My last high school essay...

I have grown throughout this year long process by learning rather than being taught. Open source learning has taught me to utilize the internet as a resource and also to put passion into learning. It has also taught me to take risks and to step out of my comfort. An example would be my masterpiece. I have never shared my findings and ideas to anybody yet I managed to do it that day. It also managed to teach the English requirements as directed by the state. My writing skills have improved a little since I began in the fall. I feel a bit more confident as I write and started to organize my ideas more. My reading has improved a bit with all the new vocabulary terms I learn and as for my thinking. It has improved so much. It feels like a door has been open and I can see a light with many imaginative ideas.

The class was given a high sense of trust from our instructor. We deserved that high level of trust because without it how else could you approach open source learning? We have earned that trust by just saying that we wanted to give open source learning a chance. Not everybody has honored that trust. The majority of the class didn’t because they are still stuck in the traditional school mind set. Not only that but they didn’t do the work, keep up with the blog or the journal. I say since the past month May I have begun to honor that trust by doing my masterpiece. The rest of the time I spent in the class I was like everybody else doing nothing trustful.

            While have experienced this course I have strengthen a passion I have. The best way I can describe my passion is being a human textbook. I have looked up a wide variety of ideas, concepts and facts ranging from the traditional math and science to video games and philosophy. Throughout the year Preston talked about utilizing our greatest resource we had, the internet. At first it flew right past me but as he kept saying it to us it finally got inside my head unconsciously. I began to look up more information as the year progressed and before I knew I used that passion as my masterpiece.

            The course wasn’t all work there were a couple of laughs in there. One would be my friend presented his masterpiece and they used inappropriate music. It was so funny because the song wasn’t made for a presentation and Preston called them out on it. Another funny memory was when I presented my masterpiece and I got flipped off by my teacher. I was glad because it felt like a friend flipping me off so I laughed. Those were my favorable moments that I remember from the class.

            Passion was a reoccurring theme in our masterpiece project. Our masterpiece project was our grand senior project where we presented on what we were passion about to everybody in the class. I saw passion over and over again but actual passion and not just passion that was made up at the last minute. Eddie who reported on why he wanted to be a paramedic gave us a personal story on what drove him to choose that. He said that a paramedic once saved his life so now he wants to do the same. Another college wanted to better him so he took up boxing as a means to get a shape and now has deep appreciation for the sport. He is making progress and has told me that he would to get with boxing. Another college named Daniel baked the class food as means to show what he has learned. He loves to cook and has even gotten a job in a restaurant where he has a mentor to guide him. He will pursue his goal into becoming a chef. Two more colleagues decided to put their projects together into one. Xavier and Robert came together to form a better idea. They will provide clothing made from street artists. Their passions drove them to create their first shirt and are planning on making a website for the public.

            I have not completed this journey. The journey on my life has just begun and I plan on taking on this adventure head on. This is my hero’s journey and I will complete it. From now on I will be living life how I want it and experience all that this world has to offer and more. I could not find a mentor because I did not know exactly what I want to do so it made it tough. At least now I know what I am interested in. It was a challenge trying to break out of that traditional school mentality because I have spent all my school life being taught and not learned.

What I thought of my masterpiece presentation

I presented my masterpiece on Wednesday and I thought it was good. I stated that we are all living, interdisciplinary textbooks.  I used myself as an example by taking my colleagues on a whirlwind 20-minute tour through calculus, evolution, philosophy, and religion. The one thing I felted the would have made more of a difference on my presentation was time. I felt rushed and couldn't deeply talk about some of the concepts as much as I wanted to. Also I forgot to mention some important ideas on the subjects I discussed. There was also one subject I didn't cover and that was history. Overall the presentation was a success.

request for response

"Recovery for Whom?" was the name of the article I read out of the four. It talked the recent recovery that the US economy is going under. Yet there is bit of confusion about who is the recovery targeting because there are different generations in the workforce. The older generation the babyboomers are being helped out the most with the recovery because they have the money. They are the rich and being helped out the most out of everybody. The poor working class should be helped out more than the rich because the poorer generations are the ones who have it the worst.

For example, the millennials, the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s. They are far worse off than the previous generation; Gen Xers (born in the 1960s and 1970s) were at that age. Not only that but the generation before Gen X, the babyboomers had it better than them at the same age. The millennials have had it rough when entering the workforce for when they entered it the recession hit. Instead of securing a stable economic future they struggled with underemployment and unemployment. Many of them had fallen so far behind that it is almost impossible to catch up.

