For my latest project in Environmental Science, The Car Project, we were posed with the question: "How Might We Rethink How We Use Cars in Order to Improve Health, Economic Prosperity, and Quality of Life?"
After being given this question, I came up with two possible ideas that could be implemented in Napa. Option 1 : Downtown Napa has the potential to go completely car-free! Everywhere in downtown is accessible by foot or bike since it isn't a very large area, but it is definitely a very populated area of Napa so the impact of Downtown Napa going completely car-free could be enormous! Several European and South American cities have already implemented a car-free downtown and are seeing happier citizens and lower obesity rates. This eliminates the excessive use of cars and encourages people to walk and bike more often to their destinations. Since not as many roads would be needed in downtown after making it car-free, we could close some roads to allow for more businesses to come in which would help Napa generate a greater revenue. For the elderly or disabled, there could be a shuttle that runs through downtown every 15 minutes so they are able to easily reach their destination. Along with this to make it even easier for the public to get around Napa, there could be Ford GoBikes all around, so people are easily able to rent bikes for cheap. To test this proposal, downtown could go car-free for a day and see the outcome and it's feasibility. Option 2 : Although the proposal for downtown Napa to go completely car-free is amazing and would significantly lower CO2 emissions in Napa, there would be lots of backlash from the public faced over this decision. Another potential solution would be to better market the Napa Valley Vine Trail. The Vine Trail is a trail dedicated to bikers/pedestrians that starts from Kennedy Park and extends all the way to Yountville. A part of the Vine Trail, The Crosstown Commuter Path, can take someone all the way across Napa (including over the highway), on a completely separate path from cars. A better marketing plan would expose the residents of Napa to alternate ways to get around town because from the data I have gathered, not many people are aware of it. Both of these options are great and would address the issue: the rising amount of cars in Napa. There is talk of another parking garage being built in downtown Napa (which would cost $12 Million) because the three pre-existing lots aren't sufficient enough. Rather than building more garages to encourage the use of cars, which will not only contribute to the deterioration of our planet but also our health, we should focus taking care of Earth. I know that these two solutions wouldn't reverse all the damage that has been down to our planet, but I know our efforts could go a long way! Here is an infographic I have created with more details about my proposal:
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Single stories are stories that tell one side or one part of a story. They are false perceptions of people that are typically presented through two filters: good or bad. The stereotypes that people are labeled with can be detrimental to their self-image and are also wrongful. People should not have judge others and make presumptions about them based on their appearance or just one of their characteristics, but unfortunately, in the society we live in, that is the reality.
A single story that I face in my everyday life is that people often make the presumption that I am Indian which I am actually not. I am actually Pakistani but based on my appearance and the lack of South Asian representation at New Tech, people automatically make the assumption that I am Indian. Although this isn’t something that bothers me, it’s frustrating that even when I correct them, some people refuse to acknowledge that I am Pakistani and continue calling me Indian. In my junior year at New Tech I had two classmates who continued to call me Indian and referred to me as “the Indian” even after I corrected them. They even told me that I was only in the Inventioneering class because I was Indian and that all Indians have to be good with computers, which is another stereotype many South Asians are labeled with.. This could not be further from the truth for me, I am actually quite awful with computers. I have broken two laptops and somehow managed to get a virus on a MacBook, which are laptops that are known for being impossible to get a virus on. It is frustrating that rather than judging me based on the qualities or skills I possess, people judge me based on my physical appearance. However, I don’t believe that this is their fault, we have been raised to judge others based off of their appearance and make assumptions about them based off of common stereotypes that we hear or see in the media. It’s going to take a whole shift in people’s mindsets for the concept of single stories to disappear and rather than adding fuel to the fire, the media should diminish the idea of classifying people into categories and having everyone fall under certain stereotypes. Out of the Woods is a limited resource management game in which aliens crash land on Earth in the forest and are forced to find their way out, fully dressed in human clothing, to blend in with civilization without raising too many concerns. The game comes in a compact box and contains: resource tiles, a game board, action cards, player pieces, and dice. Directions:
I have learned a lot about game development in the process of creating this game. I learned that some ideas may sound good, but turns out when they’re played they’re boring and not as entertaining. When we first created our game we expected it to be super fun but when we had people play it, we found several flaws. It was not very entertaining and a lot of the features we had just didn’t work and our directions weren’t very clear. The amount of feedback we received from everyone on ways to improve the game was surprising. I did not expect to receive as much constructive feedback as we had gotten and it was very helpful when making improvements to the game. We went back and refined our game several times and although it was only required to get our game play tested three times, we got ours play tested several more times. I also learned that at a certain point it becomes a boring and tedious process because ideas don’t come as quickly after improving the game so many times. It was difficult being motivated but I pushed through. Through this project, I remembered how fun playing board games used to be and have actually started playing them more often. I ordered a few games off Amazon and recently got together with my friends and rather than watching movies we played card games (which got violent very quickly) and other board games. Although I did not enjoy the project at first, I got invested and am finding this project very enjoyable!
