Nature Writing Essay

Many of the characters in The Wild Trees seem to explore things that haven’t been explored. To discover things people didn’t want or would think of doing. In the beginning of the book, Steve Sillett suffered from acrophobia — a fear of heights — so he was at the top of one tree about to do a “leap of faith” onto another. When Steve went to his biology professor in his office and told him how he collected it from the top of Nameless. Also, when Michael Taylor discovered a redwood that was near a busy road, and it never had been noticed. “At the outer limits of biology, on the edge of the possible” was said by Richard Preston is true because of how Steve Sillett and Michael Taylor made the impossible, possible. How they climbed higher heights and deeper depths to show that the things that people wouldn’t dream of doing, Steve and Michael lived it.

Steve Sillett, unlike any other person who suffers from acrophobia, climbs things. Followed by Marwood Harris climbing the younger redwood, he gets to the top of the young redwood. And in order, for him to get to Nameless—the extremely larger redwood—he had to jump on to. Not only was he afraid of heights, and the fact he had to jump after letting go of the young redwood to Nameless, there was yellow-jacket nest the size of a cannonball hanging unnoticeably beneath the branch Steve tried to get to. Some people would think this man is crazy. But he did what no other acrophobic would even think about consider doing. He made the jump without hitting the yellow-jackets nest. But not Marwood; he landed on the branch the nest was on and got stung. Steve proves that no matter what your phobia of is, if you love doing something, you won’t let that get into your way.

After climbing the ever growing Nameless Steve Sillett went to his biology professor, Professor Bert G. Brehm, in his office showed him what he collected, and how he collected it. Surprised and disturbed by his findings and how he found it, professor Brehm wanted to warn him of the dangers he put himself in when performing those tasks. Steve who was very fond of redwoods was very confident on what he did. Interested in examining what Steve brought—which were lichens—they grabbed a hand book on lichens, and found out that it’s a kind of Icelandic lichen most common in California, but no had ever found it at the top of a redwood. By Steve climbing Nameless, he discovered what may have taken over 50-100 years maybe to discover. He also discovered that the different species of lichens weren’t unknown, but the fact that they grew in redwood tress was unknown.

Michael Taylor would hike through different rain forest to try and to discover the world’s tallest tree. As he continued his search, he kept finding taller and taller redwoods than the previous one he thought was the tallest one. He even had a reoccurring dream of him finding the Ultimate Tree, but when he started to measure the angle to the top of the tree, he couldn’t see the top; so then the dream slowly fades away. Although he kept having a depressing dream of him not being able to measure the Ultimate Tree, he continued to search for it. He came to find out that when he found an extremely large redwood tree, it was surrounded by larger redwoods. By noticing this, he started exploring different rain forests for the Ultimate Tree. It wasn’t just some ordinary grove he went to it was something extraordinary.


The Wild Trees is an exciting and thrilling book, full of discoveries that people experienced. Richard Preston’s reference to the Wild Trees was very true because of the way his characters in his book strive to know more about these huge trees. Because many of his characters climbed redwoods even in life threatening situations, he was able to show how this book is living “at the outer limits of biology, on the edge of the possible. The people who thought the things these characters were doing was impossible, they were shown that the impossible has been done, Steve and many of the other characters in the book were literally on the edge of the impossible. The things we would never do to climb a redwood, Richard Preston shows you in this story. In conclusion, I now clearly see how the Wild Trees is referred to as living “at the outer limits of biology, on the edge of the possible” by Richard Preston.

The Great Gatsby!

In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the American dream is portrayed by Gatsby. Jay Gatsby falls in love with Daisy Buchanan but Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan. Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle is married to George Wilson. The story of The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway who is fond of Jordan Baker. The American dream is portrayed by Gatsby because the amount of money he had and how he liked to throw parties when ever he wants. Affairs happening a lot with Gatsby. He seemed like this perfect person, who always threw parties that people went to from different places far away. Tom is an alcoholic and abuses his mistress, Myrtle. Daisy married the wrong person, and she loves someone else now. The Great Gatsby is not the American dream.

