Reflection Week 11

Much of this wee was spent working on my English research paper, but I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of time for my 20% Time project. Work has begun on the website, but this is very minimal and almost unrecognizable. I have to keep going back to Code Academy and doing some of the lessons over again to jog my memory, but that fine because I'm finally learning how to code. This week was quite productive and I'm hoping next week will too.

Relfection S2 W11

Christian

            This week, I was only able to help out with one meal because I had a very busy work schedule this week. On Tuesday, my dad asked me to help him make chicken parmesan with him. Not only is that one of my favorite meals, it is one of his too, so of course I said I would help. First we dredged the chicken in egg and then coated it with breadcrumbs. After that, we threw the chicken on the stove to cook in a pan coated with olive oil. While the chicken was cooking, we added spices. Once the chicken was cooked, we transferred it to a pan that was filled about a quarter of the way with tomato sauce (previously made and frozen) and baked it in the oven for about 10 minutes or the cheese starts to brown. We ate the chicken with a side of pasta and fresh bread from the bakery. It was a great meal and took less than an hour to prepare and cook.

Reflection 11

My goal for this page is to capture all of the aspects of campus life. I was able to add a club related post to the my growing collection of students on campus. This 20% time project can happen at any time and I need to be on the look out for it. The Newspaper Editor was handing out newsletters during lunch and she offered my friends and I a copy. I loved her enthusiasm therefore I decided to take her picture. Unlike some 20% time that has to be done as a routine or at a certain time, I have to constantly be on the look out for more pictures. Also, next week is College Decision Day, so I am excited to photograph the seniors and add that to the HoUCVTS page.
Stay tune!

https://www.facebook.com/humansofucvts/

Reflection Week 10

These last two weeks have been pretty stressful for me for the events that took place. My cousin lost his life from a horrible incident (April 12). This is why most of my work has not been completed and I apologize for that. I missed school Wednesday (the 20th), Thursday (the 21st) and Friday (the 22nd) due to the wake, funeral, and then the burial. Also Sunday (the 24th) was my birthday. I guess you could say this was one of the weirdest events that happened to me. But I plan to get right back on track with my schoolwork and my 20% Time Project.

Reflection Week 9

I recently ordered a 24v DC Motor for the engine of the vehicles I plan on creating and just waiting on it to be shipped so i can officially get started. I should start working on the vehicles and just insert the DC Motor when it comes in which will be better cause it will save time but it may also have it's little problems. But I will get started in making a body for the vehicle. The DC Motor that is ordered is in the link below:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/24V-3000RPM-5mm-Shaft-Dia-Permanent-Magnetic-Speed-Reduce-DC-Gear-Motor-/181953875473?hash=item2a5d4bce11:g:NMUAAOSw1S9Wgj~H

REFLECTION 10.0

This week for my 20% project I learned how to cook my favorite type of cake, Vanilla yellowcake. The difficulty of this endeavor was high and it had a low chance of success. Therefore, I had my mom guide me to success by teaching and supervising me as I cooked the cake. Although helpful my mom could not prevent my cake attempt from failing.  I did not beat the batter enough so the cake came out ruined, however I plan to try again soon.  Next time I will be more careful when beating the batter.

Reflection 10

I continued working on my portrait at home this week. In all honesty, I am getting a bit frustrated. Right now it kind of just looks like a weird alien thing and I still am having a hard time getting the hair down. I am trying to be optimistic, so I think I am going to look for more lessons outside of drawspace that will hopefully give me some more tips. I aim to take a step back from this portrait and approach it with a new perspective because I know that if I just let myself continue to be frustrated I will give up.

Reflection 10

Why did I decide to knit a sweater. I've literally been asking myself this question all week. It's been so warm outside lately and here I am, knitting a wool sweater. What's wrong with me. Anyway, this week felt like every other week. I was extremely busy, but then I felt guilty about not knitting so I knit a little bit. It's not like it used to be though, when I'd sit down and knit for hours. I don't have time for that anymore. Now, I only knit a few rows at a time. But I guess, its okay because I'm making progress. I have to post a picture soon.

