another magazine reflection

For this project I saw that I had many things to learn about writing.

reflection 2

1. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what improved? How did it get better? Why?

A lot changed in my writing during this time that we were working on this magazine. I was very used to writing one certain way all of the time. I was used to writing in like I was writing a five paragraph essay. For projects that is just what i do for everything. When i first came into this project that is the mindset that I had, I was going to write another five paragraph essay, that would be easy. Everything changed on the day i first turned in what I was going to input to the magazine, Randy told us that we had to write more like in article format, something that is interesting to the reader as well as informational. I had to change the way I was going to write this paper. We looked at articles in different magazines in order to see how they are written. This was a very good process because we get to see how different people start off their articles and how they get peoples attention. I think that something that really improved in my writing was that I was able to change the way I was going to write instead of having it in a five paragraph format, I had to write it like a magazine article now and I was able to do so with the help of Randy's critique. It is very good that I am now able to expand on my writing in a different way

2. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what still needs work? What do you think will help you improve? Why?

Something I really have a problem with is that i am very repetitive in my writing. I notice this in many pieces of writing that I have done. That is definitely something that I have to work on when it comes to my writing . I have to learn to express my ideas in different ways instead of making things sound repetitive, even if that explanation is short and simple. I should just be enough information for the reader to know what I am trying to get at in the piece of writing. i also have to learn to make smoother transitions from one subject to the other instead of just jumping from one topic to the other. If I am trying to get a point out I should just automatically state it instead of making a long story of it, I should "Cut to the chase" like Randy said while critiquing my article.

3. Specifically, show us something that improved and describe the path it took to get better. You can quote your article, your drafts, link to evidence, etc.

Something that needed work on basically throughout the whole writing process, is something that I did not know how to change when it was explained to me. I would change it a little bit but it was not the sentence that it now is. In my first draft this was the sentence "Tijuana is 300 feet above San Diego, after rain, San Diego and Tijuana are both impacted by the trash washed down the Tj River."

When that sentence was critiqued by Randy he wanted me to be way more specific with that sentence and I could not understand that. My sentence would get better everytime but it wasn't getting to where it needed to be. By the end when I finally got the sentence toits best it read like this, "However after the rain trash travels down to San Diego through the Tijuana River, because much of the city of San Diego is on the coast and Tijuana is uphill, and upriver, 300 feet above sea level."
In the end when I was all done with my article I felt that the sentence was at its best.

4. Describe something specific (or a few things!) that you learned about writing.

I learned so many things about writing while writing my article for the magazine.
something I learned was structuring the writing, using the loop starting and ending with something good and using the middle to tie them together, the middle not so important.
I learned how to use the verbs and subject better in a sentence, like how to start of strong by having the subject and verb in the beginning of the sentence, which does make your sentences sound better.
I now avoid using sledgehammer words in anything that I write unless they are really needed which is rare but they might be needed at some point.
I think doing copyediting to your work is good as well that way you can get it critiqued many times by many people and by the end your writing becomes a great piece of writing.
I learned how to explain things thouroughly with a little bit of writing instead of a big explanation.

magazine reflection

1) What went well for you during the process of creating this magazine?

The thing that really went well for me during this process the critiqueing process. I love getting my work critiqued because that way many people can give me their input on my work and whether something should be changed. I like it when people are really blunt and honest when something does not make sense, or does not work, I will take the advice so don't be scared to let me know what is wrong with my paper. I always like to ask Randy to critique my paper because he does all of the things that I just mentioned which is really good because I always feel that by the end of the writing and critiqueing process my work is the best it can be.

2. What challenges did you face as you moved from an early draft or idea to a final product?

Whe we first started writing our articles for the magazine, I really had no idea what I wanted to do for my article. I chose to put in my photoessay which was already completed, but then Randy was talking to us about other things we can do that way it could be something sort of new. So that gave me the idea to take parts of my photoessay and parts of my mentor interview and put it together to make my article. I was able to incorporate those two things together but also make something new with it. I was able to change something about it all make make a whole new article, so that was something that I struggled with in the begining.