 According to the latest census data, nearly 16 percent of those in their mid-20s to mid-30s were in poverty in 2012, compared with just above 10 percent of Gen Xers in 2000 and baby boomers in 1980. Not only that but nearly 14 percent of that age group were living with their parents which is a higher percentage than the other generations. This only goes to show that the recession majorly affected the younger generation in the workforce.

This only goes to show that there has to be more programs or government involvement to get the young up and running. The recovery should focus more on the young because true prosperity is impossible when the productive potential of young adults is being squandered. The recession set them back a bunch and now they have to play catch up without any support.

LOOK AT MY BRAIN

My masterpiece does not reflect my inner thinking because I do not have a masterpiece. I am in the processing of making one. I have a few ideas to include to it or make one into the masterpiece. I don't know. But I will leave with this note the majority of my work does not reflect my inner thinking. Tis just a scratch of the surface. Though there are some posts that reflect my inner thinking but only a few. As for the creativity I don't know how to express it through a computer screen. The collaboration is difficult for I would rather do something myself unless that person is more informed about what they know than I can know with research.

SEEKING MENTOR

I honestly have no mentor in mind but if I did I would ask him a bunch of questions. The questions will mostly be involving what the mentor does. I have a few mentors in mind and I will have to choose which one to contact. I was thinking about being my own mentor but I don't think that will fly too well with my teacher so I am looking for one. My mentor will be of the math or science related.

S' WONDERFUL

Today in class we talked about how can we present our final form of the project and what it will look like. The class talked about making videos of doing our masterpiece, having a visual presentation like with pictures, having the mentor join us in a Skype call. There were other things that the class mentioned but I don't remember them.

PREVIEW OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

• Getting to see who my expert/mentor is
• A big finale of the progress I made
• Updates on how the project is going
• A couple videos here and there

Goals/Dreams/Stuff I would like to accomplish

• Prove time travel then destroy the evidence or never tell the world that it exists
• Find out what lies at the bottom of the ocean/exploring the bottom of the ocean
• How to colonize planets by using artificial gravity/creating life on planets
• Contacting alien life forms/communicating with them
• Make it into a textbook so I can be remember by my contributions to society from new theories, new discoveries, or by being a great leader
• Become leader of a country and make serious reforms. More education, less international affairs, building of a nation and more

Literature Analysis #3

                                               NONFICTION ANALYSIS

TOPIC(S) and/or EVENT(S)

1. The life Leonardo Da Vinci was a mysterious one. Little is known about his life except for his inventions and drawings.

2. I think the author choose to write about Leonardo Da Vinci because he was an amazing inventor and artist. He was ahead of his time when it came to the inventions so the author may be curious to know how his life was.

3. I choose this book because I admire Leonardo for being a great inventor in the Renaissance era. I like the Renaissance part of history and he is one of the people I wanted to know about other than Michelangelo, Donatello, and the other famous artists of that era.

4. I did find the book to be realistic because it was a biography about Leonardo's life and what he did that made him such a famous inventor and artist of that period in history. He's work is amazing and I wished that I could paint as well as he could.

PEOPLE

1. The author did not make the character up because it was a biography. He told the story of Leonardo's life and included all the people that he met (that were documented of course). The authors speak highly of Leonardo. If I met him in person I would be curious to know how he thought of such ideas in that time frame.

Literature Analysis #2

                                                    FICTION ANALYSIS

 1. Harry Potter is an average bespectacled 11 year old boy who has lived with the Dursley family ever since his parents died in a car crash. For some reason the family has always mistreated him. On his 11th birthday a giant man named Rubeus Hagrid hands him a letter telling him that he has been accepted as a student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that his parents were wizards and were killed by an evil wizard Voldemort, a truth that was hidden from him all these years. He embarks for his new life as a student, gathering two good friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger along the way. They soon learn that something very valuable is hidden somewhere inside the school and Voldemort is very anxious to lay his hands on it.

2. The theme of this book is the finding of oneself. Harry undergoes various challenges that out him to the test and he finds it within himself to overcome them. He also finds things out the he has never found out before which make him change what he is or what he was.

3. The tone is straightforward and simple, with few purely decorative elements or artistic features, few metaphors and figures, and little playful irony. The language is easy to grasp.

4.  1) Simile: "There was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalked white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake." Pg. 293 This simile helps describe what Voldemort's face looks like in back of Quarrel's head.

