Blog Post for Final Project

This link will take you to my comics
http://akim11.weebly.com/

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm's website: http://www.gladwell.com/

Recently, I read a book called "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. I really enjoyed this book because it gave me clear idea why some people are extremely successful. This helped me realize how much time effort it takes to be really successful. I realize how I can be more successful in rest of my life. I know now I have to practice about 50,000 hours to be a successful violinist. Malcolm's speech and writing had significant impact on my life.

Senior Quote

"I am suffocated by love"

This is how I felt at 2010 Kairos retreat where I was surrounded by senior and faculty who loved me as who I am.

"Life is tough, but it is too fun to quit"

As a senior in high school, I came up with this quote to motivate my self to not to quit.

Three source citation

The benefits of Caffeine

Shields, Josh. "The Benefits of Caffeine." Healthmad. Healthmad, 03 Mar. 2007. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. .

Caffeine: The upper with a downside

Walker, Arleighh Wilson. "Caffeine: The Upper With A Downside." A Strand of the Celtic Fringe. Life Style. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.

I Fly America: The Upside and Downside of Caffeine


Engstorm, Paul. "I Fly America:.The Upside and Downside of Caffeine." I Fly America:. Welcome to IFA Online. I Fly America, 25 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. .

Caffeine: Good versus Evil

It is known that 80% of world population consumes caffeine daily. This was very shocking statistic for me. The percentage was greater than I thought it would be. Through the exploration of the research project, I realized the importance to understand the health benefit and consequence of caffeine. Through my personal statistic, I concluded that everyone in our class is willing to accept their personal choice of caffeinated beverage when five out of twelve students believe they are bad for you. It was interesting to see that even though people understand the consequence of consumption of caffeine but they consume them anyway. This indicated that caffeine have some addictive effect. As I further my research, I realize that the stimulant effect of caffeine raise the desire for caffeine consumer to want more. Therefore, caffeine definitely has some addictive effect. At this point, I asked myself “Is this kind of addiction really bad for you?” and article by Chris Chenoweth about caffeine helped me realize that caffeine is not terrible thing for your body but excess consumption has terrible consequence. The research project helped me understand the importance of having healthy caffeine habit.
Kovac, Betty. "Caffeine Health Effects, Facts, Statistics, Addiction and Withdrawal on MedicineNet.com." Medicinenet.com. WebMD. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .
Chenoweth, Chris. "Caffeine - Benefits and Risks." Disabled World - Health and Disability Community News. Disabled World, 03 Dec. 2006. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .

Walter Lee Younger

One of my favorite character from the literature is Walter Lee Younger from Raisin in the Sun. I love how Walter is consumed by the American's dream thinking that the success comes easy. The reason he is so compelling is that through him the truth was spoken. It made the reader realize the truth. I love how the character was portrait like he was immature when he was head of the family. The reason Walter is very exciting through out the story is that Walter experience big transformation from a just cab drive to the head of the family who will lead the family to their new house.

My short story

It was early Saturday morning. I was in the passenger seat playing the music over and over again in my head. I could not stop imaging about what to expect on the audition. My sister was at the back seat sleeping with peace in uncertain times. I was messing around with my violin case deciding whether or not jinx my chance of getting a spot in a state orchestra. I was surfing around the radio station to find a suitable music to calm myself. I failed.

I don’t remember how I got in the practice room but I was there. I do recall getting lost in the campus trying to find the right building for the audition. I remember yelling at my mom for making the wrong at the intersection. The practice room was huge gym full of musicians. It was nothing I expected. There was no music stand, sound proof wall, and poster of Beethoven. I was fine with unforeseen setting except the fact that I did not have a personal music stand with me. I wonder around the room like a chicken without a head. It was hopeless. I wanted to stop the music in the room to have an audio privacy to prepare for the audition but it was impossible. Looking at the clock I had 20 minutes to warm up my finger and bring back my muscle memory. With a mix of sound frequency swarming around the room I lost my concentration.

