Assignment 22- Cassadi Cordea

If I could be any fictional character, I would want to be the hulk. This just popped into my mind, so I'm gonna roll with it I guess. If I was the hulk, I would be able to do anything. Plus I would be the tallest person in the room (I'm usually on the other end of the spectrum). I could lift anything I wanted like cars and even other people. That would probably look really freaky. No one would want to mess with me because if I got mad enough I would turn into a raging green giant, and no one wants to deal with that. I hope I would be able to somewhat control myself if that happened. I'm not really sure why I thought of the hulk, but he just popped into my head as this ferocious and awesome character. It would be really cool to be the hulk. 

Assignment 20 - Alex Warren

How to shoot a free throw

Alex Warren

I may not be the best basketball player, and for that matter I am not a very good free throw shooter either, but I do know how to shoot one correctly and the fundamentals of it.

Step1: Find Your Warm-Up/Rhythm

Your warm-up is what you do before you shoot your free throw, its a routine or a rhythm that your body and mind should get used to doing. For example: I grab the ball walk up to the line dribble once, toss the ball up a little bit, dribble two more times, and then I shoot.

Step2: Position Yourself

Before you shoot you want to bend forward a little bit from the waist, hold the ball at your chest with your shooting hand in the middle and your off-hand on the side, and the elbow of your shooting arm pressed against your side, you want the middle on your body to line up with the rim.

Step3:Shooting

When shooting, you want to bend your knees and then spring up slightly upwards, and shooting the ball towards the basket with out moving your feet, and lastly you want to follow through by letting your shooting hand follow the shooting motion as you release the ball and afterwards as well.

These are the fundamentals to shooting a free throw, this is how most people do it, but not all players follow the same way, for example, Rick Barry, the best NBA free throw shooter of all time, shot all of his free throws granny-style(under-handed), so take theses guidelines and bend them or break them until you find a free throw routine that fits you.

Assignment 20- Cassadi Cordea

How To: Survive your Junior Year
Well this year I've had my slip ups, but I've definitely learned from them. This is what I've picked up throughout the year...
Do your homework. Just do it. Don't let zeros in the homework category be what is keeping your grade down.
Don't be afraid to seek help. There is no shame in doing that. Your teachers want to help you, so you should take advantage of study sessions and other resources offered.
When you take the ACT for the first time during the year, don't let that be the first time looking at the format. Find websites or get review books to help you study, and don't try to study all in one night.
Start long term projects ASAP!! Procrastination is probably the worst feeling in the world when you know you could have and SHOULD HAVE avoided it. And that basically applies to everything you'll encounter this year. Stay on top of things for the sake of your sanity.
Acknowledge that you are soon going to be making huge decisions about colleges and what you want to do in your life after high school. It's not really the most pleasant thing to think about (at least it wasn't for me), but you're going to have to do it. Don't push it to the back of your mind up until those decisions are right in front of your face and you have no idea what to do. That's even scarier.
Lastly, don't take yourself too seriously. Have fun and enjoy the year. It's stressful, but it builds character.

Assignment 26 - Alex Warren

Overall I thought I was going to hate this class so much. I started thinking this when I received what we were going to do for summer homework. Omnivore’s dilemma was about corn sex, The Walmart Effect was self-explanatory, and writing with style was helpful, but boring. And then I met the teacher, Mr. Logsdon, you are a great teacher, I love the way you teach, and your personality is great. You turned what I would have thought to be boring lessons about English into fun lessons. I liked how you let your wife come in and talk to us about her sustainability projects, and how we did the blueberry tasting thing. The way we did our finals was fun; I loved making my PSA video and my visual for my speech. You got lucky with the best Student Teacher ever, Ms. Moses was amazing! Life Lessons with Logsdon was very fun and helpful. Overall just a great, interesting, and fun class

Assignment 19 - Alex Warren

The piece of advice that really changed my life was when a close friend told me, “It does not matter what anyone else views you as, some people will like the way you are, and some people will not, so just be yourself, and stop worrying what other people think about you.” That really changed my life because I actually stopped trying to change what I did to impress others, or get them to like me and what not. I just started being myself, which is pretty wild and crazy, but it seems that some people like it and I am ok with that

Assignment 18 - Alex Warren

The top thing on my bucket list for high school is to pull an amazing senior prank. The 2014 seniors just pulled a pretty funny prank with the whole wedding thing, beach day/morning in the parking lot, and the wedding that happened on the front walk. The 2013 seniors put like balloons in the hallways, which was lame. I want ours to be big and memorable. The top thing on my bucket list for before I Finish College is to actually not live on ramen noodles, cereal and water all my collegiate life, I want to set myself up with a good job and balance my time for that with school so that I am successful in both. The top thing on my bucket list for my entire life is to visit every country and continent in the world, it is my dream to travel everywhere, I love travelling and seeing new things.

