Portola Basketball Team

This week I would like to talk about the great sport of basketball. I have been playing basketball since I was 6 years old. It has taught me many things: you have to be persistent towards your goals, and you have to be open to changing some of the things you do on offense and defense. So here I am now, on the basketball team. We have won our last 5 games making our record (5-0). Our team, which has about 12 players, mostly consists of players from park leagues and travel ball teams. Our coach says we should come into his practice with a different mindset, meaning to forget what we have learned elsewhere. We started having out games around a month ago taking place at a few high schools in the valley. So far we have played teams throughout the valley (all of which I forgot the names of). Our first two games we played, the teams were CLEARLY lacking a structured offense and defense resulting in a blowout by 20+ points. For our third game a similar situation except there was this huge kid who played the point guard. Surprisingly enough he only drove to the basket once or twice, the rest of the time settling for a jump shot, and we still won that game by 10 points. For our first game that day, I couldn’t believe how that team made it to this round. They too were lacking a structured offense and defense, running like wild monkeys up and down the court. For our second game this team was a worthy opponent, though the coaching seemed worse than the players. They also had a huge kid, except this time this kid had great ball handling and was able to use his size more effectively. This resulted in him getting to the free throw line more often. Now our team is headed for the “Final Four”, at Kennedy High School on December 19. Check back then for the latest info.

Cleveland Cavaliers

For this weeks blog I will be talking about the Cleveland Cavaliers, my favorite NBA (National Basketball Association) team. They belong to the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. They are led by LeBron James(in addition to being the #1 facilitator in the league right now he is a 4-time NBA MVP, two-time NBA Champion and NBA Finals MVP, averages. In addition to Kevin Love (an outstanding center who can grab lots of rebounds and has lengthened range in his shot) and Kyrie Irving (Drafted in 2011 he is already a standout point guard ranking who has incredible dribbling skills in addition to a great outside shot. Another addition made to the team was LeBron James’ old point / shooting guard teammate Mo Williams. I think this was a great decision made by the Cavaliers because Mo and LeBron share a bond that has yet to be found in Kyrie and LeBron. This has been a price that has already paid off because Mo is contributing just under 20 points, around 6 assists and 4 rebounds per game. Last season the Cavaliers suffered a devastating loss to the Golden State Warriors in the Finals losing the series 4-2, due to the fact that Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were injured for whole series. This season their record is (8-1) ,which is  #1 in the Eastern Conference,  just coming off of a win in which the final score was 90-84. Many predict they will make it to the Finals again and are amongst the favorites in the Eastern Conference. As for the Golden State Warriors they are an impressive (9-0) lead by last season’s MVP Stephen Curry (who has the best three point stroke in the NBA right now), and also is the key facilitator for their team. Right now I think the Cavaliers are bound to win the championship only if they bond more as a team and learn more about each other individually.

Madden NFL 15

Madden NFL 16 is a video game based off of the current NFL and is available for Playstation(3 and 4) as well as Xbox(360 and One). This game is a premiere game on the market right now, for multiple reasons. This game is very popular because the NFL fan base is humongous, so the majority is most likely to buy the game. Very frequently the developers will send an updated and detailed roster. You can even create players, upload them to your roster and then upload your roster for the whole world to see.  In the game you can have as many files as you want. These files can contain rosters you made or downloaded. With those rosters you can play as many games as you want being the quarterback for any team in the NFL. Another mode in the game is Connected Franchise. In this game mode you are either a player, coach, or an owner. Regardless of your choice you complete tasks and gain legacy points, as well as controlling your team. As a player all you can do is be a player. As a coach you can be a coach (make adjustments to rosters and call plays) as well as use players to play the game. And as an owner you can: sign endorsement deals, fire and hire people, resign players, and even upgrade stadiums. And the final game mode is MUT. This game mode is basically getting a bunch of bad players, playing simulated matches getting coins, and upgrading your team. Thanks for tuning to this week’s blog post.

