Conclusion to This Year

It's a weird feeling with school's end approaching. Soon everything will be over, all of the wonders of seeing friends at school or even meeting new people and all of the unfortunate personal crises that I seemed to find myself in. This year I got some of the best teachers that have both taught and inspired me, which was a lot more than what I was expecting in the first place. I somehow managed to face challenges that I didn't think I would every have to and somehow, I was actually able to deal with them. At the time I of course thought that I had no idea what I was doing, most of the time I'm still not sure. But it was just odd. That's really all I can say about this year. I can say that it was challenging because it was or that I made more friends which is true or even that I decided to take on a project that I honestly am very afraid to begin because I don't want to fail. But in all honesty, it just breaks down to it was odd.

To start (and I will attempt to fit my entire year in one post), this year I didn't want to make any senior friends because they would leave me, and I thought it was just too sad for me. Unfortunately, I seemed to have made exclusively senior friends this year, and I am so sad to see them go. I may not have known them for very long, but I would have honestly enjoyed more time with them. And then I wanted to try to become a little more social because the whole locked up in my room all weekend was getting rather tiresome, so I just tried to be more social and hang out with people. Though that may have worked, it seemed to only happen at the end of the year which I would have liked it to be a little more consistent. And then on top of that, there are some people who I would have loved to hang out with, but never seemed to be free. And then on top of that I felt almost left out of the loop in my friend group (not that I wasn't before). This year I felt more isolated which was not an entirely new experience, but one I would not enjoy to feel again. So many things had happened this year that I can't fit it in a single blog post nor do I really want to. Overall the whole point was: my life had taken a drastic turn this year and I'm still deciding whether or not it's for the worse.

To try to elaborate, I pretty much planned out this year and the next and what career I wanted. I knew all my AP classes for next year: Government, Physics B, and Statistics. And I knew that I wanted to go into Biomedical Engineering. And I knew that I wanted a Ph.D. And I knew that I was going to get good grades and go to a good college. However, you can't plan out your life exactly, no matter how hard you try.

So I honestly don't know what's going to happen to me anymore. I'm not sure about a career. I only recently decided on APs (they are similar, but I'm taking Chemistry instead of  Physics). I somehow fit in a College and Career Center Ambassador (I'm still not sure how I got it), and I got an internship (pretty exciting if I may say so). And everything seems to be on track, but it's not the track that I set. Now I'm wondering if anything I wanted previously is even going to come true. Who knows maybe in the future I'll just abandon engineering and work on animation. Or maybe I'll do something completely different. I came into Junior year thinking I knew everything that I wanted. I was so sure of myself too. Now coming out, I honestly just want to live for tomorrow and never want to look ahead. With college around the corner though, I feel like I have to decide now and be stuck in the system for the rest of my life. (Maybe I'll just become a teacher. I don't know.)

My Art Universe

Recently I submitted an art piece to the Museums of Los Gatos contest, and I'm anxious to hear if I got in or not. I should know by tonight whether I got in or not, but I feel like so far the day is going so slowly. I don't think that I have enough skills (especially in the piece that I submitted) to get in. Because I haven't really taken an art class (which I hopefully will take one this summer) I haven't had any time to improve. I don't normally have time to draw or paint because of homework and laziness.

In order to help with the laziness, I think I'm going to write a children's book. First I have to come up with a story. It is going to center around a purple and (a little bit) yellow lion. I don't exactly know why I decided to make him those colors, but I think it might have been because I wanted to make a character like the night sky or a shooting star. But I didn't want him to be blue because I felt that it would be more magical if he was purple.

For the story, I'm not really sure what to do, but I want to make the scenery and backgrounds as pretty as I can make them because they can help tie a story together. I'm also unsure about whether or not there should be a blatant or subtle moral or even if there is a moral. Most children's books seem to have a moral of some sort. Often times they are a cause and effect type of story (or at least the ones that I remember) where the character does something that he or she shouldn't have and then has to fix it. And the moral is shown at the very end. But I think I want to make the story more fantastical and magical more than anything, so I don't know how well a moral will go with it (or at least for the story I currently have in mind.

For now I think that I will brainstorm and create story boards and concept art. I think that I might end up turning it into my senior project because I think it would give me a lot more motivation to think that I get a grade based off of my work. Then I also might not become lazy in the middle of a page and decide to scrap it because the lighting was off or some trivial reason that is an easier fix than I make it. I hope everything goes well, but I may be shooting for something that I honestly can't even reach. I have a hard enough time with anatomy. Maybe the children won't notice...

Here's my submission for the contest (I finally finished!):

Here's a picture of the lion that I was describing (I don't have any other pictures of him as a lion because I changed him from a cat to a lion):

Drawing Process

(This post is really just going to be me rambling on about art with no sort of direction whatsoever.)

