So... on my last post I mentioned about what the Empire of Noricas is all about right? Well, in a political simulation, if you haven't done such action before, then knowing what to do will be hard at first, because you won't know what to do unless you tour around to learn more. This is what I'm experiencing right now. It doesn't matter if you took so many advanced political classes before or not, lack of experience in micronationalism is always a factor for newer citizens of the micronation.
I am currently undergoing several deep thoughts about the ideas that can encourage more participation in the micronationlism. Since this is my first experience to use my growing political interests in micronationalism, despite not having taken AP Politics or even the IB level of Politics beforehand, I need a lot of time so that I can think of the best ways to be able to meet that goal of more participation, which is hard thinking as some ideas you think about may have already been used. Think about it, it is just like President Obama not having prior experience with such post as a president before.
I shall do my best to come up with the best possible ways to resolve the issue of inactivity. After all, I'm deeply committed into helping the micronation.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Empire of Noricas
Have any of you been wondering why I have mentioned the name Noricas, something unfamiliar to almost all of the Brighton people? Aside from my all my best and close friends from Hillcrest, who already know what I am talking about, Noricas is the name of the micronation started by one of my best friends, Jeffrey Bennett, along with his friends as part of the project on micronationalism.
Recently, I was told by Jeff about Noricas, something I've heard of before by other people of Hillcrest who have mentioned this name before. Now, I think you all noticed that I've been keeping track of US political news more often than usual, primarily through TV and the New York Times.
Here's the thing: being part of this micronation enables you to know about how laws work in a political simulation, something a little bit similar to the American Problems class at Brighton. Simply put, Noricas is a constitutional monarchy based on the British government with Norican as the official language of this micronation (correct me if I'm wrong on these details, Jeff.).
After hearing about it, I got convinced that I would like to know more about constitutional monarchy in political simulations. Because of my continued increase in my interest in politics, I decided to join the nation, and analyze how people handle the government through laws. I officially joined in on June 5, 2010. I also obtained a translation of my name in Norican, which is shown on my Facebook profile. Thanks Hayden Rowberry for the translation, I really like my translated name!
After joining in, I am ready to look over the things people of Noricas have done so that I can help out with these discussions!
Recently, I was told by Jeff about Noricas, something I've heard of before by other people of Hillcrest who have mentioned this name before. Now, I think you all noticed that I've been keeping track of US political news more often than usual, primarily through TV and the New York Times.
Here's the thing: being part of this micronation enables you to know about how laws work in a political simulation, something a little bit similar to the American Problems class at Brighton. Simply put, Noricas is a constitutional monarchy based on the British government with Norican as the official language of this micronation (correct me if I'm wrong on these details, Jeff.).
After hearing about it, I got convinced that I would like to know more about constitutional monarchy in political simulations. Because of my continued increase in my interest in politics, I decided to join the nation, and analyze how people handle the government through laws. I officially joined in on June 5, 2010. I also obtained a translation of my name in Norican, which is shown on my Facebook profile. Thanks Hayden Rowberry for the translation, I really like my translated name!
After joining in, I am ready to look over the things people of Noricas have done so that I can help out with these discussions!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Toyota Recalls
As you all know, Toyota has encountered one of the most unfortunate events in the history of the company. In late 2009, Toyota found customer complaints and issued recalls to many of its models. My condolences to all the Toyota employees who suffered the stress to quickly analyze and fix the brake, electronic stability control, and/or acceleration system problems that several models have. I am indeed speaking of the following Toyota models: Camry, Corolla, RAV4, Avalon, Prius, Highlander, Tundra, Sequoia, Aygo, Matrix, iQ, and Auris. I also speak of the following Lexus models: the ES series, IS series, and the HS 250h.
Lexus and Scion were hardly affected by this recall unlike Toyota, who had around 80% of the models get recalled, resulting in the delay of the sale of these aforementioned vehicles until the issue is fixed.
In spite of these recalls, which I express my deepest sympathies for as working for Toyota is amongst one of my dream jobs, there's no doubt that Toyota is among one of the best companies in the world, not just before recalls, but in the very beginning. Toyota was responsible for the success of Lexus in the first place, where the well-known LS series was launched in 1989 with a very huge success, dominating and overtaking various luxury automakers that underestimated Toyota in the luxury market by taking the top spot in terms of not only sales, but also in customer service and satisfaction.