3. What other examples of work—student and professional—stood out as exemplary and served as a good model for your own work?

I like a lot of people work, whe leo asked me to critique his paper I read it and I really liked it. I felt that it was very professional and that it was a very good topic that had to dod with him and his internship. He made a lot of sense and I just really liked reading his as well as other peoples articles.

OBAMA n Socialism

Google the phrase "Obama Socialism". What do you get? Try google news... what did you find?

When looking up the phrase "Obama Socialism" I found that many people are saying that Obama is turning our country in a socialist country. In an article I found on Spectator and there they were talking about how Obama was being bashed by so many Republicans because they did not want to pay their taxes, but they are paying less taxes with Obama than they were with Bush. "How do these protesters expect to not pay taxes but still enjoy the parks, schools, roads and protection the money from these taxes support?"
People are paying taxes for things that they themselves are using, but they are getting mad about it. it is said that our government has already used some socialist elements in the past,but people are protesting that Obama is turning us into a socialist nation. An article in spectator says that, "Obama's plans may do some to expand the socialist elements of U.S. government, the idea that we're about to become a socialist nation is absurd." If some socialist elements have been used in the U.S Government before , why are people only trying to put the blame on our current president? They should see that he is not the first to try and use this .

Do you feel that the label "socialism" is applied appropriately or correctly to Obama, his proposals or his policies?

Do Obama's proposals or policies have historic precedents in America? If so, what happened in the past?

Lit Groups

LITERATURE GROUPS

I like reading a new book, because I have gotten out of the reading process and I really needed to get my reading skills back up. Something that I really like about this was that we took notes on the book, and put them on sticky notes. A lot of times I seem to forget what I read about and having those sticky notes, I am able to look back and check what I have previously read. that is also a way too see, what exactly I think about when I am reading because a lot of the time i seem to get distracted from my reading. I actually found out that I read better when I am taking notes on almost every page, I seem to pay more attention, don't get as distracted. i find that interesting and I am glad that i found that out, I am going to use this process whenever I read a book.



I Guess when we were Planning out the time frame on how much we were going to read and by when, we didn't really think about how some of the chapters were very long, and a lout of the time some people in our group where not able to keep up with the reading and all of the school work we had to do, including me. we were not very well organized with the due dates, we need to think ahead.


The book was about troubled boy by the name Huckleberry Finn. His father is an alcoholic and he abuses Huck sometime, like when he gets drunk he seems to beat him, for little things, and he wants to take charge of Huck. Huck did not like that, so he ran away from this cabin that his dad was keeping him in. On his journey he found his friend, he was a runaway slave. They went on journeys together keeping each others secrets, Huck was suppose to be dead, and Jim had run away. Jim and Huck helped each other survive on islands. They went through struggles, and Huck in the end helps Jim out of jail and proves that he is a free man. They stuck together and helped each other a lot

I hope that we get more time to read the next book.

photoessay

My internship is at a non-profit organization called WiLDCOAST, located in Imperial Beach. Their mission statement says what they are hoping to accomplish; “WiLDCOAST protects and preserves coastal ecosystems and wildlife in the Californias and Latin America by building grassroots support, conducting Media Campaigns and establishing protected areas.” This organization and the people who work in it want to protect the environment as well as wildlife. It is a pleasure to work with this organization trying to do everything possible to keep our environment because all of this affects us in the long run. WiLDCOAST has many campaigns to show the people what they are trying to do and get the community involved in the work they are trying to accomplish. The Tijuana River is three fourths in Tijuana but one fourth of the TJ River is in San Diego, and the water flow from the river affects the public trails are no longer available for people to enjoy.



