Reflection 13

I'm a little late on my post for last week because I was in Colombia for vacation. While over there I wasnt able to draw or practice on my final project for 20% percent but it did give me time to think. I've scheduled the time and gave myself certain check point that ill reach up for my drawing until the 16th. I was also inspired by a lot of the artisans there are in Colombia. All over the place there are artists, singers, craftsman, and a whole bunch of people selling their work. What especially caught my eye were the ones who sold handmade jewelry with intricate designs and metals. After seeing so many different artists I got really excited about my work and about the next project I'll do for the next half of the year

Reflection 13

This week has been Christmas week, and so it has been quite hectic. Also, the past two days my wired internet to my computer has been acting up and dropping connection constantly. However, with all of this going on I have been able to continue my search for the perfect webpage maker to showcase my coding skills. CloudCannon seems like the best webpage maker for me but we'll see.

Reflection 13

Winter vacation is going great. I have so much time on my hands. I have a flatish stomach now. I think by the summer I'm definitely going to reach my goals. I'm going to start preparing for my presentation that's due January. I am going to put together my workouts and a calendar type thing. I hope I can continue my plans. I have been eating a lot though. I hope I don't get lazy. Wish me luck.

Reflection 13

This past week has been way better than the recently passed weeks. I went out multiple times to practice on my freekicks with some friends. I also found a new field to go practice on that is fairly close to my house. I noticed that I can perform the kick pretty well the only thing is the ball does not dip as dramatically as others who perform the kick in videos. I will continue to practice but from now on I will only record the kicks because my final video still lacks clips showing how to do it correctly. Next week I should have at least 3 good kicks on video,

Reflection 12

I knew when I first embarked on this project that it would be difficult, but now more than ever I have been humbled? Shamed? This whole project was nearly impossible from the start, and I have no idea if anything has gone right! The PrintrBot order was moved to two weeks from now! That's after the due date. I'm taking steps back again. I'm currently in the process of making the balsa wood model of a wolf. This is ridiculous. I will create a video compilation of the making of the wolf from start to finish. The balsa wood structure, the resin eyes, the baked clay and painted paws, claws, and jawset, the tail, and the airbrushing on the pelt are the main things I'm getting done at this moment and videotaping. That will be my 20% project. That and all the failures and flukes regarding the 3D modeling process. I've had to redo and take many more measurements for the wood model, which is a lot more troublesome than one would think because there were over forty measurements that I had to manually convert from millimeters (the digital model) to inches and then once again convert it to 3/4 scale for the model. I've traveled all the way to some crafts store near the shore from Linden for balsa wood and glue. I've also traced out all the templates for the torso, neck, shoulder, and thigh. The most electronics you'll probably get, if I happen to have some time left over, will be LEDs for the eyes. All I'm focused on now is GETTING IT ALL DONE.

Reflection 13

Well, the holidays happened. Now, it may be hard to believe, but having twenty-eight people and three dogs under one roof makes concentrating a little more difficult than it would be otherwise. Nevertheless, I did manage to get some work done on the story; not as much as I would have liked (as per usual), but a few pages.
I am not cut out to write narratives. I am still unsure as to why; I greatly enjoy writing ideas and quests for video games, I am a great fan of tabletop role-playing games (and have become proficient in crafting worlds and stories for players in them), I am an avid reader of both fiction and nonfiction... yet I am unable to create stories. I believe the trouble lies in the specifics: I can create a main plot with a multitude of key points, yet I am unable to write "filler" content, or events that take place between those structured intervals. In both thinking of video game plotlines or tabletop RPG ideas, I rely heavily on the interaction of others for said content. In a novel or story, this content needs to be carried out by a person or persons whom the reader has no influence over; as such, these events need to be fully imagined by me. Maybe this stems from my obsession with legends and tales as a child, or my later expeditions into the realm of video games with player-focused content, or perhaps I'm simply writing this sentence to go beyond the 100-word minimum (which I already have, but it never hurts to write too much), but my mind seems to be hardwired to ignore these events altogether and am unable to focus on small details of characters or events.
In any case, I shall continue writing my story over the next week.