My first team and I created our first news broadcast, a live broadcast, about the creation of the assembly line by Henry Ford in 1913. After presenting our live broadcast we were then told to create another news broadcast, only this one we could choose our own topic. The only guidelines we were given was that it had to contain a historical event that took place in the 1920s and the re-creation of a scene from The Great Gatsby. My team and I decided to create a broadcast on the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and re-enacted Gatsby’s funeral. Based on the feedback we received on our last broadcast, we added more perspectives to the story and made the distribution of our lines more even. With my second team we were able to create more refined broadcasts, already having experience from our previous broadcasts and a better understanding of the teacher’s expectations. My team and I first created a live broadcast on the collapse of New York’s Bank of the United States in 1931, which was one of the leading causes of the Great Depression. The second broadcast we created was the denial of entry into the US of the MS St. Louis which contained 908 jewish refugees, and also re-created the scene from The Grapes of Wrath when Casy was attacked and killed by two police officers. For the second broadcast, my team and I we were under a major time crunch. We were given a week to write the script, rehearse, film, and edit the historical aspect of our broadcast but only given 3 days for the re-creation of the scene from The Grapes of Wrath that my team and I chose. We were very concerned that we wouldn’t be able to make the deadline, given the time constraint. Instead however, my team and I rushed to write our script and film and were left with time to spare. My team and another team were the only two teams that were able to meet the original deadline of March 9th. We were taken into another room after and reflected on the project. I think my team and I were able to finish on-time because we all collaborated with each other especially well. Overall, this was a very fun project that I learned a lot from! In Inventioneering we were given the task of creating a replica of the infamous childhood-favorite board game— Operation. The objective of the game is to use tweezers to remove different objects from Cavity Sam, and the requirements for the project were:
When the project first started, my team and I were unsure what to do but once we got started it was easier. We evenly split up the tasks between the three of us and got started. Since I’m more artistically inclined than my other group members, I decided to take on the task of painting the board and 3D printing the objects that have to be removed from the board. I painted a penguin standing on a large iceberg to the very left of the board with another iceberg floating in the middle and another one towards the very right. There’s a whale jumping out of the water and gray mountains in the background. The board is looking good so far but I’m taking a lot longer on it than I anticipated because I’m a perfectionist and I’m taking a long time painting every detail because I need it to look perfect. I repainted the ocean twice because first it was the wrong shade of blue and then the second time the ocean was two different shades of blue so I repainted it. Also, for the penguin I didn’t like how light the shade of black it was painted was so I grabbed a sharpie and made it darker. I’ve been coming in during access to get it done and I think I can get it done within one more class period + access. As for the objects that the robot is going to be taking off the board, I’m almost done designing them and they should be ready to print soon.