Assignment 26 Ben G

To be completely honest, I've had a mixed experience with this year's english class. It's been fun, for the most part, but I have to say something against the socratic seminars-- I do not, repeat not enjoy them. It is contrary to my nature to speak in large groups like that. I know for a fact that my grademwill suffer at least a bit because of that. Other than that, I'd have to give a thumbs down on the whole blog thing. Or, revisit some pf the prompts with an emphasis on not being ambiguous. 

Good stuff-- I have throughpy enjoyed Life Lessons with Logsdon. 

Angela Tseng - Assignment 26

Not going to lie, English has never really been something I was good at nor usually been one of my favorite classes. I've always been bad at spelling and never understood grammar  or been extremely talented at writing yet this was a class that I actually liked this year. I don't know if it's because I enjoyed the small class size, the people in the class or the things we did but sixth period was always something I could look forward to as a way to end my day. Although I can say that one of my favorite things that we did class was the Socratic Seminar, I really enjoyed being able to talk about essays in class and discuss things with other people. I also thought that writing all the essays in class was helpful for the AP test although spending more time on all the individual types would have been more helpful as well as reviewing the types before the test.

Angela Tseng - Assignment 25

Honestly, at first I had no idea what I wanted to write about in this blog post because I'm not very good at coming up with my own topics, but then I realized that since I was procrastinating on not writing this by watching the Walking Dead, why not write about that? I've recently become obsessed with the show, which is fine since the year is ending soon anyway and I don't have as much homework to worry about. It all started with me finding out that the game was free on my phone in the app store and starting to play the game, before long I found myself playing it a lot and wanting to know more about the "backstory" to it and began watching the show. At first I only though I'd watch maybe the first season, but the cliffhangers in the show are just too good. Now I'm in the middle of the second season and will probably finish the series in about a week if I don't get bored.

Angela Tseng - Assignment 24

To be honest, my junior year hasn't quite been what I'd expected it to be. Although, I'm not sure if I mean that in a good or bad way. There's no doubt that a lot of things have happened this year, most of them good. For example, I've gotten much better at not procrastinating, at the beginning of my freshman year I think it would be fair to say that I procrastinated on everything, from projects to studying and homework. Nearly all the homework I used to do was done the day it was due in another class but now that I'm a Junior I've seen how much easier things are if I just do it at home the night before, there's no worries the next day about whether I'll be able to get it done. I've also gotten to know new people this year and gotten closer to others. But no matter what I'm still extremely ready for the school year to be over and be a senior next year. My class load next year will be harder than this year by quite a bit but I think I'll still have a good time and I'm actually really excited about applying to colleges.

Assignment 26: Sofi Tzouanakis

I don't really think my review is going to be that useful, but I have to write it, so here goes. I thought this class was one of my favorite classes of junior year. I don't think I'm the best writer in the whole Academy, but English is generally one of my favorite subjects, so I tend to like English no matter what. And I did! I loved doing these blog posts, which may not seem obvious since I turned many in late, but I truly did. They're a great way to get the creative juices flowing and to find refuge in all the math and science homework (ew). It was also fun to go through other's blog posts, as some were absolutely ridiculous/funny/stupid.

Socratic seminars were good when we all could speak in a group. I didn't enjoy doing them on the computer; I find it harder to give genuine feedback when reading it on my own and without the aid of other's feedback to work off of. I feel like I may be alone in that fact, but everyone has different preferences.

The practice tests always sucked because they were on Fridays and we're 6th hour, but they were useful for tracking progress and were not absolutely dreadful.

Vocabulary was fine, but I wished we went over the words in class a little before the test, or we were told when the tests were going to be. I generally didn't study because I could not definitively schedule a time to study, because it always felt like an assignment in another class was more imminent, so I'd push it to the next day but oh!, the vocab test turned out being the next day. I guess it's more of a me problem, but I do feel if I knew when the vocab tests were I could at least study a little.

