WEX - Spring Break

My fingers glided across the small key pad and the words showed up immediately. Before I was able to press send, my phone suddenly broke out into a vibration. "New message," it read. Immediately the screen changed to reveal that the text was from Jasmine who'd just got back from South America. My reaction to the text truly left me dumbfounded. I felt a warm feeling rush through my veins as if I'd been sitting in front of a warm fire with my feet being toasted. The text read: "I MISS YOU SOOO MUCH TOO! seriously, I was analyzing our friendship and I realized that you are a great friend... one of the best, so sorry if I treat you like shiz sometimes." My eyes began to water as I'd never been this emotional. I had best friends before but all of them turned out to be shallow girls who don't really give a crud about you. Jasmine is an amazing person with so much integrity. Although she may not come across like it, she is the most trustworthy and decent woman I have ever met. If she tells you that she is your friend you can bet that she will have your back no matter what. It really pisses me off how all these other girls think that she is promiscuous just because she is full chested. They're just hating because they're jealous of Jasmine who is hilarious, kind, compassionate, trustworthy, and polite. They wish they could be friends with her. Not only is she beautiful on the outside, but on the inside as well... and that's rare to find now-a-days. In a world full of fake girls, she is real. Thank God for that.

WEX - Judging

It was that really annoying girl in the other class who every time we ever had a field trip I ALWAYS ended up in the same car as her. It was the girl who would always sit next to me when we had STAR testing since our last names were so close. It was that girl who had the annoying colored yellow and green neon braces who would always flash a huge dorky smile when she would get a better grade then me on the most recent math test. This was Katie who I hated so much. Not because she had ever been mean to me, or called me names or hurt me like the other kids, but because something about the way she looked bothered me. Without knowing it at the time (in the 6th grade), this was also the girl who would end up being the absolute best friend I ever had. Ironically, I've never met somebody with a personality more similar to mine... ever. Imagine a girl version of me and that's my best friend, Katie!

WEX: First Kiss

"Teehee," sounds of 11-year-old giggling were everywhere. I re-adjusted my position as I felt comfortable sitting around with all my girl friends playing truth or dare since that was a normal occurrence. I lifted up my palm from the wet dew on the grass we were sitting on. My palm was drenched, but not from the grass... from my sweat. We were sitting in the courtyard of her condo complex next to the trickling water fountain which was usually relaxing but not now. I was scared of the person I was sitting directly across from. I tried to avoid direct eye contact since her appearance was so intimidating. She was a big-bad 7th grader, she was tall, tan, had a big 'chest', and worst of all, an evil devilish smile. They called her Jasmine Thomas.

"Um... Jasmine! I dare you to kiss Dominic," Pia, Jasmine's sister shouted. Immediately my whole body froze up like a dead fish in a freezer. My 11-year-old figure began quaking like a leaf. She flashed that evil smile of hers and got up from her side of the circle. She approached me menacingly like a lion about to prey on a helpless little animal. I tried to escape, but then I felt my friends holding me down! There was no escape! I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt a wet, slobbery kiss on the lips for what was in actuality, a second, but felt like an hour. So that was my first kiss: me being held down as some stranger planted a huge kiss on me!

Cooking Blog

PROCESS

Finally as the LULS project draws to a close, we finally get to enjoy the fruit of our labor: the herbs. In order to explain exactly how I got a cayenne pepper from the vine to a plate, I must first start from the process of harvesting. After researching how to harvest, I discovered that they should be harvested when they turn red (mine were green at the time), and to cut them with scissors directly above the pepper.

The recipe I chose was a 3 Cheese Macaroni pasta. This recipe required many ingredients, most of them similar to the traditional macaroni pasta. The element that gave it the extra kick was organic, homegrown Cayenne Pepper. The recipe ordered for the Cayenne Pepper to be sliced into small pieces. These pieces would then be poured into a sauce consisting mainly of milk, cheese, and butter. I feel that the Cayenne Pepper definitely complemented the cheese and gave it an extra flavor to really push this recipe over the top in terms of flavor!

*****

WONDER

During the LULS project, I think that growing an herb garden was a very important part of the theme of sustainability because if we tell others to live sustainably, then we must do something as a class to live sustainably as well. Growing an herb garden is a simple and fun way to live sustainably without even knowing it. With the knowledge we learned about plants we can go on for the rest of our lives and bring that knowledge into our homes so we can continue to live sustainably. Cooking our herbs just shows how living sustainably can also benefit you! You help save the environment and you can eat yummy herbs too!

After finishing the LULS project, I feel that this final activity really addresses the essential questions of the LULS project because we live more sustainably by growing our own herbs instead of buying them from Henry's or Vons. We are teaching others to live sustainably by showing how we grow herbs and cook them on our blogs so that people all around the world can learn from us.

