Best Practices for Propogation

If you plan on starting a seed:
If you are using one of the small cell trays fill the amount of cells up with soil depending on how much seeds you plan on starting. Once you fill up the amount of cells with soil you shake the entire tray so the soil settles and there is no big air bubbles. If the soil is dry it is not always best to water from the top, you can fill the bottom tray with water till its about half full then lay the cell's tray inside the tray containing water. Also before planting your seeds, read the back of the seed package for instructions on seed spacing and depth in the soil. Then wait and watch your plant come to life within no time!

John's BFF

Some interesting things he talked about in class today was how he actually goes to fast food resturaunts and asks for their grease, and how his van traveled 60,000 miles on biofuels! Some things i wish that could happen are that the biofuels company in SD could go public and more people in California could switch to alternate fuels. Its a lot more efficient because the grease is going to be thrown out anyway! He really gave me a good incite in class today and I cant wait till we can start applying this stuff to our projects or our class, such as using the biofuel generator at exhibition. Thanks John for bringin him into class!

What I'll Be Growing

Me and Stephanie are going to grow a pumpkin for our stop motion project.

Senior project Interests

I am interested in 7) climate and autmosphere. I don't want to just be taught that humans are the reason for the climate change or that they are the maiun cause because I have found threw recent studies otherwise and have doubts about how much the human contribution is to the climate change. Is this just a natural course that Earth goes threw every 100,000 years or is humans progressing the climate change?
I am also interested in 2) energy and think I can base my senior project on it. Everything needs energy, including bugs to do everyday tasks, wind and cars, etc.. What I would like to do is record energy in use, in other words record the sounds of San Diego and make a music track out of those sounds.

Initial Plant Research

1. Aloe Vera:

I would like to grow an aloe plant because of they have been widely used as natural medicines. Since I have personal interests in becoming a doctor I wanted to be able to create some kind of jell or cream from my plant that can be used for things such as cuts, scrapes, or maybe even rashes. I think some of the family aloe’s have a very unique shape to them and would be nice to use in the mini nature photography project also.

The aloe vera is a succulent plant.

They are extremely frost tender and are grown In warm climates.

It is best to plant aloes in a pot and place where direct sunlight hits. It was difficult fin ding an exact duration of how long it takes to grow but it can fill a good sized pot over the summer season. It seems reasonable from what I’ve read.

Having its own pot seems to be the correct way to grow them, gravel is recommended to put at the bottom of the pot to ensure drainage of all fluids in the soil because the plant flourishes in drier conditions because the plant is 95% water itself. A few pots may be needed to ensure I have enough to make a good portion of the cream/medicine for exhibition.

The plant does not require to be watered every day, it should be watered when its soil surrounding the plant is completely dry. The soil should be moderately fertile and fast draining. 10-40-10 may be the NPK ratio for the fertilizer that is used in the soil.

The aloe vera is also known as the medicinal aloe and it is a species of succulent plants that originated in Northern Africa.

2.Venus Fly Trap:

The venus fly trap very much interests me because of how it looks, certain characteristics about the plant such as being able to eat insects, and it will present me with a small challenge in growing it throughout this project because of the care that is needed when growing it.

Is a carnivorous plant.

Should be grown from May through October and/or kept in 70-95 degrees F.

May be a good idea not to grow from seed, but I have heard from a few different sources that they grow fairly quickly.

A large pot is required to plant a good sized venus fly trap.

Just peat moss for drainage, but the soil must be kept moist at all times. The plant should also not be kept in direct sun light and is good to keep in an area with insects.

Feeding a Venus fly trap hamburger is fatal because of the fat content.

The Natural World

I have always been curious about the human anatomy and would enjoy learning about it in E.S. this year. Also going into the evolution of humans relating the human anatomy would be very interesting. I plan on using my curiosity for the human anatomy and my plant research to make an aloe vera plant and create a cream of some sort that could be used on dry skin, rashes, and possibly cuts.
My curiosity for the human anatomy was fueled ever since I learned about the very basics in grammar school, such as a humans vital organs.