Summer reading was good! I like reading though, so I'm in the minority there. I hated The Wal-Mart Effect though. You could've written "capitalism" on a piece of paper and written a bunch of silly anecdotes, and it would've been the exact same thing as The Wal-Mart Effect.

Overall, this class was great and I thought you were a great teacher. Your teaching style melded well with my tendency to like "lecture style" teaching. Also, you're a pretty cool guy. Expect a request from me to write my recommendation (just warning you!). But really, thanks for a great junior year.

Assignment 25: Sofi Tzouanakis

Seeing so many of my close friends graduate this year is such a strange experience. I still see them as kids, just like many of them see themselves. And then I realize I'll be in their exact same place a year from now. I wish I could reverse time and enjoy junior year just a bit longer with my senior friends (excluding all of the schoolwork), but I know now I just have to look forward and make sure my senior year comes out being as successful as theirs. Senioritis has already set in for me as well. All the signs turn towards this: my mom badgering me more than she usually does, the loss of inhibition, and the only willpower I still have is the willpower to turn up. But sadly, I know I have to get my life together and write my college apps so I don't end up regretting every second that I'll turn up senior year (which is going to be too much, most likely). I'm also interested to see how each of my friends are going to react to the impending senior year. Some will succeed, some will crash and burn, and many are going to do the bare minimum to survive (probably me). Yeah, it's probably bad that my expectations for myself are already this low, but I know I'll pull it together. I just need a break, and summer is going to give me that before one of the most important parts of my life begins.

Assignment 24: Sofi Tzouanakis

God, junior year. How do I even begin to explain what has occurred this year to me....

A lot of things, for sure. First semester was stressful. I devoted much of my time to my studies when I was going through many personal struggles. It was certainly a tumultuous time for me, but my ability to deal with the situation and keep going through with my life was a testament to my growing maturity. And that's another thing. I've grown up SO much throughout this year. I have learned the meaning of empathy and compassion for those you don't know, something which was difficult for me to grasp while I was undergoing personal struggles the previous two years. I found it easier to blame others for mistakes and I refused to accept what I was going through, internally and externally. This year allowed me to pass this stage of denial in my life and accept my life for what it is, and have compassion, and be the most positive person I can be about situations I will never be able to control.

I've gained so many closer friends and have definitely been more socially active this year. I'm not sure if that affected my grades in any way, but if it did, I honestly could care less. The way I feel as a person is much more positive and refreshed with these changes. I would much rather be a happy person with a lower GPA than stressed, depressed and anti-social with a few extra GPA points.

And most importantly, I've learned to not care what other people think. I used to care so much. Honestly, it's ridiculous how much I cared, but that evolved me into the carefree person I am today. I used to be so insecure in how I looked, talked and acted around other people. I analyzed every facet of communication between me and others to make sure I was making the right impression. But once I stopped manipulating my true self, I realized how much more others liked the real me. And that's a great feeling.

I don't really know what I want for my senior year. I'll let fate decide for me and ride it's crest, but I guess I'm hoping for the most happy, fun, exciting, daring, crazy, and memorable year of my life up to this point. Class of 2015 is going to be great.

Ben G Assignment 25

This is unusual-- I can't figure out what to write for a free response. Carrying on, I'm going to talk about writing. For me, writing is a chore. Want an example? It just took me 20 minutes to decide what to write after "carrying on". I can usually scrape something together fairly easily, but this time is apparently the exception. It's getting late, which probably has something to do with it. Anyways, a parting gift.

Yup. Random butter tree.

Perfect Playlist for Drawing Sad Pictures - Haven

   What a shock, I know.
   HALLELUJAH, I've been waiting a long time for this prompt. I have a collection of video game instrumentals that contain a variety of tempos and moods and now I'm fangirling and I apologize. I'm willing to wager no one would know what songs I'd choose, and I have no idea what spotify is, so I'll be certain to put links to youtube videos with those songs. 
   Now, what qualities would a song have to be applicable to drawing? I prefer instrumentals, so that I'm not distracted by singing or specific lyrics. Otherwise, it's all about the feels. When I hear these songs, I feel inspired, either by it's tempo or it's mood. I'm not a music person, so I can't really describe them technically. These songs in particular have melodies that I find melancholic- tears may or may not have been shed. Why sad songs? Because I was going for a much vaguer drawing playlist and the first song to pop up was
   