In the second chapter of the book there was a dinner party that Tom, Myrtle, Nick, Catherine, Jordan, and Mr. McKee are in at Catherine’s apartment. First it starts out well and everything is going fine. Until things turn violent and they started to drink. Myrtle started to yell Daisy’s name many times; Tom reacted to this by slapping her face and broke her nose. This party started as an ideal American party and it is perfect in everyway. But soon afterwards the party is not a good party because of the over drinking and violence. This does not portray the American dream because no one would want to go to a party where people fought and there was violence.

Gatsby is the ideal idol for the American Dream because he is perfect in everyway. Gatsby has a lot of money and and always had huge parties that everyone in town goes to. In the beginning of the book Gatsby starts out as a mysterious and questionable person. But as you get deeper in to the book you start doubting him. Everything Gatsby does is fake; his entire identity was created when he turned the age of 18. He starts out by changing his name from Jimmy Gatz to Jay Gatsby and lied about where his family was from. Gatsby was was said to be known as a bootlegger. In the end they find out that he was really a bootlegger.

Gatsby as you know has a lot of money and is popular. But the reason why Gatsby did this was to impress Daisy. He throws a lot of wild parties just for Daisy. Gatsby has a big obsession over Daisy. He spennt most of his nights looking at the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock which is just across the bay from his mansion. Gatsby wants Nick to arrange a reunion between him and Daisy; so that Gatsby can be with Daisy. Daisy went to Nick's house where Gatsby is also there. Not long after Gatsby and Daisy’s love redeemed itself they begin an affair with one another. Gatsby takes the blame for the car that killed Myrtle. He thought that he wouldn't get in trouble for it. But George put everything together and figured it all out. Gatsby was swimming in the pool at his mansion when George finds him and shoots him. Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was corrupted because he was not honest to anyone and because of his money. The American dream of happiness was deminished and ruined for The Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby started off as a book that everything and everybody is person and Gatsby has a lot of money. He has a lot of elaborate parties to try and get Daisy back. Tom is violent and breaks myrtles nose. Gatsby is fake ad has lied about this entire identity Gatsby tryes to woe daisy and get her back so that he can be happy with her again. The Great Gatsby does not represent the american dream and can never reach it.

More Current Events

Environmental Current Events

Your MSB Organizations

Gatsby! Ch. 1 - 4

Ch. 1

-

Ch. 2

Ch. 3

Ch. 4

Beginning The Great Gatsby

1. Who is the narrator? Describe his perspective, biases, character traits, etc.

- Nick Carraway is the narrator of the story. He seems on the shy side of things and his biases are against Tom because he talks about him like he's some sort of player mean type of dude who's really cocky and rich.

2. What do you think F. Scott Fitzgerald accomplishes by choosing this specific narrator versus another choice, such as a different character or 3rd person?

- I feel like he chooses someone who isn't directly involved in the situations, but someone who is always there overlooking/ or observing these things and then has there own opinion on those things too. He's sort of using a 3rd person view and a 1st person view all in one.

Critique a Professional Example

Newspaper's and MSB!

MSB people, groups, & orgs!

http://www.sdbaykeeper.org/

I would like to interview the Executive Director and/or the Outreach Director. I would like to interview them because I want to know how well the projects and events they have are effecting our beaches in a positive way. Also, find out how they monitor water levels and if they do anything different than how we did the water monitoring in our biology class.

MSB comments, ideas, plans, critiques, and more!

From Marcus' MSB Questions and Resources, I realized that he is already wanting to do the picture part because of less chances for errors. I learned that his questions are almost going to answer each other in a row because his first question is about littering affecting humans. next one is about the quality of the beach is affected by runoffs. And what can we do to help and its like he has to problems that could possibly have the same solution. I thought about doing pictures and the little captions on the side but i feel that it wouldn't be my biggest strength for this project. I want to do a documentary where you get out and get it basicly straight from the source almost and get peoples opinions and experts thought on these conditions we are in. I might change my mind and do the pictures because I know how to take quality looking photos and so there might that option.

http://maalexander.blogspot.com/


Hallie's questions are very interesting because not only is she expanding on her different things to do for her project but she varies it by like animals to gires to housing. She pretty much seems like she knows what she is going to do for her video and so i think I can Get some ideas from her during the project also.

http://halliechavis.blogspot.com/

From Daniel Mahmud's

Possible MSB Products

1.
I could do a website about the sewage spill. I could also interview people and have some quotes from them that are vital to the website. Talk about the ups and downs on the spill, too.

