The Stage (That Of Which It Came)

Hello, my name is J.N., and I am from a school in Chicago called GCE(Global Citizen Experience). What we do is we learn differently compared to Chicago Public Schools. We try to learn and experience outside of the classroom, and use that experience later on in life. Right now, I'm taking a class known as Stage Chemistry, and what we do is that we learn the science behind creating theaters. For an assignment,we were suppose to measure and draw factors from a space/building that could be potentially used as a stage, to demonstrate our learning.

I had multiple achievements and struggles while doing this action project. One of my struggles was getting measurements, since I had to areas that I couldn't reach, as well as areas that needed two people to measure. The other struggle would have to calculations, since sometimes I would mess up, and I would need to change large parts of my assignment because of that one flaw. But still, even though the action project took more time than I thought, I am proud of my action project, and I hope you enjoy.

Rationale

If I ever create a theatre I would build it at my tae kwon doe gym, BMA Martial Arts. The reason being is that I knew and memorised the place well, since I go there about three times a week in a row(Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). I also believe it had the perfect elements to create a stage, with a high ceiling, and carpeted floors. It also had some potable sound equipment, as well as storage room, an office that can be used as a lounge, and multiple bathrooms.

Since the project was all about finding a stage for any play, I felt that this building would be the perfect place. Even though there is no stage, that does not mean a stage could be built inside. It was especially perfect for the play I wanted to show called Undertale. It has a large ceiling, so it brings the idea of monsters being trapped underground.

The one problem with this stage would be the structure of the ceiling. The ceiling could have the potential to for curtains, but then we would need to modify it first to make it work. But besides that, everything would be perfect for the play. There is enough rooms to be used, enough room in the gym to have several seats and build a stage.There is even extra parking space outside. This building would be perfect for a proscenium stage.

Eric B. "BMA Martial Arts" bmamartialarts.net 3/20/17

Comparisons

Albert’s Theater	My Theatre	Percentage
Carpeting(sound absorption) 546.25 feet for carpeting	Carpeting(sound absorption) 1416 feet for carpeting	1416/546.25 x 100 = 259%
Seating(fullhouse) 856 seats in the theatre.	Seating(fullhouse) 56 seats in my theatre.	56/856 x100= 6.54%
Stage(feet) 4000 feat for the stage	Stage(feet) 500 feet for the stage	500/4000 x 100= 12.5%
Actor’s lounge/room(largest one)   115 ft	Actors lounge(largest/only one)   109 ft	109/115 x 100= 94%
Prop Storage 312.5 ft	Prop Storage 35.6 ft	35.6/312.5 x 100= 11.3%
Nearest Restaurant (Corner Bakery Cafe) 384 ft	Nearest Restaurant (Zacarelli's Pizza) 22.5 ft	22.5/384 x 100 = 5.8%

Dreams, Dreamcatchers, and So Much More.

My name is J.N, and I learn at GCE lab school. For a class, I take WAI(Who Am I), which teaches philosophy, philosophers, history, and much more. Wha we had to do for our action project is that we had to create a dream catcher, and symbolizes what the dreamcatcher represents. What I am mostly proud of is that I worked on creating the dreamcatcher in a different style than most dreamcatchers in my class. I hope you enjoy my explanation.

When think of a "great creator" or "a force of nature", one thing came to mind. I have always had the idea that life was not centered around ghost, spirits, or even god. But rather, it would mainly be between cause and effect that we presume is something spirital or magical. For example, if a very religion person was almost killed by a bullet out of nowhere, they would somewhat say that god wanted them alive. To myself, that is simply not the case. There were certain factors that lead that person being alive, without us recognising them. It could have been that the shooter was a lazy shoot, or that he had a second thought do to past experiences. Either way, it's more possible for someone to change their mind about shooting someone, rather than a spirits moving the bullet in an angle farther away while defining the laws of physics. Which is why my center of my dream catcher is a die. It represents cause and effect mistaken for unexplained forces at it's best. One could say that the die rolling on a retain number would be consider luck, but in reality, it would be how fast the person's arm movement is, how heavy the die is, and what is the distance the die was thrown, resulting in loss of energy. The die is supposed to represent math and science mistaken for magic or luck.