In case if you all don't know, Lexus has earned the best reliability ratings ever since its start in 1989.
To all the people I know who own the newer Toyota models, including possibly Anna since I saw her driving her parents car, which appears to be a 2009 Toyota Corolla, I express my sympathies if your models got recalled for these aforementioned issues.
P.S. Pontiac Vibe, as a Toyota engineered vehicle, was also recalled for the same reasons, as were models built on the same platform as the Toyota Aygo.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Spring Break at LA and San Diego-Visiting UCLA and UCSD
Ahh... I had a fun time at LA and San Diego over the Spring Break that I just had. I used this time to visit LA for the second time and San Diego for the first time ever, only that this trip is primarily to visit both the UCLA and UCSD campuses, 2 of 8 colleges that I was accepted to. I'm thrilled and honored to be accepted to these public ivy schools that are one of the best in the nation overall. In fact, I read from US News and World Report that UCLA is ranked the second best public university in the nation, outranked only by UC Berkeley.
I visited the engineering schools located in the South campus that I would be taking classes at should I attend UCLA, as I chose Chemical Engineering as my undergraduate major for this university.
Now, I took a college tour for both campuses. My, they were immensely huge and convenient schools to stay at! I have to admit, when we started at the Kerckhoff Hall, which serves as a house for the student government offices, we toured all over the campus, including the engineering schools that I earlier visited, as well as the North campus. Royce Hall is perhaps the most unusual building of them all. Not only are the patterns noticeably out of place when comparing the overall symmetry of the building designs, but if you compare the sides of the building, you'll notice some missing features that should have been there when the university was established. Interestingly enough, the North Campus where Royce Hall is located is actually the original location of the UCLA campus until it expanded.
I visited the UCSD campus (note: a couple photos of UCSD are down below) as well, by driving from LA down to San Diego using the rental car that we earlier got when we landed at LAX. I also thought it was cool too, only in the way that it is much more of a typically modern research university than UCLA, where it is a mixture of laboratory buildings and early 1900s and Gothic campus buildings. The view of the campus itself is really beautiful, as good as UCLA. Of course, the different strengths and weaknesses that are fairly equal between these two campuses make it difficult for me to decide which to attend between these schools.
I would say that UCLA is good in the way that it offers good housing services, meal services, overall rank, overall location and layout, and the science programs given out. UCSD is also good with science programs, but it lacks the Chemical Engineering major I would've liked to major in. On the other hand, UCSD is good in transportation services, meal services, overall location and layout, and its overall rank.
Some weaknesses I thought about these universities: well, both universities are enormous, which makes it hard to get around sometimes. Also, some of UCLA's science programs are a little bit weaker than UCSD, but still very good overall, given its good overall rank. And I thought UCSD's service for housing for students in junior and senior years are really bad in the way that you cannot choose to live in the same dorm as you would in your sophomore year, which conveniently includes a kitchen. And you are limited to just 3 choices of housing on campus that can all get filled up with transfer students almost quickly. Again, as I said before, UCSD lacks the Chemical Engineering majors, which is one of the top majors I would want to major in as an undergrad.
Right now, I am happily choosing between UCLA, UCSD, and Boston College as the possible choices of college I would attend next year. I will decide at least by the end of this week.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Debate vs. Discussion
Here's an interesting lesson I learned thanks to three of my close friends from Hillcrest: Nathaniel Leung, Blake Ellison, and Jeffrey Bennett. One time I was on Facebook, I witnessed what I originally thought was a political debate between Blake and Jeffrey, Democratic and Republican supporters respectively. Until I posted my status remarking this thought was when Blake and Jeff told me about the differences between debates and discussions, in which they were mainly discussing opinion-based ideas that could lead to solutions with the chaotic political issues raging on the American soil.
As I learned the differences, that's when me and Nate joined in the political discussion regarding both Obama's State of the Union Address goals and the economic recession of the USA that basically carried over from wall posts and comments between Blake and Jeff to my Facebook status. We came up with numerous ideas and thoughts that could lead to solutions to the economic troubles, such as where to cut federal spending. Personally, I learned so much from just this conversation.
Now, if we students just did that all on Facebook, couldn't the Democrats and the Republicans have done the same thing? It's understandable that there is an acrimonious relationship between the two parties just because of hunger for power. However, since when will these two parties get over these political differences and try to cooperate to meet the demands that we American citizens have requested in the first place? This is what leads to debates, which literally leads to nowhere because of constant personal criticisms, again something I learned from Jeff.