In Game Design we were given the opportunity to make a 20 minute countdown clock that would be displayed in between the different light “acts” at the Napa Light Festival during December. The instructions were to create a 20 minute countdown clock made up of light on After Effects. To get ideas for my clock, I created a pinterest board (Countdown Clock Pinterest Board). It was interesting to see what other people had done and there was a lot of cool things to see but in the end it didn’t help me come up with any ideas. Once I found out that the clock could be holiday inspired I came up with a few ideas and sketched them out. In the end I decided to go with the hot chocolate mug idea because it seemed feasible and I liked it more than the other one. I found an image of the hot chocolate mug that I had envisioned in my mind and brought it to illustrator. I wasn’t really looking forward to working in illustrator because it is something I struggled with last year. I spent a few class periods struggling with illustrator and I had to watch a tutorial but I figured out how to trace my image using the image trace tool which traced it for me. Once I figured out how to trace my image it was challenging bringing it into After Effects but I figured it out and traced it with the lightsaber plug-in and the pen tool. Also, I didn’t know that I didn’t have to trace numbers for the time so I ended up tracing a bunch of numbers in Illustrator for no reason. I figured out that I could just make a text layer and apply the saber effect and keyframe it. Since I had struggled with illustrator before and spent a few class periods on that step alone, the majority of the class was ahead of me in the process and I didn’t have too much time left to keyframe it. Instead I googled alternative ways of making a countdown clock on After Effects and the first few tutorials/websites I found used the timecode effect. I spent a while messing around with it but came to the conclusion that it can only countdown 5 minutes and I needed it to be 20 minutes long. I went back to finding alternative ways to do it and that’s how I found out that I could use expressions. I went into the source text property of a text layer and pasted an expression I found online. I had to edit the duration (clockStart) and change it from 300 to 1200 because that’s how many seconds are in 20 minutes. Here is the expression I used: rate = -1; clockStart = 300; function padZero(n){ if (n < 10) return "0" + n else return "" + n } clockTime = Math.max(clockStart + rate*(time - inPoint),0); t = Math.floor(clockTime); min = Math.floor((t%3600)/60); sec = Math.floor(t%60); min + ":" + padZero(sec) Once I put the expression in I tried figuring out ways to apply the lightsaber plug-in on the time but I couldn’t figure out how so instead I had to comprise and make the text neon instead. In end I realized that all the big plans I had before weren’t very doable and the simpler I made it the easier and less complicated it became because keyframing the time dripping down and the steam would’ve made it tedious. I’m proud of the end product and all the new things I learned in the process of this project. In American Studies we started a project called the Land of Golden Opportunity. We were instructed to create a children’s storybook with a partner based off of a book of our choosing (from the selection provided) that included all of the components that a book has. My partner, Makenzie, and I read the book Daughter of Fortune. It takes place during the Gold Rush following the main character, Eliza Sommers, who follows her lover to California. Using our shared passion of writing and our creative abilities, we were able to transform a lengthy 399 page book containing several adult themes into a children’s book. Due to the time crunch––this without a doubt, was a very difficult project. Originally, my partner and I wanted to get our book professionally bound and printed and were very excited to write our storybook. Unfortunately, we were not given enough time to execute our plans and could not do what we had originally wanted to do. Also, the illustrations were difficult for us due to our limited artistic abilities. All of our illustrations were done with acrylic paint because it’s very saturated and the brightness of the colors made the illustrations pop and look like what I envisioned a Chilean city would look like. Using acrylic paint was challenging because it was messy and because of the amount of time we had to complete it, we weren’t as neat as we could’ve been had we more time. Through this process, I learned how to cite sources using MLA format, how to think of a quick fix when a mistake or something gets in the way, and how to format a google doc so that everything is centered and looks like the page from an actual storybook. I learned that immigrating to the US was not as easy as it is now. People were rude and unaccepting towards certain races and laws were put in place discriminating them in an indirect way like the Foreign Miners Tax of 1853. It put a tax of $20/month on foreigners and made it difficult for them to mine because a lot of them couldn’t afford that. This was indirectly targeted towards Chileans because Chileans were known for being avid miners. Also, they were treated unfairly by Californians once they arrived. The majority of Chilean immigrants stayed in San Francisco in a small area called Chilecito or “Little Chile”. This area was attacked by a self-appointed militia group called “The Hounds”, who robbed and attacked Chilecito. I am proudest about the historical content and the illustrations because I put a lot of time and effort into perfecting them.
In Game Design we were introduced to the After Effects lightsaber plug-in by Video Co-Pilot. The plug-in allows you to insert a lightsaber over an object and you can keyframe it so that when it moves the saber moves with it and keeps the object concealed. For our project we were required to film an engaging fighting scene. It was a scene of us fighting with sticks that included 5 fencing attacks/blocks: After filming our scene we were supposed to bring it into After Effects and keyframe it which was a very tedious process. It was difficult to keyframe it because for 2 class periods I was moving the entire mask instead of moving the points at the top and the bottom of the saber (located in the picture) The reason for this was because the points didn’t show up immediately and my mask didn’t fit over the entire layer, which was difficult because it set boundaries for where my lightsaber could fit over the stick and also it wasn’t getting keyframed. Once I figured out that I wasn’t supposed to be moving the mask but the two points it was difficult for me to get the two points to show up when I was switching between layers and at times the keyboard shortcut (command+shift+5) didn’t work. Another reason keyframing was challenging for me was because I’m a perfectionist and I didn’t want the stick showing at all. I went through the video at least 7 or 8 times making sure that the stick didn’t show at any point in the video. I had to keyframe almost every frame which was unnecessary and time consuming which dragged the process out for me. Another obstacle I faced was not including a storyline to the video. I wish that I could go back and re-film my video because there’s not a reason behind why I’m fighting. I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to include a storyline in the video so in the video I ran up to Ariel and started fighting with her which is why the editing was difficult. I had to figure out a way to include a storyline and I decided that using text was the best way. Although it was a lengthy and difficult process, it was all worth it in the end. I’m happy with the outcome and I’m proud of how hard I worked on it.
