Blog #19: Looking at aspects of a final product

1. What is the most successful element of this work sample? Why do you believe this?
I think the most successful thing about this picture is the photography. The photography is eye catching and colorful. The numbers on the bottom are well laid out and all, but the photography is what you look at when you have a calendar. It's a photo that you will probably be looking at the whole month, but in this case, the whole year. It is not too busy because the sky sort of evens out all the shadows and colors going on in the trees. I think the fading into the calendar is also a beautiful aspect.

2. What is the message of the work? How do you know?
I'm not sure if this has a thesis/message like videos do and documentaries, but a message I get from this calendar is almost like, "Nature is beautiful." because they chose a gorgeous picture to put on the calendar. The question was, "What about nature's beauty?" Looking at this calendar actually persuaded me to look into the background story of the text. Arbor Day Foundation inspires people to take care of nature. When I learned this, the whole message sort of pieced itself together. The message I got was that nature is beautiful, but it's only beautiful if we take care of it and nurture it.

3. Who or what is the intended audience for this work? How do you know?
I think the audience is intended for anyone. This can apply to eco-friendly people who would say, "Awesome, that's exactly what I'm doing." and non-environmentally friendly people who would say, "This is really beautiful scenery, I should take more care of the Earth to see more of this." So, yes, I think the message applies to everyone who, basically, lives on Earth and enjoys views like this. I know this because I don't know many people who don't like scenery like this. It is a positive aspect to keep nature looking like this and naturally, people would want to know how to keep it like this.

4. How do specific elements of the work sample come together to deliver the message?

Like I've said before, the photo is a dominant factor in this calendar. It has specks of color to show the variety of plants that grow and the unique mix usually interests more people. The color help a lot because no one would really want to see a picture of the same kind of tree. Also, I think the font and organization of the numbers stand out as professional, easy to use, and visually appealing.

5. Describe one technique the creator of this work used. Why do you think this technique was used for this specific piece of work?
One technique I noticed immediately was the reflection. The way it was sort of scrunches together at a lower opacity and have it slowly fade into the calendar gave transition. I think it was a subtle transition to a more black and white background which made it an easy switch, not a distressing one.

6. Why did you choose this work sample?
I chose this work sample because it was complete. I think it did an excellent job of incorporating photography along with information. It would have been nice to see a caption or maybe an interesting fact about the place they are displaying.

Blog #18: Lessons for the Industrial Newspaper

What lessons did you learn from the Industrialization Newspaper that you carry forward into the MSB project?

There were a few useful things I learned from the project. One thing I learned was to make sure team members have the material they need. For example, if there is something that needs to be scanned on someone's own time, make sure they are 100% they have a scanner. Also, firm deadlines towards yourself and group members should be put into place to make sure a group project is timely. Since I'm in the calendar group, a lot of these group aspects can be put into play. Another thing that I could bring over is my new understanding of Indesign. I'm not going to be doing a lot of the designing for the project, but I know I will be able to put input into the project. Also, I know Erica, the person in charge of layout, will need some tips on Indesign. I think most of the designing for the newspaper was successful so I could teach her how to do something things or useful shortcuts.

Blog #17

Seaworld: http://www.seaworld.com/
I think this would be a good place to talk to the people for the MSB project. They are all about marine life and habitats close to the beaches/ in beaches. I think they would have a lot of useful information about animals that we could take pictures of and put it in out calendar.

Port of San Diego: http://www.portofsandiego.org/environment.html
I think this one would be good for interviewing people about their opinions/ ideas for the environment. Here, there is a lot of things about, not only clean water, but clean air, clean water, a lot of aspects. From this, we can decide what sort of landscaping we want, what are good areas to find good views, and where to go to to look at water quality.

Birch Aquarium: http://aquarium.ucsd.edu/
Like I said for Seaworld, I think the people here can inform us about the marine animals or wildlife on the coast. They could perhaps tell us about different species of birds and fish that may prove useful to our project in the end. They could also tell us about the wildlife there and we could use those for captions and fun facts.

Council President Pro Tem Kevin Faulconer
Perhaps we can follow actions he has done because his district is on the coast where all the beaches are. He is sort of in the area where the main project takes place.

Councilmember Sherri Lightner
Like in District 2, District one is close to the shore and dominates a lot of it. Since they are practically responsible for the shore, I'm sure they'v done a lot of things that we can use in our calendar. (Like say, "So and so did this on this date, resulting in cleaner whatever.")

