English credit 4-Reflection

Reflection on Flying Pig council

Flying Pig council starts at around 10:15 on fridays, if a complaint or new resolution comes to the attention of the council. At the council, we sit and discuss the complaints and resolutions and vote on them, and if you want to join or get a license, you go to the council to get it approved. Its pretty boring at the council, and you don’t get to do much other than talk about the complaints or resolutions, so I prefer not to have to meet.

Reflection on judical council

Judical council happens every monday, tuesday and friday at about 11-12 o’clock, and general complaints instead of complaints against a specific council are dealt with here. Its really boring at these meetings, and I prefer never to go at all. I only ever go if the meeting concerns myself or a friend.

Reflection on school council

School council is where you go if you want to pass a resolution or if you want to buy something for the school with the schools money. Its not always boring, but I prefer to be elsewhere. I usually only go if it effects me or a friend.

Reflection on open commitee meeting

Like school council except everyone including parents can go. Refer to judical council for my opinion on this type of meeting.

Social studies credit 1- Medieval Japan

Medieval Japan started in the Kofun period, which started around AD 250 (about the 3^rd century) and ended at around 538(6^th century). This period gets its name from the large keyhole shaped megalithic tombs called “kofun”s, apparently containing the bodies of royalty. During this period, Japan was ruled by strong military states. Apparently, most of Japan was under the control of the Yamato polity, which was based in the Yamato and Kawachi provinces, and was the origin of Japanese imperial lineage. Around the end of the 4^th century, Japan and the Three Kingdoms of Korea had a close relationship to each other. In the 5^th century, Japan began sending tributes to China, and developed central administration, an imperial court system, and organized society into occupation groups, based on China’s model. At around the middle of the 6^th century, Buddhism was introduced, and the Kofun period gave way to……

The Asuka period began in 538 (6^th century) and ended in 710 (8^th century). Yamato became a centralized state, and applied laws such as the Taika reform, that aimed to bring about greater centralization and enhance the imperial courts, and the Taihō code, an administrative reorganization establishing things like the Jingi-kan (department of worship) and Daijo-kan (department of state), as well as a the provinces and their governers(called Kokushi) divided into four levels to each province. Prince Shōtoku devoted himself to spreading Buddhism and Chinese Chinese culture in Japan. He was apparently responsible for relative peace in Japan, causing it with proclamation of the seventeen article constitution, a Confucianish document focused on morals and virtues expected of government officials and emperor’s subjects. Starting with the Taika reform, Japan intensified the adoption of Chinese culture practices and changed the government and penal code to go along with the Chinese administrative structure (Ritsuryo). This made way for Confucian philosophy in Japan until the 19^th century. Anyway, around 710, instead of the Asuka Period, times changed to……

The Nara period started in710 (8^th century) and ended in 794 (still 8^th century). There wasn’t much political development in the Nara period, but Japan did have friendly relations with Silla and formal relations with Tang dynasty China. However, historical writing cimaxed in the early 8^th century with the two chronicles, Kojiki (The Record of Ancient Matters) and Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan). These two chronicles give a great (and somewhat fictional) account of Japan’s history, known today as Japanese mythology. But, since the Nara period didn’t hold much change, we’ll move onto……

The Heian period started in 794 (8^th century) and ended in 1185 (12^th century).  This period is noted for its literature and poetry. One of the oldest surviving novels (The Tale of Genji) was published in this period, by Lady Murasaki. And the oldest collections Japanese poetry were made at this time. Chinese influences ended at around 838 due to the decline of the Tang Chinese. The imperial courts were mainly comtrolled at this point by the Fujiwara clan, who called themselves ”Sesshō and Kampaku”(Regent). At the end of the period several military clans rose up and started the feudal time. The four most prominent clans were Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara and Tachibana. These clans brought Japan into……….

The Kamakura period started in 1185 (12^th century) and went till 1333 (14^th century). At this point the Kamakura shogunate governed the country and transitioned it into what is officially considered Medieval Japan. The old government and the emperor were still around, but they were largely for ceremonial purposes only. Most matters were left to the samurai (bushi) class, the most powerful of which was the ruler, the shogun. This period was different from the old periods shōen system in its pervasive military emphasis. In 1185 Minamoto no Yorimoto defeated a rival clan, in 1192 was appointed Seii tai-shogun by the emperor, established a base of power in Kamakura, and ruled as the first in a line of Kamakura shoguns. After Yorimoto’s death, however, the Hōjō clan stepped up and became the ruling regents for the shogun. Between 1272 and 1281 the Mongol attempted a massive invasion of the Japan islands with superior naval technology and weaponry. But apparently a giant typhoon called Kamikaze came through, and is now credited with devastating most of the Mongol invaders. Though Japan stopped the invasion, it lead to the destruction of the Shogunate. This lead to the short reestablishment of imperial rule under the emperor Go-daigo. This went on until power was seized by Ashikaga Takauji, starting…..

