Potential Astronauts

Way back in 1958 before we ever had someone land on the moon potential astronauts had to go through extreme conditions for the chance to possibly do their dream. These candidates who wanted to be a astronaut had to take 12 intelligence test and sit in conditions where it is quite hot or cold, while trying to take these exams. Not only were these men put in extreme conditions but they were also often put into isolation chambers as part of their tests. After reading about this I took one of the tests myself or something similar to it, and I can say myself they are not the easiest. When I took the tests I was failing the majority of them so I can not imagine how the men who took the tests had to feel, especially under the conditions they were in. The tests are mainly brain skills and require you to think and I realized while taking it that I wanted to go back and do it again, which I'm sure these candidates did not have the options to do. If I was forced to take tests and under the conditions theses men were under I can not help but wonder how well the men really did on the exams. I guess Armstrong was one of the only ones strong enough to make it through.

CS4HS

CS4HS is a showcase and competition for middle and high school computer science teachers and students. This competition gives students the chance to work on a technology related project and showcases some talents that they might not have gotten the chance to before. Thinking about this project for myself, I like the thought of a computer game or robotics. I do not have the strongest skills set when it comes to either of these topics and I feel doing a project on them would push me to be better. If I were to do a computer game I would want it to be something people had to think about and would not get on the first try. Possible a puzzle or maze, or maybe even something like a computer version of an escape room. On the other hand, if I were to do something robotics I would want to do something relating to solar power. I find it interesting how many things we can power with the suns energy and to be able to put that into a robot of some sort would spark my interest even more. Programing the robot would be tricky and I would have to think of a way to incorporate the two together. I could have a dial placed on the robot that would tell me its solar charge and a form of turning it on and off so the energy is not waisted. Also, I would like my robot to do something more than just move around. It could be used as an assistant to something or possibly pick things up and set it in another location. The possibilities for this project are endless and my mind could think about it for days, but my question is where do I begin?

Thank You

 Every year around this time my school holds a kindness week where people can reach out and maybe say something they normally wouldn't. In my college computer apps class we were asked to write a thank you letter to someone important in our life in honor of this week. The first person to pop in my head was my mom and everything she does for me. Writing this card for her made me think about how much I say thank you and how much I need to say it more. For the past 18 years of my life she has been the one there for me through everything and I realized I needed to say thank you for that. While writing the card I even got emotional thinking about how many times she has been there for    me when no one else has. Thinking about it she is the reason I am here and the reason I am the person I am today. She has taught me how to be a good person and look at life as the glass is half full rather than half empty. I will always be thankful for her and that I chose her for this assignment. 

100 years

  Have you ever thought about what it will be like in 2119?; because I sure have. If we go back for a moment 100 years from now people had their own vision of how we would live our lives. With how much everything was advancing many believed that we would be in the absolute prime time of our lives, but I don't think that's the case. I believe that with all that growth our ancestors were having there had to be a halt in the growth somewhere and I think that halt is now.
   On the other hand, 100 years from now I think we are going to hit that growth spurt somewhere between now and then that will advance us beyond the point. I believe that technology will take over almost everything like it is starting to now. We will have flying cars and robot assistants that know what we want done before we even tell them. Humans will all be run by a chip and maybe we can even go back and play the memories that have already happened to us in the past. By that time the world will not even run on paper money currency it will all run on digital money that we can access at anytime. Along with all these changes that will be happening I can not help but wonder if our legal system will change and how the rules and regulations will work. Will we even have a president or will it just be a hologram from a past president that was better than the others? Now, I do think all these changes will be great to our society as a whole, but what about the world that is around us. Global warming is already starting to take over and things all over the world are shifting that 100 years prior humans may never have thought would happen. Taking that into consideration I wonder if we will even have a plant Earth in 100 years, or if it will swallow us whole leaving small remains behind of what once was human kind.
   If our plant decides not to swallow us whole or we can come up with a way to control global warming, I think humans will find another life force somewhere in our universe. If you think about it the universe is ginormous and the only reason we have not been able to explore it is because our technology is not quite advanced enough. Imagine living in a world were it is normal to walk down the street and see an alien breathing the same air as you and no one is freaking out about it. I like to think that if we even did come in contact with another life force it would only make the universe stronger rather than tare it apart. We could dominate anything putting our minds together, or we could just teach each other things that we may never have thought of.
   The whole concept of 100 years from now is very interesting to me and I could think about endless possibilities the world could give us by then. We as humans just have to wait and see what the future has in store for us, or maybe there is a plan that none of us know about yet.

Take My Advice

     Being a senior in high school I know how it is to go through almost 13 years of public school and survive it, however I wish someone would have given me some advice as a youth. If I had younger siblings or even had the chance to give a kindergartener some advice I would any day. First I would tell them not to rush the next 12 years of their life and to live it day by day because before they know it they will be in the real world. School is important but it should not be the center on your world, perhaps a good chunk of it. I have learned that it is best to keep a steady pace when it comes to school and to care about your work while not obsessing over it. Up until high school your grades matter but not as much as you may think. Setting up a good school system for yourself as a freshman or even an 8th grader could be very beneficial when your classes start to get more rigorous. This could even help when it comes to college or even when it comes to getting a job. Setting goals for yourself in the future and making sure your parents or guardian is on board will as well help in the long run. I myself have struggled to find what I want to do with myself after high school and wish I would have started to think about it a few years earlier. I also wan to point out that being popular and having the most friends is not actually the most important thing in the world or in school. By having a few close friends it will make things easier on you, and you will not have to worry about so much drama happening around you so you can focus on school work. One final thing I have to say is pay attention to your teachers and what they tell you, they can give some pretty good advice sometimes.

Watch What You Say

    I have recently came across an article called "Watch What You Say The Cloud Might Be Listening" on page 60 in Wired magazine. The author Clive Thompson, is trying to tell the world that we do not exactly know how our phones work. Thompson realized that this could be a problem back in November of 2015 and we are still dealing with this issue today. He explains in the article how he thinks it is great to have voice control and things to help you in your everyday life such as "Alexa" and "Siri", however people may not realize everything you say around these devices is being taken in and processed. I thought it was interesting to find out that anything I say to my phone is processed online to make sure all my language is clean. My question is, what happens to our audio once it has been processed and what happens if the person listening to my audio does not like what I said? After fully reading this article I could not help but wonder what secrets Apple and Google assists know about all of us. Along with listening, I want to know what other personal information our phones are taking in everyday and if the people behind the processing can dig into our info. Considering this article was written in 2015 I feel it would be slightly different if it were to be written in todays society. Our technology is so advanced now that they may have came up with a fix to this invasion of privacy or even something to make it worse that none of us even know about. After reading this article I will definitely think twice about what I say around my phone and you might want to as well.

Growing Up

   From me to you.

                    

            Sparkly costume, perfect hair, and makeup was the majority of my childhood. I grew up as a competitive dancer with the help of my loving mother driving me everywhere and making the payments to do the one thing I truly loved. I started off with one class a week which turned into eleven classes a week. I practically lived, ate, and slept at the studio for eleven years of my life until things stared to change. My views on the people at my studio were changing and I wasn't as happy as I used to be. I ended up changing my path and stopped my dancing days at my studio. This was a big decision for me and big part of my life that I had to let go, but I realized that it was for the best. I will always have that dancer side to me, I just don't practice it like I used to. In the mean time I'm getting ready for college and the rest of my future ahead of me. I have changed my mind at least twenty time on what I want to do and where I want to do it, however I think I may have figured it out. I have decided to go to community college and transfer over to a university once I graduate. I am excited to see what the future has in store for me.