It's just like this, Blake and Jeff on different political sides, but able to discuss ideas that can lead to better future for our generation. This is something I truly wish that the Democrats and the Republicans today would do at some point in the future. I recently read an article from The New York Times about the clash between these two parties over Obama's stimulus package and there I see similar arguments that are characteristic of a typical debate. I was unhappy with both parties for not cooperating and having meager ideas that could potentially lead to a satisfying solution for us citizens. In addition, I spotted personal criticisms between both parties such as Republicans calling the Democrats "failure."
An example of a great political discussion that I always have thought about all this time is looking into past US History about how the opposing political parties managed to cooperate and come through hard times, including the Great Depression. This is something that I hope the Democrats and the Republicans will think of doing in the future so that there are potential solutions to this economic crisis. After all, discussions tend to lead to solutions over the time.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Los Angeles Lakers
Okay, we're in mid-season right now in the NBA and I think its time I give my opinions about the players on my Lakers for this season!
I'm starting with Kobe Bryant, who plays shooting guard and is the team captain of my Lakers. Right now, he has consistently played well, being the one who does his work and garners the most points for us most of the time. I'm glad that his injured right index finger has not affected his playing that much. Personally, I don't see much he has to improve since he often gets many assists, at least about 5 per game. I hope he continues to lead my Lakers to the 16th championship for NBA finals!
Next is Pau Gasol, who plays as either center or power forward. I consider him the king of rebounds for my team, having consistently getting at least about 9 rebounds per game. He also scores very well, usually getting the second highest points for my team. Still, he can probably improve on being slightly faster with the handling of the ball, but it's understandable though, given his usual positions.
Next is Andrew Bynum, who also plays as either center or forward. He is definitely one of the most improved players since last season, where his playing was affected by his knee injury that gave him difficulties to handle the ball. He can sometimes gather the most points in a game, and he is generally considered to be one of the top scorers in my team, usually getting second or third most points per game. However, he is notorious for his inconsistency in game scoring. According to Roger, my best friend, without Gasol, he usually handles the ball well, but not so well with Gasol in the court due to lack of space. Despite this, you can argue that if Gasol is not the king of rebounds for my team, then Bynum is, getting at least 6 rebounds per game. He should probably stick with increasing the number of assists, it will help my Lakers a lot.
Next is Ron Artest, who plays as a small forward, taking over the old position left behind by Trevor Ariza, who moved to Houston Rockets. He is one of our top scorers, averaging 16.1 points per game. He is regarded as one of the best defenders according to Roger. However, the shoulder injury he had during December of 2009 affected his playing significantly, usually scoring only about 2-5 points before being pulled out. Despite this, he seems to have returned back to normal over the time. Like Bynum, he needs to improve in assisting, usually getting only about 0-2 assists per game, which with improvement, can increase our communication significantly.
Next is Derek Fisher, who plays as the point guard for my team. Ever since the 2000-2001 NBA season, which is when I first officially supported Lakers, I've seen him as one of the best players when it comes to him handling the ball and 3-point shots. Right now, even at old age, he still has both of those characteristics, to a lesser extent with the handling, though. He is my team's best 3-point shooter, succeeding 37.4% of the time, which is higher than most of the other teammates on the Lakers. At age 35, he's become overwhelmingly less consistent and slower than usual. Despite this, as a familiar teammate of Kobe Bryant, he is still a major factor of various games when it comes to his 3-point shooting, the best example being in last year's finals, where we won game 4 against Orlando primarily for his 3-point shots.
Now, onto our bench. Lamar Odom is the best of our backups, capable of scoring at least 15 points per game and can often contribute to the game should one of our starters do poorly in our games. As a backup for forward positions, he has one of the best assists averages for my team, with an average of 4.2 assists. He can probably improve in his consistency still, as it's not as good compared to Gasol and Bryant. Shannon Brown is generally our second or third best of our backups. He has some of the most insane dunks that I've seen in the games, including the recovery dunk from Bynum's miss in free throws and his thunderous dunk on Chris Andersen of the Nuggets during last playoffs. For that, I call him the master of dunks. He can use improvements in assists though.
