Hero Reflection

1. I don't think that there is any specific way to become a hero. There is no paperwork to fill out, there are no specifications, the definition of a hero differs from person to person. what makes a hero is a matter of perspective, for one person you just need to rescue a cat out of a tree, for another you need to save five human lives before you're a hero.

2. For this project we needed to find someone local who is a hero to us, and write about why they are heroic to us.

3. In order to get to the final product, we needed three other drafts with critiques. I was on time with all of my drafts, but I didn't have one of my critiques one time so that did delay me a little. But other than that I was fine.

4.From this process I learned how to write in one moment while covering things in other moments by using flashbacks. A problem that I encountered was that my hero didn't live very close to me but they were still local. So when I needed to get pictures of him, I needed to e-mail him asking him for pictures of himself.

5.I had to use perspective a lot. Luckily I know my Grandpa pretty well, so I could Think out some situations, and know how he would react. So if there was something that wasn't covered in the interview that I wanted to add into the story I could (to an extent)

6. Here is a link to guide you to my character sketch of my Grandpa: OMGWTFBBQTHISISALINK!!!

Character Sketch

It was August 17th 1980; the “Viking 1” mission to Mars was being shut down after being in Mars’s orbit for two years longer than expected.
Memories of working on the Viking flooded my mind. My head was swimming with the thought that I, Ralph Proud JR, had been a part of this major success. I sat deep in my chair, falling back seven years to when I had worked on it. Though I wasn’t able to see the fire burst from the underside of the launcher as it pierced the stratosphere before it completed its journey to the red planet about a year later, I still had the knowledge that I helped it on its way to completing the grand purpose for this piece of work. I worked for two years, putting who knows how many hours of labor for the mission, and so much has been learned, and can be learned from it.
I worked on the Central Command System (CCS); I had programmed this part of the Viking. A new force began to build in my chest, it was swelling as if there had been a gargantuan mosquito that bit me, going straight for the heart, but because of its not actually existing, there was no itch. Without the CCS the orbiter part of the Viking would not have known what to do, it would have just hung there in space, a million dollar paper weight, it wouldn’t have moved, wouldn’t have sent any data back to earth, wouldn’t have done any scanning, wouldn’t have dropped the Lander part either. But this was not an issue as I had done my job properly and it functioned just as it was expected to.
It had been built so well that it was able to go two years longer than we thought it would, during which time Mars was behind the sun relative to the Earth, and we were able to learn about the sun’s atmosphere. Amazing how you can discover things when you aren’t trying to, or are looking for something else.
I was astonished at my own capabilities, what the team was able to accomplish, what we learned and what we can learn because of this one mission. I let it all sink in to me as I made my way back into the present. It truly was an incredible feeling, that my work has made an impact on science, possibly even humanity. I didn’t expect a Nobel Prize, and I didn’t get one either, it would have been too much anyway.
I was more than content with my life, what I did was in the past, I must now look to what I can do in the future. Success is wonderful, but what can I use from this experience to make my next work even better? This is the ultimate question that I ask myself, and challenge my children with. There is no such thing as perfection, so how could it be better?

The Origin of Nothing

These articles were a very interesting read.I thought it was neat to see how different cultures displayed zero, the Babylonians with two wedges, the Mayans with an eye-like shape, the Chinese with a circle, etc. Who discovered zero? The Babylonians most would say, and I can't argue with that answer, but the Mayans also discovered it, they just didn't discover it first. But is zero complete with just a symbol, is zero just a place holder, or is it another number that has its own meaning? I think that the person who said what does zero stand for, is the true discoverer of zero. How the rest of the world got zero without an "efficient" mean of communication is no surprise to me. They would communicate this information like they would any other, people tell stories, people travel places simply in search for new knowledge, things get around one way or another.

Night Presence

Catching the signal from one of her friends, Angela brushed her skirt, took a deep breath and walked towards where he was sitting. She had done this many times before; this was just another one of her assignments. She walked up and snapped his neck. He dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and she quickly threw him over her shoulder and leapt to the rooftops where she wouldn’t be followed. "Hopefully this will b the last of these stupid assignments" She sighed as she continued up the building. After running a few blocks to make sure that she was a safe distance away from the scene she hid the body and waited until 3:45 am when a small amount of people were awake and traveled to the meeting spot where she could complete her mission. She arrived at the destination at 4:15 am Clarence, the one who had signaled to her earlier, was already there, beside her was a taller figure, masked by the darkness that occurs only at this time in the early morning. Angela knelt before the figure, laying the body before it not as it were a dead man, but as if she was handing him an ancient artifact that would shatter if it dropped even an inch to the ground.
“Master, I have brought you the body you asked for, now will you teach me elemental mastery?” Angela asked as if a peasant were asking the emperor of China for his palace.
“Very nice work Angela,” The figure said bending over inspecting the body carefully “I appreciate you disposing of Robert Pattinson, Those teenage girls were disturbing my meditation and now hopefully they will shut up about their precious Robert Pattinson” he stated practically spitting fire with each mention of his name. He swiftly turned around. He seemed to be very deep in thought about something, perhaps her next assignment. The wind played with Angela’s hair as he looked over his shoulder, sighed, turned back around and said, “Very well, You shall learn a basic skill” Her body vibrated with the thought that the master, who picked one out of a million students to learn even the most basic of skills, Clarence’s eyes went wide as saucers as her mouth gaped, looking for its tongue. Finally she squeaked out,
“M-Master, you ca-“
“SILENCE!” He roared turning to her. She immediately closed her mouth, backed up five meters, and bowed before him. “I will not have you disrespecting my judgments” He said through gritted teeth
“I’m sorry master it’s just that-“
“SILENCE!” he roared again, sparks were jumping from his fist which looked like solid stone. “I believe that Angela has proven herself to be loyal enough that she can be trusted with this power, it is not usual for me to take more than one student I understand, but I must challenge myself once in a while. If you disagree then you are free to leave whenever you feel proper, but remember the consequences of deserting.” With each sentence finished he took another step towards her until he was only a foot away from her. She did not move from her position and she wouldn’t dare interrupt him again and suffer his punishment.
“Y-Yes master, of course” Clarence was a statue, didn’t move or make eye contact, just made sure she didn’t slip up again.
“Good” The shadowy figure said coolly, his hands relaxed and Angela found it a little bit easier to breathe. “Your training shall start as soon as you arrive at the dojo” The figure faded out, Angela stood up straight and started on her path for vengeance.