Kilali's Blog

Last weekend we had a four-day weekend, which meant that I had an extra day before I started school after coming back from new york. On that Monday I decided to continue a project that I started working on a while ago and just put off completing. The project is a painted collage of cartoon characters, and I decided to make it SpongeBob-themed, as that was one of my favorite shows growing up. I had a 12" x 12" canvas that I was working on and made 16 squares on it, which are all 3" x 3." I had started some of the painting and sketching but didn't complete all of it. I started off by painting one of the squares that I already had a sketch on, which was of the character plankton. Before I start painting I tape a border around the square so that I don't accidentally paint on another square. It was really nice to paint for pleasure again, and since it was so small it only took me about 15 minutes to paint. It was also really satisfying to pull off the tape and se...

Today was the second day of committee sessions and we focused on the topic of addressing climate change and other environment-related matters in fisheries and aquaculture. Yesterday the chair on my bureau said that I could practice being a chair in either the morning or the afternoon. I chose to do it in the morning because there is a lot of scribe work that I have to do in the afternoon. I was really excited for this opportunity because it is my goal to become a chair of the bureau I think being a chair would be a great growth opportunity for me and because in general being any member of the bureau is so important for allowing kids around the world to feel like they have a voice in issues. As chair, I led the speeches process, which was just calling out the country that is speaking and the next two in line. After that, I led the creation of the subtopics process, while the other vice-chair on the bureau acted as the scribe for this process. I also directed delegates into an informal c...

Today we started our first day of committee sessions for my MMUN conference. The purpose of this conference is to engage kids with significant issues around the world and learn what they have to say about those issues. I am a member of the bureau and I worked as a Vice-chair and Scribe for the Middle School FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) committee. As a member of the bureau, I help guide the delegates when they are writing their resolutions and discussing the topic. The first topic for my committee was green jobs as an effective framework for sustainable agriculture. As the vice-chair and scribe, I wrote down all of the delegate's ideas for subtopics of the main topic and displayed all of the instruction videos. When we were in informal consultation to start writing the resolutions I stayed with one subtopic group. When with this subtopic group I helped guide them through the resolution process and helped them write their operative and preambulatory phrases when needed. Ho...

Yesterday I started my MMUN (Montessori Model United Nations) conference in New York. For this conference, I am a member of the bureau. As a member of the bureau, I help lead the committee sessions and volunteer to do anything else needed to keep the conference running. Yesterday I had my bureau meeting to gather the materials we needed for the session and do a little prep work with the other people on my bureau. About an hour after that bureau meeting we had the opening ceremony. During the opening ceremony people essentially welcome all the delegates to the conference, have some speeches, and there is a flag procession. Since I am a Vice-chair I helped with the flag procession. Two delegates that were representing a certain country would carry the flag during the flag procession at the opening ceremony. I was in charge of lining up schools one through ten and guiding them through the flag procession. Other vice chairs lined up school eleven through forty-four. I stood in a specific s...

This week I had my Rice University internship meeting. For this meeting, I showed my supervisor the slides that I made about the lightning network. I gave my supervisor a mini-presentation of the slides I made. He really liked them and said that I was doing them perfectly. The only request he made for the slides was for me to add a graph about the lightning network. After going over those slides, my supervisor gave me a lesson on Ethereum, proof of work, and proof of stake. The next set of slides he wants me to make are on Ethereum's transition from proof of work to proof of stake. He gave me a document that outlined how the switch is happening and also suggested that I look up Youtube videos explaining it. Now I just have to make the slides and then schedule my next internship meeting. 

Last week I had my first internship meeting of the year for my Rice Internship. This year my supervisor will be having a class on Blockchain and Bitcoin. We met for about an hour last week, where we went over the course detail, what I would be doing, and the dates of the course. I told my internship supervisor that I wanted to learn more about Bitcoin and Etheruem and how those work, so I am starting off my work by researching the lightning network. The lightning network is essentially something that was created to speed up the bitcoin transaction process, which usually takes about 10 minutes. To show my work for the research I did I will make 2-3 slides about the lightning network, for him to use in his class in March. Sadly, I will not be able to attend two out of the three classes, because I have A-term at my high school, which I will be traveling for. However, I will still have to put in the work for the class. Now, I just have to plan when my next appointment with my supervisor wi...