For my capstone, I decided to work with holograms, as a hologram is something that interests me, and holograms involve different kinds of engineering that I am not very familiar with, electrical engineering and coding.

In my final product, there is a port which takes the input from a laptop, process it through an Arduino Nano, then display it on a TFT LCD screen. Then the information displayed on the LCD screen reflect onto a mirror, then to a piece of translucent acrylic glass. The whole thing is connected to a pair of glasses frame, and the wearer can read information from the acrylic glass through their right eyes.

My capstone did not end up exactly where I wanted it to be, I was imagining something better, but I did not have the skills to do that yet. I do plan to continue working on it throughout college. Since it did not turn out to be as good or as small as I wanted it to be, I decided to have some fun in the end, and I made the case very spiky, and I named my final product “Spiky”.

In the end, not only did I learned electrical engineering and coding, I also had a lot of fun and learned things about myself.

My goal for the paper is to make the readers think, think about whether or not violence is something embeded in the human nature, or is it something that is taught by the society. I think my process is fine.

The actual thing:

Is violence, the desire to fight, something that is embedded within the human nature?

Some might argue that violence is something we are born with.It’s something that make us human. Like Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher, he argued that all men are born evil.

In the earlier days of human history, in the days of hunter gatherer, human had to fight other animals for our own survival. Slowly, it became a part of us. Violence is what lets us survive all these years. If we are not violent, we would not have survived given all these enemies human have in the nature. Violence is what has kept humanity alive until this day.

“Why are we seemingly so hard wired toward violence? Well, it might be evolution. It is possible that aggression is an innate trait in human. And under the right conditions, may be it finds its expression in violence and war. ”

Without violence, we are not complete. We could not consider ourselves human anymore. No matter what, violence is something that is hidden deep inside the human heart. More or less, it’s there, waiting to be triggered, explode, and emit. Once it explodes, it’s hard to collect them, and seal the all back up.

Some might argue that humans are not born with violence or anything of the sort. When we were born, we were like pieces of blank papers, pure and innocent. Society put emotions into us. Emotions of violence, greed, envy, gluttony, anger and much more. Like John Locke, also an English philosopher, who argued that at birth, all minds are blank.

When babies were just born, the babies wouldn’t know anything. The babies wouldn’t hate, or have any negative emotions at all. It’s only when they start growing up, when they start to get in touch with the society, did they start learn to hate.

But no matter what, love, the opposite of hate exists in our heart. It’s the human nature. More or less, there’s love in our heart, everyone has love somewhere in their heart. Love is what motivates us to help others, without love, humanity wouldn’t survive till this day, we would have kill each others already.

To me, everyone is born with violence, greed, and negative thoughts, somewhere inside. But they are all hidden away in a box, somewhere in their heart, masked by things such as love and happiness. Love, happiness, warmth, everything seem to be going so well. But when the right moment comes, the seal breaks, the Pandora's box flips open, and it will flood the heart with all kinds of negative thoughts. Violence, greed, envy……, waves of them, will flood the heart. Once the Pandora’s box is open, it will take much more of an effort to close it. And once the Pandora’s box has been open, it will be way easier to open it again and again and again, until the heart have soak up all the evil it can. It is so hard to close the Pandora’s box, most people give up trying really soon, or they didn’t even bother to try at all. But until the heart have been eaten up by negative thoughts, and starts to rot, there will still be love somewhere in the heart, somewhere.

Bibliography:

Crashcourse. "War & Human Nature: Crash Course World History 204." YouTube. YouTube, 31 July 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

Writing this essay made me think a lot more about the different cultures that I am in. My goal for this essay was to prove that language is important to every culture, and when a language is lost, its true culture would be lost too. I am proud about the parts where I explained how a language can be translated and understand in a different language, but it would not have the same feels or express the same kind of emotions. I am also proud of the example that I had given. I need to work on my grammar, and make the transitions smoother.

Language is a very important aspect of a culture, or rather, a core piece of a culture. When you stop speaking the true language of a culture, you actually lose touch with that culture.

When talking about language and culture, we have to talk about what is the true language and the true culture. I am a Chinese American Immigrant. When it comes down to culture, here’s a lot that we need to talk about. The second you heard that I am a Chinese American Immigrant, you probably think that my very first language is Mandarin or Cantonese, right? That is not the case for me. In China, Cantonese is also called 粤语 (Yue language), it’s mainly spoken in 广东(Guangdong/Canton). That is not where I am from. I am from 福州 (Fuzhou), another port city, where we speak 福州话(Fuzhounese).

Like Anzaldua Gloria once stated in “How to tame a wild tongue”, “So if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language.” (pg 59), language is a very important aspect of a culture.

Fuzhounese is my true native tones, it’s the first language that I had ever learnt. When I am speaking Fuzhounese, I am speaking my true, native tongues. The tones my parents growing up speaking, my grandparents, and their grandparents growing up speaking. The tone that have an ancient aroma to it. The tone that tells an ancient tale passing down from generation to generation. The tone of home and warmth.

