Monthly Archives: April 2018

The Sequel Is Never as Good as The Original.

Before I get started, make sure that you’ve read my previous blog post. If not, you can click/tap/whatever the preview thingy below.

What a DI-Saster

Hi there again folks. My name is Jason Guan and I will be walking you through another DI post. So, I won’t really be explaining a lot about what DI is and stuff like that in this post, so if you have absolutely no idea DI is or you have really terrible memory, then scroll up and read my recent blog post.

So, this is a continuation of my previous post, the last one being about regionals, and this one being about provincials. A bigger, better, DI tournament that’s a 40 minute drive from where I live. Needless to say, it was obviously incredibly fun…. Anyways, The Space Cows made their triumphant return after weeks and weeks of doing…… absolutely nothing. We did improve some things though. We made a literal backdrop and we also improved our lines by quite a bit.

In regionals, we ended up forgetting many of our lines, but we did a lot of rehearsing and managed to memorize all of our lines while adding several new (humerous?) lines. Also, we nearly ran out of time last time because we spent around a minute setting up the projector, but this time, we made a new backdrop with backdrop props hanging off of strings that we just hung over the edge.

Then came DI day. I got up at 6:30 in order to leave at around 7 and successfully make it to provincials. After we arrived and unloaded all the stuff (and there were a ton of props), we went to the gym for the assembly.

We then spent 2 hours rehearsing lines and awaiting our instant challenge. To be honest, I thought we did better than last time. Although I’m not allowed to reveal what we did during the challenge, we did our best and t’was a valiant effort.

After cheering on our fellow Seycove teams, it was time for some Super Special Superb Space Cow action. We graced the stage to thunderous moos from our adoring fans. And, even better, I DIDN’T FACE MY BACK TO THE AUDIENCE!!!

*clears throat* Sorry about that. Just really proud of myself. Anyways…. we did a darn good job. We remembered our key points in the script and nailed all of our lines. And guess what, WE GOT THIRD PLACE. Yep. Our hard work and dedication paid off as we were the only Grade 8 team to bring home a trophy and medals.

You know, DI was a really rewarding experience. I learned tons of new thing that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise, and I was able to solidify that with hours of hands on construction and research. I made some new friends and I got hands on experience. What else could you ask for in a school project? Sadly, I don’t think we’re allowed to go to globals unless we start a go fund me or a kickstarter that can make 5,000 dollars before May 23rd. So, this is my final DI post….. until next year. Be on the lookout for my next DI Post, DI 2: The DI-Ing.

Oh, wait a sec, I almost forgot a few things:

The DI Website

https://www.destinationimagination.org/proven-results/

If you’re up for a little more reading, here’s a link to the Destination Imagination website’s Proven Links section which basically compares the creativity levels of children who participate in DI as compared to children who don’t.

It’s pretty interesting stuff, so go check that out if you’re interested in participating in DI and need a little extra to convince you to join (you should).

The Project Management Steps

Here’s a list of the project management steps: Recognize, imagine, initiate, collaborate, assess, evaluate, and celebrate.

Recognize – So, I personally believe that recognize means recognizing any risky parts and fixing them. For us, that was our main attraction. Our first plan was for some sort of spring ride, but we quickly realized that this is real life, and there is no way to find an economy sized spring, so Fraser thought up our new ride, with the rocking horse concept.

Imagine – I think the main part where imagination played a big part was the location. At first, we were thinking of doing a generic planet like mars of Venus, but we realized that that was supremely boring. So, we looked at moons. We found Phobos, which is a moon of mars, and we found out that coincidentally, Phobos is the greek god of fear. We worked that into our story with the whole curse and artifact part.

Initiate and collaborate – It’s no surprise that I’m running out of words OK? For those of you who read my blog posts regularly, then you’ll know that I do tend to write too much sometimes, so I’m going to combine a few of these. We kind of did use two of these for one goal: To build a ride that doesn’t snap immediately once we put someone on it. We used our teamwork skills to cut, decorate, and finish our attraction and, surprise surprise, it did not fall apart.

Assess and evaluate – So, at the end of our performance, after a couple of hours, we see our raw scores, which only includes our score for the central challenge. Here’s ours:

We did an activity where we looked at our performance and our scores, then we said if they were accurate or not. This was OK, because we got to see our actual scores, instant challenge and everything.

