Reflection Week 3

Christian

            This week, I started to test out the different modes that my camera has to offer. Automatic Mode is the easiest because the camera essentially guesses the best settings for the shot that you’re taking. Portrait Mode sets a large aperture (low number) and sets the focus on one object in the shot. This mode is obviously good for taking pictures of others. Macro Mode sets an even larger aperture in order to take close-up shots. This is optimal for taking pictures of smaller objects such as bugs and flowers. Landscape mode is the opposite of Portrait Mode. A small aperture (high number) is set, which allows the scene that you are photographing to be as in focus as possible. This is useful for nature or large shots. Sports or Action Mode is simply used for photographing moving objects such as cars and animals by increasing the shutter speed. Night mode is used when there is not a lot of natural light in the shot. This is done by decreasing the shutter speed, which allows more light in the shot. I had a lot of fun experimenting with these different modes.

Reflection #3

This week, I did not create any new blog posts because I was working on other things for school, such as tests, quizzes, and projects. Next week, however, I want to find time to put something on my blog because it is still empty. I was thinking about writing a piece on portrayal of certain marginalized groups in the media. I also made my "About Me" page more accessible by changing my layout. On my old layout, that page was harder to find. I only have two tests next week, so it shouldn't be hard to work on my blog during that time.

Reflection 2

The past week I submitted what I thought would be my final submission, but with help from Ms. Roy, I decided to participate in CSPAN's StudentCam 2016 contest. Since the beginning of 20%, I had a difficult time creating a project that had a main focus to it. I thought about writing short stories and essays, but that had no overall theme to it. By creating a video for CSPAN's contest, I get to make something that has a clear goal; create a video about a topic that the presidential nominees should talk about this election. My topic came to mind as soon as Ms. Roy told me about the project. One of the most important problems our country faces is campaign finance reform, 66% of American believe there is too much money in the political process, 46% of Americans support a completely rebuilt system and 39% believe in fundamental changes (NYT 2015). Initially, I did not have any drive for this project because I could not think of something that was interesting and would last the full year. This week I plan of researching the campaign finance system and how different Americans view it.

Reflection 3

This week didn't go exactly as I had planned. I realized that finding time to work on this project is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I had a lot of other projects due, my college essay and applications, and other school work to worry about this week so I didn't get a chance to actually sit down and knit. However, I did talk to my mom about it and she said she would teach me whenever we found the time. I've still been gathering resources, and so far I have a pretty long list of different videos and websites I can refer to. I'm still excited about knitting, but I'm a little disappointed that I didn't set aside some time to work on it this week. Next week will definitely be better.

REFLICTION DOS

This week I developed my technical cooking skills while learning how to cook pancakes. Essentially my mother has taken me on to be her cooking pupil so whenever she cooks I usually tag along. For this week's dish, pancakes, me and my mother gathered the ingredients and put them together in a bowl. Then my mom taught me how to mix the ingredients and I got experience in mixing pancake batter. Once the ingredients was dissolved together I put it in the frying pan and cook my pancakes. The pancakes came out quite good and it tasted fantastic. This experience of cooking pancakes helped me develop my frying and mixing abilities. In the future, I hope to do  Additionally, next week I plan on doing an egg/omelette and the frying experience will come in handy when cooking said omelette.

20 % Time Reflection #2

Chelsie: Scrap-booking

         For my 20% time project this week I was able to print out some pictures and construct the next two pages of my scrapbook using some techniques that I found online like stitching the actual papers. You don't necessarily need glue to stick on things to your pages. you can use colored tapes and even stitch things on. As i previously mentioned, my scrapbook is in the order of my priorities so the first couple of pages are going to be about God. The first ones are going to be about my relationship with him and then it is is going to follow with my responsibilities in the church. I am part of a ministry so that is what will follow after I finish displaying my relationship with God.

REFLECTION WEEK 2

This week was a challenging one, and almost discouraging. Thursday my shins hurt a lot, so the entire weekend I wasn't able to run. But before Thursday, I managed to run 5 miles both Monday and Wednesday. I also attempted to start my new diet (well not so much a diet as more of a lifestyle change when it comes to eating). I did not eat out, and I tried to not skip breakfast. I started making fruit and vegetable juices to keep me from feeling hungry throughout the day and getting much needed vitamins into my body. However, once I stopped running, my motivation fell along with my diet and not only did I have a cheat day--I had a cheat weekend. Saturday was my worst day. Not only did I have nachos for breakfast (at 3 in the morning I may add) I ate pizza for lunch and dinner. I attended two birthday parties, both of which were more focused on a much younger crowd, and so I ate my boredom away in cake and icing. Twice. So this week was a small hiccup in my great plan. But yesterday came along and I was ready to start anew. I ran 4 miles, and it was a challenge, getting back into the rhythm. I also started my strength training schedule. I feel sore, but it's a welcoming sore. I like the reminder of knowing I'm pushing myself.

Reflection #2

This week, I started to converse with other people I knew who speak German. I was able to hold a short conversation before it got lost in translation. But I can't fret, I knew this was going to happen. All I can do is continue to practice. At least I am aware that I can talk to someone for a short amount of time. I was also able to remember things by repeating them constantly in my mind. I got the introductions and formalities down but next I consider "small talk" next to conquer.