Magazine Reflection

Throughout the process of writing and rewriting my article for the ampersand magazine I learned how important it was to do an in depth and precise look at each sentence for any piece of writing. For example I read through my article sentence by sentence and looked for specific mistakes such as how to use nouns and verbs effectively, making your writing a concert, not a pancakes, and also avoiding sledgehammer words.
In my opinion my first draft was too similar to my original photo essay. What I decided to do, while still in the process of perfecting my article, was to shorten my photo essay and go more in depth on some of the subjects I discussed. Some of the many issues I had when developing my final piece of writing was having everything connect. For example, I was trying to state specific things that did not change such as the emblem on the Naval Training Center Comman Center (NTCCC), but I had not mentioned anything similar to this in the thesis or introduction for that matter. And besides that the major factor why I believe my article was at a high quality piece of writing was because the fact we went over our articles sentence by sentence almost everyday and continued to improve on them constantly.

In this reflection, you can cover (but are not required to do all of):

* Writing

* Editing

* Drafting & Revision

* Layout & Design

* Photography

* Creativity & Originality

* The printing & publishing process & industry

* Your own thoughts about your path beyond 11th grade (and beyond HTHMA... that's what internship is about, right?)

* American society

* The American economy

* History & social studies

* And much much more!!!!

What did you learn?

How did you learn it?

Why is this important?

This should be posted as a blog entry by the end of the school day on Monday 6/1

Obama and Socialism

Some of the articles that I got when I searched "Obama Socialism" on google were mainly about the controversy of Obama being a Socialist. I got similar results when I searched Obama Socialism in google news, Steele urged to label Obama a Socialist, an article I read was about the same controversy. Why Obama's socialism matters gives reasonable evidence why he could be considered a socialist in the past, but I believe that a large majority of his polocies and proposals can not be classified as socialist. Most of his proposals and policies also can beclassified as a precedent act, since he is the president of the United States.

Photo Essay

1. NTC (Naval Training Camp) was initially a boot camp for Navy recruits. It was built in the 1940’s and not till recently the buildings have been refurbished. The area is known for its historic landmarks and the event venues, owned by NTC Promenade, that were previously the buildings used for the Naval Training Camp. Special events are planned and held at many of the buildings, and more buildings are currently being refurbished because most of the historic buildings
2. The NTCCC (Naval Training Camp Command Center) is on of the most historic buildings located at NTC Promenade in my opinion because of its features and former use. Well the name says it all, it was used as a command center for the Naval Training Camp, most meetings were held there and meetings are still held there today. Inside of the building there is many different displays that talk about what the building was originally for and some of the items on display were things used by the Navy recruits. The logo outside is especially important because it is the only feature of the building that has not been refurbished, it is the original logo.

3. Quarters A was first used as a house for high ranking officers in the Navy, but has been changed into one of the office locations for the NTC Promenade staff. There is similar displays in this building that are similar to the displays in The NTC Command Center, most of them being maps, pictures and paintings, and some being of no historic value such as brochures or handouts. This gives you an idea how much NTC has really changed into something new. I also believe that the view San Diego from Quarters A shows a lot of change because the city was probably not as big 70 years ago.

4. NTC Promenade is full of historic landmarks, many of which I haven’t learned about. This statue still stands, but seems to be falling apart, but has probably been there for over 50 years. The small monuments around NTC Promenade caught my attention because it shows how dedicated the people are who are working for the NTC Foundation are in safekeeping the landmarks and monuments at NTC Promenade.

5. It has been a pleasure interning here and not only because of the healthy working environment, but I can sometimes stop to admire some of the historical landmarks and monuments around NTC Promenade and inside the office.

What I'm Bringing to the Magazine

1. What article(s) would you like to write for the magazine? What photography could you contribute? Art? List three different ideas for your major contribution. I'm not much of a photographer or an artist so I would like to write an article either about my personal internship experience, or how going to internship differs from immersion, and I could possibly write about social networking.

2. Suggest at least one (or more) possible title for the magazine. This could be a title with or without a subtitle. For example, I work for UnBoxed: a Journal of Adult Learning in Schools. HTHMA: Internship experience

3. Suggest a topic for an article that you were personally like to read in a magazine inspired by the internship semester. I would want to read something with humor incorporated into it.