While most high school students are cramming for finals, New Tech High gave us the opportunity to spend a stress-free day helping local businesses in Napa. As soon as I saw that Whiskers Tails & Ferals was an option, I immediately signed up. Whiskers Tails and Ferals is an all-volunteer organization that rescues hundreds of cats and dogs in Napa County each year. They foster animals with great love and care until they can find forever homes for them and nurse them back to health if they are maltreated or ill. They are making a significant impact on the tragedy of pet overpopulation in Napa County. Originally, I was under the impression that the group of 13 students who were going and I would be spending the whole day in a tiny cramped room that smelled like cat poop and not have anything to do. I had no idea what was yet to come. When we first arrived we split into 3 groups and worked at 3 stations: cleaning and organizing a humongous storage pod, sewing, and cleaning the cat room. My group's first station was cleaning "the pod." The pod was a huge storage pod that hadn't EVER been cleaned and it was an absolute mess. After pitching in we all got it done:) Although I found cleaning the pod gross, I got the opportunity to hold kittens that were just a week old and it made up for all the work we had done in the end.
For years Hollywood has been exaggerating the real story to create a popular movie that is appealing and interesting to audiences and makes them $$$. That glimpse of perfection that Hollywood movies portray is appealing to audiences because it creates a sense of false hope and that everything's okay. A great example of the fabrication and exaggeration of Hollywood movies is Thirteen Days.
The movie Thirteen Days is an inaccurate depiction of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The role of Kenneth O’Donnell (the movie’s in his point of view), is inflated. O’Donnell did not play a significant role. According to Arthur Schlesinger Jr O’Donnell, “had nothing to do with the Cuban missile crisis.” People suspect that the reason behind the inflation of O’Donnell’s role in the Cuban Missile Crisis may have been that his son Kevin was bankrolling a buyout of Beacon Entertainment which made the movie. Others say that the reason O’Donnell’s character’s role was significant in the movie was because he was an “everyman”, someone average that was on the inside that the audience could relate to. The filmmakers showed us O’Donnell’s family life and that he went to church, so I can see how they’re trying to portray him as an “everyman” but it’s strange because he’s someone who's in the president’s inner circle. How can we relate to someone who can control the fate of our world? A completely exaggerated and fictional scene from the movie was when O’Donnell called the Navy pilot about to go on a low-altitude flight over Cuba, and told him to lie about getting shot if he did get shot because otherwise the US would go to war with the Soviet Union. The concealment of sensitive information like this is illegal and that scene was absolutely fictional. These are only some of the edits that filmmakers have made to add appeal and dramatize what happened in October of 1962. Although changes to the storyline may not seem like a big deal, they risk influencing the history of the Cold War that gets handed down to the next generation. For someone who knows nothing about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Thirteen Days puts these exaggerated and fabricated events ideas into your head. The audience will not know which events are accurate and which aren’t leading them to believe the story that you give them. Eventually as the story is passed down through the years, the original story will have been lost because one exaggerated story will build upon another. Here are three tips to avoid being suckered into Hollywood Dramatization: 1. Know your history Read some articles prior to the viewing of the movie. Educate yourself about the historical event that occurred and while watching the movie compare and contrast the movie to what actually happened. It’s like watching the movie version of your favorite book comparing the two and screaming when they change something because it was already so perfect (not always like that in history though unfortunately history can be a little bland….). 2. Take a minute and think….Could this actually have happened? Often times all it takes is a little common sense to figure out if the events that occur in a movie actually happened because they’re so exaggerated. 3. Go with the flow
Sometimes just going along with the storyline the movie offers and letting it entertain you isn’t a bad idea as long as you’re aware that you shouldn’t believe everything you seen in movies:) |
AuthorHibah Shafi is a Senior at New Technology High School. Archives
May 2019
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