Operation Jerksville: Behind the Scenes

Operation Jerksville (Potential Spoilers)

Blurb

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Katie Allen and Jason Cortland were childhood best friends, until he moved away. Twelve years later, fate tests Katie's patience by intertwining their paths again. Only this time, Jason has become the school's undeniable heartthrob, or in the rare opinion, a complete jerk.

This judgement was shared by Katie even as she unknowingly befriends two eager presidents of his fan club, which got one of them on his radar.

And so the story goes - jerk gets girl. Girl, happy. Jerk breaks her heart. With an all-time relationship record between the two, there was hope. But alas, this cheetah wasn't changing his spots. Left to pick up the pieces, Katie and her friends start scheming.

Revenge was going to be sweet.

Characters

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Katie Allen: The oh-so-ever-ready female protagonist ready to change the world one jerk at a time. Having previous experience with the familiar species, she's the only one who sees Jason's true colours, among a few others. Quirky, nerdy and shy, she's not afraid to stand up for her friends... and dish a little revenge to those deserving.

Jason Cortland: A clever and cunning hottie with total power over the female population at Rosemont High. Girls are often fazed the huge capitalized JERK written across his face. The school's undeniably sexy heartthrob, he has a thing for detention. But don't be fooled by his outward behaviour - he just might surprise you.

Cassidy Bell: One of Katie's new friends, her knowledge of Jason was only second to her best friend, Abigail. The epitome of beauty, she made an almost easy target for Jason. Her bubbly, dramatic and excitable nature was not easy to handle, although she made for a loyal and cheery friend.

Abigail Merring: Cassidy's best friend and partner in crime. The true know-it-all in the subject that is Jason Cortland, and the co-president of his so-called fan club. She shares her best friend's bubbly personality although is not a big fan of running laps. A loyal friend, and always likely to dress to impress. 

Roy Daniels: Jason's best friend - the devil on his shoulder. His wing-man and sidekick, he keeps Jason in the know about the girls in the school. The hotties, the naughties and the ever eager challenges. His fear... I'm sorry... His irritation towards dogs makes for an interesting and hilarious encounter with Jason's dog, Grumpy. 

Lindsay Jenkins: Did someone say Mean Girl? Yes, the stereotypical prom-queen, head-cheerleader, drama-queen type, she's always ready to dish out a few insults on her walk to class. A lover of pink, she's always ambitious and holds her head high as she leads her minions through the halls.

Denise Fendley: Katie's best friend from her old school. A keen eye for fashion, she desperately tried to steer Katie in the right direction (in terms of clothes, that is), but to no avail. A fun-loving drama queen, she stuck by Katie's side until she moved away, even if she did dress up like a thirteen-year-old.

Bradley Hart: The irrefutable, indisputable king of the jerks. Captain of the football team and his chiseled muscular features made him irresistible, yes, even to Katie. Her once trusting and naive nature was absolutely crushed by him at their old school and their history comes back to bite again.

Teachers

Ms. Auxson: Easy and gentle on the eyes, she was the personification of the phrase 'looks can be deceiving'. Her circular glasses always hiked on the bridge of her nose and her ever-ready pen tucked in her pocket to sign yet another detention slip, she was the meanest and strictest teacher at Rosemont High.

Mr. Gerald: A reasonably bumbling teacher, he lacked a dramatic flare even after teaching English for ten years. His classes bored students and often involved pair assignments. It did make his work less - he wasn't the most proactive teacher at Rosemont High. One thing no one expected though was that opposites really do attract.

Coach Jenkins: Lindsay's dad. The temporary gym and football coach at Rosemont High. He listens and responds to his daughter's every whim, and let's her get away with it. Hot-headed and lazy, he wasn't one to be messed with, but there was always one student who got on his nerves more than anyone. Any guesses?

Rewrites and Edits

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Operation Jerksville, a teen-fiction, contemporary romance novel that follows the story of a teenage revenge plot against an unfair breakup. This story was written eight years ago (2015) by author Kristen Rebello, in school, as she reveled in her crazy plots and ideas.

Originally written as Made In Jerksville, the story started off with the same characters and followed a similar plot with Jason being the top jerk. The ending however focused more on the English assignment set for Jason and Katie. They got involved in their poetry coming up with different versions that both had apologetic messages for the other.