The Muromachi Period started in 1336 (14^th century) with Ashikaga Takauji seizing power and starting the Ashikaga shogunate, and ends in 1573 (16^th century) when Oda Nobunaga drove out the last shogun. Near the end of the period, a ship from Portugal blew off course and landed in Japan, bringing innovation in the way of firearms. In the following years, traders from Portugal, the Netherlands, England, and Spain arrived, as did Jesuit, Dominican, and Franciscan missionaries. Then, there was almost complete unification in Japan, kicking off…

The Azuchi-Momoyama Period started around 1568 (16^th century) and ended around 1600 (16^th century). Oda Nobunaga almost united the country with his campaigns, and one of his generals (Totoyomi Hideyoshi) did. This was the first time Japan was united under a single political ruler. Hideyoshi, having united Japan, decided to invade Korea, China and India. But, he ran two unsuccessful campaigns toward the united forces of China and Korea, and then died, so his troops moved out of there around 1598. This short period was ended when Tokugawa Ieyasu siezed power, bringing in…..

The Edo period started in 1603 (17^th century) and ended in 1868 (19^th century). During this period, Japan was ruled by over 200 daimyo. The Tokugawa clan was the most powerful of them, and comanded the allegiance of the other daimyo. During the early part of the period, the shogunate (Tokugawa) suspected that the traders were forerunners for a military invasion by European forces. Christianity spread to Japan, and the shogunate suspected the loyalty of the christians to the daimyos, and persecuted them. This lead to a revolt  of the christian peasants which had 30,000 or so of them against an army of 100,000 samurai. After the rebellion was crushed (at a heavy cost to the shoguns army), the shogunate put progressively harsher restrictions on foreigners, Kicking out many traders, missionaries and foreigners. The period of isolation lasted approx 200 years. However, in 1853, Commodore Mathew Perry came along and displayed the power of the U.S. Navy to Japan and then told them to open up relations with the west. They did, and then Perry came back with 7 gunboats a year later and told them to sign a treaty of peace and amity with the United states. Japan did this, and then proceeded later to sign more treaties with other western countries. These treaties were largely considered unfair by Japanese intelectuals, because they were forced on Japan with gunboat diplomacy.

Source: Wikipedia

Tech credit 3 and English credit 2-Review#2

Castlevania Judgement: A Review

by Gaman Goshinmon, January 25, 2009

Castlevania Judgement breaks the mold of normal Castlevania games by being the only fighting game in the series. Unfortunately, like the other 3-D Castlevanias, it is not a very good game. Let me tell you why:

STORY: 3/10

You start this game’s story mode with 2 characters unlocked, Simon and Alucard. After selecting the character you wish to play, you will go through various battles, starting with Aeon and ending with that particular character’s ‘Desire’ character. The meat of this mode has no actual story; almost all of it is random battles. About 3 of the battles will have your character talk to another character, and then they will proceed to fight. One battle will have you fight either Mermen or Zombies, then one of two larger enemies. Once you are done a characters story, you get to unlock another characters story. After getting all the ‘soul keys’(you get one after beating each story), finish a story again to face the last boss, the ‘Time Reaper’. After defeating him you will unlock the final character, Aeon.

Now, this game’s story is heavily flawed because Sypha faces and Grant and Trevor, and does not recognize them later when she meets them on her way to Dracula’s Castle in Castlevania 3. Also, several characters meet at least twice, like Simon and Trevor, and do not remember each other. Characters like Carmilla, who promise a ‘quick death’, would screw up the timeline if they actually killed characters like Sypha and Maria, so the game is suggesting something that isn’t even possible. Aeon says he is there to protect the flow of time, and yet this is not what actually happens. In fact, they battle and kill each other at will.

GAMEPLAY: 2/10

Ah, gameplay. Usually the most crucial part of any game. Unfortunately, in this case, it’s awful. Quite a few moves are overpowered, and most fights can be won by simply spamming[1] one move or combo. On the other side, some moves are so weak almost no damage is inflicted. A lot of the attacks take a long time for recovery, and leave you open to attack for longer than necessary. All attacks but block breakers and a few moves that use up the blue meter at the bottom of the screen can be blocked. Your block can be broken if a certain number of attacks hit it. You can chain your attacks into sub weapons or into block breakers. The problem with this is, you can also chain regular attacks from sub weapon attacks, and eventually pull of an almost infinite combo. Focusing on single characters, starting with Golem, I’ll outline a few flaws.

