mPOL

Bon soir my gracious parents and enlightening teachers.

You know what’s going on here, so I’ll spare you any explanations.

Throughout the latest school year, I did quite well in the school projects we were given. I am satisfied with how I did, although I know that I could’ve done a lot more. The teachers also introduced a new system for learning, a Zettelkasten. I’ve been using this zettelkasten throughout the last few months to annotate things I’m interested in. I’d then also write down all the insights I’d have and document my ideas for later use or expansions. 

Think You Can Do Better

Anyways, the first project we had this year was ‘Think You Can Do Better?’. In it we learned about how the Canadian government is structured, and how political parties operate. In short, we learned how to become informed citizens. For the project made our own political parties, mine was made up of Amy, Nathan, Ryder, and I. Just so you know, we’re all lefties but me and Nathan are authleft, and culturally center-left whereas Amy and Ryder are lib-left and culturally far left. This meant that most almost everything was a compromise. We were also slowed down by it because it lead to some infighting. Despite that, we completed the project, and I learned a lot about the Canadian gov which I hadn’t considered before that project. This was also helped by my work experience job being at the MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) office in North Vancouver, where I learned a lot about the day to day tasks and duties of the Canadian gov. I also came away with a few ideas which were the kinds of things that people in positions of power are concerned with, like the effect of the declining birth rate on the economy, and how the capitalist systems of North America will detriment a lot of people due to their inability to accomplish any necessary tasks that don’t make any profits, such as providing housing, or cleansing the environment of all the toxic chemicals that they’re spewing out of their factories. If it doesn’t generate capital in a short time, they wont do it.

Ology of an Apology

Our next project was ‘Ology of an Apology’. At the start of this project we also got introduced to the Zettelkasten. For this project we created memorials for the various actions carried out by the BC gov against the three major distinct asian races, the Japanese, the Chinese, and the South Asians (British Raj). With this project, I think that our group worked very well because we all made our own separate tasks and managed to create our showcase over the weekend, with minimal delays. Our combined skills led to a very good outcome.

“Romeo Romeo! Why Are We Still Talking About Romeo?”

We also just finished ‘Romeo Romeo! Why Are We Still Talking About Romeo?’ In this project, we read Romeo and Juliet and compared it to different versions which were produced in different times. It was a great way to see how the different times and places made the media so different while still telling exactly the same story. I got sick during the third week but managed to recover just in time to film our act. In it I play a mobster, and Juliet. The filming of the video was lots of fun although all of our fingers hurt because we were filming outside at around 0 degrees in our not so insulated costumes. I’ve gotta thank Jordan for his great editing and screenplay. I had been sick during the making of the screenplay and did quite a bit of the project on my own due to isolation. I think the biggest lesson I had learned from that projects were the core ideas displayed in Romeo and Juliet and how they could be transcribed into different concepts while still carrying the ideas.