Jordan Farmar is one of the other best bench players. He is known for sometimes scoring many points from his 3-point shots, which can be a game-changer. However, he most definitely needs improvement in his consistency, as he, Vujacic, and Bynum are some of the most inconsistent players on my team. Sasha Vujacic is at times a good scorer as well, but he, along with Farmar and Bynum, are the most inconsistent players on my team. He also needs to work more on his defense, it isn't as good as it could be. And Luke Walton is generally a good scorer, but his defense is awful compared to other players on Lakers, sometimes even letting my opponents score past him.
As for Mbenga, Powell, and Morrison; they haven't play enough for me to give out opinions. They need more play time so I can judge how they are doing.
Overall, my Lakers is doing very well like last year, despite a few weaknesses my team has. I hope we can beat Cavaliers' best record in the league at some point! It will benefit us with the home-court advantage for the entire playoffs!
I'm starting with Kobe Bryant, who plays shooting guard and is the team captain of my Lakers. Right now, he has consistently played well, being the one who does his work and garners the most points for us most of the time. I'm glad that his injured right index finger has not affected his playing that much. Personally, I don't see much he has to improve since he often gets many assists, at least about 5 per game. I hope he continues to lead my Lakers to the 16th championship for NBA finals!
Next is Pau Gasol, who plays as either center or power forward. I consider him the king of rebounds for my team, having consistently getting at least about 9 rebounds per game. He also scores very well, usually getting the second highest points for my team. Still, he can probably improve on being slightly faster with the handling of the ball, but it's understandable though, given his usual positions.
Next is Andrew Bynum, who also plays as either center or forward. He is definitely one of the most improved players since last season, where his playing was affected by his knee injury that gave him difficulties to handle the ball. He can sometimes gather the most points in a game, and he is generally considered to be one of the top scorers in my team, usually getting second or third most points per game. However, he is notorious for his inconsistency in game scoring. According to Roger, my best friend, without Gasol, he usually handles the ball well, but not so well with Gasol in the court due to lack of space. Despite this, you can argue that if Gasol is not the king of rebounds for my team, then Bynum is, getting at least 6 rebounds per game. He should probably stick with increasing the number of assists, it will help my Lakers a lot.
Next is Ron Artest, who plays as a small forward, taking over the old position left behind by Trevor Ariza, who moved to Houston Rockets. He is one of our top scorers, averaging 16.1 points per game. He is regarded as one of the best defenders according to Roger. However, the shoulder injury he had during December of 2009 affected his playing significantly, usually scoring only about 2-5 points before being pulled out. Despite this, he seems to have returned back to normal over the time. Like Bynum, he needs to improve in assisting, usually getting only about 0-2 assists per game, which with improvement, can increase our communication significantly.
Next is Derek Fisher, who plays as the point guard for my team. Ever since the 2000-2001 NBA season, which is when I first officially supported Lakers, I've seen him as one of the best players when it comes to him handling the ball and 3-point shots. Right now, even at old age, he still has both of those characteristics, to a lesser extent with the handling, though. He is my team's best 3-point shooter, succeeding 37.4% of the time, which is higher than most of the other teammates on the Lakers. At age 35, he's become overwhelmingly less consistent and slower than usual. Despite this, as a familiar teammate of Kobe Bryant, he is still a major factor of various games when it comes to his 3-point shooting, the best example being in last year's finals, where we won game 4 against Orlando primarily for his 3-point shots.
Now, onto our bench. Lamar Odom is the best of our backups, capable of scoring at least 15 points per game and can often contribute to the game should one of our starters do poorly in our games. As a backup for forward positions, he has one of the best assists averages for my team, with an average of 4.2 assists. He can probably improve in his consistency still, as it's not as good compared to Gasol and Bryant. Shannon Brown is generally our second or third best of our backups. He has some of the most insane dunks that I've seen in the games, including the recovery dunk from Bynum's miss in free throws and his thunderous dunk on Chris Andersen of the Nuggets during last playoffs. For that, I call him the master of dunks. He can use improvements in assists though.
Jordan Farmar is one of the other best bench players. He is known for sometimes scoring many points from his 3-point shots, which can be a game-changer. However, he most definitely needs improvement in his consistency, as he, Vujacic, and Bynum are some of the most inconsistent players on my team. Sasha Vujacic is at times a good scorer as well, but he, along with Farmar and Bynum, are the most inconsistent players on my team. He also needs to work more on his defense, it isn't as good as it could be. And Luke Walton is generally a good scorer, but his defense is awful compared to other players on Lakers, sometimes even letting my opponents score past him.