Reflection #10

          This week for my 20% time project I was able to accomplish a lot. I am still at four bottles a day. Feels like a lot but it really does make a difference. I got to the gym four times which is a great. this routine seems to really work for me. I also was able to stay on top of my diet this week. I cannot wait to show everyone all of the wonderful foods that are out there that are delicious and good for you! One thing I have definitely learned throughout this process is that taking care of yourself very important. Our loves tend to get so hectic that we forget about ourselves and our personal health. But, we have to take care of ourselves before we can take care of anyone else.

Reflection Week 10

This week I did a multitude of things. I worked on my highway article from two weeks ago, but have chosen to forego linking it here as I wish to add more to it. I also experimented with other blogging platforms, and the inclusion of media of older articles I wrote on these different blog platforms. I plan on revising some of my older articles I wrote, updating them with pictures or relevant information, and promoting them on a better blogging site. Blogger requires that you have google plus to use a lot of the cool features geared towards sharing your work at large. With this being said, I have it narrowed down to a handful of sites, and hopefully I'll fall in love with one of them.

Reflection 10

This week was rather uneventful with my baking progress. I was unable to bake anything because of my refrigerator problem, hence no new blog posts. However, I was able to purchase a Kitchenaid electric hand mixer, which I've been wanting for ages, and also a cake pan. A while ago, I ended up breaking my electric mixer, so now I have a new one to use when I need it. I specifically need this for baking macaroons, which I am planning on making this marking period. Also, I hope to be able to bake my first cake. So far, I have 5 posts on my blog, which I would say is pretty great, since that basically shows I baked something every other week or so. I hope to bake more than once in the upcoming weeks in order to show more of my progress.

Reflection S2 W10

Christian

            This week, I went on a weekend trip to Ocean City, NJ with my family. When we got down on Friday, dinner was already cooked because my grandparents left earlier to get our house ready. We just had pizza and salad on Friday. The next day was terrible because all it did was rain, so we were stuck inside the house. At around noon, my grandma came upstairs to where my immediate family and I had our rooms and said that she was going to start dinner early. My mom, sisters, and I went down to help my grandma cook. It was a cool thing to see my grandma and mom cook together. My sisters and I helped mostly by gathering ingredients and measuring them out, but I still had fun. The end result was potato soup, lasagna and meatballs, and lots of garlic bread! The cooking was good and the food was even better.

Reflection Week 10

To begin, work has not begun on the website. Although it may seem like I have wasted an entire marking period doing nothing, I've learned some valuable skills for coding. I've learned all the basics, and am partially finished with the website building lessons on Code Academy. Once I've completed these lessons, I will begin work on the real website, which hope will incorporate a couple photos, some different tabs, and a few paragraphs. I'm not yet sure what this website will be about, but it will most likely either be my presentation or a biography of my life.

New Reflection #10

This week, I practiced more on chords and scales. I recently found out that there are more than just three finger chords but each scale also has four finger chords too. I can say that using four fingers is more difficult using three fingers at a time. The spacing between the fingers can become difficult when moving toward more advanced songs. But it is not bad me for right now since I am using the four chords in mild songs only.

Week 10

This week I did a lot of origami. It was a pretty stressful week for me and I finally sat down and did origami to relax for a bit. It was nice to have a calm moment to just focus on something that wasn't causing stress or was boring. I also think I'm beginning to get a lot better at origami. I've now tried doing the medium level of origami instead of going straight to the beginner level, and it isn't that bad. It is still quite difficult, but not impossible.

New Reflection #9

This week, I couldn't get too much practice in. I had a lot of other outside things to complete so it was hard to practice. I just reverted back to some old songs for me to practice on. I realized as I was playing that I have accumulated a lot of songs that I know I can play. I counted about 10 songs that I know I can play. I hope to accumulate more in the future.

Reflection Week 10

This week I didn't make any progress on my vision book, even though I had a lot of free time this week. I wanted to ask my mom to send some pictures of my family members to my email, but I just ended up delaying it. This week I plan on actually making progress and I might create a new Wordpress post this week.