So I draw (shocker there), but often times when I am showing someone a finished product there reaction is basically positive (though their level of being impressed depends on the person). I often times spend 3 or more hours on each drawing depending on what it is. It took me 3 hours alone just to get the correct skin color of a character (which still is a little bit off and I'm going to need to revise it). Sometimes people are amazed at how long it takes (which is one reason I don't do art as often as I use to). But the amount of amazement on the person's face pretty much corresponds with the amount of work and effort that goes into making the piece.


My skills unfortunately have not improved in a while because of how little I draw and paint. And then on top of that I have only taken one art class and that was in middle school and only a semester (and I didn't really get anything out of it other than getting better). And then I also did a short art program thing at the YMCA, but I don't really remember anything from it and know that I only got to learn how to use watercolors. But basically I am self-taught which seems to be a growing trend thanks to the internet (or it may not be growing, but I happen to find more people who are over the internet). Plus there are so many wonderful tutorials and walkthroughs online that virtually anyone can learn how to draw if they decided to.


A lot of people who I also show my art to end up saying "You draw so much better than me!" or "I can't even draw" which honestly in my opinion people draw better than they claim to, and I think that if people applied themselves to it, they will learn to draw even if they claim they can't do it. However, this way of thinking does not carry over to my own art. In my mind, I can't draw a little bit better than most people, but quite frankly I think that I'm really bad. Now there are people who tell me otherwise, and I have gotten into quite a few debates with my best friend over my drawing abilities. So to be polite I just end up saying thank you most of the time.


Now, I said that I spend a very long time on virtually everything that I do, and afterward I feel really happy about finishing it and though it may not be perfect I am proud of it. Here's the thing about any kind of art (I have heard this from many many people who do almost every kind of art) you end up hating it around a week later. After the pride of finishing it wears off, you begin to realize all of it's mistakes and flaws and places that need to be retouched. But in my case, I get so tired of it that I end up just leaving it because the ones that I have gone back and retouched I ended up pretty much redoing the entire thing when I could have been starting a new project. That is the unfortunate part of art.


The reason I finally decided to do a blog on art is because I would like to start commissions. However I don't think that I am talented enough nor will get anyone want to buy one. I have so far only done one, and I am not sure how that ended up happening. Plus I would need to think about prices, and I am terrible at figuring those things out. So maybe I'll actually start doing them, but first I'll need to know if anyone will commission me.

Unfortunate Decision That I Have to Make

Half my junior year has already gone by, and it’s that time to choose my classes for next year. I thought I had it all figured out such a long time ago, but last week, during all of the Ap meetings, I started to rethink my decisions. Before I thought that I wouldn’t take over three because this year I’m taking three, so I know the relative work load. But now I’m struggling to decide between classes that I want to take and those that I should.

I can’t seem to narrow down my Ap list to four, which is the most I will take now. I have five currently on my list: Chemistry, Physics, Statistics, Literature, and Government. Taking five isn’t an option because I still have to apply to colleges, worry about my SAT scores, and try to get as much financial aid as I can. All of which I know will take up whatever free time I can manage to squeeze out of my schedule.

For biomedical engineering it is recommended to have Chemistry, Biology, English, Computer Science, Physics, Calculus, and Statistics (all of which are Ap of course) done before college. By the end of this year I will have finished half of these requirements. But the plans I originally made would unfortunately not meet all of the last four, instead I would only have Statistics and Physics.

So then I was thinking about taking Stats, Physics, Chem, and Gov, but then I went to the Ap Lit meeting and almost fell in love with the class. I thought it sounded like so much fun and right then and there Lit managed to make it on to my list.

Now my decision is between Gov. and Lit, and the choice is causing me so much stress. Both seem like fun classes that I would enjoy, but my main reason for wanting to take Gov is to get college credits (plus of course there is the part of me that would love to learn about all the inner workings of the government), which is a main issue for me. My unfortunate and seemingly unreachable goals for college are currently to try to get out of it in three years versus four. Gov. would help make that more possible. And colleges only take off so many credits for an Ap English class. For the credits, Gov. would seem to be the right choice.

However, I’m not sure I want to risk taking a class that I may not enjoy just for some college credit. For now I don’t know what is going to happen, and I’m hoping that the problem hopefully just ends up solving itself.

A Different Look on "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle"

Ever year about 2 million tons of medical supplies are thrown away because of the strict, though in most ways necessary, rules that  had put in place about sanitation of medical supplies. And most of the supplies and equipment are unused and could save other peoples lives. Thousands of people die because the hospital or clinic do not have the adequate medical tools or supplies. In order to help this situation, MedShare was created.