While the drama was the same, the ending didn't have quite the climactic ending that it should've, so it was re-written three years later (2018), with a new ending that scrapped off the cheesy English assignments and poetry and introduced a birthday party where everything resolved itself quite comfortably.

A year later (2019), the name was changed to Operation Jerksville to complement the revenge plan Katie and friends set out on.

Self publishing was always the intended goal of this book, and that did take time while working through university and jobs, and the greatest evil of all, procrastination. After a LinkedIn course and a lot of YouTube videos, and a lot of reading and editing, the book was officially published as Operation Jerksville on Wednesday, March 15th 2023.

Wattpad and Reviews

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The original novel, Made In Jerksville (2015) was published on Wattpad a year later. It did receive good feedback and quite a few reads. However, it was removed before the rewrite with intent to be published at some point.

A single review still stands on the book  by ApollosServants

    I might continue reading later because I want to know Katie's reaction when she realizes who Jason is!! Katie - Amazing character. You thought her whole story out amazingly and I love how she is untouchable by the jerks at her new school. Jason - I love this character. I don't like his transformation though (in a good way😂). Abigail - good character! There isn't much I can say about her without giving spoilers but she is one of my favorite characters in the book!! Cassidy - Again, a good character. I would like to know more about her. Hopefully I will later into the story. Recommend - HECK YEAH! Go read it right now! I will force you too!! MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!

Available on Amazon and Kindle

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Operation Jerksville: now available on Amazon!

Connect and follow the author: Kristen Rebello

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Expo2020 Dubai

What Is The Expo2020?

One of the oldest international events on Earth - World Expos. Every five years, a festival lasting six months is held for all, creating innovative experiences and a lot of fun moments for everyone.

Expo 2020 was a World Expo hosted in Dubai. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Expo ran from 1st October 2021 to 31st March 2022, still keeping its name Expo 2020 for marketing purposes.

Being the first ever Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, it housed 192 nations from around the world. The theme, “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” aimed to inspire people by displaying global collaboration and cooperation.

Themes

The Expo area is divided into three districts: Sustainability, Opportunity and Mobility - the three subthemes derived from the main theme.

Sustainability District

Walking around the Sustainability District, complete with solar energy trees, you’ll experience some of the world’s most advanced technology in action, and learn about the incredible efforts countries are engaging to achieve the future of sustainability.

The main pavilion, the Terra Pavilion, explored the forest roots and the deep oceans, getting people to think about the preservation and maintenance of the planet for future generations.

Top Country Pavilions

• Singapore

• Brazil

• Spain

Opportunity District

“Creating a better world!” - that’s the goal, right? Learning from people, perspectives and purpose, the Opportunity District reviews this desire to grow and learn from the world.

Mission Impossible - the aptly named main pavilion, unleashes the potential within countries. Meet and learn from people worldwide and look into the aspirations of tomorrow, empowering and unlocking futuristic changes.

Top Country Pavilions

• US

• Latvia

• UK

Mobility District

Explore the limitless connections through mobility and scenes that motivate human progress. This area searches to transform people, cultures, exchange of ideas, and expression of knowledge.

Alif, the pavilion of the district, stands to review the everchanging technological developments in space exploration and innovative mobility devices. Plus, take an exciting ride on an autonomous vehicle.

Top Country Pavilions

• Thailand

• Botswana

• Republic of Korea

Mascots

While at Expo, five mascots could be spotted through the area. There’s Latifa and Rashid, the brother and sister duo and there are the three guide robots: Opti, Alif, and Terra, representing the three subthemes and districts at Expo2020.

Another mascot introduced was Salama, the wise Ghaf tree. Under Salama's watchful eye, Latifa and Rashid go on an exciting journey guided by the robots Opti, Alif, and Terra.

Eight-year-old Latifa just loves a good challenge. Her wit and immeasurable passion for technology help her find a wise and logical solution to any challenge. Her brother, Rashid, is a nine-year-old boy with a courageous spirit and vivid imagination that helps them on their journey.

Opti, a guardian of the Opportunity District (and my favourite of the three robots), is always surrounded by hope and opportunity. 

Next, we have Terra, the guardian of the Sustainability District. She is definitely sharp as a tack. While being highly loyal and protective, you do not want to get on her bad side, especially when she turns invisible.

