Team Ico

Today, I'd really like to blog about one of the finest game developers the world has come to see. This would be Team Ico, and they have continuously released masterpiece games. Most likely, you've never even heard of the games Ico or Shadow of the Colossus. Sadly, these games are overshadowed by many popular game franchises, such as Halo, Guitar Hero, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts; the list could go on for days. Team Ico will never let anyone down, their games are designed and made with precision and great care. To me, they are more than just video games, but works of art that changed the way I view video games forever. Team Ico takes you to fantasy worlds, and carries your imagination far. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are both very short games, and contain minimal characters and dialogue. They have similar themes of friendship, isolation, and sacrifice.

Ico is about a boy with horns, who has been taken from his village to a lonely castle far away as a sacrifice. The boy manages to escape death, and meets a girl in the castle named Yorda, who is also trapped. Together, they solve puzzles in order to break free of the malevolent witch that resides in the vast castle. Although being one of the first games released for the Playstation 2, they push the system to its limits in graphics, which are beautiful and seem to pull you right into the game. It's a very unique game, however, it's extremely rare to find.

Shadow of the Colossus, although significantly different than Ico, has the same theme of isolation and love. This game is about a man named Wander, whose girlfriend has been a sacrifice in his town. He travels to a forbidden land to revive her. In order to complete this task, he must defeat the 16 colossi that reside in this incredible, desolate land. It focuses more on combat than Ico did, but there are only a mere 16 fights in the entire game. Again, this game takes the Playstation 2's graphic capabilities to new heights. Team Ico's second masterpiece.

Recently, Team Ico has revealed its third installment: The Last Guardian. As seen from the trailers, this game looks as beautiful as the last two. It's about a boy and his giant pet griffon. They solve puzzles together, that's about all I know right now. I'm sure it will take the Playstation 3 very far, and I'm greatly looking forward to it.

My Favorite Sharks

Sharks are awesome; they're definitely some of the coolest things roaming the vast oceans. I have a lot of respect for them. There are so many different species of sharks; all of them are quite unique. From the enormous whale shark, to the elusive greenland shark. Sharks come in all different colors, shapes, and sizes, and it's difficult for me to only choose a few to write about. After careful thought and consideration, I've come up with a list of my very favorites.

The first shark I am going to talk about is the thresher shark. This shark is unique in that is has a caudal tail fin that makes up half of it's entire body length. In my opinion, I think the tail is actually very pretty; or somewhat elegant. Sharks are very graceful swimmers, and the long tail almost seems to add to this as the shark swims through the water with ease. Although pretty, the tail is actually used like a whip to stun prey.

The next shark I'm going to discuss is the goblin shark. It's not very pretty or graceful-looking at all! In fact, it's rather hideous. These sharks live beyond the comfort zone of humans: in the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean. They are rarely seen, but some have been found off the coast of Japan. As you can see from the illustration, the goblin shark displays many unique traits. Firstly, their entire mouth is retractable (that's a little gross). Their skin is nearly transparent, and because of this, you can see the blood vessels, causing them to appear pinkish. They also have round, almost floppy-looking fins. However, the most obvious trait is the mysterious "nose". Ugly, aren't they?

Of course, I can't deny the great white shark a spot in my hall of fame! These sharks are swift, powerful hunters; they pack a lot of punch. They can get to incredible sizes, the biggest being over 25 feet. Despite their massive size, they're capable of hoisting their entire body many feet out of the water. It is believed that they are ambush predators, waiting in camouflage for an unsuspecting seal to come swimming along. The chase then commences, and the shark snags itself a delicious mouthful of seal flesh. I can surely say that these aren't the elegant beauties of the seas, but the terrifying brutes with a bad reputation!

Last, I'd like to talk about a shark that, sadly, hasn't been around for millions of years. Allow me to introduce helicoprion, the extinct shark. Hardly anything is known about this facinating shark, due to the fact that the only fossil records we have are of the skull and lower jaw. The bottom teeth are arranged in a whirl, much like a circular saw. This shark is very special, and that's why I decided to put it here. Well, there you have it: a summary of a few of the most intriguing sharks that roam the oceans, or once did many years ago.