Celebrate – Not much to say about this one. We got 3rd place, we celebrated, and we brought back home yet another trophy. Also, we took this cool group photo.

Oop. I just saw my face. I look like I just watched something very disturbing and are scarred mentally. Meh, what’re you going to do. I guess this is the end. Bye.

Until Next Time,

Yours Truly, Jason “The Pebble” Guan

Currently in a lawsuit against The Rock for a “blatant ripoff” of his nickname

A Stitch In Time

Guess what, it’s me again. Also, I’m not sure if this is the first time I’ve used this intro. All of my posts all really meld together after a while. Anyways, this post is going to be about the feudal ages. That’s right, not the dark ages, not the Renaissance, the feudal ages. Excited yet?

The Fall Of Rome

So, we started by looking at Rome, and more importantly, how it fell. We looked at some possible theories, and also at 3 different groups. The Franks (French), Anglo-Saxons (English), and the Vikings. We also created some very… interesting freeze frames depicting these groups. For your safety, I will shield your eyes from these, but beware. I’m just sayin’.

After the fall of Rome, we were put into different groups. My new group consisted of Gabby, Lucy, and Ben.

We were also introduced to our main question, “How did the crusades Impact our worldview?”. That’s right. More Worldview! Everybody’s favourite topic!

The Book Of The Lion

So, after all the introduction stuff, we got started. First, started reading a book called the Book Of The Lion. It was pretty intresting, and it was probably the most interesting book we’ve read so far. A lot of gore, a lot of crime, and many things that would not be allowed in school, but we read it anyways. (Don’t tell anybody). For example, in the first few chapters, a serf runs away from his master and someone gets his hand ‘chopped off. Pretty disturbing material.

After our introduction to the book, we started exploring myths as well. We started by looking at some well known myths and heroes. We started by looking at some famous historical myths, e.g. Hercules. We also did a case analysis of everyone’s favourite miscreant, Robin Hood. Unfortunately, I was sick the day we did this so I can’t really explain any further.

The Hero’s Journey

So, after the whole myths thing, we looked at the hero’s journey. Pretty much a story outline that most stories, tv shows, movies, etc, follow. Anything from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings to The Avengers And even the Magic School Bus can somehow relate to this set, with some varying aspects. Here’s a helpful video to help you learn more about what the Hero’s Journey is.

Also, here’s a helpful Crash Course about The Hero’s Journey And the Monomyth.

Finally, here’s a video showcasing some examples of the Hero’s Journey in classic, well known movies.

Feudalism

Meanwhile, as we were learning about myths and the hero’s journey, we learned about feudalism. Feudalism is pretty much the political system in use during the Middle Ages until the Renaissance. Now, Feudalism is some complicated stuff, so I’ll give you a short littl- wait a second, why explain it to you when I can just embed a YouTube video! I’m probably not lying when I say that most of you out there reading these posts, yeah you, you great 6 or maybe 7 people, would rather watch a YouTube video of someone much more entertaining than I am explain these topics, right? Cue the Crash Course!

The Crusades

Now, onto the Crusades. The Crusades were no laughing matter, you see. They were filled with death, and blood, and gore, and all other sorts of bad stuff. So I’ll give you a brief explanation before I put in another Crash Course. Pretty much, in the feudal ages, Jerusalem, the holy land, was in control by the Muslims, and the English/Christians wanted the land. So, pretty much, like what many historical wars have been fought over, they went ahead and tried to take it. Now, that was all going fine and dandy until this guy, Saladin, came along and just absolutely dominated the English. I forget the rest, so here’s yet another Crash Course.

So now, we were reaching the end. That’s right, it’s time to try to explain THE FINAL PROJECT.

The Final Project

Ok, So, our final project as a group consisted of 2 main parts. The story, and the quilt. We had to first write a story about 2 main protagonists (Heroes). A Christian And a Muslim. The goal here was to create 2 stories from 2 different points of view. The Christians were obsessed with killing and gore and victory, while the Muslims were kinda just there like “Who the heck are you people and what have we ever done to you.”

