I’d say I blogged quite a bit, it’s an effective way of me testing my ideas, and that was fun. I’d say I didn’t get the amount of feedback on posts that I’d have liked, but that is not necessarily my fault. This is a fine line I have to say, whereas requiring comments and blogs weekly would get that, it runs the risks of the academic stigma, and the loss of interest and meaning. There is no clear right answer to what should be done about this, and I’ll leave that critique. I think blogging is a great alternative to discussion labs, as if used properly it’s essentially like a virtual discussion board of the 2000s, but with more access, and more potential for cross-collaboration and co-creation.
As for my blogging journey, I’d say it wasn’t as personable as I wanted it to be, nor did it deserve to be so. I was very comfortable with this form of writing, I never did blog on the philosophy behind Villains, but I did elaborate on my own mythos behind my story. I will miss this in a sense, but It served it’s purpose, Mark out.
I’ve had a couple people request I publish my final paper here, do note this is the final revision and revision is no longer on the table for me, here it is.
Let’s close this trilogy of posts with the final arc. We discussed in Part 1 that David was the former ambassador, and now, The Will Chose Thunder to be it’s new champion, and his first act as ambassador was to dismantle the Protectors as they were. He Exiled Jackson, Susan and Urlim. Leaving only David and Justin, and he also promoted Praxis to the new Ambassador. Meanwhile, Puengi makes his return to the Eternal plane, and Confronts Nak Sha, calling out her hypocrisy and challenging her to a duel, which stuns all the Misto. Puengi has a new mist at his disposal, because after the events of WWX, Alago visits Puengi and tells him his story is not finished, he transports him to the eternal plane and tells him to trust in himself, even when other do not, Alago then touches his staff, and leaves him. This grants him the Xera (white) mist, which is the most potent mist – the Fedu (Black) but the Fedu requires a state of absolute desperation to active, the White mist replaces the Venru mist. Puengi Wins the duel because Nak Sha had never seen, taught, nor knew of the Xera mist (which symbolizes how the Misto had never truly valued balance). After his triumph, he is ordained the Champion of the Misto, and then he is attacked by Justin, who had been infused by Veni magic by Thunder, and broke his staff. This staff had symbolized everything that Puengi has stood for to this point, and now he is without it. Puengi then asks Alago what he should do, and Alago dawns him in a disguise and brings him to the Celestial plane and tells him to seek out a blacksmith. It is a good time to now mention the infinite nature of the celestial plane, this is what we’d call heaven, most mortals end up here, so puengi could pick just any blacksmith. But of course he didn’t, he finds the exiled Jackson, who recalls something alago told him years ago, return the dagger to the misto. The dagger is a reference to the crimson dagger, which is the weapon Thunder impaled his father with years ago, and that he left in the King’s body, Alago took this weapon and handed it to Jackson. Alago then visits the both of them, gleeful that Jackson remembered, tells them they must stop the ambassador and takes them both to the Eternal plane.
There they forge the Sword of the Eternal, by taking the Crimson Dagger and infusing it with all 7 mists. Puengi then refuses to wield it, Swords are forbidden by the Misto code, and Alago says nothing. Puengi convinces himself he must do it, for Alago and for the Exiled Celestials, then Alago transports them back to the Celestial plane and tells Puengi and Jackson to climb the tower of the champion, which is the same tower Jackson had to climb to attain his weapon, years ago. They fight their way through, because the Celestial army has turned on them both. Jackson then plunges his sword into the Tower, and it no longer does anything, perplexed, He steps aside and Lets Puengi plunge his weapon into the altar, and they are then surrounded by the 7 mists and transported to the seat of the Ambassador, where Puengi is stunned and shares a heartfelt moment, before Thunder realizes why he’s there, he then summons Praxis and Justin to help defend him, Alago then appears and Summons Urlim to Help Jackson and Puengi. So we have Justin v Jackson, Urlim vs Praxis and Thunder vs Puengi.
Urlim, in an out of character moment, Kills Praxis. Then Jackson Defeats Justin, but again, he spares another person whom perhaps should’ve died. Thunder, realizing he’s now outnumbered, pleads with Alago to face Puengi 1v1 in the Rift of Alago, the place beyond space and time, where only Balance exists. Alago obliges, and the two duel it out, and Puengi is victorious, Thunder is sealed within the rift, and Puengi is the new ambassador. He then restores the Council in a more balanced state, he keeps urlim, banishes Justin to be the new demi-god of Infenion, and restores Jackson and David. So the council is now Jackson, Urlim, and David.