Reflection #10 4/24

Kamryn
Intro to Humanities

           My second semester 20% Project is going to be me learning to bake and cook many new things. This week was PARCC and there was no time in class to work on my 20% project. I also was really busy at home this week looking for prom stuff and trying to finalize my college decision between the University of Pittsburgh and Towson University. But, my mom taught me how to steam shrimp, I would write the directions here, but I am going to NY to look for dresses and I have to shower and get dressed in  a few minutes. But, here is a picture of the shrimp and I will put the recipe in my recipe document during 20% time in class.

Reflection 10

So I have been able to feature my fashion post this week. I've encountered a unique situation where the person doesn't want to show her face but I was granted permission to post it anonymously. I'm excited to see a new side of interviewing such as privacy issues and other ethic issues that may arise from interviewing. I always make sure to let the interviewee know that the picture will be posted on Facebook on a public Humans of UCVTS page. Next week will feature a senior for the inside of a seniors head post!

Reflection #9

          This week for my 20% time project I am still at 4 bottles , well barely. I'm trying o get used to it. I had some more time to meal prep this week so that's good. I also went to the gym FOUR times! That's an improvement. I actually got to do everything this week and I'm feeling pretty accomplished. I feel great and I hope this really becomes a life style and I won't just stop after this project.

Reflection #8

          This week for my 20% time project I reached 4 bottles in a day ! I honestly do feel better. Water is really important. It cleans you out and we need that. I started replacing juice with water instead and it's much better. Doesn't taste as great but it's much healthier. I only went to the gym 3 times this week though which is okay but I want to make everything more consistent. I didn't eat well though because I wasn't really home to prep my meals but overall it was a pretty good week.

Reflection #7

          This week for my 20% time project I was able to drink a lot more water than I usually do. It's supposed to be at least 6-8 and I drank three which is a lot for me that just barely drinks two. I also went to the gym 4 times this week. I feel much cleaner with all this water. I messed up on food this week. I wasn't really eating what I was supposed to. I need to get my food habits better. It has become difficult for me.

Reflection #6

   This week for my 20 % time project I made some new meals I found online. I worked out three days of the week and I have seen some improvement within my self. Not only do I look better, but I feel better. One thing that I definitely learned is that I do not drink as much water as I should. I'm way off from the suggested amount so I have made it my job to improve upon that.

Reflection 9

This week I worked in class on my portrait, and I am still having trouble getting the curls right. I am going to practicing and hopefully I will get it. Unfortunately, I had some personal stuff going on this week and did not have much time to continue working, so my time in class was all I had. This coming week I intend on returning back to my normal schedule.

Week 9

This week I actually had a lot of time to do origami. There wasn't much homework because of PARCC and we (GSA) planned Day of Silence at school instead of at home. So, while I was at home, I started working on origami boxes. They were pretty hard because each side had to be exact and all folds had to be at the right angle. Eventually I got it though. These boxes were definitely the hardest thing to do so far, but I'm still excited to keep on going.

Reflection S2 W9

Christian

            This week, I had a really busy work schedule. I work at the Galloping Hill Golf Range in Kenilworth. I work as a range attendant but on Saturday, the kitchen got to be really busy, so my boss asked me to hop in with the chef, Marquis, and help him out a little while my other coworkers were outside. Of course I said yes and I helped Marquis out in the kitchen for about an hour. I worked the deep fryers while Marquis worked the stovetop. Although I do not plan on having a culinary career in the future, this was a beneficial experience for me because it gave me time to practice timing, because in a restaurant kitchen, the main goal is to get out good food as fast as possible. I learned when exactly to take things out and how long to let them cook. Also, watching Marquis cook was a cool experience because I got to see someone who cooks for a living do their thing.