Reflection 2

This week I actually ran my first mile to see how my first time will turn out. I didn't do as bad as i thought i was. Some problems i faced were body tiredness. My legs were sore after i finished running. I need to stretch, drink more water, and stick to my diet. I plan to keep running to increase my times.

Reflection 2

This week I took a technical approach to the sketches I made last week. There were definitely some struggles with getting accustom to a mouse instead of a pencil. Also I decided to focus on making the characters more simple than the original. I follow by using the circle and rectangles default option that comes with the program, SketchPad, which I am using to draw. I think next week I will focus more on the story plot and set my priorities I would like to focus. I think backgrounds and such should be used for important emphasis and not just to fill blank space. This way the watcher can know when the scene is import.

Reflection 2

This past week I have made some decent progress. I decided to start knitting. I found an easy beginner tutorial online and watched it through once before trying it for myself. I got my yarn and needles and tried following along. I realized that I didn't really like the way the tutorial explained it, and I looked at some other websites for help. I think I like reading step-by-step instructions and looking at pictures better than watching videos. Anyway I started knitting and got a row done. It's not as easy as it looks. I'm going to try to find time to sit down with my mom and have her help me. I am hoping to get some more done next week.

Reflection #2

Reflection

 For this week, I started to do some actual coding. I went on the Processing website where they teach you how to use codes to see which codes could be useful for me. I used the translate() and rotate() code. I saw what the perspective() code did, but didn't look farther into it because i don't think I will end up using that code in the future. These codes that I've learned will be useful for specific projects involving shapes or drawn objects within a code. 

Reflection 2

This week I finally found the chance to borrow my friend's guitar, since I found that mine was more of a children's toy version. She also gave me a beginner's guitar book, a tuner, clamp, and her own chord book. The new guitar sounds much better than the one I own, and I also learned how to tune it using a chromatic tuner that you attach to the guitar. I continued to practice the D, A, and E chords, and improved greatly in changing from one chord to another. To practice changing chords, I did "One Minute Changes," in which I see how many times I can transfer back and forth between two chords in one minute. Doing this each day helped me change chords much more quickly than when I first started and helped me memorize them. I learned how to strum using the 4:4 pattern, and used that in trying to play a short and simple song. I did two exercises called Single Sound Recognition (SSR) and Chord Progression Recognition (CPR), which improved my recognition of chords by ear. Once I felt comfortable enough with those three chords, I decided that it was time to move onto stage 2. I learned three more chords: D, A, and E minor. I then practiced how to alternate between the three. This week seemed a lot more productive than the first, and I hope that the next following weeks will go the same.

Reflection #2

Kamryn

Intro to Humanities

11 October 2015

Reflection #2

    My project is to learn how to braid hair, install, and style hair. This week I focused on mastering multiple braiding techniques. I researched the differences between cornrows and french braids to decide which style I'd lie to use for my project. French braid and is braided overhand (which is easier for me personally) and cornrow is underhand which makes the braid closer to the scalp. I think that it would be smarter to do cornrows for the final project, but I would still like to perfect my french braiding and other styles. Having a good braiding background will make the foundation of my final product easier to do. The better the braids, the better the hair will look. By perfecting my technique, it will make the styling more neat and give a better look. Videos I watched included “ Learn how to Cornrow Your Own Hair! Fast + Easy + Lots of Tips"  by Elizabeth Ruedas and "How to Braid Cornrows: Cornrows" by ehowbeauty on Youtube. The cornrows were less successful than the french braid I worked on last week, but I will continue practicing in weeks to come.

Reflection Week 2

Christian

                This week, I continued to experiment with my camera. I went to the park around the corner from my house to take some pictures with natural light. My friends Tyler and Karlos came to the park to take pictures with me. I will attach a couple of shots I took in a later blog post. I played with the ISO sensitivity of the camera, which controls the amount of light that the camera takes in. The ISO setting can be compared to the iris that every one of us have in our eyes. In the image attached with Tyler and Karlos walking, I used the flash to reflect the Pedestrian sign and by chance, the arrow on the sign is pointing directly to my friend Tyler’s head. Things like that are why I have such an interest in photography. If you can capture the right moment, you tell a story with a single image.

Reflection #2 :D

Unfortunately, my friend was busy so I couldn't talk to her this week about Krita. But on the other hand, I finally downloaded it for my home computer! Two new service packs for Windows Vista and three hours later, Krita was up and running! I don't really know how to use it completely, so all I did was scribble a bit and write "I make bank $$$" with the calligraphy tool. See the attachment.
One of my classmates was on this website, https://sketch.io/sketchpad/, and she was drawing something in the browser. I checked it out, and as it turns out, you don't have to download anything, so it's good to use on school computers. I was thinking that I could sketch there when I'm not at home. I'll post a link or upload anything I draw there on here, too.
I also found a really helpful wiki on how to use Krita: https://userbase.kde.org/Krita--it's been really helpful so far and I've just been going through the posts, checking everything out. It's only Friday, and I do most of my work on the 20 Percent Time project on Saturday and early Sunday, so if any crazy things or updates happen I'll repost.