*****

REFLECTION

Overall I had fun baking with my herbs. But if I'm being honest, my meal tasted horrible! I must have done something horribly wrong with the sauce because when I took it off the stove and combined it with the Penne paste, the sauce became like glue! And on top of that, it was really bitter and disgusting...

Honestly, I don't really feel that growing herbs has changed my thing thinking in any ways because although it was a cool experience, it's not something I can see myself doing. Gardening has never been something I've been interested it so I haven't really done any critical thinking about this whole gardening thing. I think in the future I will find alternate ways of living more sustainably that appeal more to my kind of personality.

TIB

After reading many different genres of TIBs (This I Believe) Essays, I finally found one that really struck me the first time I read it. This essay showed how sometimes foriveing and forgetting isn't always that easy. That is definitely something that has always been true for me, so I was inspired by reading this essay.

Recipies

From the Simple Recipes blog I found a great Cilantro recipe, that I would like to do.

Also, from the pioneer woman's blog, some good 'ol chili!

Recipies

http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/22660/black-bean-soup.html

Black Bean Soup

http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/12517/mexican-popcorn.html

Mexican Popcorn!

http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/16288/pesto-cheesecake.html

Cheesecake

Sustainability Visit

Transcript:

Q: What is your name and role here at the Farmers Market?

A: I'm Jamie, and I'm a vendor.

Q: Why do you choose to sell here at this farmers market?

A: Because I can get good business and have customers that come here every Sunday who always buy my food. 

Q: When did you first start coming here?

A: About a month and a half ago. I used to go to the Farmers Market in Hillcrest on Sundays, but I wasn't getting the same amount of business I usually do. I tried La Jolla, and it worked out.

Q: Do you garden at home? Why or why not?

A: Haha, I guess so. It's my buisness...

Q: How did you find out about this place?

A: I was looking to relocate and one of the people at another farmers market suggest I try here.

Q: What would be go advice to get other to do what you do?

A: I think people need to realize that when they shop here, they get amazing food for a good price compared to the supermarket. Also, they help others in their own community.

When I visited the farmers market, it was just about the way I expected it to be. I was surprised, though, because not only was there people selling food, but also people selling crafts and household decorations, like a craft fair.

I don't think I'll support these farmers market because I bought and apple from the person I interviewed, and not only was it expensive, but it was sour. Seriously, it tasted horrible and it was a rip off.

These locations fit into our essential question because farmers markets are sustainable since they support the local farmers. Instead of supporting farmers over seas, we decrease the dependance on other countries. Also, we can help show people how farmers markets can help our sustainability.

Ecological Intelligence

1. Basically, what ecological intelligence is knowing what the impact of you everyday decisions are on the environment.

2. This relates the question 'Why don't people live more sustainably?' because people may not live sustainably because they do not know how to. If somebody doesn't have any ecological intelligence, then they can't really live sustainably. After reading this article, it seems to me that even the people that think they are living sustainably really are not. I believe that people really need to open their eyes to see what they are actually doing to the planet and analyze each of their actions to see if it really is an environmentally friendly move.

3. I believe that I don't really have that high of ecological intelligence. I believe that I really need to learn to live more sustainably. Even though I may not be very well educated, I do believe that I display some ecological intelligence. An example is that when I leave my room I always shut off the lights because I understand that when I waste power by leaving lights on, not only does it affect my power bill, but the coal mines all the way in Africa where the coal was mined that was used to burn to make the power, was just increase because of what I did. I realize that leaving my lights on doesn't only affect me, but the rest of the world as well.

Data Analysis

1. After looking at this data I was very surprised about many things here. First of all, why is it that 90 percent of people actually admit to leaving home electronics and appliances on? When you think about it, that means that so much energy could be conserved if that 90 percent of people would just turn off their appliances and electronics. If they're not being used, why do they need to be on? Anther thing that shocked me was that approximately 33 percent (the majority) said that they actually used their electronics and appliances two to three hours a day, but then over half of the people said that they leave them on for 2-3 hours a day. This means that people are using their appliance/electronics for the same amount of time that they are just leaving them on! This truly amazed me.

2. I was very surprised about the result that a lot more people than I would've thought actually invest in energy saving electronics and appliances. I wasn't expecting near as much as one third of the people actually doing that. I know that it's not a lot, but going out and replacing a refrigerator or a computer with an energy star computer or refrigerator is a really big deal. I think this shows that people are actually becoming aware of what is happening to the environment. 

3. I had a lot of expectation, some were met and others were not. For example, I thought that people would have a lot more than just 2-3 electronics/appliances that they frequently leave on. I thought the number would be a lot bigger, more like 5 or 6. Also, I didn't think near as much people would have invested in energy saving electronics/appliances but they actually did. The other thing that didn't meet my expectations was the fact that people would leave things on for the same amount of time that they use them.  I wasn't surprised to see so many people leaving on their appliances/electronics even though it was a very large number.