My mentor Ben McCue is a project manager at WiLDCOAST working on the trash flow from the Tijuana River into the Pacific Ocean. After rain, San Diego and Tijuana are impacted the trash washed down the TJ River, thousands of bottles, tires, and other kinds of trash travel down into the public trails in the estuary. We are three hundred feet below Tijuana so all of their Trash comes down to our side of town. Currently we are working on a campaign to persuade Officials to establish an incentive program in Tijuana that will make people want to recycle their plastic bottles, which is one of the major things that travels down with the river. Mexico uses more PET bottles than any other country, for the people to be able to recycle these items would be a great help and would reduce the amount of bottles that come down. “Deposit laws significantly reduce container litter and other types of litter”, before the deposit laws were made her in California, container litter was also a problem but as we can see today these laws do work and that is something that is needed in Mexico in order for things to get better we need to start at the root of the problem.



To get entire systems established in a different country a lot of research needs to be done on the US side to show a good argument on how things are run in the other country. Stephanie, Ben and I traveled into Tijuana for additional research; we talked to a woman who runs a recycling program and plant in Tijuana. We wanted to see what exactly they were doing over there to try and prevent al of these litter problems, and to see if we could help them in any way. We learned that they are trying to get the recycling programs in Tijuana to function but they do not have enough promotion, not a lot of people know that they can recycle, and Tijuana’s trash collection system is not fully in place either so it is hard for them to get people to recycle. The trash collectors and recycling companies do not have the sufficient funds to establish an effective recycling system in Mexico the way we have it here in California. We went to Tijuana to find out what the problem is over there so that we could then accurately brainstorm what needs to be done in order for them to have something completely new set up in their country.



WiLDCOAST reaches out to people through the media they are trying to show people that there are problems that could affect the health of the environment and also their own; they might not even know this is happening. WiLDCOAST is featured in news stories for different newscasters. What I think they try to do is show that there is a problem, and they want people to participate in their fight to a healthier safer environment. Very recently they had a story on Fox 5 San Diego news where they were warning people about the contamination of the water in IB, which could contain Hepatitis A. WiLDCOAST gave free vaccinations to anyone who goes into the water to prevent them from getting ill. WiLDCOAST is not just trying to promote their organization; they are actually trying to help people by telling the public about the harm that they face and what that they can do about it through media sources.

As intern at WiLDCOAST I have seen first hand how bad things are at the Tijuana River Valley. I experience the different methods they use to reach out to people or educate the public on problems that we are facing. Stephanie and I went out on Imperial Beach and conducted surveys with surfers or other people who had any water contact. The surveys attempted to find out how many people get sick from having direct contact with the water in IB, and what kind of illnesses they had. This information helps train nurses to look for specific symptoms in surfers or people with direct water contact who come in to report these illnesses; it also trains them to treat these illnesses. I found that this internship is all about communicating to the public the dangers that our environment as well as people face. My mentor Ben is already very good at doing this and with this internship my communication skills are getting better because we are sent out into the field to talk to people we have never seen before and we just have to go for it. You may not know the person but the information that we have could be very valuable to them.


Through surveys we conducted on the beaches in Tijuana, we found that of people do not know where to recycle plastic bottles. Through conducting surveys like these we find out how much the public knows about the problem or solutions to the problem. Many people don’t even know where to recycle their plastic bottles in Tijuana, and if they don’t recycle these bottles the problem will continue. Like My mentor Ben says, “Our ocean and environment have no borders”, they border fence will not keep things from Mexico coming into San Diego. The Border Patrol is not sitting around waiting to collect every piece of trash that crosses over, the ocean and anything that travels through it cannot be stopped or boarded out with this fence it is shared all around.

The two countries need to work together in solving this problem, because they are both affected by it. Mexico does not have the resources needed to establish a recycling system in their country, but we do have those resources here in California. The governments from both sides need to work together and help each other out; it is not benefiting one place more than the other because it is needed by both. First we will start of with educating the people, then we will ask for their help, WiLDCOAST is non-profit so a lot of people who help are volunteers. With many people being aware of the problems the better the chance is to fix it. The US has enough resources to help others, which in turn is we are actually helping ourselves. Working hand in hand to take care of this problem which is affecting the health of the environment, the wildlife, and the public.

Honors blog FDR!

