Lightning Assault

Title Screen

Three years ago my mom's cousin Timothy Chua began programming an iPhone app. The end product finally reached the App Store in early December 2012, and is now available for 99 cents.

Last year, Timo finally finished enough of the game so that he could let people beta test it, and I was part of the beta team. It was really cool being able to play a game that no one else in the world had played, and that my feedback would actually be taken into consideration to make it better. After years of hard work, the Lightning Assault was finally released in the App Store, and I was able to enjoy the final product on my brand new iPhone 5.

Weapons Room

Launch Pad

Lightning Assault is an intense, dogfight game. You pilot your own aircraft, armed with five different types of upgradable weapons and shoot down all of the UFOs and mother ships in order to pass each level. The graphics are amazing in this game, and for every five levels that you advance, you move to a different location on the world map - giving you an entirely new aerial view.

World Map

Although normally I don't play these types of "dogfight" games, this one really caught my attention - not only because my close relative made it, but because it was actually pretty interesting, and a game that kept me hooked. As I advanced in the leaderboards on Game Center, I became more and more determined to rise in the ranks, and now I'm #4 in the world.

I would highly recommend people to check this game out, and see what it's like. I decided against downloading many games onto my phone, and this was one of the few games that I felt was worth putting onto my phone. Here's the link to download the app on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lightning-assault/id561474052?ls=1&mt=8

The Art of Not Studying

Finals are coming! Finals are coming! The more I see people studying, the more I feel like finals are like the redcoats, coming to attack us and that studying is like arming for battle. For many people, finals week is like the Revolutionary War. People are completely consumed in studying/cramming for finals. I don't see the sense in studying so much in such a short amount of time. Why put the strain of a whole semester's worth of material onto your brain the day before the test? It will cause an information overload that will make your brain explode like a hydrogen bomb.

I hate studying. So I just don't study. I focus on other things like swimming, playing the piano, and getting enough sleep. However, since I want to avoid studying at all costs, there are three important things that I do proactively, on a day-to-day basis, that allow me to not have to study: stay awake in class, do my homework, and get enough sleep.

Staying awake in class and paying attention allows me to absorb all of the information given to me throughout the school day. It goes into my brain and is stored there semi-permanently, especially because of all the repetitions and reinforcements we get in class. Doing my homework positively supplements everything I did in class, and often permanently engraves the material I learned that day into my long-term memory. In my life, I feel as if it has been statistically proven that getting an extra two hours of sleep rather than getting an extra two hours of studying has been way more beneficial to my grades. Sleep is the key to success, as mentioned in my previous post: A Science to Sleeping. Without enough sleep, your body does not perform at its optimal conditions - so make sure you get enough sleep before finals. For me, a good night's sleep is much more important than pulling an all-nighter of studying.

For those of you who don't have exceptionally gifted memories and don't absorb information like sponges, I suggest you review a little bit each night so that you don't have to relearn everything the night before the finals. Learning a little bit each day will help you in the long run. And you will find that eliminating studying from your life is pretty amazing.