Proposal

For my 20% project, I plan on participating in CSPAN's StudentCam 2016. My project will consist of creating a five to seven minute long video on what issues I want presidential-hopefuls to discuss. The goal of this project is to create a video that inspires people to think and ask questions that will be significant in the upcoming presidential election. Though there are prizes involved, I am doing this out of my own interest in politics and law. For this project I will have to thoroughly research the issues that are the most important to me. The first issue that comes to mind is campaign finance reform and the Supreme Court's opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Another issue I will probably discuss is income inequality. The research part of this project will be easy and I will enjoy it because politics has always intrigued me and this is the first election I will be able to vote in. I will, however, have a difficult time trying to address our nation's most important problems in less than seven minutes. It also may be difficult to find a particular video in CSPAN's video library, especially anything pertaining to the Supreme Court. January 20, 2016 is the deadline for this project, which gives me plenty of time for planning/writing, filming, and editing.

During class time I will plan out what I want in my video and then I will start researching and writing. Outside of the class, I will still research but the main focus will be filming and editing. Filming and editing can be very tedious, I do not think I would have enough time during 20% time to accomplish anything significant for the video.

Reflection #2

This week for 20 Percent Time I finally created my blog on WordPress. The process didn't take that long and it was really easy to find out the layout I wanted to use. So far the only thing I have done on my blog is create an About Me page, and it is the first thing you see if you come onto my blog. Now I have to move on from here and find out what I want to talk about.

Reflection UNO

This week I made decent progress in learning how to cook; I got experience in frying turkey. Essentially my mother was going out and told me  to let the turkey soak in the broth for 30 minutes on low then I should heat up the oil and transfer the turkey to the bowl full of heated oil. Additionally she told me to wait until the turkey looked like a orange brown combo but I knew what she meant. I followed her steps word for word and honestly the first batch looked magnificent. I coerced my friend into eating my turkey and he told me it was utterly disgusting. When I ate it however I acknowledged that it was tasteless but not disgusting. Obviously I decided to take another run with this and I added a piece of turkey  to the oil in the attempt to create another batch which violently backfired. The  oil burst out of the bowl and even though it was only a little oil it landed on the heated part of the electric stove which created a vast amount of smoke. I then pushed the bowl off the stove and took out the piece of turkey when I thought the time was right. Once again the turkey looked perfectly fried but was tasteless . Also due to the vast amount of smoke, the fire alarm in my crib went off causing my family to tell me to try again another day preferably at a different location. I plan to try this again hopefully with the support of my loved ones.  My performance was truly terrible and I think that should've let it sink in the broth longer because later on when my mom returned she cooked the turkey and it turned out perfectly.

Proposal

My 20 Time Project is going to be cooking.

My final product/goal/accomplishment will be  to be able to cook 5 different foods for each meal of the day. In order to achieve this goal I need to know the recipe for different meals. For instance this is the recipe for NY Strip Steak:

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 6 (1-inch thick) boneless NY strip steaks
• Tarragon Melting Sauce, recipe follows
• Onion ring toppings, recipe follows

 

Tarragon Melting Sauce:

• 2 cups butter
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons minced green onion
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Onion Ring Toppings:

• Vegetable oil, for deep frying
• 2 medium white or yellow onions
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• Salt
 

Directions

In a heavy-duty, resealable plastic bag, combine oil, lemon juice, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper; add steaks to bag. Press the air out of the bag and seal tightly. Turn the bag several times to distribute the marinade. Place the bag in a bowl and refrigerate 30 minutes, turning bag occasionally.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Remove steaks from marinade, discarding marinade. Place 3 steaks in hot skillet; cook 4 to 5 minutes on each side or to the desired degree of doneness. Remove steaks to a serving plate, and keep warm Repeat process with remaining 3 steaks. Top each steak with 1 to 2 tablespoons Tarragon Melting Sauce.
Serve immediately.
Tarragon Melting Sauce: Position knife blade in food processor bowl; add all ingredients, and process until smooth. Cover, and refrigerate.
Yield: 3 1/2 cups
Onion Ring Toppings: Preheat oil to 360 degrees F.
Slice the onions into very thin rings and separate the rings. Spread them out and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Place the flour in a resealable plastic bag. Put the onion rings in batches, in the bag, close tightly and shake until the onion rings are coated.
Fry the onion rings in batches for 3 to 4 minutes, until they are brown and crispy.
Remove with tongs and drain on paper towels. Taste and season with salt, if necessary. Top the steak with the fried onion rings.

Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen, 2008

Also I will purchase a cookbook for beginners in addition to using the vast internet. Once I develop my initial skills and knowledge I should be able to cook new meals with ease. The most difficult thing about this project would probably be to create a meal that tastes good given my lack of experience in cooking. Most of this project will probably be done outside of class because I do not have tools necessary to prepare a meal in class. Outside of class is where I would test the technique I studied in class in order to create my meal of the week.