Last but not least, Alif, the shape-shifting guardian of the Mobility District and self-appointed leader of the guardians is extremely reliable and cosmic.

TOP TEN PAVILIONS

10. India

This four-floor pavilion holds a lot of culture and experiences through the years and the legacy and future of the country. You can also get a virtual photo with the infamous prime minister.

9. USA

Moving through the years, we see the development of the States and where it’s going. Seeing life-like models and sights of the US, you just go where the floor takes you.

8. Luxembourg

Taking shape of the infinite loop or a Mobius ribbon, you can view their ideas of openness and futuristic ideas. Not in the mood for stairs? Take a slide that sends you to the ground floor. Innovation at its best.

7. Pakistan

At this multistorey pavilion, you get a glimpse into the cultural diversity and beautiful nature. It definitely proves to be an undiscovered gem.

6. South Korea

The developments of science and technology in South Korea can be experienced through an immersive augmented reality display. It’s also famed for its outside tent-like structure which burns bright red and yellow during the day and flourishes the evening with a cool burst of blue and pink.

5. UK

The intriguing face of the building is covered with LED blocks of words to form a poem generated by an AI. The AI uses a machine learning algorithm to collate the words submitted by exhibition visitors.

4. Saudi Arabia

The second largest pavilion at Expo2020 is full of things to see and do. Of course, the prime feature is the interactive water feature, which is always a selfie sight, as expected.

3. Singapore

The infamous standing pavilion is known for its three-dimensional greenery and rooftop experience, upholding a vision of sustainability and environmental care.

2. UAE

No visit to Expo 2020 would be complete without visiting the UAE pavilion. And living up to expectations was a wondrous walk through the sand dunes of the nation's past, present, and future.

        1. Japan

Its origami-based architecture draws the eye, looking not only humble and minimalistic, but inspirational. As exceptional as it is, the wait time for this pavilion is about two to three hours.

Expo Passport

A must-have souvenir for Expo2020 visitors, the vibrant and customizable yellow passport was exceptionally received by millions, collecting stamps from the 192 nation pavilions and the other pavilions and pop-up stamps too.

The 50-page booklet also contains designs of the three Thematic Pavilions, as well as Al Wasl Plaza, plus other Dubai landmarks, such as the city’s iconic skyline.

Along with the help of Kirsten Rebello, we've managed to collect all country pavilion stamps and more. This design is now available on my Redbubble store: 

Light   |   Dark   |   Colour Light   |   Colour Dark

Conclusion

Although I didn’t get a chance to visit all the pavilions for the time I was there, it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, running around and collecting as many stamps as possible. I did get in my exercise for the year, walking through pavilion after pavilion, learning, embracing, and working my way through all the districts.

Looking forward to visiting the next Expo in 2025, in Japan.

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Working Re-invented

Working Re-invented

By Carlin Aloysius & Kristen Rebello | Monday, May 9, 2022

The burning question - Working from home, does anyone ever just feel like initials in a circle?

Being an introvert, lockdown couldn't have been a better time for me... for a while. It didn't take much time to get used to being in my pyjamas and having a screen in front of me. 

Having virtual meetings, staring at each others' faces, hoping for one of us to speak up proved to be a bit of a waste of time compared to being in the office, with people huddled around a paper or a whiteboard. We definitely were a hundred times more productive.

Read the full article here

Remote Rewired

Join Ben squared (Ben Hughes and Ben Woolford) as they talk about different perspectives of working from home versus working in office.

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Arduino Antics: Laser Maze

Laser Maze

These tasks were done as part of MSc Creative Technology, 2019.

Introduction

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One at a time, each person gets a chance to move through the maze without hitting any beams. If a beam gets hit, red flashing lights and an alarm signal that the game is over. If the person makes it to the end and hits the huge stop button, the win is accompanied by green flashing lights.

Implementation

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The 4 green lasers are lined along one side of the room, all wired in parallel to 3 D cell batteries. They are not connected to the Arduino in any way. On the opposite side of the room, there are 4 Light Dependent Resisters inside of plastic tubes. 

The LDR cells detect the laser light, and the tube helps filter out other unwanted light from strobe lights. The Arduino is programmed to watch the LDR cells, and the stop, start, and reset buttons. The Arduino sends 4 signals back to the Processing code on the laptop: start, stop, alarm, or reset. 