MedShare is a nonprofit organization that wants to give people the supplies they need. Because the  laws only apply to the United States, the materials can be shipped and used in other countries. So MedShare takes donations of various medical supplies from local hospitals and anyone who is willing to donate, then ship the supplies off to third world countries. Not only does this help thousands of people who die from infections that could have been prevented or because a simple, inexpensive tool breaks and the hospital can not afford anymore, but it also helps take out a lot of the waste in the dumps which helps the environment.

MedShare is an amazing organization that always needs help, like any other nonprofit. I often volunteer at the San Leandro location. It is a bit of a drive, but it is worth it. When I started volunteering there, I did not know that I would love it so much. Though it was not that long ago, I love thinking back to my first day there.

The current volunteer coordinator was stepping down that day for the new one, Gabby Brandt. MedShare requires that the first time you volunteer to go through an orientation of the place. So first we watched this video about a nursery in a hospital in Africa (I believe in Zimbabwe, but I will have to double check on it), and it said that none of the money from donations is going to the fight against HIV and AIDS. Even though they are good contributions, a lot of people are dying from other diseases. The video showed babies that were born with a breathing defect where they had to get air from a tank in order to live. There were 8 hooked up to a makeshift machine that distributed oxygen to all of then, and they had to share. On top of that there was only one nurse taking care of about 27 babies, and she was responsible for every single one of them. When another baby was born, it had the same problem and needed oxygen immediately or it would die. The doctor that delivered it tried to give it some, but the valve to the oxygen tank broke. Then he took the baby over to the nursery to see if he could use the oxygen tank there. But another baby could not be added to the oxygen system. It's lungs failed, and the baby died not long afterward. And the sad part is that a $25 valve would have saved the baby's life.

After the video, we were taken around the warehouse. We stopped at a display of something that is like a clinic in many countries. It showed a run down place where the wood was almost rotting and a sting with plastic gloves on it. Gabby said that because of the limited number of gloves in clinics, the doctors have to wash the gloves and reuse them for another surgery. She said that they would use anything to try to help someone and use all the resources that that had; they even would reuse gauze and bandages. The small hut made me so sad that we have such large hospitals with thousands of supplies, and they have to ration supplies and reuse them just to save someone's life.

We were taken though the aisles that contained thousands of boxes and equipment. It was fascinating seeing everything. There was old and new equipment, some that had seen better days, but still look reliable. All the box sizes were amazing. I just remember being towered by everything, even more so than what I feel in Costco because at least there are a lot of people. In the area where I actually do the community service, Gabby went over all of the different barrels of supplies and went over our project. The service work that we do there is go through donations and categorize or box them. This time we were doing the first sort where dates do not matter unless you are shipping something, then the expiration date is required because if the item is expired it can not leave the country and gets stuck in customs. There is first sort, then second sort, and then third sort.

First sort is the easiest, but it can be difficult to know where things go because all the medical jargon is sometimes difficult to decipher. Second sort is when we have to go through first sort and divide the items up into different subcategories of the item. In this part dates matter, and anything that is expired is put aside. Sometimes expired items are still useable, and the expiration just tells you that the it is no longer sterile after that date. Another thing that has to be checked is that MedShare only ships items that expire a year from that date because they might sit in the warehouse for a while. So they get put in Short Dated and they would go into the warehouse's medical supplies for doctors that need supplies for other countries, like for Doctors Without Borders. It can be then taken out of the package and placed into non-sterile supplies. Then third sort is just boxing enough of the same supplies in to a box and making a label. Then the box will go into inventory and wait to be picked. For the most part, we do one of these for 3 hours.

So far, this is my favorite place to do community service. But because of the distances, it's difficult to volunteer there. We go about once a month if we can, though I would like to go maybe twice a month if I can. We became regulars a while ago and got plastic name tags instead of the temporary ones. And we just got to 30 hours not too long about, which means we have been doing this for over 10 months which I am proud of. even though that is not very many hours. Even though I have to wake up early on Saturdays and drive for 40 minutes, it is worth it to feel like I have made a difference. The community service that I have done there has actually made decide to go into biomedical engineering because I want to help people and maybe be a part in creating something that is inexpensive, reusable, and accessible for third world countries. So far, that is my goal, and if that means four more years of school, that is perfectly fine with me.