Our first draft was really weird. With like this time travel angle and this ancient relic and some weird futuristic rebels-it was strange. So, we simplified it. Our Christian hero, Joseph, is a young crusader, who falls off of a walk during combat. Our Muslim hero, Muhammad, sees Joseph and tries to save him. After Joseph wakes up, he sees his “enemy”, Muhammad, and lashes out and attacks Muhammad. Apparently, Joseph has a knack for injuring himself as he ends up hurting himself even further. Joseph learns that Muhammad isn’t an enemy and they try to team up and stop the war. When they question the elder, the elder informs them that the crusades cannot be stopped. The two heroes then leave Jerusalem in search of a better life.

Now we had to use symbolism and our young minds to turn these stories into quilts. To get us inspired, we went to an art gallery in North Vancouver called the Gordon Smith Gallery. There, we saw an exhibit about the First Nations people and a lot of symbolistic, abstract, modern art. P.S, if you didn’t know, I really dislike modern art. I think it looks OK, but it’s too confusing for me. You can’t really figure out the true meaning of an abstract painting unless there’s a plate beside it listing the meaning, or if you guess.

Also, we had donair there. If you didn’t know, donair is a piece of pita bread containing some sort of meat or falafel, vegetables, and some sort of sauce/spread. It was pretty gosh darn good. Also, donair meat is usually a long cylinder of seasoned meat that’s put into a broiler and cooked. The meat is then sliced off into strips and put into the donair. If you are questioning why I wrote an entire section about food and/or think I’m crazy for having done so, you obviously do not know me very well.

Now, back onto the quilts. For our quilts, they had to be double sided, meaning they should be symmetrical if you wanted to stitch it together. To be honest, I still don’t really understand our art to this day, but I’ll do my best to try to explain it. If my ramblings are too confusing for you to understand, go check out my group mates Gabby, Lucy, or Ben. They can probably provide you with better explainations than I ever could. Here we go. Wait, before I start, the 1st column is Story 1, And the 2nd column is Block 2. The rows are the block numbers.

(P.S. Try to imagine me saying these in a snooty, rich art collector voice while you read. Trust me.)

Story 1: Block 1

Here we see a magnificent display of colours dancing on the page as the white triangle surrounded by red is Joseph’s perception of Muhammad. The anger shines through in this work as we can tell the artist is very captivated by this story. The triangle with a piece missing is obviously Joseph, as he has indubitably injured himself.

Story 2: Block 1

Here we see yet another instalment of the crusade series, this one almost better than the last. Here we see Muhammad’s perspective captured in this absolutely divine masterpiece. The green represents the peace that Muhammad is trying to share, while Joseph is shutting him out.

Story 1: Block 2

This is the long awaited third instalment in the crusade series. It is incredibly well done as it shows the two figures’ dueling personalities with the fiery Joseph and the peaceful Muhammad. The colours dance across the page as the sun has risen. Once again, the artists’ usage of the colour red to symbolize anger is simply brilliant.

Story 2: Block 2

This one is incredibly similar to the last, although not as well executed. The 2 figures are still quite clearly represented as the artist still seems to be in control of this masterpiece.

Story 1 And 2: Block 3

Here we see our two magnificent characters walking into the picturesque sunset as they flee the site of the war. These are indubitably the best out of the bunch as they show that the characters have become one divine, cohesive unit. Bravo.

Ok. Now here’s some pictures of our quilt.

Ok. Whew. That was quite a post eh? Thanks for sitting through this. Really. Well, I guess that’s it.

Ntl nxt tm, yrs trly, Jsn Gn

Rmvng ll th vwls frm th nd f ths pst

(Hats off to you if you can crack the code)

What a DI-Saster

Guess what? I’m back! After a short 2-3 month break, I’m back with what might be my biggest post yet. In this post, I will be documenting the horror that is known as Destination Imagination (DI). So, without further ado, wait, I want to clear something up. Despite the negative representation that you might assume from reading this first paragraph and title, just know that I mean these things in a kind, supportive, constructive criticism-esque way.

So, I’ll start by explaining what the actual hel.. heck DI is. Destination Imagination is a contest in which teams of 3-7 children and youth compete various challenges. There are 5 main types of challenges. Technical, Engineering, Scientific, Fine Arts, And Improvisation. In our class, they sent us google forms for what kinds of challenges we wanted to do and I was put into the scientific challenge. Here are some brief summaries of the various challenges available this year. Also, I’ve embedded some DI YouTube videos in this post, so feel free to watch those as well.

Technical: Maze Craze: Teams will create a small RC vehicle capable of entering a randomly selected maze and retrieving an item. They will then create a story for the traveller and act it out while operating the traveller.