Reflection 13

This week, I continued writing the alphabet, and at this point I think I know how to write it. I continued learning some words such as the names of the people in my family, mountain, and movie. I will continue writing these words while also learning other words to write to show during my presentation.

Refelction 12

Finally done, took a while, but im extremely glad on how it finished

Reflection 12

This week I've been drawing a ton, since there's pretty much nothing else to do but sleep.
My progress is fab, if I do say so myself. I've been drawing a lot of faces (male and female), getting better at shading. My free-hand proportions aren't too bad now. Won't be able to draw the beach in pastels because I forgot to bring them (go, me!).
I will attempt to get as much drawing done in the next week as possible because I know I won't have much time when school starts again (midterms are approaching!).
I'll have pictures up with the next reflection.
Stay golden.

Reflection 12

Eh

It's not that i didn't make progress this week, it’s just that I'm a bit frustrated with the chest roll. I've managed to complete each part of the move except the ending. The frustrating thing is that there is nowhere online where I can find how to end the move - I'm completely on my own. I worked on isolations for the most part and I'm getting better at it. I also made a post about "The Elevator" a while ago but I'm trying to make it look better. So my plan for next week is to continue making progress.

Reflection 12

This week, much like the last, was also basically a spawn from the devil. Staying up until 12 to film a condensed version of Shakespeare's longest plays in under 12 minutes and to memorize a full Shakespearean scene? Not a fun time. But anyway, I decided to take a little break from the research and decided to do some baking again with my wonderful girlfriend who came over Saturday to hang out with me and she said she wanted to bake. What a perfect coincidence that I'm doing baking for this, right? So she came over with an assortment of supplies to bake cookies and we went to work. She would measure the flour and etc. and I would crack the eggs because I love cracking eggs. One handed egg cracking can get amusing sometimes when you're extremely bored, take my word for it. And then my baby brother would add in the chocolate chips because we needed an adorable "mascot" to help us cook. I beat the batter but not too much, as I learned in the previous week (I think), then we placed the batter on sheets and baked it. Not without preheating of course. Gotta preheat which I explained in a week that has escaped my memory. Maybe week 9? But anyway, we waited and watched without opening the oven door because that's bad, also explained in the previous week, and instead used a light which has eluded my eyesight until this weekend. After the cookies were done, we took them out, called the family, and ate. I would've taken a picture but I forgot and we sort of finished them on the spot. We're a large family and I love me a good cookie. I enjoyed myself and spent a very fun afternoon baking with my girl, and was able to eat cookies so needless to say, I'm a happy camper. Have a great break everyone! B)

Reflection 11

Well. I am completely confident this week was birthed directly from Satan himself because wow I was busy and put to work with school. But hey, its finally over so I am quite relieved, yet extremely exhausted. I decided to maybe "take things easy" for this week's research and to simply look up a list of common errors that are made in the kitchen because my mind is quite fried from this week and I couldn't think of anything else. Wow I must sound angsty. Anyway, I found a fairly applicable list and was able to read through with ease, understanding the practicality of each mistake and what to do when making said mistake. Moving past the simple mistakes like not taking the measurements to the exact amount or using expired or out of season ingredients, I was able to find a few nuggets of information that I was able to deem useful and interesting in at least my perspective. One was how you shouldn't open the oven to check how your cookies or cake is baking. This is a big one for me because I do this very often and apparently, this greatly releases the heat within the oven (obviously but I didn't know it was that big of a deal before) and will mess up the cooking greatly. Another was that there may be "heat spots" in your oven. This may over bake certain cookies while leaving others unbaked or leave a portion of your cake burnt and another still batter-y. Cool stuff.