The Art of the Comic Strip

Comic strips have been a very old tradition in newspapers that everyone seems to enjoy. My mom and dad both have stories about how they always use to love reading them every Sunday morning while they ate breakfast. My dad always says that he had to wake up very early and fight for them because his sisters would always want to read them too. Even now I love comic strips a lot. Though there are so many things about them that I like, their simplistic style and unique, but most of the time quite frankly odd, characters, I love the funny situations and humor in comic strips (as I'm sure most people do). Because I have a little project that I'm hopefully going to start (my very own comic strip), I think it would be beneficial to analyze what makes a comic strip tick and try to apply it to my own little project. (Now let me note that everything following this for the most part is going to be my interpretations of looking at comic strips and reading some of their history. This is not fact, however art is never really based on fact anyway.)

Characters. Much like graphic novels, comic strips have to have distinguishable characters to start. These characters must be recognizable in both speech and appearance. Nothing's worse then all the characters looking the same and speaking the same way. I have unfortunately tried to read comics like that, granted they were done in black and white, and I ended up twisting the story around and turning the bad guy into the good guy and the good guy into the bad guy. I became so confused that the plot didn't make any sense, and I ended up giving up on the book. I later realized my mistake when I read a summary of the book and when I looked at some colored pictures of the characters. But still that really shouldn't happen in a short comic strip especially if they are only updated once a week because it takes the reader a longer amount of time to adjust and learn the characters.

Story. Like virtually anything, there has to be a somewhat appealing story, not necessarily very active, where the characters can be put in many different situations, and yet still keep a very general plot.Garfield is a good example because the story line is basically his "journey" through life and his "obstacles" whether they are that it's too hot outside or about Odie or one of the other characters. Garfield's plot line (if you can really call it that) allows Jim Davis to create so many situations with just a few characters and a simple premise that he can virtually go on forever writing the comic. However, some comic strips don't have much of a continuous story like those often found in the Sunday paper. Instead they are a panel or two, sometimes more, about a funny or weird situation. The Far Side by Gary Larson does that where there is not a distinct story (or at least from the many, many comics that I have seen), but he illustrates lots of different situations that might come to people's heads (or even just his own head) and just comes up with a funny way of drawing it without much background to the story because of it's simplicity. Basically, there needs to be a simple story that anyone who has never seen or heard of it can pick it up and understand what is happening in that particular comic strip.

Cartoon Style. All comic strip artists must have a distinct style that will separate them from the rest of the comics out there. The style is often very exaggerated and nothing close to realism. There may be realistic elements in the comic strips, but it is made kind of like the characters where if you see it you know it. The styles have a very big range in how close to and far from realism that they want, and what I see is that the story and characters often decide whether to make it more realistic or not. For example, Hobbes, the tiger from Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson, is a lot more realistic than Snoopy in the Peanuts by Charles Schultz which I believe that it might be because Watterson would want to make it stuffed animal Hobbes easily distinguishable between real life Hobbes. Whereas Snoopy is a real dog and there is not question about it. Of course the style of the comic strip does depend entirely on the artist and their abilities and style in which they draw other things. But style does matter and it is the visual attraction that comic strips have.

I know that these things are not the only things that make up a comic strip, but those are what I consider the main things just because of how general they are and every comic strip has them. They are kind of like the core of every comic strip, even most (if not all) comics. Once again this is all my opinion, and I could go on and on about this, but I am not. So for all those that would like to become a comic strip artist or anything close to it. These are the things that need to be in it, and don't stop reading comics. But who am I to tell you? I haven't even done one yet. Let your creativity run rampant and hope that something good comes out (that's what I always do)!

Guess What Saved Whiskey?

A biomedical engineered jaw! Here's the actual article:
 http://www.news10.net/rss/article/207196/2/Bionic-jaw-gives-cancer-plagued-dog-new-hope

But for those that don't want to read this insanely short article, it's about a dog named Whiskey (hence the title) that had cancer in his jaw. Instead of just taking the part of the jaw out and leaving poor Whiskey unable to chew on things, UC Davis' Biomedical Engineering department made a titanium plate with some scaffolding with proteins that will stimulate bone growth on it. They were able to save Whiskey's life and allow him to live the time they bought him the way ever dog should!

I thought this article was fascinating, not just because of the biomedical engineering part. My mom came across it and told me that I just had to read it. I immediately thought "This would be good for my blog!" I think I mentioned in my other post that I have touched upon becoming a zoologist, so this also applies to that. I love learning about animals, courtesy of my dad. And then on top of that I love dogs! So this article is almost perfect for me.

But from this article, I have started reconsidering applying to UC Davis because maybe I'll get to be involved in both animals and biomedical engineering.

And a little art update for anyone that may be interested! I am probably going to start a little comic strip, and if I do I will post them for all of the lovely readers out there! Life is busy, and I don't draw as much as I want, but I will try to draw something worth posting!

Next time I think I'll write about my community service or how I do my art (more as to show anyone out there that may want a career in art how I do it) which unfortunately is a long process that is rather annoying and time consuming. Until next time!