IS THERE AN EXPERT IN THE HOUSE?

The way I imagine an expert to be is that he needs to know what he is talking about or else he wouldn't be considered an expert. Also I imagine him/her to be respectable with dignity and have some kind of way with words or something like that.

MY TEAM

Elias Barriga: http://eliasbarrigarhs14exposcomp.blogspot.com/
Jake Dickens: http://jdickensrhs14exposcomp.blogspot.com/
Jorge Garcia: http://jorgeg0396.blogspot.com/
Chance Miranda: http://cmirandarhs14exposcomp.blogspot.com/
Carlos Serrano: http://carlosserranoexpo.blogspot.com

I, ENTREPRENEUR

I did not design my ten questions for a single expert but rather all the experts. I think that my experts are entrepreneurs based on what we discussed in class because they went out to fulfill their dreams. They established relationships with out people and used that to succeed further. I am using open source learning as a way to get in touch with people and make a network. People just assume that entrepreneurs are experts at what they do but at one point they weren't. People don't realize that entrepreneurs started at the bottom and had to research and gather information to make it to where they are now.

10 QUESTIONS

 My 10 questions that I would as one of my experts:
1. Was it as difficult as you thought it would be to get to where you are now?
2. What made you start wanting to pursue that field?
3. Did you do well in school in term of grades?
4. What was a weakness that held you back?
5. What is a strategy you used to achieve your goals?
6. Is there any type of process you do when it comes to work?
7. Do you have any regrets?
8. Are you satisfied with the work you have done?
9. What do you do in your spare time?
10. What have you given to society?

SUPER 5

 My top experts in no particular order are:
William Sanford "Bill" Nye
Stephen William Hawking
Vice
Marshall Bruce Mathers III
National Geographic

The Hidden Underground part of the Internet

There is a part of the internet that the majority of internet users don't know about and that is the deep web; it is the largest part of the World Wide Web. You may be asking yourself "Well, how come I never heard of it if it is the largest part of the internet? “ The answer is quite simple. The average internet user surfs only what is called the surface web. The surface web consists of your daily internet activities such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc.

                                                                                                                                   

According to this picture http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/1/23608000/ngbbs4eff588f1ef5a.jpg, what your average internet users search categorizes them into an innocent internet user. They don't know the full potential of the internet. As you go further down the internet levels, you gain more knowledge of the internet. Personally, I don't what level two is, but I have experience on level 3 and 4. I do agree with the image that level 3 is for the advance internet user such that you can download you movies, TV shows, music, games, pornography, and other things. There is not that many people who know to do it or if they do then it's in bad quality. Levels 1-3 from that picture are all found on the surface web. Level 4 and 5 can only be accessed through the deep web, and you better use a proxy or say hello to the FBI.

No, the deep web isn't bad. In general, the majority of the deep web holds valuable information. A report in 2001, which is the best to date, estimates 54% of the websites in the deep web are databases, the next batch are private pages by companies that charge a fee to see them, 13% of pages lie hidden because they are only found on an Intranet, then there's the darkest part of the deep web, Tor.

The Tor browser was made by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as a method for communicating online anonymously. It was later released as the Onion Routing project in 2002. Though some use it for private communication like politics or for nefarious purposes like drugs, weapons, assassinations, etc.

Tor contains a collection of secret websites that end in .onion. They can only be accessed by special software and remember what I said about level 4 of the picture well this is it. Tor has a lot of illegal content and all of it is located in Onionland. Onionland contains the hidden services of the Tor browser. The most known service and the starting point of Onionland is the infamous Hidden Wiki. There you can go and explore the hidden services. The thing about the hidden services is that you can only access them with the full URL. Of course you won't be able to remember that so the Hidden Wiki took it upon itself to provide the links on its page. From there you can explore what Tor has to offer, but be cautious because there are lots of sites that you don't want to be on.

The sites that are on the Hidden Wiki are different, and that is the best I can describe them. The internet version of the black market is there, and the best part for the people who get involve with these activities is that the browser is anonymous. It is hard to track who gets in and out because the browser uses a proxy. Furthermore, the currency that they use, Bitcoin, is almost untraceable. It is hard to know who the original buyer was using an outside source, but there is a flaw. Bitcoins can be tracked only inside Tor. There is a program in there that I read about on Tor that makes this possible.

