Formal Writing

Hunting Animals for Sport Should Not Be Banned:

Hunting animals for sport should not be banned. In this essay, I will explain how it helps the environment by eradicating pests, hunting certain animals is already illegal, and how it can train people in the correct usage and handling of firearms.

There are 7 classifications of conservational status for animals; extinct, extinct in the wild, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near threatened, and, the category that humans fall under, least concern. Great efforts have been made for the species before vulnerable. Most animals that are hunted for sport in New Zealand are least concern or, in some cases, invasive, such as carnivores like stoats, weasels, possums, and rats, or herbivores that feed on native plants, like tahr, deer and wallabies. These have decimated New Zealand’s wildlife and plant-life, and it seems that hunting them until we can reduce their populations to a manageable size, and then farming them for either meat or fur. Hunting least concern status species also prevents overpopulation, as some species with great populations, although they are normally positively co-existent with their environment, as with European rabbits in England, managed by fox populations, but tear through it with large populations.

Another point that I must make is that any hunting of endangered animals is already illegal. The average New Zealander is not going to stalk and hunt a kiwi, for example. There are laws set in place preventing the poaching/killing of threatened species. Besides, our population already has a vested interest of maintaining and increasing the population of threatened animals. As explained above, hunting certain species that can decimate threatened species will, in time, increase the latter’s population, while allowing us to control and manage the former’s population.

Finally, hunting trains people how to handle firearms. If we are more proficient in the correct usage of firearms, accidental injuries and deaths by shooting will drop. On average, since 1979 there has been one accidental shooting of a hunter by another hunter every nine months. On a more offensive side of this point, if New Zealand were to go to war with, for sake of example, Australia, we would need to train soldiers to serve for the country. If applicants already had basic knowledge of firearm usage, fewer man-hours would be wasted on teaching them how to load, aim, and fire a weapon.

In short, hunting animals for sport should not be banned, as it eliminates pests, does not affect endangered and protected animals, and teaches people correct firearm handling and safety around firearms.

By Matthew Hitchings

Heil Satan, Hitler, Osama bin LAden and Gary Busey!

Film Techniques for: Quest for Fire

In J. J. Annaud’s film “Quest for Fire”, Annaud utilizes film and editing techniques like cross-cutting, close-up camera shots and background music.

During the opening sequence, the Ulam are attacked by the huge, ape-like Wagabu tribe, and are driven out of their village/cave, and into the wolves’ territory. However, not everyone escapes from the wolves. During this sequence, the film cuts from the terrified Ulams running through the woods, to the wolves chasing them. Annaud also shows us brief shots of the dead Ulam. He ends the scene with a lone Ulam being attacked and killed by the wolves, while continuously cross-cutting to the group getting away. This sequence creates a scene of terror, that the Ulam are being set upon by a pack of wolves, have suffered devastating losses, and that anyone out of the group has almost no chance of survival.

At the most important moment of the movie, where a human tribe-member teaches Naoh the secret of fire, Annaud uses close-ups to show exactly how important this moment is. He focuses on Naoh’s reactions to the fire; from his casual interest in what this scrawny little human is doing, to when his attention is grabbed by the smoke coming from the wood, then finally his breaking into tears as the fire roars into life. Annaud is getting across to the audience that what Naoh is learning is something huge, the most important thing of survival, how to make fire.

The final technique is an editing technique, when Naoh and his group are about to be attacked by the cannibalistic Kzamm tribe, whom they stole the fire from; a herd of woolly mammoths appear over a ridge, and start to roar. At this point, everything is silent, but the mammoths’ roar. Soon, as Naoh slowly makes his way up to the lead mammoth clutching a few straws of grass, the music builds. Just as Naoh hands over the grass to the huge beast, the music builds to a crescendo, Annaud effectively yelling at the audience from the editing room “This is important! Watch!” He is telling us that this is what he imagines the domestication of animals to be, or at least an understanding of how to make peace with wild animals.

In the movie, Annaud utilizes these techniques well so as to alert the audience to what he is showing them, conveying emotion to them.

Reading Response for: Ready Player One

The novel "Ready Player One" was as good as the acclaims on the back said it was.

The book is set in the year 2045, and the world has become an ugly place; we're out of oil, we've wrecked the climate, and famine, poverty and disease are widespread.

Meanwhile, humanity escapes this depressing reality with its own: the OASIS, a sprawling, sense-enveloping, virtual simulation, containing thousands upon thousands of cities, worlds and planets, and regarded by some as an alternative to life itself.

However, the reclusive creator of this simulation James Halliday, has died 5 years ago, leaving in his will a massive fortune, and no heir to his name. But, the catch is, he has devised a hunt for an "Easter egg", a hidden video game object, the prize.

