The Source of Innocence

In this world of violence, sex and drugs, where is a source of innocence in the United States?

Television is no help; take a look at any drama show and you see R rated stuff. Grand Theft Auto has effectively made games the prime target for violence and sex while 4chan has decimated the web's chance of being viewed as innocent. Reading materials aren't that much better either: Newspaper exhibits the violence of this world and the some books are so graphic that, what they create with words, could be considered pornographic. What's so far untouched?

Old-fashioned comics.

I'm not talking xkcd comics here, in fact some a quarter references sex (with that hint of science and math of course); I'm talking about normal stuff you see in the newspaper everyday. Foxtrot, B.C., Hagar the Horrible, and Blondie etc.

Dagwood's wife Blondie is quite curvy and, dare I say, voluptuous. Still Dagwood never mentions anything about having sex with his wife even while laying in bed (which happens quite a few times). Rather Mr. Dagwood is more focused on eating sandwiches and napping. The same theme can be seen in Zits, the comic about teenagers. Many times Jeramey Duncan dreams of going out with Sara but never once did it mention sex.

Violence is also downplayed greatly. Beetle Bailey, the comic on soldiers and war, makes war seems as though it is fun by showing the funny pitfalls of commanders and their leaders. Hagar the Horrible constantly goes to war to raid various places but never in the strip to they mention death or suffering.

There still is one spot of refuge left for humor without the influx of dark influences.

-runiteking1

Got comments? Post them below!

Dear Need For Speed

Driving, the act of it anyways, is trivial for most teens now. All the people in my generation played one of those arcade racing games and some (like your's truly) went even further by purchasing a wheel and pedal set so I can play it at home.

Of course, this has several consequences:

1. Teens now can basically drive the moment they get into a car
2. Teens now like to speed a butt-load
3. Teens parking skills are something to be looked upon like a plague

Numbers one and two can't really be addressed by racing games but three can be. So instead of Need for Speed Pro Steet game, it'll be Need for Proking! Guaranteed to improve your parking skills in thirty-two simple levels.

I need to go practice my parking.. be back later.


-runiteking1

Got comments? Post them below!

What They Don't Teach in Band Camp

The time I went from pre-camp to normal camp as a freshman proved to be shocking to a certain extent. For the entire period of two to three days, everything I've been doing involved marching in straight lines with only 8 to 5 steps; the first three sets of the Spanish show involved me marching in non-straight lines (ie curved) with adjusted steps. So what exactly isn't really taught at band camp but still needed?

The number one thing to a good show is knowing your parts, sets and maneuvers but considering that one hundred people that are not all equally motivated to learn them are marching with you (what happened to the smaller competitive band idea?), you need to "dress to form"; in other words awareness.

So how do you exactly dress to form? Three things:

1. Simple geometry. I hope you know what a straight line is like... or a curved line.
2. What part of the geometry you're part of. You can usually cheat this by seeing what others are doing, but I'm not endorsing it.
   
3. Where in the world you are in the line (you may not use a GPS).
   

Lets take an example. 

You are the red dot, and this is suppose to be a line. What should you do? Move up or down (depends on your perspective) right? On the field, anytime if you're in a straight line you should be able to see parts of the peoples standing next to you. If you don't, move back. If you see their hair hanging on their collars, move forward. This should be second nature by the end of the season for all you freshman.

Curves and diagonals are kind of funny. Since they're more a "2D" feel (not really.. they're still lines... ), you have to either move in the vertical or horizontal direction. The general rule of thumb is to adjust forwards and backwards as left and right intervals are usually too noticeable to the Box of Judgement (press box). If you really need an example to be drawn out, and waste another 10 minutes of my life working a graphics program, facebook me.

Another thing is uniformity. In my opinion, we spend way too much time worrying about uniforms (and those darn hair) which is WAY less visible than those darn horn angles. If you wear white socks, I doubt the judges would notice if the person next to you is holding his/her flute at a complementary angle to your angle (go do some geometry, good for your brain). While you're marching around, remember to follow your section leader in their example of horn angle. I don't care if your arms gets tired, you'll build up awesome muscles if it gets tired.


But when you're tired, deep into the third tune, with bases loaded and no outs, still remember to hit your key spots. One such spot is opening set, where I think half the band don't know how far to go past the hash (kudos to Brent for knowing where to go every time we set up off the field). That's a pretty critical set. Other such places you should hit is when you're leading a line with a follow the leader maneuver. Don't be like Kool-Aid guy and lead people to doom in front of trombones, know where you're going (you should know where you're going at all times anyways.... but this is especially important). Also of importance: point of diagonal, front of vertical line, furthest point back etc.

Several other stuff I've noticed over the years that I can't really elaborate much on, or self explanatory:

•  It helps greatly to play a sport or be in shape, marching was a PE credit back in George Bush's regime for a reason.
• Wind players need to blow more from the stomach, I see lots of people raising their shoulders to breath meaning a shallow breath and no air for Pedro.
• Keep the tune in mind when you march, the tune usually corresponds to a lift (with the exception of any way you want it... which we could easily fix...... >.>)
• Learn to judge depth by using your angle to the podiums (maybe this work for mathy people but that's how I judge sometimes, and it helps)
• Don't get too close to the person to the left or right of you. The person on the opposite side will get lonely.

My 2 cents.

NOTICE: DCI people all memorize where to go and exactly how to get there, this is for those people who don't practice for 15 hours a week on the field. Still please learn your spots. I didn't touch on fundamentals as I assumed that we've catched them by now...


-runiteking1

Got comments? Post them below!

So Yeah... The Finger Game Is Rigged

When kids get bored, they make up games. One of the easiest games to play is of course the "Finger Game." You know, the one where you tap the opponent hand to increase the number of fingers he or she has to hold up? And if one of the hands reaches more than 4, than the hand is out.

Assuming no splits (Tapping your own hands to redistribute the number), I found out player two can always win. A few minutes of boredom made me draw up a simple tree of each move each player can do. I assumed the following: having two hands out is better than one (meaning that the player will strike out a hand as soon as possible) and no stupid moves to the depth of one (translation: not commiting suicide by seeing only one move ahead).

So by the second move, the hands will look like 1 1 - 2 1 (1 on left hand and right hand for P1 and 2 on left hand and 1 on right hand for P2). If player two strikes P1 with the 2 hand, P2 will lose as P1 can easily get out one hand of the opponent.

Now, if player two strikes with the one hand, then no matter what P1 does, he or she will lose. If P1 makes it a 2 1 - 2 2, P2 can win it by striking the one (try it out yourself if you don't believe me). Or if P1 makes it a 2 1 - 4 1 or a 2 1 - 3 2 game, both results in  P1 getting into too huge a hole (down by a whole hand) to be able to climb out of the hole.

I should really write a computer program to simulate the whole fingers with split...

-runiteking1

Got comments? Post them below!

The Chem Helper

Chemistry is somewhat busy work. A lot of it (at least so far) involves reaching for a periodic table and then adding the molar mass up. And then there's the stoichometry part of it, the tedious multiplying by ratios that we already tested on.

Wolfram Alpha can help with all that.

If you never been to wolframalpha.com, you're in for a treat. Need the molar mass of bromochlorodifluoromethane (CBrClF2, could totally happen)? Just type in

CBrClF2 Molar Mass

into the search box. Or if you like, you could also say

bromochlorodifluoromethane Molar Mass

pretty cool eh?  Also the team may also release features such as reaction predictions etc. But so far, molar mass is pretty much the thing that takes up the most time (at least for me).

This post will probably be updated as the chem class progresses for either new features or new ways to exploit it.

-runiteking1

Got comments? Post them below!