006-12-02T22:45:00.000-08:00

OK, I was watching the LOTR super trailer again and I realized that there is no trailer for star wars that covers all of the movies. This got me thinking and I finally decided to create on myself. So last night I started the long process of ripping the DVD's into a format I can use to edit. I'm shooting for a target length of about 6 minutes, and if the first one goes good I might make more focusing on different themes and characters.

"3" Supertrailer

2006-12-01T21:09:00.000-08:00

Watch and see for yourself

A cool LotR trailer

2006-12-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

I know it's just a trailer, but it's kinda cool, plus it tells the whole story of LotR in 8 minutes.

December

2006-12-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

Well, today is the first day in December. Which means there are 25 more days until Christmas day. In honor of this big day I have decided to post a review of Economics Third Edition DVD series taught by Professor Timothy Taylor, available from the Teaching Company.

This may seem like a weird thing to write about, but it's part of what I use for Economics class, and I feel it's worth telling about.

Like many lectures it is boring. However, Professor Taylor infuses enough jokes and interesting tidbits of information to make it somewhat enjoyable. The concepts are presented clearly and concisely, and there are no quizzes, so that's a deffinate plus. Like all of TTC DVD's I've watched it has a nice companion booklet that hits the most important points of the lectures.

My final verdict: If you are looking for an economics lecture series, or just want to understand how the world works better, check it out, it is an interesting, and sometimes fun, ride.

The Last Samurai: Review

2006-11-30T22:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I watched The Last Samurai for the third time last night, and I liked it, so I thought I would write up a short review.

The movie is great, it's not Tom Cruise's best job, but it still is one of his better films. It follows the story of a Civil War veteran who is recruited by the Japanese government to modernize the army and fight against the Samurai. After a poorly faught battle Tom Cruise's character is captured by the Samurai. Over the next 1.5 hours of the movie he is slowly transformed into a Samurai. The movie ends with a climactic battle and Cruise's character going off into the backlands of Japan.

Some of the highlights of the film include a 3 minute battle with ninjas, a huge, very moving, battle, sword fights and martial arts galore.

I can't recommend the movie to everyone because it has braveheart/gladiator levels of blood and gore in it (maybe a bit more). But other than that it is a good, clean movie that teaches a few good lessons about honor. If you can stomach a bit of violence, deffinatly watch this movie at least once.

Story: 9/10
Acting: 10/10
Special Effects: 11/10
Ninjas: 10/10
Reviewers Tilt: 9/10
Overall Score: 9/10

The only reason why I didn't give this movie a perfect 10 is because it drags in a couple of parts, and because the ninja's lost a battle with the samurai (j/k).

This guy is crazy good

2006-11-30T14:25:00.000-08:00

Matrix - For Real...joe Eigo - video powered by Metacafe

Superman Spoof

2006-11-30T14:21:00.001-08:00

Superman Vs. Batman - video powered by Metacafe

Ties

2006-11-30T14:12:00.000-08:00

Well, if you are like me than you have trouble tieing a tie. Or perhaps you just want to learn more about the different types of knots there are. Either way this site will be of interest to you. It includes step-by-step directions to tie the major knots, advice on which knot to use, and links to other sites of similar type.

Link:
http://www.tie-a-tie.net/

National Anthems

2006-11-29T22:40:00.000-08:00

Today I was scanning the internet and I came across a cool site where you can listen to just about any national anthem in the world, and see what the words are in both the original language and in English. You guys should check it out if you ever need to look up a national anthem
Site:
http://www.national-anthems.net/

2000 year old computer reveiled

2006-11-29T22:33:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting article that I found earlier today, perhaps ancient people were smarter than we give them credit for.

"An Anglo-Greek team of scientists has revealed what they consider the true workings of the Antikythera mechanism, a 2,000 year-old analog computer recovered from a Mediterranean shipwreck over a century ago."

Full article: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2006/11/2000_year_old_c.html

NATO summit

2006-11-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

You know, most teenage boys are watching the latest sports scores, watching what movies are coming out, and other such things. I do all of those, but there is one thing I have been doing in the past few days that I can be sure hardly any other teenager is doing. I have been checking the NATO website several times a day to get the latest transcripts from the summit that is going on. If you are wondering why I am doing this I will tell you. It is because the NCFCA (debate) resolution this year is about NATO, and this summit will change alot with NATO.

Here is a link to the NATO summit:
http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/2006/0611-riga/index.htm

Utah vs. BYU game

2006-11-29T09:51:00.000-08:00

No, I didn't go to it, and yes I watched some of it. It's a shame that BYU won, Utah played better, had better players, and was alot cooler, if it hadn't been for that stupid pass....

Call of Duty

2006-11-28T23:36:00.000-08:00

OK, it is now time for another review, this time of a video game. I recently started playing Call of Duty (yea, I know, it's been out for a while, but I never claimed to provide the latest breaking games) and can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although it is several years old, it is quite fun, and has aged gracefully. It basically follows the exploits of several common soldiers from several different allied nations during World War 2 (America, Russia, England). The game is billed as having 3 separate campaigns, but I have found this not to be the case. Rather there is one campaign, separated into chapters, some chapters being with different nations. However, I can find very few real differences between the nations and the different chapters besides getting to use differ ant guns (just a few, but they are still fun)and having different locals. The only chapter that really stood out to me was the Stalingrad chapter, where you play as a Russian recruit during the recapture of Red Square. The sight of hundreds of other recruits just like yourself, only a few armed with anything more than their fists, charging up the beach and straight into machein gun fire, accompanied by the swelling Russian national anthem is a sight to behold.