The path this hunt for the egg takes is so elaborate, so intricate, and so complicated, that not even Halliday himself knew whether it could be completed. With only a short instructional video and the knowledge that Halliday was obsessed with 1980's pop culture to go on, the world becomes obsessed with finding the egg.

After 5 years of searching for just the start of this quest, most OASIS have shrugged it off as the antics of a crazy old man. Only a dedicated few still search for the egg, calling themselves "gunters" (a truncation of egg hunters).

Our protagonist, a 17-year old American named Wade Watts, is a low-level gunter with little money. After studying every 80's reference in Halliday's autobiography, Anorak's Almanac, he stumbles upon a dungeon on his school planet, and uncovers the start of the quest.

Soon, Wade finds himself caught in a race to find the egg, a race that takes on terrifying real-world consequences.

This book hugely appealed to me, sci-fi, of course, being my favourite genre. It's packed with 80's movie, book and video game references that being a central theme of the hunt, that you must understand the most obscure reference in this quest, otherwise, you could overlook and possibly miss something essential to finding the egg.

I think my favourite part of the novel is when Wade, having been the top "gunter" in the world for finding the start, has pulled away from real life, focusing solely on the hunt. At this point, another OASIS user, has taken his position as leading "gunter". The passage just describes his morning routine and what he has achieved in recent weeks, but it shows just how disenchanted Wade has become with his life outside the OASIS. He's painted over the windows of his apartment with black paint to stop him from focusing on the outside world, wearing nothing but a OASIS bodysuit to improve his sensory experience, and falls asleep in the custom rig he has had built to play in the simulation.

This passage mimics the lifestyle that some people maintain. These people, called  have become addicted to such games as World of Warcraft and "Second Life". Some have gone so far that they have died from malnutrition, thirst and sleep-deprivation. The book also references the "missing millions" in Japan, called hikikomori, literally meaning "pulling inwards, being confined" in Japanese, and translated to "withdrawal" on Google Translate.

On my final note, I would highly recommend this novel to people interested in video-gaming and science-fiction, and those who appreciate sarcasm, pop culture, and 80's movies (or movii, if you want to become a true grammar Nazi).

Betrayal in Macbeth

Betrayal in Macbeth

A major theme in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is betrayal, and that betrayal leads to betrayal. This is shown through the Thane of Cawdor’s rebellion against King Duncan, Lady Macbeth persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan, and Macbeth’s numerous murders.

The play starts with an act of betrayal from the Thane of Cawdor. He had rebelled against Duncan, the King of Scotland, and was hung at the beginning of the play. His title is then passed to Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, who had been told of this before by the weird sisters, and that he would later become King. The former Thane’s rebellion and betrayal of Duncan sets the theme for the story.

After Macbeth receives news that he is now Thane of Cawdor, true to the weird sister’s prophecy Lady Macbeth pushes her husband into killing Duncan in his sleep. Macbeth does so, and kills Duncan’s servants in order to keep them from revealing him. However, the blame silently falls on Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan’s sons, and they flee Scotland, Malcolm saying that “there’s daggers in men’s smiles”, meaning that although they are the heirs to the throne and seemingly trusted by their subjects, they would soon be killed out of blame for their father’s death.

With Malcolm and Donalbain gone, the crown is given to Macbeth. He orders his friend Banquo to be murdered, since he had been with Macbeth when he was prophesized to be King and believed that Macbeth had done something wrong in order to get the crown. As well as Banquo and his son Fleance, Macbeth orders Macduff’s family to be murdered. This is betrayal in that, as King, they are all Macbeth’s subjects, and a king should protect his followers.

I believe that Shakespeare was attempting to convey that betrayal leads to betrayal and deceit leads to deceit. The Thane of Cawdor’s rebellion and betrayal led to Macbeth’s murder of Duncan, and finally to Macbeth’s order to kill those who speak against him.

The Prospector

Greg hated Titan. After spending nearly 3 weeks crammed into the tiny ATMOS-cabin that had been issued to him when he arrived on the moon of Saturn, he had gone slightly insane. All he had was a virtual library of books and films to comfort him. And WAID.

The little robot was officially named a Working-Class Artificially Intelligent Companion-Droid, abbreviated by Titan’s miners to WAID, and “his” sole duty was to assist Greg in locating and mining carbonite on Titan. His appearance was based on the old Pixar character WALL-E and only came up to Greg’s knee in height, but he was Greg’s secretary, co-worker and companion all rolled into one.

Pretty good for a bunch of wires and circuits, Greg thought.