Reflection 10

This week was pretty darn easy in terms of school work. Not too much on my plate so I was able to actually sit and have time to think about a topic that would more interest me and would be more applicable to my baking skills. So, this week I decided to research on how to make a nice and soft cookie because in my humble opinion, those are the ones that people crave for with the melted chocolate and how the cookie breaks away without having to make a snapping noise that can be heard halfway to Kansas. But that's just my humble opinion. Anyway, I researched about the science or at least some Q&A's about soft cookies and came across a nice website to give me a couple of smart ideas. Firstly, addressing a large problem of mine, I was able to find a solution to a large problem of mine, which is that the cookies would be slightly burnt at the bottom and not so golden on the top. Apparently, because I have a conventional oven, the heat comes from the bottom and doesn't circulate well enough to cook the entirety of the cookie evenly. The simple solution provided for this by the website was to bake the cookies in a higher rack in the oven. Easy enough solution for a big problem. The other fact that I found particularly interesting is that you should slightly under cook the cookies to make them moist. Though that may sound bad, the website explained in a logical way on how it works. To keep the moisture, you should under cook it and then take the cookies out. Even after under cooking slightly, the hot pan will continue to cook the cookies while on the pan which will do sufficiently to cook the rest of the cookie perfectly. Neat stuff.

Reflection 10

This week, I decided to play around more with the meta tags and html portion of the base theme. I know I wanted to add more links to the sidebar (because nothing sucks more than not having enough links in your sidebar for various pages) so I added another one through the html and also the meta tags so that the users can assign whatever url they want to that link. At this point, it seems that a lot of my work is going to have to be done over winter break. Which I don't mind since I don't do much over winter break anyways. I think I may also change my base theme again because as nice as the one I'm using now is, I need to find one that allows me to make easier changes to and also looks closer to what I want. Since I will be at home and therefore will have no restrictions in the pages I can visit, I will most certainly spend some time searching for a new one and working on that one (I really need to stop being nit-picky) but hopefully somewhere will come together by the time we start school again.

Reflection 11, taylor

This week I worked on frying chicken. I learned that you can only fry chicken in certain oils. Those oils including canola, peanut, sunflower, and corn. Temperature is another important key to frying. Most foods should be fried at 375 degrees. Most importantly, I realized the importance of not standing too close. I actually got burned on my chest because oil splattered on me. This often happens when I try frying pork bacon. It was a rough experience because I never knew when they were actually done. Some pieces were burnt while some were not done completely. Eventually I got the hang of it. Frying food is not one of my favorites and I do not plan on doing it often. However it was a good experience to practice because its apart of the soul food dish and I absolutely love soul food. Next week I plan to go back to baking and will try frying again when I become more comfortable.

Reflection 11

Mickey and I weren't able to cook this week, but my mom made paleo ginger snaps--kind of like gingerbread cookies. In my opinion, they did not turn out that great, but they weren't bad. They called for blackstrap molasses, which I think was the problem. Blackstrap molasses tastes like licorice (i'm convinced that's what is used to make licorice, too), so it added an unexpected flavor to the cookies.

They were made with almond flour and almond coconut milk and sweetened with honey and blackstrap molasses. This makes it paleo. It lowers the glycemic index because these are not refined sugars. While it has good fats and protein, it is not the kind of thing you can gorge on; it's still a cookie. I'm trying to find a different recipe or modify it to make my own so I can make gingerbread cookies for the holidays.

Reflection #9

This week, Phoebe and I weren't able to meet up because of the holiday weekend. Instead, I decided to go a different route and focus on the food that my mother prepared for thanksgiving. Unfortunately, she didn't focus on paleo food. I helped my mother make the turkey. First we buttered it up and let it sit n that for a couple of days. The day before thanksgiving my mother decided to season it, however, she used a special ingredient. She used apple juice and honey to cover it up .i KNOW that may seem odd but it made the turkey very soft and tender. The skin was golden and tasted very good. To top it off, she added some spicy seasoning to match the sweetness of the honey and orange juice (this was seasoned the night before). In the morning my mother put the turkey in the oven for about 4 hours on 500 F. What I learned by this experience, was that honey and sweeteners can be used to soften the meat and make it softer. A difficulty we endured was picking out the best spices to complement the sweetness..