Let’s get back to David, David understood the will’s grand design and that survival is the only victory that matters. He orchestrated the collapse of the celestials in a way that preserved balance and did not upset the will, then was absent during the entire arc, and now sits on the council, he is the villain that won. His manipulation is the definition of evil without malice, he seeks no power, no personal vendettas, he understands balance more than the others because he lived it, and like alago, intervenes in away that only serves the god that rejected him. He is the villain who won because of his pragmatism, he understood the goal, and did evil things to get it. Speaking of the Will, the will (alago) may seem like it plays favorites or is not actually in favor of balance, yet in the end the grand design found it’s champion and balance was restored, as now the divine and the Mortals are aligned and both share 50% of the burden.
I explained the celestials part of this story in part 1, so now let’s go to the mortals.
The main character of this story (until he’s not) is Thunder, the crimson shadow. He is the one the celestials are told to neutralize, and here is a list of his crimes. On his home planet, he embraced dark powers and waged war on his tyrannical father (King) and then killed him. on Xenopa, a planet of Ice, he helped a rebellion wage war against an oppressive Empress, then fatefully, in the turning point of his story, The Battle of Cythoba, he called upon a crimson meteor shower that devastates not just the people, but the planet itself, committing mass genocide. Then on quillo, where the Venru (Light) and the Veni (shadow) are locked in a war that has waged for millennium, he offers to broker peace, then is denied by the leaders, so he kills them all, ending that war because he knew if he didn’t, nobody ever would. See how this guy is problematic? Good
Let’s move to Puengi (not the main character until he is), He is the champion of the Misto, a race of Eternal beings that reside in the eternal plane, (Urlim is also an eternal). He is from Nebbia, the realm of the Misto, and taught the ways of 3 of the 7 mists by Nak Sha, the demi-god who presides over the realm, and the first misto. This mists are the magic of this misto, they each carry a unique power, yet may only be accessed by the Misto if they are in a stage of internal balance (like the Teno or teal mist, which is their default), when they are not, they have access to more volatile mists that are unpredictable and dangerous, Like the Jigo and Kino (Red and blue, for anger and sadness). The Misto are a race that truly believe in balance, but in reality they only believe in inaction. Puengi is cast into the realm of Inganno, the realm of the Deceivers, where he learns that true balance was not passive, he must fight through illusions and see through Lies, he confronts Hij Nala, the demi-god of deception, but is defeated, before Hij Nala can strike the final blow, Puengi is saved by Alago, and taken to Mistora to meet thunder. Then Thunder prepares for war (also advised by alago), and trains Puengi in the art of war, an art that is forbidden to him. Puengi learns that sometimes Balance means you have to take a stand, and fight. Thunder then gifts Puengi the power of the Venru (Light) to boost his power and essentially all it does is transform the Teno into the Venru mist, which essentially amplifies its power and changes it’s color from teal to a gold.
So lets go to our final and least interesting character, Praxis, the Demi-god warlord. Praxis is the demi-god of Infenion, this is what we’d call hell. This is a realm of chaos and constant war, as most who are condemned here are former warlords, criminals, you get the idea. Praxis is also the First King of Runtig, which is Thunder’s nation, so Praxis is the ancestor of Thunder, this is never revealed to him in the cannon, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Alago visits Praxis and offers him a chance at redemption, but only if he joined his bloodline to fight once more, and praxis obliges.
To set the final picture for WWX: the Mortals vs the Divine for the planet of Mistora, we must first explain that Justin defects to Thunder’s side, due to his grand ambition and Thunder’s manipulative nature. So we have the Divine: Jackson,Susan,Urlim david, and the seemingly endless celestial army vs the Mortals: Thunder,Puengi,Praxis, Justin, the Runtig Militia, and the Derajar (The army of Infenion). In this conflict, there was much bloodshed, around 80% of Mistora’s mortals died, and that was only when the war was between the Divine and the mortals. Enter WWX pt.2, the Holod. The Holod are a race of resource hungry beings that have consumed several planets, and now want Mistora. Thunder and Jackson (with Alago present) agree to the most tenuous peace of all time and fight the holod back, but not before they initiate their planet consuming ritual, so they rush to make a final stand to stop the ritual, realizing they are too late, Thunder Sacrificies himself on that beach to stop them, but in the process, shattered the planet anyway due to his immense power suddenly being unleashed. Fortunately, the Protectors are able to channel their power through Puengi, who uses the Lanu (twilight) mist to restore Mistora to it’s pre-human state. This ends WWX, despite being a mass murderer and a Ruthless manipulator, despite Killing his dad and committing multiple genocides, Thunder will be remembered by his people as their hero, because they never knew what would happen to him. His story isn’t over, this is the penultimate arc, so let’s go to the final one in part 3.