4. After analyzing this evidence, I feel the appropriate angle to approach this in is to make people use their common sense. I think that once we show people how stupid it is to have all of the things in their home on when it's not being used as for the same time that they actually use it. Once people realize this, they'll understand how dumb that is, which will cause them to change their ways.

The Dervae Family

After watching a documentary on the Dervae family, my mind has really been opened up to what people can do to live more sustainibly even if they live in the middle of the city. It really struck me that somebody living in a place as urban as LA can maintain such organic foods and be able to provide for themselves. This family's wants vs needs are way different then mine probably. For one thing, and food items can be taken off the needs list because they can grow all of their own food. Also, it mentioned in the documentary that they use alternate means of transportation which would eliminiate an cars and car maintenence of the list. This video ties into what we are reading on Ishmael because this is an example of a family who's food is not under lock and key because they grow it themselves. Also it is a great inspirational example of how such a simple famly can live so sustainibly.

Ishmael Questions - March 2, 2009

"anthropomorphism"

1. The representation of the Deity, or of a polytheistic deity, under a human form, or with human attributes and affections.

2. The ascription of human characteristics to things not human.

I think that Ishmael is saying that people mark their territory, except instead of doing it the way that animals do it, he thinks we do it by purchasing things and then using them. An example of this would be buying clothes and then wearing them, or buying a house and then living in it. It really isn't ours, but because we purchased it, we believe it is our teritory to defend.

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2a. Ishmael thinks that Erratic Retaliation is kind of like what goes around comes around. He basically thinks that if you are going to do things that'll piss another tribe off, then you should expect the tribe to do the same to you.

2b. Ishmael thinks that it keeps the peace because almost everybody agrees to it, and it was the only thing left they had to try, which ended up working.

2c. The reason that the Cawks to just annihilate eachother is because it is againts Erratic Retaliation. Also, if they went againts Erratic Retaliation, then all the tribes would think that they don't have to follow it either, and everybody would just completely go into a huge war and kill eachother.

Ishmael Answers

1. Ishmael has two general rules on how to identify our 'culture' people. One of them is that humans keep all food under lock and key. Ishmael talks about this in the parable of the dancers and how one tribe kept their food under lock and key. The other rule that Ismael has is that humans always think that they are flawed and that they are doing stuff wrong. I agree that people all over the world are part of the same culture because I believe that we are all humans come from God and that we all are part of the same family.

2. I still do agree with Ishmael that humans are inherently flawed. I think that the dancers are a perfect example of this because how they were doing perfectly and then they got lazy which messed up the entire culture.

3. The takers and the leavers are a culture on another plant where the more that they danced, the more the food that they got. Then, they realized that the could dance in a certain way to get the food that they like. After a while, they get lazy and some of them didn't dance while others did. The leaders decided to keep the food under lock and key then. Takers and leavers represent agriculture and the dancers represents people that don't stay in one area and keep moving.

Teenagers and Sustainability

1. I believe that living sustainably means that you are able to live your normal life, but not use an excessive amount of electricity, or use a lot of hairspray, or other things that are harmful to our environment. To me, living sustainably means that you are cautious and conservative in the way that you use power, fuel, and other natural resources. An example of this would be turning off lights in a room when you are not there. This saves otherwise wasted power and keeps your energy bill down!

2. As a 14 year old, I believe that in society I have a lot of freedom, but not many people trust people my age. I think that I have a lot of freedom with my parents because I am old enough to make my own decisions because I have matured to that point. But I think that generally society does not trust teenagers, especially younger ones. It seems that most people just view them a load, hyper, and rude. 

3. I believe that as a 14 year old, I can live my live a lot more sustainably than I already am. Although I may not be able to drive or own my house, I think there are simple methods that I can use to be more sustainable. Some ways are turning the lights off in my room when I am not there. Also, I always leave my computer turned on (which uses a lot of power), and when I am not using it I can turn it off or at least put it on sleep.

Semester 2 Goals

1. I feel that I am different now than from the beginning of school because now I have a better understanding of how to organize your work time when you are working in a project. I learned this from my use of task lists on the Time Travelers Project. This really helped me and my group plan out what we were going to do over the course of that day.

2. I think a very important skill that you must have for succeeding in humanities is being able to understand and analyze what you are reading. I had trouble doing this for the last book we read (Gates of Fire) and when it came time to study for the test I had trouble figuring out what to do.

3. One thing I would like to improve on this semester is turning in all my homework (even the little things) on time. I am going to do this by immediately putting the assignment in the front of my binder once it is passed out, and that way when I get home I will do the homework first thing.

4. One topic I am really curious about is Medieval times. I would really like to study this because I don't have that much prior knowledge on it and I would like to study it more in depth.