Weekly Reflection

This week for 20% I searched the internet for holiday paleo recipes to get in the Christmas spirit! I love the holiday, including holiday treats, but as I've learned throughout the past few weeks, there is a clean substitution for everything! I made a list of a few recipes I found online that ties into the holiday season and am excited to test out over break. Just like regular food, some recipes are less appealing to my taste buds than others yet other people might find them to be great, so regardless of my opinion I will still post them. I have continued to research effective ways to control and manage stress. Stress will continue to have affiliation with health and diet so it is important to also be aware of the effects it has.

Reflection 11

This week for my 20% project has been a slow one. I had so much homework to do and couldn't practice all day due to an English. So overall I would say nothing has changed. Juggling is all about practice and I need to practice more. The presentations are less than a month so I need to get it mastered soon. I am very confident because over break I'll have a lot of free time so I can practice. I believe I can get it within the next two weeks over break. Then I can focus on the final presentation, which will be way better if I can actually juggle!

Reflection 11

So apparently all of my teachers are plotting against me. They have all (really, all) given me projects due today, so I've been quite busy this past week and haven't gotten much drawing done. I plan to get so so much done over break, as I will be down the shore and I have only one paper to write. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll draw the beach with pastels-- I've worked with them before and I'm not too bad. So expect pictures within the next week and a half. I'll be posting everything, or at least everything decent, in my sketchbook. Feel free to laugh until you cry. I am also going to try to convince my younger brother to let me draw him again. It didn't go too well last time, but I've improved greatly so I really want to give it a try. Maybe I can draw my cat too?? That'd be pretty cool...
Well, I hope your week will be fabulous. Stay golden.

Also, shout out to Aidan, a friend of mine whom recommended a great band to me that is perfect in every way and is excellent for getting me in the mood (to draw, of course). Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESAHQRm8POA .

Weekly Journal 11

December 22, 2014

This week on December 22, 2014, I began my twenty percent time by reviewing the words from prior lists starting from “day” all the way to “pain”. After, I began to practice signing common phrases used in ASL. I learned eight out of fifteen phrases this week: “What is your name?” “Are you deaf?” “Can you hear me?” “What city do you live in?” “Where do you work?” “How old are you?” “Are you hungry?” and “Do you like to cook?” I learned two different versions of “What is your name?” and of “What city do you live in?” Beginning to practice and learn these eight common phrases is very important because I can use them if I ever come to meet a person who cannot hear. Although these questions may seem quite simple, they have the potential of going a long way in a conversation. As a beginner, I am only learning conversation starters for now and see where I can go from there. A pattern that I noticed this week is that for certain phrases, theres more than one way of communicating to another person what you want to say. Also, I noticed that when you are signing something in ASL, it will not be word for word. Each of the eight phrases do not have literal, word-for-word signings. For example, “What is your name?” is actually just signed as “You name?” I believe that this week I have done well and I was much more excited about it (more than usual) because I was and still am, making the little that I have learned into something greater. Next week I plan to continue revieweing the first 100 basic words in ASL and finish learning the fifteen phrases found on this website: https://www.udemy.com/blog/sign-language-phrases/

Reflection 11

This week I learned something about myself while fixing the mess I made. I learned that I'm better at figuring stuff out on my own rather than following instructions. I did exactly what google said to do on how to continue knitting with different yarn, and completely ruined my scarf last week. Then I decided to just fix it myself with no help from outside sources and somehow managed to get it looking right. Over winter break I plan to work on this a lot even though I have so much to do. I'll try to find time to finish this. I always think I'll have a lot of time and I always get excited when I plan to work on my scarf a lot, but there's always so many other things that need to get done.

I think I'll be able to get it done. I'm halfway there, and now it'll be easier to continue this because I don't have to worry about running out of yarn. Although, I am worried about how I'm going to tie it off so it doesn't unravel.

Reflection 12

Ahh! The end of the second marking period is coming up and I've yet to decide on a song to perform officially. I practice a lot of songs just little bits and pieces of them, but not all at once. Would it be too late for Christmas songs? I've been practicing Disney songs a lot and they're easily recognizable so that's a possibility. This coming break I will start delving into really practicing for the performance since I have a lot more time. That way I have no classes to worry about nor AHA day, which is coming up tomorrow. 