Reflection 9

On Wednesday this week, I baked white chocolate snickerdoodles. For a long time, I've been baking snickerdoodles but they was always something wrong with them. However, after making these snickerdoodles. I think I found the perfect recipe. It was really fun baking these and the white chocolate added a special touch to them. I learned that in order not to burn them, I should bake them on the top rock for 10 minutes and nothing more. I was originally planning to bake more on the weekend, but my refrigerator isn't working, so I can't buy any more butter or other ingredients that need to be kept in it. I baked so that I can use up the ingredients in the fridge just in case they spoil. Also, I now have 5 posts on my blog, which I'm proud of. I realized that I've pretty much been baking every other week which is great. I'm not quite sure if I ever left the link to my blog so here it is:

https://blissfulbakingcreations.wordpress.com/

Reflection 9

I think this week went pretty well. I knit a little bit more, but I'm still sort of doing the same old thing. I was losing motivation and wanted to get re-inspired so I googled some knitting blogs that were really interesting. (here are a few: My Sister's Knitter, Tin Can Knits, Never Not Knitting) This actually helped a lot. The people who run these blogs are so dedicated to what they do, and some of the things they've made are crazy. It made me want to push myself a little bit more. I'm more excited about finishing my sweater now than I was before.

Reflection Week 9

For my second 20% Time, I decided to learn how to code. I've just finished HTML Basics III. Now I can get on to learning how to make a website. Now that I've learned almost all the basics to HTML and CSS, I need to learn how to utilize all these elements in order to create a website. I've learned how to insert images, but I now very little about formatting them, or creating different tabs on a webpage, or formatting anything in general. Although I may know these basics, I still have a lot to learn before actually building this website.

Reflection Week 9

This week for 20% Time, I included my inspirations in my vision book. One page has celebrities, but this Monday I plan on including my family members. My mom most likely has pictures of my family members in her email, so I will ask her to send some to me. I also started to work on a Wordpress post this week, but I have to determine if I want to continue working on it.

Reflection #9 4/17

Kamryn
Intro to Humanities

           My second semester 20% Project is going to be me learning to bake and cook many new things. In class, I searched for new recipes and I organized my reflections and the recipes I have used. At home, I cooked a frozen pasta dinner, that I typically cook on the stove, in the microwave. I used Stouffers's Hearty grilled chicken and vegetables pasta. I hate vegetables, so I took them out and I put some of the pasta and frozen sauce in the microwave covered on High for 6 minutes, remove cover. Stir and re-cover. Then,  continue cooking on High 3 minutes, remove cover. Stir and re-cover. Continue cooking on High 2 minutes. Then, I took it out, stirred it, took a picture, then drowned it in parmesan cheese. It was a delicious dinner, but I prefer it on the stove, but in college I will not have a stove.

REFLECTION 9.0

I have decided to dedicate this week to reviewing some of the meals that I learned how to cook over the past few weeks. In addition to practicing those meals I  plan to make revisions to the recipes in order to improve the health aspect of those meals. Therefore for fried rice my main revison was to replace the type of rice used to cook it, so instead of using regular white rice I am using brown rice. The next revision I made was to turkey; I started selecting the pieces of turkey with less saturated fat on it. These are the only two deviations I had from my usual recipe and it was quite successful. Theses changes improved the health of the foods that I eat and still maintained the phenominal taste I expect from these meals.

Reflection 9

I was able to successfully update the page after a long hiatus of 2 weeks due to spring break. I'm sharing this page with my friends and hopefully more people can see it. I realized that the page I posted was never published when my friend tried to like the page and couldn't see it. So for the past 2 months where I thought people were able to go to the page was actually false. Now I am excited for the feedback of the page. I still have not executed my plan to have a focus theme for the pictures. I usually post 1-2 pictures a week, so instead of it calling a theme week, it would be a theme month. I plan on either choosing the senior month or fashion month because those are the most exciting. Stay tune to next week:)

Finally a working page: https://www.facebook.com/humansofucvts/?fref=nf

Reflection 8

I decided I am going to try drawing a portrait this week. I chose to draw my sister, and so far I have a rough outline and I started drawing her face. I am drawing in pencil right now, but maybe if my practicing with colored pencils continues to go well I might add color to the drawing. Right now I am just focused on the basic shapes of her face. When it comes time to start shading, I will decide if I am going to stick with pencil or add color. I chose my sister specifically because I was reading a Drawspace lesson on how to draw curly hair, and she has curly hair so I wanted to challenge myself a bit.

