Author: Ray
I was watching the archery finals of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games when I got a notification from my latest archery regional tournament. This was not one of my best scores, and I ended up placing in the top 50 of my division. I was filled with deep despair as I realized the nationals were only a few weeks away. If I performed unsatisfactorily in this tournament, it would leave a stain on my passion for archery. Starting a few years after the pandemic, I had picked up archery as a hobby. Since then, I grew fond of archery and…
Afterschool Practice It was a beautiful day in the spring of 2024. The school day had just ended, but my journey towards becoming part of the basketball team had not yet begun. My friends and I waited in the cafeteria and anticipated our weekly practice. This was an important day because we were going to be awarded our jerseys. we headed toward the playground of our elementary school. Our coach, Mr. Steven was waiting there with a package of our new jerseys. He had a list of names and called us one by one. After a few names, I heard…
I arrived at the Onelife pool already dressed in proper swimwear. Coach Rod informed me of the warm up routine, which in this case was fifty-meter butterfly, fifty-meter backstroke, fifty-meter breaststroke, then fifty-meter freestyle. I jumped into the pool and waited for my body to adjust to the water temperature. While I was completing the warm-up, Coach Rod went over the warm-up procedure with later arrivals. “Swimming is a sport of details. The smallest adjustments can make the biggest difference.” UNKNOWN As soon as I finished the warm-up, I noticed that on the schedule board, there was bold lettering that…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmcIx788DEU
I enjoy playing different types of strategy card games, including games by Unstable Games (a studio’s name), such as Casting Shadows, as shown in the featured picture above. After gaining experience playing card games, I decided to make my own game. I started off by choosing a specific type of game play. I want this card game to mainly revolve around different abilities and dice. For its theme, I chose a historical episode from ancient China, the Three Kingdoms. I wanted this game to include historical figures from this important period of Chinese history, so that the game is not only…
This book is an autobiography by Tara Westover, mainly to share her life stories, her course of education, and how education transformed her. She starts off by introducing her father who had been collecting tools and supplies for the upcoming event called Y2K. Y2K was the time when the computer calendar had to change to the year 2000. Many people believed that doing this would be impossible, and all the computers would malfunction and deprive people of many basic necessities. This is why Tara’s dad, Gene, collected supplies to last through the chaos that might ensue. Tara’s family is Mormon,…
The objective & how I designed the dragster In my engineering class with Mr. Buckley, we were asked to design the fastest car possible that meets the following requirements: we have to use the piece of wood that we are given, but it also has to have a certain weight (so that no one is getting an advantage by designing unrealistically small dragsters). I designed my first version taking inspiration from many Formula 1 cars, but I soon found that I was going in the wrong direction. This is because, unlike the F1 cars that are driven by the wheels,…
I have created many Scratch games, each with its own unique style. In every game, I try my best to come up with novel ideas and intriguing art. Most of my games use pixel art which I make by myself. I never use elements from other people’s games for my design, because I like to keep it original. One of my most worked on games is called “Pirate Bay.” Pirate Bay Pirate Bay is a game that I am proud of making on Scratch. This is a single-player game featuring a pirate theme. The player is encouraged to explore the…
https://youtu.be/ru0YRxQEU4Q
Before creating a robot—any robot—the best course of action is to thoroughly plan out each objective and correlated mechanism. This is because the foundation is what will be burdened with the most work. A robot with an unplanned drivetrain will only require more adjustments after other structures unveil problems. I knew that after a few months, our robot would be put up for the real test: official competitions against other robots. This—of course—meant that not only would I need to get this robot to be able to complete these tasks, but also be the best at doing these. I think…