2.
http://www.surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/sf-oil-spill/

3.
I learned that you can show people with more than just writing and words, you can also use pictures and other things that add more emotion sort of to my website.


1.
I possibly could do a documentary on the sewage spill effects and what effects it has on the community and environment both good and bad.

2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLdkgZlEBQI

3.
Show examples of what people in and out of the community are doing to help. Get opinions or general thoughts of the public who visit that certain place or who are employed there. Elaborate or talk more about what should happen or what we should do to make sure this never becomes an issue again.

MSB Questions & Resources

1.
What things are being done with this pollution problem at the bay?

2.
How are people contributing to this?
What solutions are people using to slow the flow of pollution?
Why is it that they have a huge sewage pipe that leads right by where people and animals swim at?

3.
http://obrag.org/?p=9459
http://obrag.org/?p=9397
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-06-29/news/local-county-news/san-diego-coastal/ocean-beach-sewage-spill-prompts-pollution-alert

4.
I can use this info to talk about what people did as soon as they saw the sewage spill. I can also talk about how it affected the people and community when they set up they sign saying that the water was contaminated.

Industrializations and Coastal Environments

Industrializations and Coastal Environments

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is issuing a final rule to ensure that safe and reliable drinking water is provided to aircraft passengers and crew......

1.

the EPA is issuing that the drinkable water for passengers on the aircraft would be supplied with safe, and reliable water to consume. It provides protection through coliform sampling, public notifications, and monitoring and operative training.

2.

The information that is missed in the story is the reason why they want to make this movement to make the drinking water for aircraft passengers reliable and safe. Everybody wants clean drinkable water but whats the real reason why they chose to do this?

3.

I would make an effort to try and look at their website and any other source on this topic to figure out the reason why they chose to make a huge jump to do this.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/41c2dde98f8ae1ee85257647004c601d!OpenDocument

Media Saves the Beach Questions

1. How come our water is very polluted, but other countries around the world have cleaner oceans?
- what made me think of this is how in class we were talking about how dirty beaches are in San Diego, so i thought about the beaches around the country. Then i thought about how when you see, here, or read about other countries, mostly its about there like beaches and resorts and stuff.

2. Is there more than one Gire?
- i came up with this question by just simply thinking of the different bodies of oceans, and i thought well if the Pacific Ocean has one, does that mean that the other bodies of oceans do?

3. How did they know how big it was?
- since they said that at one point the gire was to be the size of Texas, years later it was to be the size of the United States. but I still dont see how they knew that. Did they like see trash the surface of the water and went from there and found that there were microscopic particles underneath it? Did they get some samples of the sand from and find it then they started make an estimate of how big it was?

Confederates in the Attic Essay

Confederates in the Attic

           

In the excerpt “Dying for Dixie” author Tony Horwitz quotes David Westerman, father of murder victim Michael Westerman, who says “They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like it’s still going on.”  War is still going on in the south, because of your job, where you work at, or who you work for.  Also, because of your ethnic group or ethnicity.  But mostly, how your ancestors were treated or how their views and ideas were passed onto you.  Therefore, that quote by David Westerman about war is still going on in the south is still very true.

           

In the south, there was a large amount of animosity when our parents and their parents grew up.  For example, in “Dying for Dixie”, Tony Horwitz, went into a town called Guthrie.  While he stayed there, he went to a hotel and the manager there told him about the time when a group of young African American boys paid money to go in the pool.  “It was like we sent an electrical charge through the water.” “As soon as the blacks got in, all the whites got out.”  The whites demanded that Eskridge tell the blacks to leave.  Her response was “kiss my grits”.  She was standing up because she didn’t want to discriminate against those young men but the whites didn’t like the way she ran the pool, so in result she ends up filling the pool full of dirt.  She did not want it become a scene of racial strife (conflict).