The graphics of the game are only slightly outdated, and the animations look great, except for a few that look clunky and hand-animated. Sound is great, and a lot of work was put into making each of the guns look (and feel in a virtual sense) unique.

Overall I would say that this game is great, play it if you have it, buy it if you have money to spend, and try Call of Duty 2 because that takes the same concept and updates it.

Overall Score: 8.5/10
Tilt: 9/10

My course load

2006-11-28T23:20:00.000-08:00

OK, everyone knows that homeschoolers are smart, right? Well, I don't 100% agree with you. Some of the homeschoolers I know are the dumbest, thickest blocks of wood you will ever meet. On the other hand, many homeschoolers are very smart, there is a reason why homeschoolers have one the national spelling bee the last 5 or so years. Anyway, I'm not saying I'm smart, or I'm not, that's for you to decide, but what I am trying to do is show that the stereotype of being a smart nerd is not what all homeschoolers are.

Anyway, I'm sure you are wondering why on earth I entitled this post "my course load." Well, there is a good reason: I'm going to break my own rules and gripe about my life. I have so many commitments, and being a junior in high school is hard enough as it is, that I find myself falling farther and farther behind in my school. Without further ado, I present to you a full (as full as I can remember right now) list of all my courses and other activities.

AP Economics (macro)
AP Economics (micro)
AP Music Theory
AP US history
Calculus
Physics
World History
US Government
Spanish
German
English (writing, etc)
Karate
Boy Scouts
Church Stuff
Debate
My Viola
My Guitar

As you can see I have a lot more things to do than I have hours in a day. Now ending complaining session.

Blender 3D

2006-11-28T17:58:00.000-08:00

If you are even slightly interested in delving into the land of 3d modeling and animation, but don't have several hundred dollars to spend on pro software like 3ds max and Maya, you should download and install Blender 3D (www.blender3d.org). Although it tends to have a fairly long learning curve (slightly longer than other programs of the same type), it is free which makes up for it. Blender has some very good points when it comes to the way it handles mesh modeling, unlike 3ds max you do not have to convert your meshes to editable polys, they are already ready to be edited in blender.

There are many good features about blender, including hotkeys for just about every function you would need to use on a regular basis, and a robust materials editor. It does, however, lack much of the advanced functionality of cloth, water, hair, and physics simulations that other packages offer, but it's free price easily makes it the best choice for the aspiring 3d animator on a budget.

Overall score: 9/10

RSF

2006-11-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to put my computer skills to good use and make a computer animated series set in everyone's favorite universe: Star Wars. The idea I had behind the series is this: A small group of elite special forces work to complete mission's across the galaxy. This might sound clichéd, but I thought it would be quite cool. Many people have played Republic Commando, well this is very similar to what I was thinking about, except that RSF is set about 500 years before RC, and instead of clones, there are real people, and not a full war against the battle droids and the separatists, but just a series of small conflicts with random stuff like crime bosses, rouge starship captains, etc.

I am currently getting together a rough script for a pilot episode, and than I will be drawing concept art. If you would like to help, just leave a comment.

Hello World

2006-11-23T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I should probably start with a short introduction of myself. My name is Jason, I live in Salt Lake City Utah, I like long walks on the beach.... Just Kidding. My name is indeed Jason, and I do live in Salt Lake City, but I don't care much for long walks on the beach. I am, as you can probably tell by the title of this blog, a home-schooled teenager, a junior in high school to be exact, which puts me at 16 years of age. Some of my many interests include Debate, 3D animation and Visual Effects (the sort of stuff you see in movies, TV shows, and Commercials), Karate, Eating (who doesn't), playing the viola and guitar, Hanging out with my friends, and so many other things that I couldn't even begin to name them.

Now, first I am going to dispel some of the myths surounding home-schoolers like myself.

Myth 1:We are nerdy) I am not nerdy at all (although at one time I was just a bit, but that was about 5 years ago). Many of my home-schooled friends are so anti what the stereotypical home-schooled image is that that many people wouldn't even think of them as home-schooled. One of my friends is the captain of the swimming team at one of our local high schools, another: a relatively famous local actor. I play basketball for one of the local high schools from time to time, hold first chair in the Utah Youth Symphony Orchestra with my Viola, and have done a lot of other non-nerdy things.

Myth 2: We are anti-socialized) I hope you can see by my very creation of this blog that I am 100% not anti-socialized. I have as many friends as my regular high-schoolers, pick up girls just as well as anybody else, and make new friends faster than many of my high-schooled friends.

As I continue with this blog I will dispel more myths, but for now two is enough.

Next I will outline what this blog will do. First, it will not be a whiny chronicling of my life. It will, instead, provide insight into what goes on inside a teenage home-schooler's mind and will try to be informative on things going on around us. I will be giving my reviews on such things as the current movie I watched, the latest book I read, or the latest video game I played. I will also throw in a bit of politics, mainly because it's something that I enjoy, and I think more high schoolers should be more involved with. I will also share my own advice to problems that people send in. If you would like me to answer you question, or give you any advice in my blog, just shoot me an e-mail to jmkosloski@gmail.com

Goodnight everyone