The Arduino also powers a servo that turns on a spinning red light when the alarm is set off.(you can delete the code if you don't want a beacon) The Processing code accepts the signals from the Arduino, and displays the state of the game on the monitor outside.

Evaluation

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Processing and Reactivision in action

Turns out, it didn't work as well as it should have. With the little time we had to work, we had only one shot to try it out before it was used for the event. We got a smoke machine with the immediate fire alarms disconnected.

You could probably guess what happened next. Yes! We started a "fire". We didn't technically start a fire. The alarms just went off, disrupting class for pretty much everyone. Fun times.

Group

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• Ela
• John
• Shindya
• Kristen
• Kaiton
• Anwar
• Abdul

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Playing With Kinect: AR Sandbox

AR Sandbox

Introduction

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An augmented reality (AR) sandbox is a 3D, interactive, dynamic educational tool to help understand mapping, topography, watersheds, natural hazards, and more! This tool uses a motion sensor and specialized computer software to map contour lines (lines of equal elevation) onto the sand that adjust to the elevated levels of the sand in real time. It's a fun, and addictive, way to learn through play for the young and the young at heart.

It comprises of:

• A first-generation Kinect
• A short-throw digital projector
• A sandbox for your sand (our sandbox is 40" by 30" by 8")
• Roughly 200 lbs of white sand
• A Linux-friendly computer with fast NVIDA GPU, running Ubuntu 14.01 or 16.04

Playing with the AR Sandbox

Setup and Play

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Assuming everything is connected and software is downloaded, the first step (after switching everything on of course) was to calibrate the kinect device and align it to the base sandbox. The depth view needs to cover the entire interior of your sandbox. It's okay if it overlaps slightly.

There were a couple of steps to calibrate the corners of the projection, the alignment and elevation to cover the projection. After all the boring (and insanely annoying) part was done, we finally got to the sand part - the most exciting part.

Next step - fill the sandbox with white sand. And after that, the fun begins! We started creating islands and different shapes and messed around with the water and "rain".

The resulting augmented reality (AR) sandbox allows users to create topography models by shaping real sand, which is then augmented in real-time by an elevation color map, topographic contour lines, and simulated water.

Evaluation

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Processing and Reactivision in action

The AR Sandbox has numerous functions. From natural disaster planning and preparation, to out-of-the-box learning and education.

The Group

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• Ela
• John
• Shindya
• Kristen
• Kaiton
• Anwar
• Abdul

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Java: Data Analysis

Data Analysis (Sharks)

Computer Science assignment, 2017.   You can find the project code by clicking the Github icon. ->

Introduction

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Given a text file with data representing various features and aspects of sharks, read the file, write some functions to produce the required output and save the results in a text file. These were the requirements given for the various tasks.

Each line in a text file was represented as a shark, and each feature was separated by a colon (:). The given tasks were split into three. 

The first task asked for numeric analytics, like the largest and smallest sharks, as well as counts of words and strings. The second one played on a grouping principle, grouping all the sharks by region. Finally, the third task was to implement a search feature through the Latin name of the shark, which was one of the features in the given data. All these tasks are detailed below.

Code and Analysis

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The reading in and writing to of the data was standard across all the tasks. To further simplify the analysis, a Java class, Shark, was created. This class contains a blank constructor and one that requires the following features:

• Common Name
• Latin Name
• Maximum Length of Growth in cm
• Maximum Swimming Depth in m
• Maximum Young
• Global Presence Indicator
• Oceanic Regions

It also contains getter and setter methods and a toString method - all basic elements of a class.

On initial composition of the main file, a function required to open up the file and parse the shark data was created. The line is split by the colon delimiter and the sharks are added to an array.

Task 1

a) The three largest sharks by length - This required sorting the array by 'Maximum Length of Growth in cm', in descending order and printing the first three names.

b) The three smallest sharks by length - As with (a), sorting the array in ascending order would suffice. And print out the first three.

