Connor Morley IB CAS Blog

Now that school has been out for the summer for around a week or so, I've been quite busy catching-up on Netflix, YouTube, and video games...despite these distractions, I've also focused some of my attention on coding. I've been trying to improve my ability with Java and object-oriented programming in general, specifically building an application that randomly generates monsters that Dungeon Masters could use in their campaigns. I don't really have a ton of experience with random generation and randomly-accessed variables, so hopefully this will be a learning experience that will also result in a pretty cool program. (Learning Outcome #1, #2)

I would say that the ISAS Festival was a rousing success. Now, there, like with any event, there are definitely things that I would improve. Although I believe that I worked hard in preparation for the event, I nevertheless believe that I possibly could have prepared even more for the event. Although I did well, there were still some minor mistakes I made in my performances that I could have probably corrected. I'm still satisfied with myself, still, and I also think the point of the festival was mostly the overall experience itself: seeing all the young teen artists and their work, going to different master classes for different artistic disciplines (you're free to go to any of them, regardless of what arts or performances you're signed-up for). Additionally, I got a lot of activity in due to the large distances of walking required. The St. Stephen's campus is enormous, probably rivaling some college campuses in its size, and the vast distances covered each day were ...

The ISAS Festival is upcoming within the next week, which I guess is overshadowed somewhat by me parting ways with Blake; I've just decided that his style of instruction and working out wasn't for me I don't exactly know how I'm going to perform my activity going forward, but I'll find a way. Anyway, in regards to ISAS, I've been quite busy revising and determining what songs/passages to play, and how to play them and interpret them to properly suit my playing ability. To be honest, I'm a little nervous. I've performed in front of people before, but these performances have been few and far between. Plus, they've been in front of adults mostly, whereas at the festival it will be in front of almost exclusively fellow peers and teens from various parts of the country, not just Texas. Nevertheless, I believe that these nerves will possibly influence me to play and perform even better. (Learning Outcome #1, #2, #3, #5)

Over the past week I have been preparing for the upcoming ISAS Arts Festival at St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas. I am quite excited for the event as I have been looking forward to it ever since it was announced that we would be going again in the fall. The event is comprised of numerous schools that are part of the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS), which is comprised of private or independent schools from Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. For the event, each participating student is signed-up for multiple categories of their choosing. For this event, I am signed up for only two: solo guitar instrumental and coffeehouse. Solo guitar instrumental involves me playing guitar (vocal accompaniment using my own voice optional), whereas coffeehouse is really what it sounds like: an informal acoustic (occasionally electric, but usually not) performance involving some performer(s) and an audience.  Overall, I've been re...

I have been continuing to attend D&D Club at school. I've also been continuing to attend Film Club whenever it occurs, although there really isn't a tight schedule to pull it all together; it is supposed to happen every Tuesday, although at this point I guess it's just whenever Trevor feels like it, which I honestly can't blame him for as I'm often pretty tired after school as well. I plan on going into computer science, which to set myself apart from the general crowd that will just go and study what they want in college, likely without much afterthought or passion, I want to begin doing coding projects again. For now, though, I feel that D&D, Film Club, and working out with Blake in addition to school is more than enough with everything else I have going on in terms of homework and school commitments. (Learning Outcome #5)

Much of this past month was taken up by the 3D Magnetic Sculptures J-Term with Mike, and due to the exhaustion that followed most school days, I have been a little lighter on CAS work than usual. Nevertheless, the month has not been entirely devoid of it. I have been continuing to attend D&D Club and have had a lot of fun with my friends in that regard. Also, I have been continued to go to the gym and get personal training from Blake. I understand that it is good for your body (and mind for that matter), and I intend on continuing, but I sometimes wish that there was some sort of physical exercise that I truly enjoyed. Talking to him while working out is okay, but I don't know if the exhaustion that I feel by the end is entirely worth something that I am not myself entirely invested in. I'll see where it goes from here, but for now I'm sticking with it. My goal is to keep sticking with it and improving my mental and physical fitness through exercise, but we'll see...

     I have been continuing my work on improving both my musicianship and the quality of my  Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I had continued to plan and 'mastermind', so to speak, throughout this past week. What I've started doing in particular is planning the first session that my players will undertake as a part of the campaign. Previously, I had been designing the fictional world that my campaign will take place in, its origins, its conflicts, etc; really the 'big picture' stuff. Now, things are getting more specific. The first session of my campaign involves the player characters delivering a shipment to a settlement of brutal, imperialist dwarves (who are the central antagonists of my campaign), and it should be pretty interesting how things turn out, as there are a variety of courses of action the players can take upon arriving. Will they try to befriend these dwarves, only to betray them later? Or will they go all-out and start attacking immediately? It se...