Getting out of his bed, he glanced at the interactive Corning interactive glass wall/mirror that dominated one side of his sparsely decorated cabin. The wall’s surface listed the weather outside, (pouring down with liquid methane rain), his appointments, and a newly found carbonite deposit. He tapped the flashing announcement and investigated the situation.

The deposit was located on an exposed mountain range not 50 klicks away from his shelter. It was a small open-air deposit, camped up next to a cliff. It was the first he’d seen of that type, and it seemed to Greg odd that it had not been sighted earlier by one of six satellites orbiting Titan, scanning the ground density for carbonite. He had seen the entire chain of operations when he had first arrived; first it was discovered by the one of the satellites, scanned thoroughly to check whether or not it was a substance of similar density, and later examined by a scout who travelled to the site and made a test drill. Finally, its location given to the miner living in that sector to start work on the excavation and removal of the deposit. There were 308 miners located on Titan, each with their own sector of about 270 thousand km², or about the same area as New Zealand back on Earth.

An open-air deposit, however, would be immediately seen from a satellite and soon after have its location relayed to the miner. Carbonite was extremely detectable due to its distinct light-blue colour and would instantly stick out from the black ice and orange dirt that covered Titan’s surface.

Greg harrumphed. “Unbelievable that they wouldn’t alert me earlier, eh WAID?”

Upon the utterance of his name, WAID sped out from his charging port underneath Greg’s bed and whipped around to face him. He noted Greg’s appearance (dishevelled), and stature (stooping), before using his pre-programmed body language scanner to assess Greg’s mood. When WAID had deduced that Greg was tired and hungry, he quickly prepared Greg’s breakfast.

“Good boy,” Greg said happily.

Greg quickly dressed himself in a Hurley t-shirt and jeans, his usual work-clothes that he wore beneath his Hazardous Environment suit (or hazard suit for sake of convenience). The hazard suit and its helmet contained his life-support system, kept his body temperature at a stable 37.5°C, contained a host of convenient and essential electronics, and protected him from Titan’s atmosphere and environmental dangers.

More importantly for Greg, was the suit’s ability to collect oxygen from the frozen water on Titan’s surface, and to collect nitrogen from Titan’s atmosphere. When the two gases were mixed in the correct ratio of oxygen to nitrogen, it simulated Earth’s atmosphere and he could breathe.

Greg suited himself up and made his way towards the airlock, a small hatch in the side of the cabin, with WAID following closely behind him. He entered and closed the hatch. A small red LED light illuminated the cramped space as the compression sequence started. It only lasted a minute or so, and then the outer door opened.

He walked out, surveying the area around his lodgings. A methane storm was brewing in the distance. His visor told him roughly how long it would take to reach him, 18 minutes. After staring at the oncoming storm, he activated the hazard suit’s severe weather mode and felt the exterior of it shift and prepare for taking damage from wind-blown debris, then turned around and walked towards his makeshift garage.

Opening the door, Greg eyed the relatively small hover-bike that he used for day to day mining trips. It had already been equipped with the suitable gear he would need to extract the deposit. He opened its fuel hatch, took a few nuggets of carbonite from a pouch in the left forearm of the hazard-suit, and dropped them inside. The nuggets on their own would easily get Greg from one side of his allotted sector to the other, nearly 520 km. He then closed the hatch and climbed onto the bike, waiting for WAID to attach himself to the back of the bike.

When that was done, he fired up the bike’s engine and zoomed out of the garage, leaving only a slight disturbance in the orange dirt behind him.

Upon nearing the mountain range the deposit was located on, the storm was nearly upon them. Greg could hear the wind whipping against his visor.

God I hope this is quick, he thought to himself. If it picks up any more, some boulders could be dislodged.

As soon as he reached the deposit, he got off the bike and pulled out from its gear compartment a self-assembling platform that would surround the deposit and provide a stable space for working. He set that up and then started the extraction.

After he’d anchored the bike to the platform, Greg hurriedly took out a laser “pen” and a handheld diamond-edged circular-saw. The pen was for taking away the bulk of the surrounding dirt and the saw for cutting the carbonite into a shape that would easily fit into the bike. He worked hastily, not wanting to be blown off the platform by the fierce winds that had picked up within the last few minutes.

As he neared completion and tucked the second last piece of carbonite into the bike, he was swiftly picked up by the wind and hurled against the cliff. Although the hazard-suit protected him from most of the damage, the air was forced from his lungs. Abruptly, the wind changed again, this time threatening to push him off of the platform. It managed a final sharp gust and Greg fell off, at the last second clutching at the edge of the platform, regretting not harnessing himself to it beforehand.