In Fuzhou, specifically, many younger generations are immigrating to other countries, while Sichuanese are migrating to Fuzhou. What’s left of Fuzhou are mostly elderly, Sichuanese migrant worker, and those waiting to immigrate. With the Sichuanese migrants taking over Fuzhou, younger generations immigrating elsewhere, students being taught only Mandarin in Chinese school…… mostly only the older generation actually knows how to speak Fuzhounese. Many younger generation of Fuzhounese speaks Mandarin, or English if they live in the US, barely speaking much Fuzhounese at all, and they only even know couple words, just to communicate with their grandparents. My older brother is one of them.

Then there’s Mandarin. In China, everything in school are taught with Mandarin. But there’s more than just Mandarin or the well known Cantonese in China.

There are 56 known ethnic groups in China, with Han being the majority. Each ethnic group have their own language, some even speaks more than one language. But many of them are disappearing with the younger generations learning only Mandarin In school and other factors. Besides those, there are numerous dialects in China, they are disappearing too.

Mandarin is good and bad at same time. It unites 56 cultures together with a common language, and allow people from different regions of the country to communicate with each other. Yet at the same time, it is destroying the traditional cultures, and replacing them with whatever the Communist party wants.

Point is, if you cannot understand and speak a language, how could you understand the ancient literacies that had been passed down from that culture in the true way, whether it’s written down or passed down orally. And if you cannot speak it, how could you pass it down to someone else? Now you may say, “They could just translate it into another language that they understand.”

No. Maybe it can be translated and understand in a different language, but it would not have the same feels or express the same kind of emotion, as every culture are different. The feel and the emotion expressed could paint a picture that varies greatly as the language and culture differs.

For example, “一箫一剑走江湖，千古情仇酒一壶。”. 江湖 translates to “rivers and lakes”, but it’s actually the Wuxia/Kungfu world. What picture did you saw when you look at it?

This line of poem means “Live in the 江湖 world with a Xiao flute and a sword, loves and hates of thousand years of the ancient time all down with a pot of wine.”

When I look at “一箫一剑走江湖，千古情仇酒一壶。”, I see a picture of someone standing on the tip of a mountain, playing a sad yet relaxing song with the 箫 (Xiao flute), a sword is crossed diagonally on the back. The long hair which they never cut, and their long, flowy clothes, flows as the wind blows at it. The picture have a slight green tint to it. Then I see a picture of someone drink with a tiny cup, pouring 酒 (wine/liquor/sake) from one of those long necked vase. And eventually, start dumping liquid from a ceramic jar. The person is sitting on a bench, right in front of a square table brown with age and tales. One of their leg is up on the bench, with an arm resting on the knee of that leg, and the other dumping liquid into their mouth. This time, the picture have a slight brownish tint. Both are sad, yet seem carefree and beautiful in their own ways.

That is my true culture. Not the stereotypical Chinese with a long braid, who are actually 满族 (Manchu, one of the ethnic groups, who ruled China during Qing dynasty, when China actually opened up to the western world.), nor do I speak Cantonese. My culture is the Fuzhounese and Han culture. And now the American culture too.

But when it’s translated into another language, in this case English, there’s really not much emotion to it. “Live in the 江湖 (Wuxia/Kungfu) world with a Xiao flute and a sword, loves and hate of thousand years of the ancient time all down with a pot of wine.” Firstable, people would not know what exactly Wuxia/Kung Fu world would looks like, to actually understand it, it would take years. They probably would not know what Xiao flutes are either. They probably would also be really confused about what I mean by “loves and hate of thousand years of the ancient time”. But there’s really not a better way to explain “千古情仇”, there’s way more than just the meaning of each character or word. Each and every single of the characters have a different emotion, which you could not feel, unless that you understand that language well.

When a language is lost, the feels and the emotions that specific language express would be lost too, and people can no longer feel the true spirit of that language or the culture.

More infos:

Fuzhounese uses the same characters as Mandarin, but Fuzhounese words sometimes uses different character as Mandarin, and Fuzhounese have a different prounciation as Mandarin. For example, 眼睛 means eyes in Mandarin, and 目珠 means eyes in Fuzhounese.

After I did some research, I found that Fuzhounese is actually a combination of 古汉语, ancient Han language, and 古越语, ancient Yue language. 古越语 Ancient Yue language was spoken in Bai Yue 百越, which is mostly now a day Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and such.

Fuzhou also have a very similar culture compare to Taiwan. There’s only one strait between Fuzhou and Taiwan, it’s said that Fuzhou and Taiwan are one piece of land that was separate into two.

Fuzhou is famous for things like boat making, tea. 福州三宝 (three treasure of Fuzhou) are 油纸伞(oil paper umbrella), 角梳 (horn comb), 脱胎漆器 (a kind of China/ceramic, one of the three treasures of Chinese traditional crafts.)