Engineering: Drop Zone: Teams will create a freestanding (capable of standing by itself) structure made of cork, wood, and glue. It will be tested with many weights and the team will also have to create a story based around the structure and the dropping of weights.

Scientific (The best one, obviously): Unlikely Attraction: Teams will create an amusement park attraction and a story about the attraction operating in an unlikely location. The location must be someplace attractions would not commonly be found.

Fine Arts: Change Of Tune: Teams must create and rehearse a full musical comprising of song, dance, and an unforgettable event called the spectacle. My guess is that the spectacle should probably be a good surprise and child appropriate, so….

Improv: TREASURE: Ok, so the reason I typed treasure in all caps is because the kids in the video seemed really excited for this one, and I mean REALLY. Anyways, Teams in this challenge will have to research many historical explorers and cultural treasures in order to be prepared, because on the day of the performance, they will be randomly given 2 explorers and a cultural treasure to create an improv show with. They will also receive a randomly picked setback that they will have to work into their play. Also, all they get in terms of props is a white sheet, so some real spooky ghost opportunities there, just sayin’.

Also, every team must do an instant challenge, in which teams are randomly given a challenge and they must think up a solution on the spot.

Now onto our Story. First, we were put into teams. I was grouped up with Fraser, Luciano, and Kyle. We then brainstormed some ideas for what we were going to do. We decided on our attraction being located on Phobos, a moon of mars. The idea was for the ride to curse people that rode it because Phobos is the Greek god of fear. Our initial main ride idea was for this big, weird, mechanical bull spring toy UFO thingy that would just make me look like an idiot if I tried to explain it. I’m not an idiot, right? Right? Come on, someone back me up here! Anyways… we hit a huge speed bump midway through planning. Amazon unfortunately does not sell large springs like you see under every cartoon vehicle’s seat. This is another instance of cartoons blatantly lying To is as kids, right in front of our little gullible faces. After, that whole ordeal, Fraser came up with the idea of making a rocking horse type contraction and making it look like a UFO. Also, we came up with possibly the greatest team name of all time, The Space Cows.

About 2/3 of the way through, we started construction. And boy, did it take a long time. At first, we had to do the measuring, which was maybe 40-45 minutes of absolute, pure, 100% concentrated agony. Then we did something fun. Cutting things with power tools. Unfortunately, nobody trusts me around power tools, and with good reason, so I pretty much acted like a human paperweight.

After that, we all met up again to finish screwing it together and again, I still cannot be trusted with power tools. After that, the other members went and put some cardboard all over it to give it a rounded shape. Finally, we met up for the final time and put silver duct tape all over it to make it look pretty. Here is a timeline compilation to the tune of the Rasta Man himself, Bob Marley.

https://youtu.be/xC2yTbtVRMI

After all of the hardship, the pain, and all the moments that would have made the average man give up, we persevered thr- you know what, I can’t keep this up for much longer. It wasn’t that bad. Anyways, t’was DI Day. Although emotions were swirling that day, we had one common thought. No one wants to go to school on Saturday. Also, I WILL CRUSH ANY OTHER TEAM THAT TRIES TO TAKE US ON UNTIL THEY ARE NOTHING BUT A LOSING PILE OF DUST! *clears throat* Sorry about that. That was my suppressed rage talking. We all had 1 common goal: To take that W. And (spoiler alert), that’s exactly what we did. That’s right, we WON! I’d like to think my- wait, what? There’s still provincials? Regionals was just a warm up? Wow. Way to crush my happiness, inner me. Anyways, it was pretty nerve-wracking, having to go 2 hours after the opening ceremony. Also, I just was to say, Regionals were chaotic. Feelings were flying, and so were some of the props after the people with the flying feelings got to them. We really had to rush the paint jobs and I think we still did a good job.

That’s Kyle, by the way. I’d link his blog again but I’m too lazy. The link is somewhere up there. If you look hard enough. After the preparation, we were put through an intense line of questioning such as: “do you have any fireworks” and “are you carrying any fire extinguishers”. Not long after that, it was showtime. We put on a great, Oscar worthy performance, even though critics say my back was turned for 1 minute. Anyways, we brought the gold back to Seycove and now we’re ready. Provincials, here come the Space Cows!

Truly Yours, Guan Jason

Up getting currently his words mixed