He hung there for a few minutes, each second of it spent struggling to pull himself up. Of course he didn’t want to die on a godforsaken planet. Greg glanced down, instantly regretting the action. He’d spotted a methane lake directly below him. If he fell now, he would land in the lake and, due to his suit’s weight of nearly 40 kg even in Titan’s low gravity, sink to the bottom immediately. He’d survive the sudden landing into the lake and the sinking but he would not be able to surface, leaving him to slowly run out of air and suffocate at the bottom.

At least I can take a look at possible wildlife, Greg thought. Maybe I’ll bring WAID down . . . WAID . . . Wait a minute!

Suddenly reminded of one of his most trusted companions, who had apparently not seen his near demise, Greg yelled out for WAID. The voice–recognition software in the helmet of the suit picked up his cry and sent an assistance request to the little robot.

Greg looked up and saw WAID’s head peeking over the platform. He dropped a high-strength carbon-fibre rope down to Greg and anchored himself to the platform.

Not entirely trusting his strength, Greg gently swung himself over and caught the rope. WAID pulled the rope up and Greg clambered onto the platform.

“Thanks little guy,” Greg breathed with relief. “Thank you.”

He looked over at the carbonite deposit, at the final piece, and decided it wasn’t worth it. Maybe another day he would collect the platform, of which he had dozens more of Greg walked over to his bike, attached WAID to the back (while giving him a pat on the head as show of thanks), detached it from the platform, placed a small GPS beacon in the dirt beside him and left, with WAID purring happily from another day of mining.

The Cave - Response

In the book "The Quest for Fire", the chapter "The Cave" illustrates the brutality of survival in Neanderthal life.

In "The Quest for Fire", a trio of men, named Naoh, Nam and Gaw, have set out to find and return fire to their tribe, the Oulhamr. In their time, fire was crucial to survival. In this chapter, they have camped out in a large cave to spend the night while Gaw watches for predators.

Suddenly, Gaw spots a large figure in the distance and realises that it is a grey bear, a creature said to be strong enough to strangle a horse with its paws and with claws that could slash open a man's chest. Possibly in the midst of terror, he assumes the bear lives in the cave they are in.

This surprised me, in that this beast was powerful enough to make a Neanderthal warrior terrified, as the writer also says that it could "stand up to a lion and to tigers". I couldn't imagine an animal to be like this, and only have the reference point of that it is a huge bear with the strength of an ox. This, I think, is due to humanity being apart from a vast majority of the animal kingdom.

After Gaw wakes his friends and alerts them to the bear, the trio build a makeshift wall out of stones they had collected earlier and wait for the beast.

Soon, it reaches the cave and, puzzled by the appearance of a large stone wall blocking the entrance of its cave, sticks its head inside a small opening the men had made. The bear's investigation is then cut short by the men hitting at it's head with axes and clubs.

Confused by the sudden blows, the bear withdraws its head and settles on another plan: pulling down the wall. When it finds a weak spot, a section collapses and the bear grabs Nam.

When the bear managed to pull the wall down, I was amazed at the animal's sheer strength. Of course, it was diminished by the fact the wall was hastily built. At the same time, however, it was impressive of the men to quickly build a wall under stress.

Just before the bear strikes a killing blow, Naoh, the leader, moves in and rescues Nam from its clutches. After all three men have managed to get the bear down, they rush in and start clubbing at it's jaws, snout and paws. Soon enough, they kill the beast and exchange looks, knowing that they will be spoken of in tales to come as the men who killed a grey bear.

This last passage, the final, brutal killing of the bear, shocked me as in our modern times, this would be looked at with lots of criticism. Today, you wouldn't just go out and kill a bear like that. It would have to be a life or death situation in order to do that.

Happy Anzac Day everyone.

Stuff I notice . . .

OK, I've got to post a blog with 150 words or more. Let's start! I think one of the strangest things about "The Simpsons" is the fact that the person who voices Bart is a 54 year-old woman called Nancy Cartwright, even though Bart is meant to be a 10 year-old boy. Apparently Cartwright refuses to do the voice for kids whose parents recognise her in the street because it freaks them out too much. Oh, look! 61 words at "much"! Anyway, what else? Um, skateboarders! I think that it is insane that the government tells cyclists to wear helmets while riding, and skaters can go on the road without a helmet. Is that enough words yet? 103 from "yet". I'm getting there! What else can I say? Oh, babyproofing a house is probably a bit pointless. Honestly, what self-respecting toddler would grab a butterknife, take it to a electrical outlet and shove it in? Most kids would have already cut themselves by grabbing the knife! OK, that's enough words. Goodbye!

My favourite subject

My favourite subject is: English, because I enjoy learning about literature and enjoy the easy workload.