Fuzhou is also called 榕城 (City of Ficus trees).

Se llamo Francesca Murphy, su es mi mejor amiga. Su es Judío. Su es 14 años, cumpleaños en abril. Su mucho fascina lee, escribe, y cose. Su super gusta croché. Su casi siempre tejer con hilo, en clase, cuando tenge tíempo libre y en su casa. Su fascina escuchar música. Sabes que, su fascina toma la foto, y su quiere convertirse en una fotoperiodista y viaje por todo el mundo con mi. Su tenge veinticinco mascotas, pollos, gatos, perros, conejillos de indias, uno el lagarto, y uno tortuga.

Su es Judío. En su familia, su tenge dos hermana. Los nombres de su hermana es Zoe y Maxie. Zoe es doce años, y Maxie es nueve años. Su mamá es Su. (Su y Su, ¿Lo tengo? ¡Haha!) Su papá Gary Murphy.

Mi nombre es Yafang Wu. Tengo 15 años. Soy todos los días duermo. Y cuando tengo tiempo libre corro. A veces, soy estudio, soy es muy trabajo. Después de las clases, soy leo libros de ficción. Pero, nunca nado, no! Mi familia es muy favorita estudiamos. Todos los días, mi familia estudiamos y leemos libros.

Mi amiga se llama Taytiana. Tienes 15 años. Le súper sociable. A veces, le hablas por teléfono con mis amigos y le novio. Siempre, le fascina tomar una ducha. Y después de las clases, le dormir. Y nunca estudiar.

¡Hola! Bienvenida Science Leadership Academy! Somos de 55 N 22nd Street. Nuestra escuela es cerca de 7-11. Nosotros somos divertido y diferente de cualquier otra escuela. Tenemos computadoras y carta bandas. Tenemos que béisbol, poesía, robóticas, debate, y ultimate frisbee. Science Leadership Academy es muy super ambiente aprender y pasar un rato con amigos. SLA es totalmente muy bien a ser.

¡Hola! Se llama es La Srta. Manuel, su es nuestra profesora en la clase de Español, y la profesora en CIC. Pero, La Srta. Manuel va a Chile pronto. Su nombre es Julian, su es nuestro SAT(student assistant teacher) en la clase de Español. Ajanae y Gil, es mi equipo en proyecto. Gil es muy favorito banana. La Srta. Jonas, su es  nuestra profesora en la clase de historia. El            Sr. Kay, su es nuestro profesor en la clase de ingles. La Srta. Dunda, su es nuestra profesora en la clase de bioquimica. La Srta. Mull, su es nuestra profesora en la clase de tech y arte. El Sr. Kamal, su es nuestra profesora en la clase de ingeniería. La Srta. Giorgio, su es nuestra profesora en la clase de mathmetica.

En SLA, tenemos muchas clases. Tenemos bioquímica, historia, tecnología, inglés, español, y mas. Para las clases, necesitamos lápices, libros, carpetas, las hojas de papel, y las computadoras. Mi clase favorita es Español. La Srta.Manuel enseña español. Su clase es super divertida, y aprendemos canciones y juegos.¡Qué chévere! En la clase de inglés, leemos, actuamos un poco, trabajamos solo también. Es requerido en cada clase y es importante prestar atención, y trabajar duro.

    Ajanae ella le gusta SLA. Es decir su super bien escuela, y divertido. Es muy desviación con identidades y cultura. Nos encanta es clases, Yafang ella le muy gusta arte clase y libertad

de SLA. Gil el le gusta los amigos y clases. El principal es muy muy interesante. SLA es muy muy impresionante.  

Gijon

yo

Net Neutrality is basically the principle of an internet service provider that helps you access anything on the internet without being blocked. If it goes away, you’ll get blocked from websites that you go on everyday for no reason. And you’ll probably have to pay for speed. Which is really ridiculous. Because people should not be block from any websites, sometimes, those websites that are blocked are really useful in daily life.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/data-center/goodbye-net-neutrality-now-what/

When you pay more for it, you get more data; But when you pay less, you don’t get as much data. Data throttling is used by wireless carriers to help make sure that their networks are working good and efficiently and as quickly as possible for everyone. But the wireless carriers will slow down connection speeds for users who use more data than the average customer. And it is happening. Have you wondered why you phone is so slow? Well, that’s the work of data throttling. And what can you do when you are in an emergency that you really need to send something to someone, or do anything? Nothing.

http://www.famigo.com/blog/2012/03/what-is-data-throttling-and-how-to-avoid-it/

European countries, like France do not have open internet. And the UK government are trying to “close” the internet right now. I am really wondering why? May be they don’t have as much freedom as us, the U.S.A.? Anyway, it is unfair. Government want to make laws to keep the peace, okay then. But they want to control what people can see or no online? No, that is so not what the government in UK should do.