Council President Ben Hueso
District 8 is sort of all over the place. Maybe this person knows about different things happening in different areas of water (Because District 8 is close to the shore in two different places).

Honors History Writing #2

The election of 1896 is underway; the selected candidate to be president can either heal or hurt the nation's future.

A close battle between Democrat William Jennings Bryan and Republican William McKinley sparks a desperate need of votes from all states. The Panic of 1893 has left us in economic turmoil. We need a strong dependable helping hand to mend the economy and make it possible for farmers and common people to pay their debts. Our previous methods has brought us into a great depression with the rule of a corrupt government and greedy aristocrats, it's time for a change. William Jennings Bryan has shown these radical ideas with no fear of the future outcome. With his guidance, we can steer our spiraling nation back on track with assurance of success from a supportive president.

Bryan is a nominee of the democrat party, the Populist Part, and the Silver Republicans. He has already been victorious when rivaled with other candidates like Richard P. Bland, Robert E. Pattison, Horace Boies, Joseph C.S. Blackburn, and John Roll McLean. His will to help the people motivates him to succeed and that motivation can help us reach that sort of future.

Many people are already leaning to his side due to his speeches about the problems in economics. As we know, many small business owners and working farmers hardly have a say in the economy. With small claims on currency due to the gold standard, it has become difficult for them to have a large influential part. Who does that leave the responsibility of the economies downfall to? Rich aristocrats, several being greedy and paying hard working railroad workers only a dollar a day. If McKinley is elected, he would favor rich business owners and wealthy people. Bryan already has good ties with the South, rural midwest, and the Rocky Mountain states and it continues to spread with his promise to grant all unheard citizens a voice.

Bryan is traveling by train giving passionate and motivating speeches to common people, giving hope that even if he is not elected, he will fight for their rights. In just 100 days, he reached 27 different states and was heard by millions of people, while McKinley only offers to go out on his porch and make speeches to the people who were able to audience there. Bryan is the first presidential candidate in history that has ever traveled across the nation to give speeches and meet with voters. His actions display his confident speaking skills and his strive to establish a connection between politics and people.

Bryan plans on replacing the Gold Standard with the Free Silver Movement, providing easy money to farmers in poverty baling them pay off debts and bills. With more money circulating in the economy, the depression caused in 1893 would mend itself.

"Bryan is too radical! Too extreme!" Republicans have printed fake dollar bills with Bryan's face plastered all over them saying, "IN GOD WE TRUST...FOR THE OTHER 53 CENTS" since the Free Silver Movement would decrease the value of a dollar from 100 cents to 47 cents. We've had this system for years and it hasn't helped in favor of the poorer class. We then come to the question, "Why wouldn't aristocrats want to help us pay off loans and debts?" A probable reason why richer people would oppose this idea is because they are afraid that inflation would ruin their holds on wealth. The lower class has suffered from this selfishness for too long.

Bryan will keep fighting for the rights of common people and strive to balance the economy with his new currency plans. His dedication goes out to fairness and he is committed to the good of the people. With him as our new president, our country can fight for freedom from the problems of 1893 and hardworking citizens would be granted what they deserve.

Our nation cannot afford more problems, we are in dire need of a direction. Our attempt at fixing the economy by making the richer even richer has failed us. Choices on how the nation is ran should no longer be held in the same hands that holds money taken by greed.

Citations:
1. Zinn, Howard. "The Empire and the People by Howard Zinn." History Is A Weapon. 24 Oct. 2009
2. Gerstle, Gary, Paul E. Johnson, James M. Mcpherson, John M. Murrin, Emily S. Rosenberg, and Norman L. Rosenberg. Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People: Study Guide Vol 2. New York: International Thomson Publishing, 2001.
3. Bryan, William J.. The First Battle. a Story of the Campaign of 1896 Together With a Collection of: W. B. Conkey Co, 1896.
4. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=273015

Blog #16

From Magda's Blog, I learned that camera angle and perspective is a key aspect in getting a good image. I was looking at the pictures she posted and her theme about showing the influences from people on water and I think those pictures did reflect that idea. The images were elegantly taken, but have a rustic human-made feel to it. It showed the natural beauty of nature but added the human influence without making it look ugly and displeasing. Instead, they added it delicately, but you still feel a unbalance from the picture. This taught me that when the Calendar group is picking pictures, we want to pick pictures that portrays and message and not only shows something. We are going to have a caption, but the picture should already explain itself or at least give the viewer some sort of emotion.