Golem is too slow, and though powerful, his attacks are hard to hit with because you will likely get hit first, or get knocked out of your moves. Positively, (or maybe not) his block breaker, if timed correctly, can hit over and over again until your opponent is K.O.d[2].

Aeon’s block breaker has such a small range, it is very hard to hit with.

Maria’s attacks are often overpowered, and her A charge[3] move takes too long too cast.

Carmilla’s basic attacks, though they hit five times, are very weak, and her pull move has a lot of recoil time.

Cornell’s blue bar move is very overpowered, while his normal attack is somewhat weak.

Eric’s moves often have so much recoil time that he is defeated very easily.

Shanoa’s basic attack is a weak arrow attack and in order to pull of a somewhat powerful move, you have to combine a direction with B[4].

Grant’s block breaker will teleport him behind his opponent, no matter where he is on the field.

Sypha’s book attack has quite a bit of recoil, and leaves you open to attack.

Trevor’s normal attack has very short range and is easily countered, while his block breaker is very easily chainable.

Death’s scythe throws hit so many times that they easily break guards.

Alucard’s soul call is very weak, and yet his sword moves do a lot of damage.

Dracula is blatantly overpowered, taking too little damage from hits and dealing too much damage when attacking. He also only has one basic attack, so no combos are easily possible.

Finally, Simon is easily counterable after finishing his combo, and is a clone of Trevor in basic moves.

SOUND: 3/10

(Note: Only Reviewing the English. There is also Japanese voice acting.)The stages don’t have one set backround track, and most of the track’s are remixes of old themes from other games. The few tracks that are new are only in the credits and the final boss. Music is faint at best, and is mostly obscured by sound effects. The sound you can hear is very blurry. The “hit” sound effects are alright, but the English voice acting is terrible. The pitches are wrong in some places and the actors don’t sound like they believe in what they’re doing.

GRAPHICS: 7/10

The graphics of this game are actually its strong point. Though comparing these graphics to an Xbox 360 or PS3 game might make you say they suck, for a Wii game the graphics are done pretty well. Characters move smoothly enough, and attacks look alright. The various stages have some points that could be improved, and one thing I did note was that Carmilla’s hair clips into her shoulder[5] in the cut scenes[6]. Again, for a Wii game these graphics are pretty good. However, judging across all system graphics, these are only mediocre.

PROS & CONS

PROS

-Sometimes its fun just to watch yourself get beaten up

-Some of Trevor and Grant’s stories were interesting

-A few moves look cool

CONS

-Broken battle system

-Horrifying character designs (for example, Carmilla is wearing a nice red dress when she first appears in the series, but in this version she is wearing a weird metallic outfit with spikes all over it that makes her look crazy)

-Maria is now a breast obsessed idiot

RENT OR BUY

Rent only if you must. This game is one of the worst I’ve ever played! Definitely DO NOT BUY.

FINAL REVIEW SCORE: 4/10 Barely passable

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[1] Spamming means using the same move over and over again.

[2] Knocked out

[3] The A button of the Game Cube controller

[4] The B button of the Game Cube controller

[5] Clipping into something means the model disappears into the framework of another section of the model.

[6] The game cuts into an “explanation” scene, where you don’t get to play.

^Added these so that it was understandable if you did not know what certain words or phrases reffered to

“Mr stick”s review on Gamefaqs:http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/wii/review/R131117.html

Tech credit 2 and English credit 1- Review #1

Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower Review

The Darkstalkers series, which hadn’t seen a game in years, finally got another game, in the form of this PSP launch title. If you don’t know the Darkstalkers series, it’s a fighting game with a bunch of monsters as the cast. Okay, review time!

GRAPHICS 8/10

Though the graphics are still the same as the last game’s graphics, they’re still pretty good. Each character has smooth animations, so you won’t have to worry about having an arm teleport from hanging lazily to flailing in the air when you punch. The backgrounds look pretty, and most of them move quite a bit while you fight. Fitting with the ‘horror’ theme that the characters are supposed to create, some of the backgrounds are quite freaky.

SOUND 7/10

Sound is pretty good, though lacking in a few areas. A few of the tracks just sound somewhat similar, but most of them are different, and very memorable. Particular ones I can remember now are the ‘Tower of Arrogance’ and ‘War Agony’ tracks. The music usually fits the stage well, blending with the background to sound even better. The second half of sound, sound effects, are alright. The voices don’t always fit the character, some sounding completely ridiculous. The hit sound effects are done very well, sounding almost like the real things(except for the comically loud punch and kick sfx). Overall, well done sound.