           

If you worked at a Christian church back then, and you were white, then you were assumed to be a white supremacist, being in the KKK.  Like in the excerpt, Tony Horwitz, the author, saw a man and a woman passing out propaganda, and the propaganda said “The only Reason You are White! Today is Because Your Ancestors Practiced & Believed in Segregation YESTERDAY!” then the second one said “I WANT YOU FOR THE ALMIGHTY KU KLUX KLAN!” Clearly this shows how back then when their ancestors were slave owners or white supremacists they past it on down to their children and so on.  Even looking at that headline proves that this statement is true that being a certain ethnicity/religion and where you work prove that you are apart of some cult or some gang or group of people.

 

When you are just a child and you hear your parents say something, which catches your attention, you start to say it.  Even though you don’t have a clue about what it means, if it’s a good thing to say or if it’s offensive you say it.  Just like when you see your parents doing something.  Like when in the story, Hannah Westerman, the murder victim, went home after court and went to watch the Oprah show. Her twins came in and one of them wore a rebel-flag shirt saying: ‘American by Birth, Rebel by the Grace of God.’  It seems like she is sending her children the wrong message.  Her child wore a rebel-flag shirt but sat there and watched the Oprah show.  See those are the types of things that get carried down through generations, but every generation loses a piece to the puzzle.  Believing in a certain thing or fighting for something that they don’t even know the whole entire truth about it.  Which causing more unanswered questions which results in more chaos.  This is exactly why there is still a lot of controversy and animosity in the south.

 

So as you can see in the excerpt “Dying for Dixie” author Tony Horwitz quotes David Westerman, father of murder victim Michael Westerman, who says “They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like it’s still going on.”  That statement is very true because of your job title, where you work at, or who you work for. Also, your ethnic group or ethnicity, even though you should be able to be judged by your character, not by the contents of your outer appearance.  Also, the main point is that, how your were treated or how their views and ideas were passed onto you.  It’s a hard burden for others who are affected by this on-going war because they don’t get to see what really is going on.  They just know what their parents tell them.  Nobody knows the real truth, unless you were there when it started and you have experienced it, because there will always be some sort of vital key information that wasn’t what they wanted to say so they left it out.  Therefore, the war is still going on in the south.

 

What's the Deal with Reconstruction?

- Reconstruction was a time after the civil war where the United States was in a financial struggle because the cost of the war was so great. The Unites States had to recover and reform back from the serious blow they took after the war. A good thing that came out was the Freedman's Bureau because it tried to help with African American's rights thus led to the establishment of the 15th amendment that allowed the blacks to have a right to vote. One bad thing that happened was when reconstruction was going on in the south, and it's still happening today. The south never reformed, which causes them to not have as good of an education, wealth, or land and/or property as everyone else. Since it never recovered, there is a lot of animosity going on with racism in those southern states. Hate crimes are still being committed. For example, on Sept. 12, 2009 a 51- year old Census field worker and teacher was hanged with the word "fed" on his chest:

"The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. An autopsy report is pending.

Investigators have said little about the case. FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to confirm or discuss any details about the crime scene."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbzG_BlkG2Hfc818EPRRn1bBlP6gD9ATASJ00

Media Saves the Beach in the News

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/29/bn29spill-closes-beach/

- There was a report of an estimated 13,000 gallons of raw untreated sewage dumped into dog beach. It was only until the next day when they posted signs saying that the water was contaminated and was off limtis. You can get more information by clicking on the link above, or any newcasting website. It was perfect timing for this to happen. It was a good thing and a bad thing because on the good side it was perfect timing since we were testing the water that day which one help our results tremendously. On the down side, it was bad also because of the people who go to the beach almost daily and surf, hang out, relax, get a tan, and mostly the dogs who love playing in the water. It ties into our work for Media Saves the Beach because we will be testing various beaches water contaminents and see how dirty or clean the water is. When we tested the water it was pretty bad affecting not just see life but affecting people who love the beach.