Ben Carson

For this weeks blog post I will be talking about Ben Carson. There is a great documentary detailing his life on Netflix called “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story”.  Ben Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan to a mother who would 2-3 jobs, making them very poor.  He graduated from Yale University, where he excelled in psychology, as well as receiving his M.D. (Doctor of Medicine Degree) from the University of Michigan. He then continued on to complete his residency in neurosurgery at John Hopkins University. A residency is a medical training program you take after graduating college held by an experienced preceptor. The main highlight of his surgical career happened in 1987. He had organized a group of 70 people separate twins conjoined at the head. The group had one hour to operate on the cranium after stopping performing a hypothermic arrest cools the body and stops blood circulation). In total the operation took over 28 hours!

Arizona Cardinals

For this weeks blog post I will be talking about my favorite professional football team the Arizona Cardinals. A quick background on the Arizona Cardinals; they are the oldest football club dating back to 1898 and are located in Glendale, Arizona. The Cardinals are in the NFC West inside the NFC (one of two football conferences). In the NFL there are 16 teams per conference, and through a postseason or playoff one team from each conference compete for the Lombardi Trophy in the Super Bowl.  Eligibility for the postseason is determined by the teams record in the regular season. Sadly the Cardinals have never won a Super Bowl trophy. And to be honest I dont know if we will win a trophy for a while because our quarterback is 35 years old, isn't fast and has a relatively strong throwing arm. We have been improving our team vastly through the annual NFL draft, improving on both sides of the ball every year. Our biggest strength- I would say- is our head coach Bruce Arians beacause he led our team all the way to the Wildcard Game on alternating 3rd string quarterbacks in addition to winning Coach of the Year for the 2014-2015 season. At the time of this blog the Cardinals' record is 4-2. This Monday night we are playing against the Baltimore Ravens. Hopefully then we can figure out a solution to our problems on both sides of the ball.


#RiseUpRedSea

GTA V Online

For this week’s blog post I will talk about GTA V Online. This game mode is what made me think this is the greatest video game ever created. One very sad thing is that the developer-Rockstar Games- has announced that they will not be adding DLC’s (downloadable content) to last generation consoles such as the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. If you want to have a good time playing GTA V Online buy a mic, so when you are doing heists (a 4 person co-op Mission) it is really easy to communicate. It is advised to play through Story Mode (which I talk about in my previous post) to attain familiarity with the controls. You do not have to go into public lobbies with 15 other players; you can be in a lobby by yourself and still do really cool things. Starting GTA V Online you are a level 1(one). The way to rank up your level is to gain RP (reputation points). There are various ways to gain RP, here are just a few: Complete Heist Setups and Finales, complete Contact Missions, TDM (Team Deathmatches), LTS (Last Team Standing), Vehicle Races, Completing Stunt Jumps, etc. If you have played first person shooter games you will hear of something called “KD”, and it stands for kill/death ratio. Other players are indicated on the map by a blip. If their blip is blood red they will try to kill you or other players to raise their KD. The real way to enjoy GTA V Online is to make GTA $(money). The easiest way to earn money is to play lots of Contact Missions, LTS, and Heists. Having lots of money can make you feel like a god. Having lots of money can enable you to buy million dollar cars, luxury jets, tanks, heist exclusive vehicles, combat helicopters and jets, boats, armored cars, guns and other versatile weapons, and even your own apartment with a garage. And for the fashionista in you, you can even design your character with: haircuts, tattoos, masks, hats, glasses, watches, any kind of top, bottom, or even shoes you could imagine. I currently have $20 million dollars in my GTA Bank account, owning practically all the vehicles that are awesome. That is all for this week’s blog leave any question below because GTA V Online can take a while to understand.