STORY 7/10

Unfortunately, the story is only displayed in the endings, but on the other side of things, the endings do show a lot. Some of the story’s are more well done then others, as one’s like Huitzil’s NW ending doesn’t quite make sense, because in the apparently official storyline, the Huitzil robots were created by Pyron to exterminate all life on the planet. However, in the ending they are called ‘Protectors’. Other stories, like Pyron’s NW ending, are kind of funny, and quite charming. All in all, the story section is not bad for a fighting game.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

This game has terrific gameplay! The controls are easy enough to get used to, with the varying levels of power for punching and kicking set in escalating order on the X,O,[], /\,L and R buttons. Special moves are simple to pull off, and for people who can’t pull them off there is the ‘Easy’ control mode, where you can set special moves to be pulled of when you tap R. Every character from every game appears in this compilation, and all are playable! From the mummy Anakaris to the cat-woman Felicia, you’ll have plenty of choices! The new tower mode is a lot of fun, letting you select three characters to make it through a 100 story tower, a fight on every floor! With the variety of options in this game, you be entertained for a while.

TRY OR BUY?

I recommend buying it, it was 15 bucks last I saw it, but if not then you should definitely try it.

YOU’LL LOVE

-A large cast of characters, all of them different monsters

-Very nice music and backgrounds

-Tons of unlockable content

YOU’LL HATE

-Endings are pretty short

-Playing through arcade can be repetitive

-Pictures are tough to get in tower mode

FINAL REVIEW SCORE: 9/10

“The Mog”s review on Gamefaqs:http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/review/R104436.html

Tech credit 1- Blog

Well , here it is! The blog is up and running.

Cooking Credit 4-Lemon Bread

For my final required credit, I made lemon bread. I mixed the wet ingredients in a big bowl, and then the dry ingredients in another bowl.

After doing that, I mixed the two together and then I greased the pans(2):

I poured the mix into the pans, and then put it into the oven. I made the lemon (note:used limes) sauce, and waited for the bread to be done.

When it was finished, I took it out of the oven.

I set it down, and then poured the sauce on it. Turns out, I made too much! I kinda drowned the bread ion the sauce..

Anyway, then I waited for the sauce to be absorbed and for it to cool down, and then had some.

(Note: sorry for lack of pics, I’ll take some of the finished bread later and update again)

What I learned:

-Wait until I know how much stuff there is before making sauce for it

Recipe (does not include sauce):

Cooking Credit 3-Cookies

For my third credit, I made cookies. I mixed the ingredients in a bowl, and continued to add to it until it was almost ready. Then, I finished it by putting in the chocolate chips and mixing them in:

Once those were mixed in, I molded them into little balls and put them on a tray:

After doing that I put them into the oven(I burned myself doing this!):

When the cookies were done, I took them out and put in another tray. I did this twice. I put the cookies on a grill to cool:

ABOVE:Delicious!

They cooled off and then I ate them! They were terrific!

What I Learned:

-Always correctly measure how much stuff you put into the recipe(too many choco chips!)

-Always remember that you can change the recipe a bit

Recipe:http://www.popularcookierecipes.com/Chocolatechip.html

Cooking Credit 2-Ichiban

For my second credit, I made Ichiban. Because these were premade noodle, I didn’t make them from

scratch, but don’t discredit it yet! You can still learn from the process of cooking the noodles! Anyway,

I started off by bringing the water to a boil. When it was boiling, I put in the noodles. Then, when they were sufficiently cooked,

I put the flavouring in.

I let it sit for a while, then I poured it into bowl and ate it.

It was delicious!

What I Learned:

-Make sure you pay attention to the water, otherwise you could boil it all away

-Carefully open packaging otherwise you could spill lots of stuff

Recipe:On the back of every Ichiban package

Cooking credit 1-Waffles

So, I began my quest to get my four required cooking credits. I began with waffles.

I followed the recipe, and started mixing things together.

It seemed too liquidy, but I proceeded to put it in the wafflemaker.

It turns out, it was too liquidy! It stuck to the pan (I forgot to oil it..) so I scraped it off:

ABOVE:Failure

So, it turned out pretty bad. But I did successfully make my other things.

What I Learned:

-Make sure you have the right amount of ingredients, or it will turn out too liquidy or tough

-Always remember to oil the pan

Recipe:http://www.waffle-recipe.com/