FDR became president in some very hard times the The Great Depression was something that he had to deal with in his time in office. Not an easy task for anyone let alone a president. FDR and his administration had a lot on their hands they ,had to do a lot of planning on what they were going to do in order to change the status of the country. Banks were crashing many, many people lost their jobs and they could barely get any money for them and their family to survive. Coming into this FDR knew his was in for a challenge, he made a promise coming into presidency according to the nation of Nations FDR says. " I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people..". He had to prove that once he had become president, the challenge was going to be great with, "more than 12 million unemployed, 30 banks a week failing, factories idle, farms on the auction block, and prices plummeting..." according to Nation of Nations , he was in for a big one. Through this New Deal FDR was able to do many thing to change the economic system, help the people, and the prevention of future depressions.

FDR had to work fast on getting the economic system back up. The very next day after his inauguration he closed all of the nations banks for four days called the "bank holiday". He wanted to reform the economic crisis the nation was in. The government became involved with the banks under FDR's presidency. The banks that were doing ok would reopen with government support, the banks that were having trouble would be handed over, " to the federal conservators, who would guide them to solvency." So basically the government was becoming more involved with the handling of money, they did not want this to happen again. The financial reforms gave the government more authority to manage the currency and regulate the exchange of stocks transactions. The Glass-Steagall Banking act created federal insurance for banks deposits " up to 2,500". Under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) fewer banks failed for the rest of the decade. FDR and his administration had to make plans and this one worked it helped all of the failing banks, Th FDIC was a great thing that was made through the New deal. Now he just had to find ways to better the state of the rest of the problems.

FDR was able to save the banks and the financial markets but this was of no help the the people who were suffering because they could not find a job anywhere. At first FDR and the government were basically giving things away to the people through FERA, (Federal Emergency Relief Administration). Then he felt that instead of just giving things away he could create jobs for the people, the "Civil Works Administration (CWA) employed 4 million Americans." That program was to costly so FDR disbanded it in 1934 . Many other work relief programs were then created, to give many of the unemployed Americans jobs. Another example would be the CCC ( Civilian Conservation Corps). This program gave them jobs to basically conserve the youth, it took unmarried 18-25 year olds, to do work int he woods ,and fields, they would have to ,"plant trees, build parks, and fight soil erosion." This program gave 2.5 million young men jobs. This was a great advance to help relieve the unemployed. in the year 1935 the Social Security act was passed to help the elderly, poor, the infirm, and dependent children. It was liek a "new social contract" between the people and the government, they would get insurance in the work place, and the unemployed would get pension, if they had lost their job. There were many programs that were developed in the time FDR was president in order to make things right in the nation and for the nation, he also planned ahead making things that would hep now and in the future so that this would not happen again.

Some of the things that FDR and his administration had come up with were meant to prevent the another depression. The FDIC gave insurance to the people who deposited their money into the banks. This would help not only the people but also the economy neither of them would loose the money because the deposit was insured. The Securities Exchange act (1934) "established a new federal agency, the securities and exchange commission" would over see the stock. The Social Security gave the people a great amount of help and these are some things that are still here today, helping when we need it. These acts were very well thought out they help the people and the economy.

FDR and his administration came up with he New Deal to establish some order into the nation. With the New Deal the government got to play a bigger role, " according to the Nation Of Nations, "it made lasting reforms in the nation's economic system and committed the federal government to a more active role in managing the ups and downs of the business cycle." The government became more involved in the business world and they had more control over the management of the currency. The New Deal brought many new programs into the nation, many of which fell through after some time, a lot of them were effective but "The welfare state had limits, most of the relief measures were designed to last no longer than the crisis." according to the Nation Of Nations. Even thought a lot of the programs did no last they did help the nation in a hard time, and some of these programs are still here today like the FDIC, FCIC, FHA, and also social security. FDR and his administration where able to help the country then and keep it going into the future they left their mark, and if you know about he New deal you can see what it still does today.


Sources:

Davidson, James West, Brian Delay, William E Gienapp, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark H Lytle, and Michael B Stoff. Nation of Nations, Volume 2: Since 1865. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2007.