So I led us off on a journey where I attempted to tell my fictional story, but I then quit. But fret not dear reader, I am back and with a philosophical twist.
Let’s do a quick refresher or a quick summary of David, the 5th and Final celestial on the council of the Protectors. David was the Ruby ambassador of the Galaxy, think of that like a mortal-god, then we have his counterpart, Alago, the herald of the will, who is a divine-god, in fact he is the mortal manifestation of the Will itself, whom I believe to also be the best god in fiction. Gods in fiction often have grand plans, that remove agency from their characters, and cheapens every plot twist or character development, because it means nothing if it was always bound to happen. The Will, my god, is different, he has a grand design, not a plan. It’s grand design to hold the galaxy in balance, the mortals must never overpower the celestials, and the divine celestials must never overpower the mortals. It’s a tough job, but how does the will manage it? It only intervenes via alago when it needs to, in the story it often gets characters where they need to go, and offer advice, but never tells the character what to do. The will understands balance requires not playing teams, and the will is willing to wait an eternity to get what it wants, which is a new mortal champion.
Back to David, he was the ambassador of the Ruby Galaxy, and appointed the divine council to oversee and step in to preserve balance on his behalf, but David understood the will’s grand design, and he appointed Flawed Champions. Susan is an expert bowmen, but a warmonger always eager to spill blood, Justin is the personification of ambition, he will do anything to seize power that he thinks is rightfully his. Urlim is the unshaken moral voice, he never attacks first, but won’t hesitate to step in and defend. Jackson, their leader, is an idealist, and believes that the only proper way to govern the galaxy is to let the council vote in a democratic fashion, instead of leading without question. See the problem? the council will stagnate 2-2 more often than not, Because Susan and Justin are always out for blood and war, whereas Jackson and Urlim are more reasonable, and stagnation is the enemy of Balance. The Will allowed this for a time, before it removed David from his position as Ambassador, because he no longer uphold balance. The will sent him back down to the celestial plane, where all celestial beings are from, instead of killing him. David then cast the protectors from the plane, and they would make their way back, then came the crucial decision, David’s life was at the mercy of Jackson. Jackson had the voices of Susan and Justin begging for blood, whereas his inner morals and Urlim said to spare him. Jackson asked Alago what to do, and Alago spoke two crucial words “Choose Carefully.”, Jackson decides to spare David and allow him to join the Council. This was a fatal mistake, but he didn’t know it yet. David knows all 4 of them too well, he knows this group is a volatile time bomb, and he’s going to exploit it. Think about this, Jackson and Urlim are never likely to choose aggression, whereas Susan and Justin won’t hesitate. Based on how the council of 5 now votes, Jackson is always going to be the last and likely deciding vote, David knows this. David puts immense pressure on Jackson by knowing when to vote for and against aggression, always putting Jackson in impossible decisions, which is Jackson’s own doing. This comes to ahead with when the council votes whether to intervene on mistora, whether to wage war to neutralize Thunder or not. I’ll explain Thunder, Praxis, and Puengi all in part 2. Let’s focus back on this pivotal moment. In this moment, the vote goes as you’d imagine, Justin and Susan vote to wage war, Urlim votes against this, but as a shock (Or perhaps not, you know where this is going) David too votes to wage war. The final vote is 3-2, David understood that Jackson doesn’t want to wage war, thats a lot of needless bloodshed of mortals when they only need to kill 1, this sets the stage for WWX, what is that? find out in part 2.
one of my favorite content creators of the 2020s is Lisa Beasley, and specifically her character, Corporate Erin. Corporate Erin Embodies the ridiculous nature of the corporate language. Lisa Beasley has mastered the art of what I would call Dry comedy, what makes corporate erin such a great comedy character is that she doesn’t look like an act. If you’ve worked a corporate job, you’ve heard her voice before. She is funny because she is someone you’ve heard before, yet have no idea who she is.