I'm still improving on tone and position, but those things improve gradually. Also, I believe my California friend is coming back for winter break, so maybe he can help me improve more. If not, then I'll ask my other friend who plays viola to really improve my playing. 

In addition, my sister is back too, so maybe we could be doing some piano/violin duets? How cute would that be, right?

Reflection 12

This week was absolutely great. I went to the gym everyday during co and dragged Leslye with me. We work really together and it's just fun having a friend go with you. I still haven't been sleeping well  on the weekdays, but I have been eating correctly. However I don't drink enough water. I always forget to bring my water bottle to school. I think I can fix that by putting my water bottle by the door so I can just easily grab it when I'm about to leave.

Reflection 12

This week did not go as planned.  Due to our grade's dance appreciation class my time, as well as the actors' time, was restricted.  Almost everyday during co-curricular we had to practice for dance.  We were only able to film one scene the entire week.  It really set back our production, but we can still work it out.  There is enough time to film all the scenes in school and edit it before the deadline.  Even with this setback I am determined to finish filming soon.

Reflection 11

This week for 20% was a very uneventful and rather slow week. There were many different things going on this week such as tests and quizzes as well as two projects so it was a rough week. I ended up not really doing anything this week for 20% time, and, we also ended up not having 20% in class time so I could not get anything done there either. I apologize for this and will make up for it next week. Also, could some please just comment what reflection should be this upcoming week because i currently don't know if i have missed one.

Reflection 10

I missed Friday's class time doing Speakeasy. Speakeasies were underground bars in the 1920's during the prohibition era, and in history class, everyone picks a famous person from the 1920's and dresses up like that person. We spend the whole morning in character acting like our famous person, and people all across campus are welcome to see us. This was an incredible acting experience for me. I was able to practice staying in character in an unusual environment. My friends and classmates interacted with me normally, but I had to keep acting like my character. What I learned from this was mostly improv skills. I had to carry out unscripted conversations with people and answer whatever questions they threw at me. Of course, I had done research beforehand, but it was still a challenge that helped me grow as an actor.

Reflection 12

With the good old trick of copying and pasting (with a bit of modifying), I finished the script for the boss! Now that's left is to revise a lot of things (balancing issues, the visuals, animation, etc.). Also, I need a beta tester (the alpha tester is myself) to check the game out! I will get some testers if I could find a way to import the game out of the software. Beta testers, as I have learned, are people who test out the game and report bugs and other issues for the programmers to fix.

Also, I have thought up of a name for this game! From now on, call this game Arole's Role I can't think of titles Slime Extermination  (title pending).

Here's the boss.

Reflection 12

This week I pushed myself during my free periods, and after school in the little time that I had.I noticed that the amount of weight I can apply onto my legs has increased. I recently signed up for this program to enhance my vertical from someone who did the same task. It took him
around 4 months which is the same amount of time we had to work on this project and everything he did or done I tried to emulate. I'm hoping the final push I make in the next week will be enough to achieve my goal

reflection 12

Over the weekend, I took a few shots of me doing the tricks i have learned so far. There are many videos in which you can clearly see that i am still struggling. I think those would be great for the final video in my presentation to see how far along i have come. The holidays are coming up and i am hoping to keep myself going and practicing during these times so i keep making progress.

Reflection 12

This week I finally wrote the whole alphabet perfectly, without a mistake. I also learned a few words that I would write when presenting. My mom wrote the words and I tried to see what it was before writing it. I copied the words while saying it. I will continue doing this next week as well.