   1. Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke. Most of the songs on this list create a certain image in my mind, this one especially. It's a bit of a long story, but I basically associate this song with a particular character of mine I adore. Besides that personal connection, it has a memorable and quiet-ish piano melody, a fantastic glockenspiel part, a strangely chaotic transition that isn't distracting- it's just beautiful. When this song played, I nearly cried on the spot. That might be for the personal connection, but the music certainly helped with that.
   2. Alice in Wonderland. It sounds very . . . chiptune-ish, I suppose a lot of people say, and it's tempo speeds up to a point nit might be difficult to consider it said at all. I guess there's two reasons it makes me feel a bit low; first, the melody goes a long way for me, and second, there's a bit of an emotional climax in my opinion. There's actually a couple of songs that has the same instrumental limitations that I consider sad, though. On of them is called
  3. World of Empty Dreams. How cheerful! It has a very quiet beginning, then BAM. I feel a bit like a broken record though, sense my reasoning is the same; sad melody, a bit of contrast in the song, still exciting enough to get me to draw- oh, I haven't mentioned that part yet. There's a bit of a counter melody in the back of this particular song that I can only assumed is made completely of 16th notes, so it's rapid enough to not make me lay down and sob. Still, that title.
  4. Eternal Shrine Maiden (Remastered). Here we go. This song was actually originally like the last two, but someone amazing remixed it into this. I love this song. It's extremely soothing, like a lullaby. Now that I think about it, It doesn't have the contrast the previous choices do, either. I don't know. I just love this song and it just lets me think . . I tend to think of sad things for fun. Plus, thinking is good for art . . . yeah, let's go with that.
  5. Vanishing Dream ~ Lost Dream. Apparently ZUN was really good at feels early on. This song, along with songs 2 and 3, were all made for games that were playable on a kinda obscure . . thing. What I'm saying is that these songs had technical limitations. And that just makes it more amazing. Sad title, Sad melody, an unusual quick tempo, this song has it all.
   (Bonus Track! This song is a remix and remaster of track 5 and 2. Together. It's much cleaner and softer, but also has an emotional climax with Alice in Wonderland's part. Listening back, it's a bit wonky, but still gets the heartstrings pulled.)

   Hm, this post is longer than I thought it would be. Yay!

Assignment 24: Ethan Petraitis

Junior year was interesting and I hope senior year will be even better. I’m planning on working over the summer, getting enough money to pay for a car (and the obnoxious cost of insurance), and maybe taking some of the summer classes that I signed up for at UK. I need my senior year to be GPA steroids, I’m trying to take the easiest classes I can possibly manage in order to increase my GPA by the time I apply for colleges, so hopefully classes will be easy and I’ll get good grades. I’m going to be working a lot as a textbook editor during senior year, so hopefully I’ll have a very low-stress year and get a lot of work hours in. I plan to work hard at getting my life in order really, I’d like to be able to get into a decent school after senior year. Junior year has been nice to me, but I did slack off quite a bit and it’s really come back to get me now, next year I’ll keep track of my work more efficiently and manage my time better.

Assignment 19: Ethan Petraitis

Most of the advice we receive in our lives is unsolicited and quite frankly inane.  However, every once in a while we get a real gem and changes our trajectory.  What is the one piece of advice given to you that has stuck?  Explain its effect.

One piece of advice I've received from my Grandfather that really stuck with me for life was that “every man should have a good set of tools”. This advice came from a lifelong mechanic and race car driver, and was told to a kid who loved nothing more than woodworking and tinkering with things so needless to say, it stuck. Every summer, I would go back to Long Island and my grandfather would give me as many tools as my family could fit into our small hatchback on our long journey back to Lexington. There were times when I had to hold tools on my lap for the whole seven hour trip because they couldn't fit anywhere else in the car. It was all worth it though, my Grandfather had some amazing tools that I would never be able to afford by myself, and he just gave them away to me since he knew that they were good tools and they wouldn't break on me in a time of need. I was told that it’s better to spend $80 on a socket wrench that you can hand down to your grandchildren than to spend $30 on a wrench and have it break right when you need it. He taught me that there are some things in life that are worth spending on, and that really stuck with me.