Corporate Erin is the Managerial logistics manager for management at MCmanagment. Or if you don’t speak corporate, she manages the management system, and makes about 8500 every 2 weeks, but don’t worry after taxes she’s just like you, struggling. She highlights how over the top and ridiculous corporate managers can be. She also highlights the corporate dry gulp, the ridiculous accent or verbiage. I don’t know about you the reader but I for one don’t see why I should have to say the words Cohesion, Synergy or Equity in any setting not relating to a fictional story. I also couldn’t fathom the phrase core competencies being real. This is all to highlight the ridiculous nature of Corporate America, but these people don’t realize how ridiculous they sound. The vast Majority of Corporate Erin skits are on Lisa Beasley’s Tiktok, but some are on youtube, and one of the most fascinating corporate erin content I have seen was a video between her and Ginny Clarke. It is ultimately a skit but it does highlight the problematic nature of these individuals. Corporate Erin sends thousands of emails a day, and has many ‘pivotal’ one on ones day as well, but what happens when she get’s a 1-1 and is put on a PIP (performance improvement plan). Ginny masterfully highlights the difference between Leading vs Managing, and how she has good intentions but lacks empathy for others. Corporate Erin is a great reminder of what happens when people in leadership positions are put in those positions prematurely. They believe they are doing good, but who wants to be bombarded with emails, or have one one ones at 9pm, or even 5am. This is what makes Corporate Erin such a gem of a comedy character, she’s parodying someone out there right now, sitting in an office.
Wade in the water is a symbol of hope in the black community and a song that I believe outsiders in our culture have abused and twisted into a song that is a ‘traditional religious tune’. It is not, it never was and never has been and I’m tired of those who don’t understand it continuing to disrespect my ancestors and by extension, my culture. Instead of gatekeeping though, I openly accept those who are willing to hear it’s story, as it’s history is one that has been buried by time, and butchered by musicians.
Harriet Tubman was a slave that helped free other slaves back in the day, she was a smart women, especially for her time, and helped form the underground railroad, which was not a train nor a train system but instead was a group of free slaves who returned to danger and tried to help free others, and were willing to risk it all. If caught, slaves could be Executed, Tortured, Castrated or even raped, or a mixture of those four, though sometimes they would die as a result of the other 3, not that their masters cared. They understood the risk and did it anyways. A common misconception I hear about Wade in the water is that is it talking to a person named wade or was an attempt to say Wait, and neither is true. Wade is a verb that is to walk intentionally into water. But why? well back in the day the Plantation owners used to hire slave catchers who used dogs to track the scent of slaves, and the only way for them to evade the dogs was to get in the water. Harriet knew that and the only way for her to tell them without saying it and risking the slave owners finding out was to sing the song and get the other slaves to understand it’s hidden meaning: get in the river, off the trail, and out of sight.
So what about this invoked my rage, well I’m a musician, and a composer and when I discovered the history behind this song, and seeing what had been done to it by other composers, that made it into a spectacle and a choral piece, and overlooked it’s meaning, I felt a certain kind of way about it, here’s the example that I used, and whilst yes it is my arrangement, its not my original work, we will get to that in a second.
It’s a stunning and great piece of choral work, but completely undermines the meaning of this song, this is an act of unintentional disrespect to our culture. Speaking of Culture,
Yeah. Let’s not make this something it’s not, this is another part of the great american game, and while I finished the original version of my arrangement before this performance by Kendrick, I did think of him in terms of how everything is a message to those who listen. This song was a warning to the slaves, get off the trail, get in the water, survive. To those who hear it now, it’s a fun spiritual Tune devoid of meaning, that’s bullshit. I think that’s what set me off while i was arranging the ensemble version, it’s nice and fun but it is not wade in the water, it is a gross parody, same with all that are like it. This isn’t what Harriet risked her life to sing for, this isn’t what the underground railroad stood for, and this isn’t the song my people died to send a message with. Much like kendrick, I want people to miss the message when it is right in front of their face, and I want those who care to look at things differently from now on.
So I saw this and came up with a Thesis, and I will now present this next part as if I am defending my thesis, let me know what the committee (you) think (Pass, Pass with revision, Reject and here’s why). My thesis is as follows,
I want outsiders to leave this song alone, because if they understood, they would never want to sing this again.