How my dreamcatcher is shaped also helps with my idea of math and science being the true force of nature. My dreamcatcher(unlike others) is shaped like a pentagon. It represents two things: separation of traits, quality of the dream.

"Separation of traits" is supposed to represent the relationship between the colors on my dreamcatcher. As you can already see, the main colors are red, yellow, orange, purple, and black. Each has a certain trait that I want my dreams to have. Each dream I want needs to have morals or lesson that my psyche is trying to tell me. This theme would have to be a trait from my personality. This allows the dream to be more familiar and easy to understand. For example, the color red represents determination or passion. If I dreamed about something or someone being determined, this trait would follow me until the end of my dream, trying to teaching me a lesson about being a better person. The same idea is with all the colors on the dreamcatcher. Yellow represents cheerfulness, orange represents enthusiasm, and purple with creativity. Each one represents a certain dream that must mainly have this trait in order for the lesson to work. The final one, black, would be my last resort to learning a lesson if I refuse to understand it. If a dream or multiple dreams couldn't teach me a lesson, then the black trait would need to come in. Black is supposed to symbolise depression, death, and darkness. Black would be the trait that wouldn't create a wonderful dream, but a dark nightmare. The reason black has to exists on my dream catcher is sometimes a person needs a bad experience in order to learn something. If I was stubborn to learn this lesson, or didn't gain the lesson at all, I would rather suffer multiple nightmares, then to not learn anything at all.

"Quality of the Dream" is another reason why the dreamcatcher is shaped the way it is. Between the colors or "traits" of the dream catcher, there are golden. Then, there also the spider net, which is also a golden color. Gold is supposed to represent quality within an item. So, when creating the dream catcher, I thought that in order for it to be successful, it needed to have some quality. This is why their are five points within my dreamcatcher. These gold points represents quality, but separates the other traits from mixing within each other, allowing focuses on each dream to have an individual trait. The dream catcher also has the sides each evenly measured, so that each trait could have an equal, but large amount of influence on the dream. Yet, depending on which part of the pentagon it's on, is used more and less. For example, red or yellow would be the traits in order to teach me a lesson the first since it is at the top, while black is the last to teach me since it is at the bottom.

When I was eleven, there was this dream that was the main inspiration with for the dream catcher to bring nightmares. It starts of with my friends in a circle, playing a sort of game. We were near a church site, and it was snowy. My sister was in the background, reading. Eventually, she walked out on us to a near by gate, and left without a trace. After an hour, my mother told me to find her. I was walking around, when I found red snow. I followed it, and as the more I followed, the more I saw of human remains. I eventually got to the edge of a dark ally way that didn't have much length to it. Right there, I saw my sister, and the remains off what she once was. Her face was torn, and you could see her flesh, as if she didn't have any skin on it at all. The dream then faded into a church room. Where my mother was wearing funeral clothes, and at the middle of the back of the church, stood a coffin resting on a marble table.

This dream is was so memorable. It felt so real, that after I woke up, it was hard to realise that it was fake. When I was eleven, my sister ignored me, and sometimes called me idiot. Not only that, but most of the time, she would admire my younger brother like he was a prince. She would always look at me as if I was some kid that ruined everything. I always wondered why couldn't she like me more. I always wondered if she hated me. I felt like this dream was trying to ask me this question in order to learn a lesson "Would you really be happy if she was gone?". I had always been questioning if I loved my sister, and I never got a true answer from myself.

My reaction to this dream proves that, no matter what, I will always love my sister. I wouldn't enjoy her being gone, I would be terrified. I don't remember having dreams like that anymore, but I wish I did, because it was not my ego controlling this, but a mixture between my id and my superego. The id being that I love my sister as family, and the superego telling me that I wouldn't enjoy her being gone. I feel like their was no ego, there was no comprise, only a trait a mystery and dread throughout my dream. I feel like this dream was, possibly, the most important dream of my childhood. This is why I want nightmares that teach in dreams. I want to have a nightmare to teach myself to become a better person. I would like to have more of these dreams. I would like to have more of these nightmares.