GTA V

For this week’s blog post I will be talking about my favorite video game, Grand Theft Auto V (five). The developer Rockstar Games has sold over 54 million copies, translating to over $3.2 billion in sales, making it the 4th most sold game of all time. I will be breaking down the features of the game, not a plot summary or how to use the buttons. I own GTA V for my Xbox 360 and I have to say it is the most visually realistic video game on the market. But it wasn't just the graphics that impressed me; it was the way the game is constructed. Now before you start even playing the game you have to sit through an 8 GB download. You should know that there are two main game modes: Story Mode, and an Online Mode. GTA Online is basically a multiplayer which I will get into more detail about in another blog post.When you first start the game you begin as Michael De Santa (one of the three main characters). The other two characters are Franklin Clinton and Trevor Phillips; Trevor is unlocked after completing the Jewel Store Job. In order to progress throughout the story mode you have to complete missions marked by the characters first initial of their first name. Once you finish a mission you will receive a bronze, silver or gold medal depending on various random factors such as time taken, headshot kills, being stealthy to a certain degree, etc. These missions usually involve setting up for a heist (a big robbery), rescuing or helping “homies” with something. For example, one mission you have to play as Michael and save Jimmy (Michael’s son) from some gangsters. After completing these heists or even random events on the streets you receive GTA $(gta dollars) to spend on guns, clothes, upgrading cars, etc. Another factor that can be annoying is the cops constantly shooting at you, but if you don’t cause too much trouble you can stay away from that. In all there are about 80 missions to complete in the story mode, and it can take a while to complete all of them. Once you finish story mode you can replay missions, play around with the enormous map, or you can move to GTA V Online, which I will be talking about in my next post.

Stanford School of Engineering

In this blog I will be talking about Stanford University, and it’s School of Engineering. Stanford University was founded in 1885, and is located in Santa Clara, California. I would like to take the computer science course at Stanford and earn a bachelors degree at the least to help me become a successful computer programmer in console game development, web application development and in more areas. I may do blog in the future on places I may want to work assuming I have the skills necessary. Stanford's computer science course in the School of Engineering was ranked 2nd in the nation with a rating of 5 out of 5. For those of you who don't know what computer science is then I will explain. Computer Science is the study of computers in general. Computer Science consists of 4 sub-units which are: theory of computation (deals with what can be calculated and what amount of resources are required to perform those calculations), information and coding theory (developed to find limits to operations using data), algorithms and data structures (the study of frequently used calculation methods and their resource usage, and programming language theory (which includes programming languages, type theory and compiler construction).To attend Stanford University it costs $47,073 per year (full time). A granted award or scholarship is worth $43,350. 

The Xbox One

The Xbox One is a no-brainer console to have if you had previously owned an Xbox 360. But if you haven’t owned an Xbox console here are some things you should know. The Xbox One retails for $399(excluding $60 yearly for Xbox Live). There are also bundles you can buy which add a game and 500(five-hundred) gigabytes for FREE. Xbox Live is a service that you buy so you can play with your friends and  talk with your friends (through an external microphone).The Xbox One has NO lag, which is something previous generation consoles and PC games experience quite frequently. Lets suppose you are playing Madden (a football video game) on your Xbox 360 and you make a spectacular catch, the first thing you would do is pull out your phone and video record it. But on the Xbox One you can instantly record in HD resolution and stream live through Twitch. The Xbox One takes all the previous hardware, graphics and user interface escalates them to another level. Yet there is also an entertainment side to the Xbox One, supporting over 60 apps such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, NFL Mobile, and ESPN. It can also run Blu-Ray and DVD at HD resolution. While you're waiting for something to load you can easily switch between apps without disruption. Something I think is really cool is that all your data transfers from your previous gen console if you have one, that is called reputation preservation. To me the switch is almost necessary because previous generation servers are going to shut down.

Cheetah Facts

The cheetah is known to be the fast animal on Earth in terms of speed and acceleration, and has been that way for over 10 million years. They can reach a top speed of 75(seventy-five) miles an hour, and can go from 0(zero)-60(sixty) mph in just 3 seconds. A cheetah can be compared to a military fighter jet in some ways such as a cheetah’s tail is similar to a rudder which allows for sharp turns to keep up with prey, like gazelles. The cheetah also has a very slender body allowing it to weigh merely 120 pounds; therefore its muscles don’t have to work as much. Its small cranium shape, slender legs, and flattened rib cage all contribute to minimal air resistance and more acceleration. An elongated spine allows for each stride to cover 25 feet. Even a cheetah’s feet are built with incredible traction, like track cleats. As a result of this research I have learned that a cheetah is the best all around speed hunter.