So how was I going to reclaim this song from the mockery that the music community has turned it into? I wanted to start from a place I have never seen the Music community take this song, I wanted this to be a unique and leave the audience stunned. So how do I start, well of course I start how every other arrangement starts, the tune. but then I pivot, The next phrase begins with the Lead (Myself) name Dropping Harriet Tubman, and explaining how this song came from slaves, and how it told them to get in the water to avoid the dogs. Then we stop, and here is the moment I’ve been building Towards, I know that in a traditional Choral concert, the audience expects things to sound nice, and It does, but what they don’t expect is a history lesson, and especially not an argument. It’s important to understand that Art is something that when we create, it will outlive us, so I needed this moment to star.
That’s right, I am going to stage an argument on the stage, In the moment where I have placed a fermata, which means to pause until the director says to go again, I’m going to have my baritone suddenly stop and interrupt like something is wrong, then he will start questioning me asking why we’re doing this and what’s the point, to which I will go on an unscripted rant about black culture and say the quiet part out loud, of course, I am not meant to win, and I know this, so at an unscripted point in my rant, my Baritone will ‘rudely’ interrupt me and tell me bluntly “Shut up and give them their song.” to which I will act stunned and say “ok, show me something.” to which the others will resume the song with the words Wait in the water, not wade, and yes this is purposeful. This moment is dubbed the Resignation, because I have failed in my mission, but to those who care, this song carries the heart of the original, I wasn’t meant to win, my message is more subtle and meant to be missed by those who don’t care. The shift to the word wait is intentional, and the T is to be emphasized, because the song no longer has meaning, but we continue on to an ending chord that isn’t fully resolved, much like the history of the song. We must retreat and give the audience what they want, because they never cared, they don’t want the history nor the story, they want the classic tune, but to those who care, this song does what I set out to do, it reclaims the song to what it was meant for, not perverted into a fun parody that lacks meaning. Here is the score.
So what says the committee, have I succeeded in my attempt to protect my culture from those who have done it harm, or have I failed and only made the problem worse?
The issue at hand in my project is how AI will work in education. One Side believes AI should have as small of an impact as possible on our youths education, the other side believes we should fully Integrate AI into our education system if not our daily lives. I believe that the answer falls between the two, AI integration is something we are already seeing and this is before what I will call the second dawn of AI has occurred. AI isn’t yet like we see it in sci-fi movies, yet it isn’t too far away.
My first source a review of AI will help set the foundation for this paper by elaborating on where we are, how we got here, and where we may yet go. This is a great first step because it allows me to set the narrative and then use that to pivot to my next source, the role of AI in education allows me to cut the broad narrative and hammer down on what This is actually about, and given this article was made in the age of GenAI, we can get a somewhat older perspective on the issue at hand. I will use this to then use another source to drill down on what I think the solution is.
Conrad, Kathryn. “A Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights for Education.” Critical AI 2.1 (2024).
Zhai, Xuesong, et al. “A Review of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education from 2010 to 2020.” Complexity 2021.1 (2021): 8812542.
my 2nd source will be a review of AI in education. I think this will prove a great resource because it references the usage of AI before the advent of widespread GenAI. This will give me a good foundation to jump into GenAI in my essay.
Harry, Alexandara. “Role of AI in Education.” Interdiciplinary Journal & Hummanity (INJURITY) 2.3 (2023).
my 3rd source will be role of AI in education, and this is a great modern article that was made in the age of GenAI. This offers a new perspective and a good article to use to pivot.
Schiff, D. Education for AI, not AI for Education: The Role of Education and Ethics in National AI Policy Strategies. Int J Artif Intell Educ32, 527–563 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-021-00270-2
Grassini, Simone. “Shaping the future of education: Exploring the potential and consequences of AI and ChatGPT in educational settings.” Education sciences 13.7 (2023): 692. This article is one I expect to be a key factor in my argument of what I think should happen versus what I feel will happen. This allows me to argue that whilst it is not too late, we are rapidly approaching that point.
Beck, Joseph, Mia Stern, and Erik Haugsjaa. “Applications of AI in Education.” XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students 3.1 (1996): 11-15. This article is also one I want to include in my argument that AI is merely evolving in education, not that is a new concept, it proves that whilst it is not GenAI, AI has been around in several mediums for several decades now.
Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Anne, et al. “Lessons learned for AI education with elementary students and teachers.” International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education 33.2 (2023): 267-289.
Nguyen, Hung Manh, and Daisaku Goto. “Unmasking academic cheating behavior in the artificial intelligence era: Evidence from Vietnamese undergraduates.” Education and Information Technologies 29.12 (2024): 15999-16025.
