Zach King

Skill #1

My name is Zach and I am currently a Junior at Roanoke College. I’m from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I am a Biology major and History minor. In my free time I like to play video games, watch YouTube or TV shows, and I enjoy watching sports such as soccer, football, and rugby. My favorite soccer team is Brentford FC and I have even seen them in person a few times. I am also the president of the Esports Club and I play rugby at the college.

Images of me playing rugby at the college (left) and competing in an esports tournament (right).

Skill #2

Skill #3

“No Adam in South Sea Eden” *The Dawson News (Dawson, Georgia), March 30, 1910 Volume 28, Number 27*

“No Adam in South Sea Eden” discusses a colony in Australia that was formed to be an exclusively woman society. It was founded by British women who were influenced by Victoria Woodhull. The article clearly has a bias against the colony and Victoria Woodhull, claiming it is “anti-man”. The article was found using optical character recognition (OCR) technology via Chronicling America.

Wordclouds of the second inaugural speech of President Abraham Lincoln (left) and the first inaugural speech of Ulysses S. Grant (right)

I thought it would be interesting to explore the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant after the end of the Civil War. This was still a very delicate period for the United States, and of course Lincoln’s assassination would happen during his second term as president. Grant was the next elected president and it is interesting to compare their language. Lincoln uses very all-inclusive language with “for” and “all” being used often, likely hoping to bring the North and South together again. Grant’s speech seems to heavily focus on order and the nation, with “Country”, “Constitution”, “laws” and “States” as key words. Interestingly, “I” is one of largest words, even larger than “our”.

Google Ngram of the terms “Peter the Great”, “Frederick the Great”, and “Alfred the Great”

I decided to look at the prevalence of three different famous kings in history who are known as “the Great” using Google Ngram. The results are what I expected, with Peter being the most popular, followed by Frederick, and Alfred being the least. It is interesting that Frederick had a period of time where he was more often written about compared to Peter between 1880-1950. The largest flaw in this Ngram is that it requires the term “the Great” to be present, which while popular, is not always used. For instance, Peter I or Frederick II will not appear in these results. Additionally, the results only include the English names, so Friedrich II would not show on the Ngram.

Skill #4

Map created using Google My Maps and British Fat Import data provided by Programming Historian. The British Fat Import data indicates the source of various types of fats imported by the British. Additionally, the map shows information on places in London, a place which holds personal value to me since I have family there and have been on a few fun vacations in the city. Each location in London has a brief explanation on why it has been included.

Skill #5

Skill #6

I decided to do an audio tour of Olde Salem Brewing Company on Main Street. I go there fairly often as it has some of my favorite beers in town and is easy to walk to from campus. All sound effects were retrieved from quicksounds.com and any music used came from Blue Dot Sessions, all available for free use under copyright law.

Skill #7

A screenshot from my game “Avise la Fin” made using Twine.

Check out my Twine, a text-based video game called “Avise la Fin”. To play, click on this link. The link will pull up an HTML file. Click “Download.” Now, open the website for Twine, click “Use in your Browser.” Click “Library,” then “Import,” and choose the HTML file you just downloaded. Click on the imported story. Now click “Build,” then “Play.” Voila: it’s my game!