From David's Blog, I learned about a straight forward approach. A lot of the examples he used and what he said about them were very to the point. I like the way he first organized his ideas. I think this would be useful for the calendar when we are sorting through captions and other text. Having them all written out so they somehow relate to each other is a good way to organize. Also, in his examples, he took student work and noted the things he liked. I think this pointed me in a direction to see what students that were the same age as me could pull off and how I may be able to increase the quality of work.

From Lupe's Blog, I loved the idea of using trash to make a sculpture. I think it was a fresh idea and if I wasn't doing the calendar, I would have definitely given this a try. I think being abstract and creative really shows people that trash can be used in different ways. Instead of ending up in the stomach of a bird like in the picture from class, it can changed into a work of art. This one was seriously a good idea and I think it is a great idea for a project.

Blog #14 and #15

1. Post the main question.

What are the significances of each beach?

2. Post at least three subquestions that relate to the main question, help you answer it, might generate interesting research or resources, address part of the issue, could help you if you get stuck, etc.
What sort of animals can be found at this beach?
What sort of plants grow at this beach?
What sort of human activity happens at this beach most often?
Are there any special landmarks at this beach?
Is this beach known for something?

3. Post at least three potentially useful resources. These could be news stories, videos, photography, etc.
They are mostly all pictures:

4. Write a few sentences or make a list of ideas that you got from your resources that could help move your project forward. How can you apply this information? How might it work for you?
One of my resources was the picture of a calendar. There are a few things I can take from this. One of the things is the quick layout. I know we are doing a full fledged calendar but one I liked how they made a different shade of color for every other column. I think this makes it look organized and helps you stay focused on the specific day. It could work depending on how the layout evolves.

The second one is a landscape I thought that looked eye catching and interesting. From this image, you can assume a few things like if humans largely impact the area, what life is growing there, etc. I think our images should be able to convey a message on its own.

The third image is basically what I think is good material for the project. I think the image is sort of busy in the background with all the shadows of the sand, but I do like how the subject is in the middle and it still captures a lot of attention.

1. Write a sentence describing the final product (such as, "A documentary video that addresses the question....")
We were doing a tide calendar. In the pages, there would be a variety of pictures addressing the different aspects of beaches. Our group is sort of shaky on the idea still, but we did have a thought thrown around that ties into beach aspects. For a few months or so, the calendar could talk about the different things in different beaches that people may want to see.

2. Post an example of a professional or other high-level product that could serve as a basis for your work.

3. List three specific ideas that you can take from your example to lead you to a high quality product. Write specifically how you will apply these ideas to your work here. Be as clear, exact & specific as you can!
One of the things I can take from this calendar is fading. I really like how the reflection of the water fades into the white for the background of the calendar. We could be able to do this in our project with our pictures. Since we don't have a calendar that will be one page like this one, it would be better if we did this for some picture on the top. A smaller picture can be shown fading into the template of the calendar.

Another thing we can put an image in the back of the dates that have environmental friendly holidays so it could be eye catching. I think the leaf idea is good to mark important days. The font change into white is sort of confusing to look at, so maybe our group won't do it like that, but I think we can make graphics to fit under specific dates.

Another thing I thought was cool was that they put their logo in the title of the calendar. I think our group can somehow incorporate the logo on the front of the calendar. It may not be in the box logo that we are use to looking at, but we can definitely thing about incorporating the colors into the front. Also, the colors, I think, are a good mix. It'd be a good idea to consider a specific color template before we start making the calendar.

Blog #13: Industrialization and Coastal Environments

Article: http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20091013/HURBLOG/910139893?Title=Local-coastal-advocate-receives-national-award

"St Pe' took it upon himself to begin an urgent education of the citizens of Louisiana of their heritage and their vanishing wetlands. He was one of the first people to reach Grand Isle along with the media explain the impacts of the hurricanes on the communities, the barrier shorelines and the marshes."

I couldn't exactly find one that was about industrialization, but I did find one that was released today about the coastal environment at the Gulf of Mexico.