Assignment 20: Ethan petraitis

Aright, since adjusting a guitar or bass takes too much time and is far too confusing, I’ll just show you a part of my life repairing and restoring things; the act of polishing.

So here are the things you need to polish a small object or anything made of metal:
1. A buffing wheel. (NOT a random orbital buffer. You want one that spins at high speeds)

2. Cutting paste. (Also known as buffing compound)

3. Polishing compound.
4. 2000 grit sandpaper if you’re polishing something really rough.

5. Paper towels.

6. Something to polish!

Step one: Determine if the object needs to be sanded. If deep scratches are present (a scratch that you can feel with your fingernail), sand perpendicular to the scratch with 2000 grit sandpaper until you can no longer feel the scratch. If no deep scratches are present, skip this step.

Step two: Apply a small bead of cutting paste around the buffing wheel.

Step three: Press the object being buffed into the buffing wheel and turn the buffer on while applying pressure to the wheel.

Step four: Keep the object being buffed in constant motion, try to buff perpendicular to any scratches. Keep constant pressure on the buffing wheel and continue buffing until there are no longer any scratches left on the object being buffed.

Step five: Turn the buffer off while still applying pressure. Wait for the rotor to stop spinning before taking the object away from the buffer.

Step six: Place the object down and wait for it to cool down.

Step seven: Apply a thin film of polishing compound to the buffed object with a paper towel. Wait for the film to dry.

Step eight: Remove the film of dried polish with a clean paper towel or microfiber cloth.

Step nine: Rinse the object with cold water if possible.

Assignment 18: Ethan Petraitis

Well, the number one priority on my bucket list for highschool would have to be having all decent grades (A’s and B’s) all year. This is quite possibly the lamest thing anyone could have on a bucket list, but it’s where I’m addressing 100% of my effort for the next year. No skydiving or bullfighting here, just focus on what needs to be done.

For college, my bucket list is equally lame. I want to secure a job (really a career) before I get out of college. I don’t want to have to wander around for a year after I graduate, just trying to find out what to do with my life. Not for me. When I meet new people and they ask me what I’m going to do with my life, I want their response to be “Wow, this kid had it figured out, he knew what he was doing.” As long as a have a fulfilling college experience and a job lined up when I get out, I’ll be happy.

Alright, life. Here’s where I have flexibility. Before I kick the bucket, I want to have a large-ish fairly modern house made with lots of exposed oak and maple, some stone accents, and a little bit of property. That’s my end-game, a nice house. If I have a nice house that I’m proud of, I’ll have had a satisfying life. I’d like to move out west, somewhere like Montana or Colorado with forests and a lot of nature, somewhere that can get COLD in winter. I never cared much about skydiving, going to Paris, or anything like that.

This, this is number one on my bucket list, just look at that wall. That's one fine wall.

Assignment 25: Ethan Petraitis

Well since that advice one had me thinking about my amazing grandparents, I’ll start with that and see where I wind up:

Nearly every summer since I moved from New York, I would return to my homeland and stay with my grandparents in their small, older-than-dirt house whose wooden siding was just a little bit more decayed every summer. My grandfather used to work on racecars in their gigantically disproportionate garage, but now he devotes most of that space to fishing gear and the old, dusty trophies won before my mom was even thought of. I have a lot of fond memories of living in New York and going through the basement and the attic just searching for cool trophies and awards as a kid. My grandpa’s a great guy and he’s helped me get some awards and trophies of my own when I lived there. Here’s an example:



I use this mug almost every day, just as my grandfather uses his mugs. Every other night it seems, he would go to the kitchen at around ten at night, go to the freezer, and get himself a mug full of Rocky Road ice cream. I always thought this was fascinating, why use a mug for this instead of a bowl? Bowls are more conventional, why would he do something like that? Well, it’s a bowl with a handle, they fit easier in the dish washer, and he has so many of these ‘mug trophies’ laying around anyway, there was just no reason to use a bowl. I later found out that he used the same mug at night as he did for his morning coffee. Not only did it fit better in the dishwasher, there were fewer dishes to put in there to begin with! It’s the simple things like that that make me really appreciate him and I have a profound respect for my grandpa and everything that he’s accomplished in his life so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaOxi_18pG8 This is pretty interesting. I just found this video a few weeks ago. The first minute of this video is a brief summary of my Great Grandfathers legacy, and my Grandfather’s life pertaining to racing.