Goblin Sharks

Bayshore has consistently been a D school according to the FCAT scores. In my opinion, this does not represent the teachers' ability to teach. It's not the teachers' fault that the students choose not to learn. That's the main problem with our scores at Bayshore; the students here have no motivation and could really care less about passing the FCAT tests. It is my honest belief that students feel like the FCAT tests are not important and they simply don't care. This not only applies to the FCAT tests, but to their classes as well. Students, for the most part, just aren't caring about it. I'm sure they feel like they're being forced to stay in school. However, it's not only the students to blame for Bayshores' test scores. The actual FCAT tests themselves are at fault. Even though I've passed all of them, I can vividly remember the trickery contained in the FCAT tests. There are a lot of questions that have may have more than one possible answer, so it's all a matter of chance that you choose the one that's deemed correct. This makes it difficult for even the brightest of students. To be perfectly honest, I don't think there is any possible way to help improve our overall FCAT scores here at Bayshore. The students here (partially due to the location of the school) do not care or have the willpower to try harder in school or on these tests.

Lord of the Flies Project

For the Lord of the Flies project, Emily and I decided to do the graphic novel. Everything was completed, however, perhaps we started too late. The whole thing ended up getting finished on the very last day. Emily ended up not being able to work on it, so I did it almost entirely on my own. It was a lot of work on my part and we should have started earlier. Despite the many obstacles encountered while working on this project, I am happy to say that it all turned out okay. It's not great, and it's not terrible. I learned that staring down at paper for nine hours out of the day can cause painful neck and back stiffness, and sore eyes.

\/\/|-|47 1|=... (⟡∀⟡'')

What if we resurrected dinosaurs? We would probably use them for traveling or in wars. Imagine styracosaurus equipped with armor, reins and a rider upon its back. That would certainly be the ultimate war advantage, charging into battle on the back of a ferocious wall of spikes.

What about a terrifying therizinosaur, the scythe lizard? Imagine unleashing its deadly claws in the heat of battle. One swipe of the meter-long claws would result in instantaneous death.

I think bringing dinosaurs back would be a wonderful idea. Let's buy the children their very own pet compsognathus to play with.

Hindernisse:Obstacles

Currently, my biggest obstacle is beating God of War II. I've been playing and playing for about three days straight. I've been put to the test many times; fighting the great colossus of Sparta, seeking out the titans, fighting my way through hordes of minotaur, riding the pegasus, defeating the gorgon Euryale, stealing the wings of Icarus and even slaying the fearsome Kraken. Finally, I've made my way to the Sisters of Fate, so I can go back in time and kill Zeus. Unfortunately, my actual obstacles in life aren't nearly this epic. My real obstacles revolve entirely around school; grades and assignments are my main priority. I have to focus on keeping decent grades and grade point average. I should also probably start preparing for college and such. I plan to stay focused and not neglect my assignments. Firstly, however, I need to kill Zeus.

генетика : Genetics.

I am blogging from my Genetics class. Teach' doesn't know. I am bored.

We're watching a very boring Powerpoint and taking notes...

Help me...

This is cool, guys. κρανίο : The Sequel

This is cool, guys. κρανίο

blog

Dear freshman,

When I was a freshman, I took all AP classes. It was hard, but I suppose it was worth it. I wouldn't do it again, for I am lazy. I made the bad choice of vdfgfs. I don't feel like writing anything today, so I'll accept my F for the day.

ᴴᴱᵞ ᵀᵃᴷᴲ ᴹᵊ ᵗᵒ ᴻᵕᵓᴸᴲᵃᴿ ᴿᴲᵃᵓᵀᴼᴿ

Abschlussklasse: Senior Year

Rejoice, for I am a senior. Simply put, it means I am getting closer and closer to the grave. Oh ho, death humor... In all seriousness, I don't have many goals for myself; I'm not very ambitious. I don't even have anything I'm interested in doing with my life. I have no skills and haven't been very involved in High School. I suppose my only goals for the year are to pass with decent to good grades, and to maybe think of a goal for myself. There isn't anything I'm particularly looking forward to, either. The way I see it, as soon as I'm done with High School, there's just going to be more school for me. More homework, more classes, more due dates. Not that I mind, school is a breeze for me. I'm just not too excited about anything, to be honest. I just feel sort of, eh, in the middle. You understand, don't you? Of course you do. I suppose I might be looking forward to meeting new people and making new friends. I've changed schools many times in my student years, and with each school change comes new friends and new adventures. As for things to avoid, there's the obvious: missing assignments, bad grades, low test scores, etc. Then, there's the not-so-obvious. I won't go into those, but they revolve around making good decisions for my own personal benefit. So, in a nutshell, I'm not particularly excited for anything in the future. I'm just going to continue doing what I've been doing: Living my life one day at a time.