Something that I found while on the Hidden Wiki is the Amazon of the drug trade. The site, Silkroad 2.0, is just that. The drugs are categorized from prescription, cannabis, ecstasy, and much more. You can also buy other stolen goods on there as well. The site is well organized and even has customer reviews as well as comments. One such comment was "The level of customer care you go to often makes me forget that this is an illegal drug market". Here is an image of what the website looked like before they had to make the 2.0 version http://images.smh.com.au/2013/10/23/4852634/HP-Greenguide-aw-20131023100605822261-620x349.jpg

Another thing that I found was that you can even put a hit on someone you want dead. They’re assassins out there that are willing to put their skills to the test, but for a fee. They are on the Hidden Wiki as well, and I assumed some of them to be not real, yet there were other sites that were quite convincing. To know that you can end the life of a fellow human being for thousands of dollars is frightening or we are only worth thousands of dollars. The one thing that all the "Hitmen" had in common is that they don't do top ten politicians. Here is a picture of one hitman’s description http://www.sickchirpse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Deep-Web-Hitman-for-hire.png

There are more sites that are related to the black market. Another one is where you can buy your unregistered guns ranging from your standard pistol to your military grade assault rifle, but after looking at those sites I stumbled and found the dark twisted part of Tor. I landed on a child pornography wiki. I was at first scared of finding pictures, but I was relieved to only find information about it. I investigated further and found that in the wiki they listed famous child porn stars with their full name and age. I was mortified after seeing this. To think that they would have this kind of information on there, but then again it is Tor. I almost decided to turn back, but I kept on going. I found pedophile chats, forums, and blogs. The thing that surprised me the most about this was in how "normal" it appeared to them. There were no comments saying "I hope you die" or "Burn in hell", but positive reinforcement. In my opinion, I do hope those people die a slow painful death for being pedophiles and sharing tactics, tips and secrets with each other. There is some content that I read about on there that I will try to forget. Don't go near these sites while on Tor. Believe me I learned the hard way.

There was a certain thing I was trying to look up while on Tor and that is the organ business. I couldn't find the market for it, but I did find the prices for what a lung and kidney go for in various countries around the world. Another thing that I tried to find was human trafficking because of a blog post I found, while searching the surface web for information. This really got me worried https://img.4plebs.org/boards/x/image/1365/48/1365487520904.jpg I tried to find anything related to this on the deep web, but I couldn't. It wasn't until searching again through the surface web that I found that the site where this originated from was taken down. I was disappointed that the site was taken down because I wanted to look more into it. Although I don't condone those actions, I was interested a bit. I did find the post to be revolting and inhumane. Why would someone want to do that to an innocent little girl? Why? It is just so sick and twisted.

Hacking is also a part of Tor and there are forums and blogs about it. The information from these ranges from inexperienced to expert level in hacking. I learn while searching through these how to create a virus but a redundant virus. It can be stopped but deleting the file and it was to be manually created. The hackers in don't mess around either. I read some stories that people have hacked into the person's computer/laptop while on the hacking forum. That is the reason I didn't stay that long on there.

Tor isn't all about illegal content; there are also blogs and forums from the Middle East because of a lack of free speech. I couldn't find that many forums or blogs about the oppressed, and yet this was the only silver lining to be found in Tor. It is as small and thin as a single strand of hair.

In all, the deep web isn't that bad, but Tor is. The majority of Tor is quite bad and filled with malicious and illegal activity. There are some good things about Tor with helping oppressed people share their ideas without their government knowing and the fear of being killed by them, but there is a ton of drugs, hacking, scamming, and the rest of what the black market has to offer. This was a long research endeavor for I spent my entire weekend doing this. I got to say that it was a weekend well spent, and I learned so much. If you plan to visit Tor or the deep web all I have to say to you is be careful. There are places in Tor that you don't want to visit.

 Resources: 

How I bought drugs from 'dark net' – it's just like Amazon run by cartels - http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/06/dark-net-drugs

Darknet: Touring the Hidden Internet's Illegal Markets - http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/darknet-touring-the-hidden-internets-illegal-markets

Meet Darknet, the hidden, anonymous underbelly of the searchable Web - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2046227/meet-darknet-the-hidden-anonymous-underbelly-of-the-searchable-web.html

The disturbing world of the Deep Web, where contract killers and drug dealers ply their trade on the internet - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2454735/The-disturbing-world-Deep-Web-contract-killers-drug-dealers-ply-trade-internet.html

The Deep Web you don't know about - http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/10/technology/deep-web/index.html