Genesis Block Mined!

After some frustration, I got everything up and running, including the network. I have mined the first block, which officially marks the birth of academic coin!

Coin Submitted!

I tried the builder this morning, and it worked! I sent the payment, and now I am just waiting for the finished software, which should be done by the end of the day.

Passion Project Update

There is still much to be done. I went and submitted my coin to the dev to have it made, but just my luck all the servers are down indefinitely. I spent a lot of time testing existing software and code to determine if its possible for me to facilitate this project. I determined that it is possible for me to develop and run this coin. While waiting for the coin to be built, I have prepared the servers to the best of my ability however,  I need the software generated by the builder to fully ready the servers for use. There's still a lot to do, I need the software built, I need to setup the nodes, build the server software, and advertise the coin to the public.

127 hours

This movie was disturbing to me. It was cool to watch him run through all of the trails. I have actually went through trails like that before. With just a guidebook, its hard to know where you are going. They can be dangerous, with no safety devices installed. It's scary to think that doing something he loved changed his life so drastically. The movie seemed really well made and realistic. The director had a great sense of the human mind, and tried to portray it in the film through Aron's flashbacks and memories. The phrase "There is no force more powerful than the will to live." is increasingly evident in the movie. His survival challenge seemed almost impossible to me, but Aron's desire to live shown in the flashbacks helped him realize that he could overcome his injury and survive. I don't think I could cut my own arm off, that seems way to scary to me. Somehow, Aron found the desire to accomplish it anyway, and saved himself. I could only imagine the thoughts of the other hikers that helped save him. I would have been totally grossed out, but I would have tried to help him. Another thing that comes to my mind is the amount of pain Aron went through. A giant rock smashed his arm. What does that feel like? Did he eventually loose feeling in his arm? I hope so, or he would have been in excruciating pain when he cut his arm off.

Invisible child

After reading the NY Times piece Invisible child, I am left with many questions. The biggest question I am left with, is What is she doing now? The ending to the article is horrible in my opinion, and if leaves readers with many more questions. I don't know why the author couldn't bring the article to a satisfying conclusion, instead it was a cliff hanger. After reading the whole article and pondering the family's financial struggle, I feel that they could have broken away from their generational poverty. Instead of buying and trafficking drugs, they could have been saving money. The fact that street drugs are expensive is widely known, and the little money that was coming in to their household, was going straight back out onto the street. In addition to drugs, the family also had many other unhealthy spending habits. In the pictures of their shelter we are able to see plenty of clothes, bicycles, and other various electronics. I understand that clothes are important, but the rest is unnecessary. We see a Nintendo Wii and a flat screen sitting on top of a milk crate, a DVD player is also mentioned throughout the article. While all of those electronics might be fun, they are not necessary. Instead of trying to get ahead with their money, they immediately spend it on other unnecessary items, like supreme's gold teeth. I think they need to be more frugal with their money, so they can get ahead and move out.

I see many qualities in Dasani that I also see in myself. In the article, the reader sees how Dasani takes care of her siblings, and maintains there somewhat household. My Dad used to take many many business trips that were often multiple nights long, and consecutive weeks in a row. During those times and now I still try to take care of my siblings, and maintain the house. I watch by brothers when my Mom is not home, and try to take care of them when my Mom needs help. I also take care of the house, and preform maintenance around it. I mow the lawn, and do a lot of the landscaping. I fix things that break, and make sure everything works.

If I could say anything to Dasani, I would congratulate her. She stayed strong throughout her whole life although times were tough. On top of it all, she lands herself a spot on a championship athletic team. I know I wouldn't have been able to live through some parts of her life.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

In my G&T 2 class we watched a eye opening movie called Beasts of the southern wild. It was about a little girl names Hush Puppy who lives with her father in the bathtub. In the movie, a huge storm hits the bathtub, and completely floods the area. The few remaining inhabitants of the bathtub are forced to reside in one house, that lays above the water line, and travel around by boat. In order to get the water to recede, Hush Puppy's father blows up the levy that is holding all the water in the bathtub. Towards the end of the movie, the viewer becomes aware that Hush Puppy's father has a serious health condition, and eventually dies. The homes of the characters were very surprising to me. They were all in shambles and poorly constructed. Even though they face harsh conditions, they are still happy with where they live and don't want to leave. The relationship between Hush Puppy and her father is very interesting as well. It's hard to describe in words, it was kind of like an extreme love/hate relationship. Hush Puppy would do something she wasn't allowed to do, and her father would yell at her, then they would start doing something almost fun, while they were still angrily yelling at each other. Her father wasn't that protective of her either. She just wandered off to where every she wanted to go and her father wouldn't care. He even left her alone for a day or so, because he was in the hospital. Her father told her to pull the fuse on some dynamite,while they were all less than 30 feet away from the bomb. This video can also help us learn more about humanity. The inhabitants of the bathtub live totally different lives then we do here in the states. There lives are striped down to the bare essentials. The technology we have here, most likely alters our behavior as humans. But, if we analyze the people in the video we could get a better sense of what it means to be human, without any added stimuli.

Passion Project Update

My power point presentation is well underway, and I almost have all the information I want to explain to my class. I've already got 25 slides.  My miner has been up and running for a few weeks, and has already mined 22 litecoins! Each coin today is worth $4.16 as of 11/14/13 at 10:23 am. So I have currently made $91.52. I am almost halfway to my goal of mining 50 litecoins. Mining them was not easy, it seemed like I ran into another problem everyday. Such as freezes, connectivity issues and hardware incompatibilities. The additional information I still want to explain is a bit technical, and I may have trouble explaining it to my peers. I will need to find a way help other people understand what I am talking about, such as analogies to more commonly known things, or telling them excessive background knowledge they would need to understand. The second option sounds boring, and a lot of work. I think I will stick with the first option.