Reflection 12

Have you ever had those moments when you realize that you have dug yourself into a situation you can no longer escape from? I am beginning to feel that way about my 20% Project; it occurs to me that staying with this topic was a dreadful idea, given my lack of creativity, and that I should have changed topics all those weeks ago when I had the chance. Given time and inspiration, I may be able to finish this story, but I have lost most of my drive and ambition to do so; if this was not being graded, I would have either abandoned the project or viewed this as a hobby rather than a requirement, thus allowing me to work in peace and without the feeling of being judged. In either case, I would not be in this predicament where I sit in this foxhole of pointless self-pity, stupidity, and regret while the ceaseless barrage of shells that is the 20% due date draws ever closer to where I huddle (See what I mean by "lack of creativity"? That was a terrible metaphor, rough unrefined as a freshly mined diamond... not to imply that my work could ever be considered as valuable as said hypothetical gemstone.).  It saddens me that the time necessary to amend this will require most of winter break. All in all, I've done some work on the story, but not anything worth sharing. I will continue to work on this assignment, writing the main story of the novel and hopefully accomplishing much more than the little I pessimistically foresee myself finishing.

Reflection 12

This week was not as good as last week because I barely had a chance to practice my knuckle ball. Now that the temperatures are getting colder and soccer season for highschools is done there are not as many fields to practice on anymore. Also the temperatures are getting a whole lot colder. I know what I need to practice with my kicks I just need to apply it so I can get a few more good clips for my final video. The ones I currently have are not a great representation of the knuckle ball's dip so I hope this next week I can find a nice net to practice with before its starts to snow. During my class time as always I watched some videos but at this point I think I am going to start to edit my videos during this time.This next week should be better hopefully since I will have the break.

Reflection 12

So I finally finished my drawing of Walter White using pencil. This is my first real portrait drawing and I learned a lot of what I need to improve on from this first drawing. For starters his eyes aren't proportional to the rest of his head and the shading on his beard doesn't have the right lighting. After seeing all the pros and cons to my drawing I'm so much more focused on getting the next time almost perfect and then hopefully I can be able to draw it on a bigger canvas. If i compare my drawings from the beginning of this project to up until now I feel I've improved not only in techniques but in creating ideas. I can look at a picture try and draw it but also add some of my own character to bring it some life. I know that even after the project is finished I'm going to continue drawing and I'm glad I decided to pick drawing because I found something I feel I'm good at and actually love to do.

Reflection 12

This week I have finally gotten to constructing a website. I feel like my coding skills are enough to make a simple website with the help of a websites proprietary website making methods as well. I am deciding whether to use CloudCannon or Silex. Silex I think focuses more on pure coding langauge, while CloudCannon has its own text editors and simpler templates. Both are pretty simple website makers that use DropBox to host the webpage instead of an actual domain and address. An actual domain would cost money which I do not have available. So far, the process is going pretty smooth and I think I can definitely make a good website to show off what I have learned. Here is what I have so far.

Reflection #12

This week I began to learn the second part of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." While neither the first nor second part is perfect, I am absolutely progressing. I'm slightly disappointed that I haven't been able to finish the song before the holidays, but I would rather take my time to do the song as best I can instead of half-heartedly learning another song. My chord transitions are still a little too slow for me, the only way to improve them is constant practice. This week was important because I am continuing to practice the song I will use for the actual presentation, so every chord practiced is essential. When I began to practice the second part of the song, I noticed it was a little easier to get used to than the first part: this is probably due to my increased comfort with the guitar. I am not near perfection, but I am trying my best and will continue to do so. I'm taking pride in the fact that I'm learning this instrument, so if my song for the class isn't absolutely flawless, I won't lose sleep. I know this means that I might not achieve my original goal of perfecting a challenging song, but in no way do I feel like this represents failure. I'm still taking long strides towards learning the instrument! Next week I will continue to practice "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Until then!

Reflection 11

Multitasking

         I think it’s time I faced the fact that I’m wasting time on this chest roll. I’ve literally been doing this for about a month now; I’m going to start multitasking. I’m wasting too much time on this one move and I haven’t even completed it yet. I’m not abandoning this endeavor completely – I’m just going to start simultaneously learning other moves. Progress on the chest roll is already pretty slow so I don’t expect it to get much slower. The move isn’t too difficult. The lack of progress is most likely directly related to my lack of practice. This week I practiced a little more than last week but it still isn’t enough. For next week, I’ll start learning another move (maybe even complete it).