Citations
"Color Meaning"  color-wheel-pro.com   Feb 27, 2017
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

J.N  "Dream Catcher" Own Work  Feb 27, 2017

J.N "Dream Catcher 2" Own Work  Feb 27, 2017

Pollution, and How to End It

My name is JN, and I go to GCE Lab School. I take multiple classes, including Fuel. Fuel is my math and science class, in which we try to learn subjects such as pollution, resources, slope, data, and much more. For my Fuel class, what my class and I had to do is that each of us needs to create an essay about ways to lower pollution. I am happy that I finished my assignment on time, and I am proud of the solutions I had for this essay. I hope you enjoy.

2016 Geothermal Election.

My name is JN, I am student at GCE lab school, and my science/math class is called fuel. We learned different types of resources, elements, graphs, and much more. What we had to do for our action project is that we had to create a presentation on a renewable energy of our choosing. I choose geothermal energy as my resource. But my presentation also contains stop motion, unlike other presentations in my class. I am mainly proud of the content, and how much work I put into creating the animation. This video will just mainly be about explaining the benefits of geothermal energy, and why you should buy it.

"Geothermal Energy"renewableenergyworld.com  Feb 5, 2017
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/geothermal-energy/tech.html

"How Geothermal Energy Works"  ucsusa.org   Feb 5, 2017

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/how-geothermal-energy-works.html#.WJSpXRIrIWI

"Advantages and Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy"  greenmatch.co.uk   Feb 5, 2017

http://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/2014/04/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-geothermal-energy

"Geothermal Heating Cost Installation" fixr.com    Feb 5, 2017

https://www.fixr.com/costs/geothermal-heat-installation

"Geothermal Energy Association"  energy.org/   Feb 5, 2017

http://www.geo-energy.org/geo_basics_employement.aspx

"geothermal energy" nationalgeographic.org   Feb 5, 2017

http://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/geothermal-energy/

"The Hydro and Geothermal History"  askjaenergy.com   Feb 5, 2017

https://askjaenergy.com/iceland-renewable-energy-sources/hydro-and-geothermal-history/

"Installation" "Cost" energyhomes.org   Feb 5, 2017

http://www.energyhomes.org/renewable%20technology/geoinstallation.html

"Estimating Geothermal Cost and Payback"  esquire.com  Feb 5, 2017

http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/money/a11008/geothermal-cost-payback-0911/

Toby Fox  "Undertale OST- Hotel Extended"  youtube.com  Feb 6, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMbe6C9dLyI

What is Death?

My name is J.N, and I am a student at GCE lab school. I am in a class title "Who am I" We learn about philosophy, history, and different ideas plagued in history. We go on multiple Field Experiences in order to understand on what truth and memory are. In this class, we are supposed to do a podcast for an Action Project. Each of my classmates had to decide on what we remember, believe, and had to explain why we choose the topic. I have alway wanted to talk about how society precise atheist, and why we believe religion.I have worked on weeks with this podcasts, as well as getting help from my teachers. I had to record this script multiple times in order to get the podcast right. One of the biggest challenges in create this podcast would be to try to shorten it for the time limit.

I am proud of the topic I explained in this podcast. I hope my ideas brings upon new perspective on religion, and society in general. I would like to thank my teachers for helping me create this podcast. I hope you all enjoy.

 

I have always been optimistic about everything. If I would see any dog, I would admire it. If I saw an half empty cup of milk, I would think of it as half full. But I was never optimistic about death.

 I shudder at the idea of death because you can’t stop it no matter how hard you try. To me, the idea of what happens after death haunts me. My mother on the other hand is a high Catholic believer, and had her god in her heart since she was young. But I was never a true believer in religion.

 I always saw the “lord’s” watching as inhuman, and dark, instead of the idea of safety. I have always hated church. My church community would not only try to encourage, but force me to go into group summonings for children. But the more I grew, the more I began to question. I started to hear people talk about their lord and from my perspective, they sounded idiotic. As I grew older, I couldn’t understand the “greatness” of religion.

 It wasn’t until in middle-school when I met a friend named Pablo, who is an atheist. Seeing his life influenced my ideas on religion. It wasn’t until later on that I became an atheist and had certain ideals and opinions on religion. I believe religion was created to confront the idea of death, and that those people who would disagree on religion would be rejected or ridiculed, since they are disturbing or ruining the “truth” religionist have created.

 Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” makes the reader question something about themselves. Whether it would be their existence, intelligence, or identity . If you don’t know the story, it goes like this. There are prisoners trapped in a cave since childbirth. There is a light shining behind them, and they can only see the shadows of the real world. One day, one prisoner is freed and goes out into the real world. He is blinded by the light of the sun at first, but eventually begins to see. He could have lived in the outside world for the rest of his life, but instead goes back to the other prisoners to tell them what he saw. When he confronts his fellow prisoners, they believe he is crazy, and kills him.

 To me, the moral of the story is how people perceive the truth and how a person is marked as insane or ridiculous, since they think differently. Just how the prisoners believed that our main prisoner was crazy, the same concept goes for people who would think differently about death or religion. There have been multiple famous historical figures who were called crazy for thinking beyond the idea of society and religion, such as Socrates, and are somewhat punished for it. Even when we see these examples, similar events still happen today.

 Religion was created in order to give us a comforting idea on death. We humans are curious creatures, and since we didn’t have much access to the answers such as where we come from, we humans decided to create religion in order to answer these question. We chose to create the answers and reject the truth that state otherwise. In the article “Why Is There Religion” on foundalis.com, the author Harry Foundalis states “ Religion is something like fat: it’s an added feature that used to be useful for our survival in the past, but now causes mostly harm to humankind.”

 Truth is defined as knowledge that is realistic, ideas that are cannot be avoided in this world. Knowledge that isn’t fiction. But we humans can’t stand the idea of nothing when coming onto the idea of death. Especially when it comes to my family, since they are mainly Catholic. In the words of Harry Foundalis “But what nurtures the human psyche with courage is not the particular idea of salvation, but the more general one of afterlife, the hope that death is not the end of it all.”

 We can’t avoid death, but that doesn’t mean we can’t accept life. Sure, you can think that we become nothing, and be scared of death, or you live your life the way you wanted to. Unlike death, you can change life, and you do know what happens in life, good or bad. Not only that, but there might be proof of life not ending when death comes. In the article “First Hint of ‘Life After Death’ in biggest ever scientific study” on telegraph.co.uk, It states “ Of 2,060 cardiac arrest patients studied, 330 survived and of 140 surveyed, 39 per cent said they had experienced some kind of awareness while being resuscitated”. Don’t fear death, but rather live life.



Harry Foundalis “Why is There Religion” foundalis.com Jan 25, 2017
http://www.foundalis.com/rlg/WhenceReligion.htm

Sarah Knapton, “First Hint of ‘Life After Death’ in biggest ever scientific study” telegraph.co.uk Jan 26, 2017
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/12/first-hint-of-life-after-death-in-biggest-ever-scientific-study/

“Relaxing Piano Music, Peaceful Music, Relaxing, Meditation Music, Background Music, ☯2982” youtube.com Jan 29, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh6TE6dDwuI

“CAVE SOUNDS” youtube.com Jan 29, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVhZMcBOPWE

The Most Well-Known Fuel in the World.

Coal is the most well known fuel/fossil fuel in the world. It created the industrial revolution, and has advanced human society to where it is now. Today it is known to power homes, buildings, lighting, and everything else that uses electricity. But when burned, it releases CO2 into the air. Since there is always electricity, there is always too much coal burning in order to bring energy to our houses. The more CO2 in the air, the more the atmosphere traps heat, thus creating global warming.

My name is J.N., and I attended at GCE lab school. My class and I are in Fuel, and we are studying resources and which types of fuels are better for the world. For a project, we have to create a slideshow to show the dangers and how much coal the US consumes. I am proud on working on my project's calculations. I hope you all enjoy.

Just Leave... the post

My name is J.N, and I attend at GCE Lab school. I am taking a class known as Radio-rithmetic and learned about different genres, dissonance and consonance, and ways to edit music. We went on multiple FEs such as Chicago Recording Company, Chicago’s "The Drive" radio station, and many more. What we are doing for our final assignment or project is that we are creating a song or a remix of a song. I chose to create my own original song rather than remix or reuse someone else's song. Even though there are some samples of other musician’s songs, most of this song is mainly original. I am proud of creating the lyrics and the guitar chords/order of the song, and I am proud of the song in general. I hope you enjoy.