I was number 109. That was my musician identification number. Every 5 minutes, musician identification number was called for musician to gather around the audition hall. My heart skipped the beat every five minutes. As the number came closer to the triple digit, my heart rate increased with increase rate.
It was time, the number 108 was called. I started my mental clock to make sure I will be prepared for the moment. All my 2 month of hard work was at stake. I had to overcome the nerve to perform my best. “Number 109 I repeat number 109”, said the announcer. I jumped up and grabbed my violin and my music and ran toward the door. The door was propped open and an old lady with a clipboard was waiting for me. “Stop right there young man. I will get you in soon as possible” said the lady. “Take your time I am not in a hurry.” I was glad I got to talk to someone before the audition I got a chance to let out some of my nerve.
I finally escorted through the door. The audition hall was consisting of 5 musicians shivering. The hallway had three classrooms with differ color poster posted in front of the door. The audition had specific order of operation. I was informed to finish the excerpt first and go in to the slight reading section last. A wise old man came up to me. “Hey, are you Andy?” “Yes.” I replied. “you are in the right place at the right time come on in”. I was introduced to the excerpt room. The excerpt room was a regular history classroom except there was a big billboard to hide the judges. I could not see anyone except a music stand waiting for me. “You may begin whenever you are ready” said the anonymous judge. If I follow the instruction, I would not have started the audition and left the building. But I couldn’t.

I broke a complete silence with my first note. The room was relative small and had excellent acoustic. I could not breathe during my excerpt. I was suffocating with music I had to let it all out. I did. I finished my excerpt. Next, I had to sight read the music meaning playing a piece of music you never seen before. To be honest, I cheated during my sight reading test. I eavesdrop on the previous musician and figure out what I was expecting. Sometimes, knowing what to expect is not a good thing. I keep worrying about the tempo and dynamic of the piece I did not focus on the notes. As a result, I missed couple of note and screw up the audition.
I was at the playground with bunch of little kids running around. It was birthday party for little children. I volunteer to look over the kids and make sure they do not eat the mulch and break their bone. All the adults were at the bench talking to each other about life. I had great time with the children and I know I did my job because no children ate mulch at the play ground (not that I know of) and no one cried at the party. It was time to go. I was driving out of the parking lot and in the corner of my back mirror I saw my mom running toward the car with her cell phone stuck in her ear. I knew something was wrong but for some reason I thought it will be funny to make my mom run. So, I slow down but I did not stop the vehicle. But when she got closer I got to see her face I knew I had to stop. I scrolled down the window “What is wrong ma?” “You made it” she replied. “what did I make?” “you made into the State orchestra.” After I heard this news, I stop the vehicle in the middle of the car and ran toward my mom and gave her a hug. I scream “I made it!” on top of my lung. I ran back to the playground and started to run around the playground like if I was on fire. The good news never stopped. I got the result from my music director and I figured out that I made it in to the 1st violin section.

I am not completely done but I am hoping to add more detail and make it more personal.

Element of Short Story

• Action / plot
• Subplots
• Characters
• Back story
• Setting
• Conflict
• ABDCE
• Details
• Point of View
• Theme
• Scenes
• Dialogue
• Names

Plot

Plot 1: I recently got in a car accident. I had life changing experience. I could write a story about the car accident.
Action: Few seconds after the accident
Background: What happened before the accident
Development: Describe the journey before the accident
Climax: Detail description of accident
Ending: How I took care of the accident and what I learn from it

Plot 2: I got into the All State orchestra last year. I could write a short story of the process of preparing for the audition

Action: Final performance at All State Orchestra
Background: What kind of preparation was necessary for audition
Development: First Audtion
Climax: when the results came out for all state
Ending: what is my feeling from the experience

Georgia Tech

Georgia Institute of Technology is my first choice because Georgia tech is number 1 pubic engineering school. I think I will live in the dorm with a roommate. I will major in industrial engineering.I will join their Korean Tennis club. Most appealing fact about Georgia tech is variety to engineering major. I heard Georgia tech is really hard to graduate and I am afraid that I am not going to graduate from college. This is the link to Georgia tech http://www.gatech.edu/ I have to write an essay and the there is two topic given in the application.

My dream school: So far Georgia Tech is my first choice but I am not sure if Georgia tech is right for me. Georgia tech has no music program as the result I can not continue studying music. My dream school will have variety of engineering, science, and mathematics major and have awesome music program for me to participate. Also, I am not sure I will enjoy the urban life so I will like my college to be like UGA.

