Talking Feminism with My Mom

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“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women” – Maya Angelou For my English class, I had to explore feminism from a different perspective, so I decided to talk to my mom about it. My mom explained feminism as something that came … Read more

Teaching Python to 4th and 5th Graders: Building a “Guess the Number” Game

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I recently had the opportunity to teach Python to 4th and 5th graders, helping them create their first game: “Guess the Number.” It was an exciting experience, introducing them to fundamental programming concepts like variables, loops, conditionals, and generating random numbers before starting to code the actual game. I started by explaining how to use … Read more

Thoughts On Klay Thompson Going To Mavs

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Just a few weeks ago, Klay Thompson had officially left the Warriors for the Mavericks. Klay Thompson going to the Mavericks means that Luka and Kyrie will have another top-level scorer on their team. His presence would significantly improve the Mavs’ perimeter shooting, providing more spacing for Luka Dončić and other playmakers. Thompson brings a … Read more

Washington Monument

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I recently went to Washington DC for my school trip and got these pictures of the Washington Monument at amazing angles. The Washington Monument resides in Washington DC., built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Father of the United States.

Water Phoenix

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Water Phoenix by Aarav Puri

First Post. This is a Water Phoenix that I created using paint.net at the start of the school year as part of my Graphic Arts Elective. Using a combination of gradients, curves, and various other adjustments, I created the blue fire that you see in the background. I found an open sourced phoenix online, removed the background using remove.bg and made my edits to it in order to give it the blue glow and shine in certain areas.

Here is how to create the fire effect seen in the background using paint.net:

  1. Set the Blending Mode to Overlay
  2. Go to the Effects menu, then Render, and select Clouds
  3. Change the Blending Mode to Difference
  4. Press CTRL+F to repeat the effect about a dozen times
  5. Select Flatten from the Image menu
  6. Select Curves from the Adjustments menu
  7. Select RGB under Transfer map
  8. Uncheck the Red and Green checkboxes
  9. Add a control point
  10. Repeat the steps for the green channel