When I was first introduced to this project, I was excited. I always wanted to create a song of my own, but I was always a procrastinator to do so. Now that I have to as an assignment, I began to think about what song I would create. First, I wanted to create a completely original song of my own. I also wanted to get out of my comfort zone of a comedian. I decided to create, or at least try to create a sad and passionate song. Even though it didn't turn into what I hoped it to be, I am still happy about it. I took inspiration from Louis Armstrong’s "What a Wonderful Word" and songs from Rebecca Sugar such as "Here Comes a Thought".

When first creating the song, I wanted to start with the lyrics. I believe what creates a good song is the story. Of course, the lyrics were supposed to be sung by a female singer. But no one was available, so I had to sing it for myself. I used autotune in order to make the song sound more professional and more female based, since this part was made specifically for a female singer. I also used some delay in order to create a better intensity for the listener to hear. I am happy with the delay I first created, and kept it throughout the song.

After I created the lyrics, I started to make the audio and sounds. The first audio I made were the drums, since they were simple to create. I decided to use the 4/4 time sequence as my drum beat. The reason being was because it was the easiest drumbeat to create. It also allowed the listener to follow along with the song and the rhythm.

J.N, "Drum beat Sequence"  Own Work, Dec 15 2016

Once done with the drum beat and the lyrics, I decide to make the intervals and notes for the chorus of the song. At first, I used violin notes to follow along with the chorus lyrics. But the end product from the violin was out of tune and way too scratchy. So, with the help of my guitar teacher Sat Raymon, we used guitar chords for the chorus. The main guitar chords were G major, D major, and C major, but we used notes form all around the G major scale.

J.N  "G major scale" Own Work Dec 14, 2016

Later on, I decided to incorporate the main line of chords for all parts of the song. I would try out different pitches on chords to see what sounded good, but I still needed a higher pitch to make it better.

After I was done with the chorus, I made more modifications to the rest of the piece. I would try to add chords in empty areas. I did more voice recordings for higher intensity and a better echo. Finally, what I did last is that I used content from the internet in order to create an intro. I chose to use two piano pieces of the same song "Here comes a thought". The original was made by Rebecca Sugar, a well known story and song writer. But was arranged for piano by two different pianist, spywi and WeimTime (not real names). They both had different remakes of the song, yet I put them both together as the intro for my song.

After doing the intro, I was completely finished. There were still multiple problems such as myself being in a different room at the time to record, but that couldn't be changed. I am still proud of my song even with the errors, and I cannot do anything about that. Still, my song was finally finished after I put in the intro. 

J.N "Song Graph" Own Work Dec 14, 2016

While writing this song, I wanted to use the story form in order to keep the listener interested in the song. The story form is a form that uses exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution in that order in order to keep the audience reading or listening to the song. Songwriters use the same form when it comes writing music. My form is intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, and outro. This song's form is similar to story form, using the intro as the exposition, most of the verses and choruses as the rising action. The final chorus and the bridge is the climax. The falling action and ending would be the outro of the piece.

They also use tension and release, or consonance and dissonance as well when it comes to notes. Consonance is when a note sounds harmonious while dissonance is when a note sounds unstable. They are used for tension and release, with consonance as release and dissonance as tension. I use this throughout my entire song to give it a better taste for listeners. The main use of tension and release would be the repeating notes G major chord and E minor. GM would be considered consonance, since it is pleasant sound, while Em would be dissonance, since it is an unpleasant sound.

I really enjoyed creating my own song. It was fun to play around with Garageband, while trying to create my own song from scratch. If it weren't for my teachers, I would have created an entire song without any help whatsoever. One thing I learned from making this song is that you can't always get what you want, but you can change or alter what you have while creating the song. This stands true since I couldn't find a female singer, yet I was able to change the sound of my own voice. I wish I could have found better existing samples for my song, but besides that, I am happy with the song I made.

spywi "Here comes a Thought" Online Video Clip. Youtube.com Youtube, Aug 27, 2016 Dec 14, 2016

WeimTime "Here Comes a Thought” Online Video Clip. Youtube.com Youtube, Sep 3, 2016 Dec 14, 2016