1. What is the issue, controversy or event in the story? What are the basic facts?
The event is an award that is to be awarded to "longtime coastal advocate and director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program Kerry St. Pé" for his decades of urgently educating people in Louisiana about the situation with their disappearing wetlands. By doing this, he informed people about how important the keeping the environment clean is. With this informaiton, people learned about how protecting natural resources, other inhabitants, and commerce for humans was crucial to keep their community in good shape.

2. What information is missing from the story?

I think the news story was pretty thorough. The only thing I would have liked to read about was, perhaps, a little about St. Pé. He was decribed as this really informative person but I didn't understand who he was as a person. Was he a social, did he run any programs to inform people, where did he inform people, and who else was his audience. I wouldv'e liked to hear about a before and after. Or hypothesises about what could've happen if the public wasn't properly informed.

3. What would be your next steps if you were creating a follow up to this story?
I would expect a couple of things from the follow up story. First, of course, maybe a few pictures or reactions of then they are actually awarding the award. Like I said in the question before, I would like to see something about who he was or more detail about what he did. It would be great to see more quotes from people who were actually influenced by what he said. It'd also be nice to hear about clean up efforts or what the community is doing to keep their environment healthier.

Novel Essay #1

"…Under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way . . . they were right. . . . But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place. . . . It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them." In the book "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, many former slaves struggle to understand who they are and where their life is heading. It was 1873, the effects of the Civil War still lingered and African Americans still had a disadvantage in places like Cincinnati Ohio, the main ground of this book. Even though slavery was abolished, racism never ceased. Many former slaves had to go through day by day, suffering from unfair treatment from their community. Because of forced isolation and little communication between the clashing cultures, many characters show independence and strength, a positive attribute. Even so, it was from this unapproval of lifestyle where memories of a mournful past and displays a darker side to humanity arose.

The book starts with a strong independent person named Sethe. The only problem is that she is looked down upon as a former slave and African American. This shows that even years after the Civil War, specifically in 1873, racism had not paused to take a second glance. Many people in the south still view skin color as an issue. In a similar themed story titled "Dying for Dixie", southerns were still in contempt. They had used the murder case of Michael Westerman to attack, not only the suspects of the murder, but every black american. The idea that southerners had was that African Americans was a "subhuman", not to a level of equal. Because of this interpretation, there is no other environment to grow up in except the one which lead them believe they aren't as good as everyone else.

Many black americans in the south, much like Sethe, have been forced into isolation because of how the majority of people who show neglect and refuse to "surrender" to equality. Throughout this book there is evidence showing this isolation. Denver, Sethe's daughter, displayed a stun in emotional growth. She had no connection with the world beyond and feared that the community wouldn't accept her. This was only until another girl named Beloved entered her life and challenged her to overcome her fear. As you can see from these events and characteristics, isolation from a community can cause immense effects on a person's mental and physical state. Growing up in an environment where no one accepts you because you're different is a situation that many people do not know how to deal with and sometimes results in mental instability, insanity, or overall a difficult past. Like in this book, racism is a huge example of what separates a society. There is still acts of discrimination - groups like the KKK still exist.

On the flip side, this book shows positive attributes like independence. Independence and pride were two key characteristics to the main character Sethe. She constantly displays her strive for independence when she rejects offers of support from other people. Despite her brutal memories of being a slave and lost children, she is strong and attempted to deal with her inner feelings herself. Due to situations like Sethe's, many people have gained and emotional independence. To push back on the strength of an unfair society, people have chosen to try and keep themselves as tough and level headed. This is important because it brings to light how people are trying to handle the situation and what characteristic can sprout from a biased society.

Many aspects of this book points to the ideas that slavery, in general, has many emotional effects. As I was reading it, it escalated to different ideas for me. There was the obvious problem of a racist environment, but it was written in a way where there was a little of both cause and effect. Because of an unequal society, black americans grew up being told they were lower then everyone else. This cause drastically made a difference, it took away the identity of someone else. This shows a dark side to humanity. A human created problem has taken away another human's being, forcing them to become independent or suffer from the feeling of isolation. This uncovers the idea that the main cause of human suffering and distress can trace back to the actions of another human. Some of humanity may move forward, but many are left behind.

Blog #12: Questions for Media Saves the Beach

1. What are the helping organisms and hurting organisms?
I thought this question was interesting because we also have a partnership with biology so I thought this tied both classes really well. We always hear about the bad microorganisms in the water, but then we hear about how the environment breaks things down and actually cleans itself. It just confused me a little and I'm sure it confuses others too, I thought it would be the most educational. I think knowing the balance of good and bad organisms gives us better insight on what exactly is in our water and what exactly is happening.