As for Mbenga, Powell, and Morrison; they haven't play enough for me to give out opinions. They need more play time so I can judge how they are doing.
Overall, my Lakers is doing very well like last year, despite a few weaknesses my team has. I hope we can beat Cavaliers' best record in the league at some point! It will benefit us with the home-court advantage for the entire playoffs!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Nationalized Education
Well, its been 6 days since Obama's State of the Union address. And he proposed nothing related to nationalized education until yesterday.
In this issue, he said that his administration would be making some overhauls to the No Child Left Behind Act first passed in 2002. This is the act that I myself, dislike greatly for a large amount of reasons. I'm disappointed with both political parties, especially the Republicans, for not doing anything to get rid of the Act that has proven absolutely worthless and ineffective to our school education.
First off, have you ever heard of the saying, "teaching to the test?" Because that is the exact problem with this act. I've learned from Wikipedia and its sources that the act leads to teachers teaching rather a narrow subset of skills you need on standardized testing because of the possibility that they may know all that's required to know for the test, leading to less class time and more failing.
Another issue is the increase of the # of failing students. Since the government now has control to assign which subjects and concepts the schools must recover, the standards may be lower than usual, not higher. According to my AP US history teacher, it violates the constitution because it's the states' power to control the subject curriculum that all school districts in that state must cover. And I mean violation of the 10th Amendment where it clearly stated that powers not given to the National government are granted to the states and the people. And the US constitution never stated that the government has control over the education of the United States. With the lower standards, we can see more and more failing students on standardized tests because these tests include standards that the nationalized education did not require.
Today, I just got news that we had to learn the so-called Mission Statement as a way to measure whether our school (Brighton) is accredited whatsoever. This is caused by the act that I've been opposing the whole time. You know it, the No Child left... whatever it says on the act. If we do not memorize this successfully, our school will not get accredited and it can mean a number of things, notably denied applications to universities due to inadequate education from your high school. I lashed out in fury at the national government for coming up with meaningless regulations such as this statement because everyone is capable of learning, and I mean it.
Personally, I hope someone who is courageous enough, whether it be a regular citizen or a political party, can stand up against this act because of its nearly unrepairable flaws its done to our nation. One day, I would like to form a protest against this act should it affect my children significantly in the future. One day, I hope the national government to realize this violation to the 10th Amendment and repeal this act in the future.
-Kent Yang
In this issue, he said that his administration would be making some overhauls to the No Child Left Behind Act first passed in 2002. This is the act that I myself, dislike greatly for a large amount of reasons. I'm disappointed with both political parties, especially the Republicans, for not doing anything to get rid of the Act that has proven absolutely worthless and ineffective to our school education.
First off, have you ever heard of the saying, "teaching to the test?" Because that is the exact problem with this act. I've learned from Wikipedia and its sources that the act leads to teachers teaching rather a narrow subset of skills you need on standardized testing because of the possibility that they may know all that's required to know for the test, leading to less class time and more failing.
Another issue is the increase of the # of failing students. Since the government now has control to assign which subjects and concepts the schools must recover, the standards may be lower than usual, not higher. According to my AP US history teacher, it violates the constitution because it's the states' power to control the subject curriculum that all school districts in that state must cover. And I mean violation of the 10th Amendment where it clearly stated that powers not given to the National government are granted to the states and the people. And the US constitution never stated that the government has control over the education of the United States. With the lower standards, we can see more and more failing students on standardized tests because these tests include standards that the nationalized education did not require.
Today, I just got news that we had to learn the so-called Mission Statement as a way to measure whether our school (Brighton) is accredited whatsoever. This is caused by the act that I've been opposing the whole time. You know it, the No Child left... whatever it says on the act. If we do not memorize this successfully, our school will not get accredited and it can mean a number of things, notably denied applications to universities due to inadequate education from your high school. I lashed out in fury at the national government for coming up with meaningless regulations such as this statement because everyone is capable of learning, and I mean it.
Personally, I hope someone who is courageous enough, whether it be a regular citizen or a political party, can stand up against this act because of its nearly unrepairable flaws its done to our nation. One day, I would like to form a protest against this act should it affect my children significantly in the future. One day, I hope the national government to realize this violation to the 10th Amendment and repeal this act in the future.
-Kent Yang
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