*Alternatively, run a sort in ascending or descending order, and print out the respective three required for (a) and (b).

c) The total number of letters (excluding spaces) of all Latin names -. A simple counter variable along with a for loop that runs across all 'Latin names' works. For each shark, 'strip' off the space and add the length of the string to the counter variable.

d) The total number of unique words contained within all Latin names with an even number of letters - Adding each name (or part of the name) to a set should remove all duplicates. With a for loop, count the number of letters in each word. If even, add one to a counter variable.

e) The total number of unique words contained within all Latin names with an odd number of letters - The same implementation as (d), except you count the odd, instead of the even.

** Alternatively, you can do a count of even or odd, and subtracting the count from the size of the set will give you the other result. Words in the set can only either have an odd or even number of letters.

Task 2

a) For each unique region, print the common names of the sharks - 

Start off by finding all the unique regions. You can either have these in a set (the easier way as sets don't allow duplicates), or filtered in an array (I used array as this proved useful for other parts of this task). 

As the results have to be printed in alphabetical order, sort the array.

Run a for loop (or a bunch of them). For each region, check against each shark's oceanic regions. If it exists, add the Common Name to a colon-delimited string. Split the string and sort the array in alphabetical order. Print the results for each region. 

Task 3

a) Prompt the user to enter a search string. Match the input string to Latin names of the sharks and print the common and Latin name (with search string in uppercase) - 

For each shark, check if the Common Name contains the search string (converting both to all lowercase). If it does, find the respective sub-string indexes and convert to uppercase. Add the common name and Latin name to an array (or two arrays). Sort the array alphabetically by Common name and print results.

If no results, print No Results Found.

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Unity Project: Outside In

Outside In

This project was done as a part of the Creative Technology course assignment, 2021.   You can find the Unity project by clicking the Github icon. ->

Introduction

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The theme behind this project was to find a way to bring the outside world inside. With technology that can allow us to do this, we chose to do an AR portal. These allow people to hold up their phone, cast a doorway into another world and walk through it! The content through the door can be a 360 video or a completely computer-generated environment. 

Context and Audience

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With an interest in Pokémon, especially with the new Pokémon Movie, Detective Pikachu, so drawing inspiration from that, the augmented room I decided to portal to was going to be an abandoned science lab used for Pokémon (like in the movie).
The intended audience proves to be children and teenagers. But this would be suitable for any Pokémon fan.

A little backstory (with the Pokémon involved in this project): A group of scientists are offered funding into genetic research if they agree to try and clone the greatest ever legendary Pokémon, Mew, the result is success and Mewtwo is born. However, Mewtwo is bitter about his purpose in life and kills his masters.

Design

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The user would be able to step into the abandoned science lab and explore. There will be certain features and objects in the scene that will allow the user to interact or play with them. This app can further be extended into a game or can move into multiple portals.

AR portal room plan

The user starts out with placing the portal. Upon entering the room, the user is placed into the abandoned Pokémon lab. The user can then walk around and explore the surroundings. Colliding into the PC will turn it on, triggering a flash or series of sparks. A translucent Mew appears from the Mewtwo chamber and starts flying around.

Extended functionality: There would be a bunch of Pokéballs lying around with Pokémon you could let out and play with.

Development

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Starting with the building of the room, all the assets and models were collected or built and placed in the environment.

Following a tutorial, the base setup of the portal was done. Most of the materials seemed to fade off well with the shader, but others were giving a little trouble. After going through a lot of material, the elements outside the portal seem to disappear well.

Not all the materials were responding to their given materials, so there were objects placed without materials for the purpose of completing the scene. Given more time and focus, more functionality could’ve been added to the scene.

Another (still existing) problem was that the portal kept moving a little along with the user, which meant that you needed a lot of space to move in and around.

Evaluation

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Final video project: GlobAR

Japonia

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Our class thought up the idea of having a collection of "doors" to go through, more like the Monsters Inc. concept. Since we had all picked ideas and themes related closely to Japan, Japonia was born.

Japonia portal map

Japonia consisted of:

• Ela's Magical Forest
• John's Animal Temple
• Shindya's Japanese Shrine
• Kristen's Pokemon Lab
• Kaiton's Dwarven Maze
• Anwar's Dragon Colosseum
• Abdul's Poly Village

In future for Japonia we would like there to be hidden worlds, tasks in AR such as overlapping interfaces that interact with the real world and fantasy ones in AR. 

In later development, we would like Japonia to feature more portals, varying styles and designs, some that are unlock-able by finding keys in the smaller portals.

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