My love for violin

My first true love? This is one of the hardest question to answer. I think my first true love was my violin. When I was in middle school, My dad gave me a nice violin as a gift. That is when I started to play violin. But violin is not my first instrument. My mom always wanted me to pick an instrument and master it. But I never could fall in love with a particular instrument. I always lost my interest. When I was five, I started learning piano but I had a short and fat finger. As a result, playing violin was physically demanding for me. Soon I lost interest in piano and quit at the age of nine. If I continued playing piano to this day; I would have become a prodigy. When I was 10 years old, I started to learn classic guitar. My dad told me a men who can play a classic guitar can woe lots of woman. I thought it was good choice to play classical guitar but I soon lost the passion for playing guitar. I wanted to stop playing guitar and focus on my study. However, Music never gave up on me. Music led me to an instrument called violin. It was four string instrument played with a bow. When I just started playing, my violin sounded terrible it made squeaky noise. It was extremely difficult to produce beautiful sound with correct pitch. When I was learning violin, I was living under a guardian. My guardian hated the sound of my instrument and made me practice at dusty and dark garage. First, I thought violin was not right for me but I did not quit on violin. I loved the sound produced by my violin teacher and I wanted to have the same sound. I fell in love with violin when I had my fist recital. At the recital, I felt so confident and powerful. I knew I had the talent and passion to master the instrument I did not quit on my violin since then and I am still struggling to master the instrument.

Yes. I am a math nerd.

The passage below is from the book called Fermat's last theorem by Amir Aczel. The book tells the story about how mathematicians finally proved a mathematical statement from Fermat. This book gives a brief history of mathematics and introduced famous mathematicians who created algebra, geometry, and calculus. I admire how Aczel make sure to break down sophisticated topic to the reader so that non mathematician can understand and enjoy reading this book. In this book, Aczel uses an interesting tactic to keep the reader interested. He starts the book by giving us the trailer for this book and he explain the conclusion. He dedicates rest of his book to show us the process of getting to the right answer. The main purpose of this book is to show how many branches of mathematics can work together to prove a theorem. I love the passage below because I could easily understand the author and I could see inside the gifted mathematician's to approach a problem. After reading this passage, I was encourage to solve mathematical question with more efficient method. This served as a excellent anecdote for me to remember the famous mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.


Here is the passage:
One day, the teacher punished young Gauss by telling him to stay in the class room until he add up all the number from 1 to 100 while every went to play outside. Two minutes later, 10 years old Gauss was outside playing with the rest of the class. The teacher came out furious. "Carl Friedrich!" the teacher called, "do you want more severe punishment? I told you to stay inside until you finish adding up all the numbers!" "But I have," he said, "here is the answer." Gauss handed the teacher a piece of paper with the right answer, 5,050, written on it. Apparently, Gauss figured out that he could write two rows of 101 numbers:
0 1 2 3 ..... 97 98 99 100
100 99 98 97..... 3 2 1 0
He noted that sum of each column was 100, so there was nothing long to add up. since there was 101 columns, the sum of all numbers was 101 x 100 = 10,100. Now, either of the two rows had the sum he needed only one of the two rows the answer was half of 10,000, or 5,050. Very simple, he thought. The teacher, however, learn a lesson and never again assigned the young Gauss a math problem for punishmen.

Aczel, Amir D. "Gauss." Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem. New York, NY: Dell Pub., 1997. 51-52. Print.

Homcoming

It was a typically busy, frustrating, and tiring day for me at school. I got the math test back from Mr.Simmonds and I did not do well on the test; I got a C- and I was really depressed that night. During that night, I experienced an unrealistic dream. The dream started at school. Everything was new, exciting, and unreal. The story became more personal; I had a beautiful girlfriend. she was perfect, exceptionally pretty. She loved music, sports, and science. My girlfriend and I had a great time hanging out in not one class but all of them because we had all the class together which was awesome! After school we hung out around campus and we drove back to her house. When I awoke, I tried so hard to sleep to see her again but I couldn't. I couldn't wait to fall a sleep again but once back in the dream something was different: some of my old friends from Athens Academy were there too. This did not bother me until I walk into the my real girlfriend . I was terrified. I tried my best to avoid both of my girlfriends because I did not want any conflict. I avoided them by hang out with my best friend, David Cason. I couldn't handle both them being in the same dream. This only gets worse. Now, it was their homecoming week. Each of them expected I was going to the dance with them. That is not all, some random girl asked me to homecoming and for some unexplainable reason I said "yes". I couldn't believe myself. I swear I am not a jerk but i couldn't myself. I had to make a choice between three girls now and on top of that I had to break two of their heart. How could anybody pull this off? My dream became foggy. It was hard to tell what was happening but I remember I had to apologize to all three of them and then afterwards to their parents. After all chaos chaos my alarm went off. If only it had rung sooner...