2. What/How does the environment react to humans?
We always hear about litter, pollution, storm drain water, etc. Humans have probably done the most damage to the environment when we could be limiting our effects. I picked this question because I'm wondering how the environment copes with mass amount of pollution. We see litter everywhere we go and yes we fail to realize, on a large scale, what that does to the environment. If we were more informed about what the environment does to react to our carelessness, maybe people will understand, "Hey, because of me throwing this piece of plastic on the ground, I am polluting the ocean." Perhaps this person likes to surf, so now, knowing how his actions effects the environment he likes to surf in, he will have a reason to be more ecofriendly.

3. How much do humans contribute to the water?
I liked this question because we always seem to be quick in saying, "Yeah, humans pollute everything." but how much of it is actually our fault? We have already learned before about the toxic animal fecal matter that is released into our ocean from seals. Humans are pretty filthy and all, and I'm sure the amount we contribute to the pollution is a higher number that's off the scales, but what is it compared to other animals? We are the most destructive, yes, but compared to other animals, are we really making pollution increase in speed due to our carelessness? How much does our carelessness hurt the water? How much of us "just being animals" hurt the water? This question brings up more specific questions that I would be interested in researching too.

Blog #11: Final Draft of Civil War Essay

It was June 29th, 2007. Many had been lined up, days before the release, waiting to receive their own iPhone. After it was announced by Apple months before, anticipation had grown. Some Apple fans had already ordered their iPhone online, awaiting UPS to knock on their door or hopping on the subway destined to the nearest package delivery building. America had become technologically and mechanically wealthy, with all the development of phones for communication, transit systems for transportation, and more. We sometimes question where this outburst of new technology sprung from, but the origins of modern America could be dated back to the Civil War. During this time, these ideas and discoveries formed the basics of modern America, including our weaponry, methods of transportation, and communication.

Lets say you want to catch the subway to your job. You were running a little late and strived to make it safety inside before the door closes. It would always be there for our convenience. But it wasn't always there. It was developed from a form of transportation that had played a major role in the Civil War, trains. Before the war, trains were relatively new and had never been put to the test. When the war arose, trains became a key player in transportation. The military moved supplies and food to areas in need and supporting troops in territories of conquer. Soon enough, more then two hundred railroads came into existence at the start of the war. It was later used to transport cash crops and other supplies from state to state. Today, the use and mechanical aspects of trains have inspired modern day travel such as bullet trains, subways, and trolleys.

Every war has basic essentials, the use of firearms. In the course of the Civil War, rifles were created, firearms that fire 8 times more shots then muskets that were previously used in the American Revolution. The Civil War introduced the first magazine equipped weapon known as the Volcanic Rifle. As widely as the rifle was used back then, it is still used less severely for hunting. When reverting back to modern times, we have created a variety of firearms ranging from assault rifles, for overwhelming attacks, to sniper rifles, operated to achieve immense precision and a one-hit kills. You would probably not have your Scoped Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle and Thompson fully automatic gun option in "Call of Duty 2" if it hadn't been for weapon discoveries in the Civil War.

Imagine having to wait days to deliver a message that you don't even know was actually delivered. Before the Civil Wars, pony express messenger service was probably the best communication you had over distance. The invention of the telegram was just in time to aid the Civil War. It was the most convenient method of communication and was soon used to quickly report important battle information. Of course, it had its flaws of intercepted messages being changed and giving misinformation, but this issue was sorted out in the development processes that brings us to out modern telephone. Telegrams dawned the era of telephones. Even now, telephones almost look as old as telegrams. Taking the concept and idea of telephones, we have accomplished making even more high tech inventions such as cell phones.

Instead of simply evolving, ideas collected from the Civil War grew on its own and became the trunk of many modern ideas. The use of new technology played a huge factor on the outcome of the war and is still influencing our everyday society. A lot of the modern technology can be traced back to the Civil War, many more aspects excluding the ones I've already mentioned. It gave us weapons that were used in following wars like the usage of the Gatling Gun in the Spanish-American War and gave us insight on some of the important aspects of medicine such as the relationships between cleanliness, diet, and disease. Not only that, it contributed to battles after the war with ideas on artillery, understanding the health of the growing population - assisted both the public and the military -, and naval attack and defense with the usage of armor plated ships and torpedoes.