Reflection 8

It was a pretty boring week. I knit a few rows, maybe like 5 or 6, but nothing really new. Just the same old stitches over and over again. I kind of lost track of the measurements, but I can tell by just looking at it that its nowhere near done. All it is right now is just a few basic rows of stitching which is supposed to be the bottom part of the back sweater. I wish I had the time to enjoy it more. Last semester I had so much free time, and knitting was fun. But now that I have a job and I'm stressed about college, honestly the last thing I want to do is knit. I'm not gonna be too hard on myself though. I'm happy I've made some progress, and I'm pretty confident that I'll get some more inspiration or motivation soon.

Reflection Week 8

This week, I chose to research my topic instead of formally writing an article on it. The subject I chose to research was the history of highways being used to separate neighborhoods and segregate African Americans into certain communities. Incredibly enough, the effects of such segregation are still being felt today, and the incredible flagrancy and intent behind these actions are appalling and saddening. It's one of the more important topics I'd ever write about though; you can't fix the present if you don't understand the past and how we got to where we are today. The sources I used to research the article will be sighted in my blog post, leading to greater credibility.

Reflection 8

This week I was able to bake something once again! I ended up baking matcha green tea cookies using the green tea latte powder I had leftover. It was really fun to experiment with green tea, especially since I love green tea. The recipe could've been a bit better, because the cookies seemed a bit dry and didn't spread as much as I expected. In the end, the cookies were a bit plain because green tea doesn't have too much of a strong taste, but the white chocolate chips went really well with it. The cookies were still good, but I plan on improving this recipe and also trying to bring the green tea taste out a bit more.

Week 8

This past week wasn't productive at all. I didn't do any origami, even though this would've been the perfect week to do it. I was very stressed from school and just life in general. I needed to sit down and do something relaxing like origami, but I couldn't make the time for it. Next week I'm hoping that I'll have a lot of down time because of PARCC (unfortunately), and I will be able to do a lot of origami.

Reflection #8 4/10

Kamryn
Intro to Humanities

           My second semester 20% Project is going to be me learning to bake and cook many new things. In class again, I searched for new recipes. A lot sparked my interest, but I could not do them this weekend because I was so busy trying to read for this Humanities class. But, I did assist my mother in making steak, cabbage, and yellow rice for our Sunday dinner. I'll include the recipe in my recipe document for this project when we work on the project on Friday.

Reflection Week 8

This week for 20% Time, I included in my vision book my inspirations. I included celebrities, but later on this week I want to include pictures of my family members that I will have my mom send to me. I also finished the page of places I want to go in the future. I haven't been able to acess printers this week, but I'm sure I will be able to next week since I won't have a lot of work to do because of PARCC.

Reflection 8

This week has been very busy for me because I just got back from spring break. Due to my absence from school this entire week, I was not able to go through with my plan to start a senior focus week. I hope that next week I will have the time to photograph the seniors to see how they feel about college acceptances and their time at UCVTS. Currently on my social media and during school, all my classmates are bubbling with excitement about committing to colleges or how they have to go visit the schools to make their final visits. I hope to capture the emotion and the thinking process of the seniors though my interview and questions. Please look forward to next week's edition.

New Reflection #8

This week, I felt like I finally mastered the song Let It Be by the Beatles. So I decided to look for another song to play with a bit more of challenge to it. I am not sure which genre this song will be in but the aim is to be in classical. The goal is to find a new song by next week. My scale and chord playing has really been getting better since I have been doing this song. But I think it is time to start moving on.

REFLECTION 8.0

Last week, I made the decision to dedicate this week to learning how to cook fried rice,  a famous Western African dish, therefore this week I have validated that promise by learning how to cook the dish. I learned how to cook this dish because I think it will prove to be a valuable addition to the range of meals I can cook. This meal has really good nutritional value because of the vegetables sprinkled throughout the rice and is usually served with chicken. The downside to this dish is how long it takes to prepare it; it took me an hour and thirty minutes of consistent attention to prepare this dish. Overall, the meal tasted quite good, however it did seem a little bit sloppy and not well mixed together. Other than that mixing error, this outing of cooking was really successful. Next week I think I am going to learn how to cook light soup, another popular Western African dish. The recipe I used for the fried rice came from here:https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=6656