Media Saves the Beach

For media saves the beach I was thinking about the clams and oysters that wash up in the ocean. How this pollution and garbage effect them from becoming fully grown. Aside from being eaten by the seagulls and pelicans. Another idea I had was finding out why the birds swim so close to shore. Is it because of the trash? Is it because people who go to the beach have food, or is it because they just like being close to shore. The content that interests me was the one where you go out and actually do things like Jessica Matthew's project. I might create a project where we try to figure out why the birds stay so close to the shore? I wonder if it's because of the contamination thats in the water effecting their food supply thus which forces them to move to another food source which is the sun bathers.

American Icons Final Product

Will Smith (Fresh Prince)

I remember watching a fresh prince episode where Will kept getting in trouble. As I was watching that episode I kept putting myself in his position and it fitted my real life situations a little too well. That’s how I see Will Smith (Fresh Prince). Everyone just doesn’t understand us. As I was dazed into the show, I actually feel like I’m Fresh Prince.

I call the house and they don’t know that I’m driving in the company Porsche that Uncle Phil’s friend gave to me when he gave me the job. Carlton answers the phone and he and everyone else thought that I wouldn’t be able to get the high executive job on the top floor with my own office. Well as I still feel like I’m Fresh Prince, I parked in the drive way and Carlton crumples paper up in the phone to make as if it was my new cellular phone (also compliments from the company). I walk in and he doesn’t believe that I was successful, so he walks outside turns the corner and sees… the company Porsche!

Everyone is impressed with me now that I got the job. I felt really proud of myself, then I come back to reality; realized that it wasn’t real and I smiled because I knew what I had to do to make my family proud of me and Will Smith is the perfect icon because I proved that he was capable of what he did even when the odds were against him.

So what comes next for me? Will I be able to attain my goals? Will I be able to achieve the future I want when people say it’s not possible? Well all I know is, is with the help of some relatives and friends and teachers; I will use the talents I have and ones that they help me achieve, I will hopefully be the next Will Smith

American Icons Reflection part 1

- I discovered that there were some parts of my writing that I never knew were so good. and then there were other parts where were to bland, like i was following a persuasive essay rubric. In my writing, I started it off to jump into it so once the reader read the first sentence, it would be more likely that they will want to read more. It made my writing a lot more in-depth and deep with less reading for the reader which I have never done before. It helped also because it was more meaningful when I read it and it left me wanting more. If I had one more draft I would probably make it more complex because of the audience that read it. I would have used different words that made it sound and look more professional than it had. here a sentence that stood out the most to me... " As I was watching that episode I kept putting myself in his position and it fitted my real life situations a little too well." This stood out to me the most because it was the breaking point that brought me into the entire paper and it also stood out to me because it seems like a really good way to begin my paper and it gives the reader a good idea of what this is paper is about.

Photography Techniques

Rule Of Thirds
The rule of thirds I think is the basic for all professional photos and any other photos. Me using the rule of thirds would be a great advantage because I can use the focal points that your eyes go to immediately. like in the picture above when you look at it your eyes go directly to the upper right intersection where the bee's eye is at.



Posed Portraits
I'm going to use the posed portraits technique because I feel like if I were to do a one that has me doing something in motion then it would make me look like really doing it. I'm using this technique because I know that my and my person can do the posed portraits thing really well.






Vignetting
I want to do vignetting because it always seemed like a really cool technique. But I don't want to make the really heavy look of vignetting, I want to make very light for this photo almost unnoticeable. Almost like the example shown to the right but lighter.

Artist Statements & Critiques

Critique Summary
The feedback that I got for my artist statements was that i had some really strong paragraphs in my paper. Others told me to read it over myself and see if it sounded right and flowed to me; when I read it over, there were quite a few of unnecessary punctuation marks and words that screwed up the flow and had nothing to do with the paper. But I really had some good feedback because they would show me the strong paragraphs that I had and then they gave me some ideas that led me to change the way I said certain sentences.
Plans/Goals/Ideas
Now that I have a base to start from now I can work on how I will be able to tie it into myself. For example, since my American Icon is Will Smith, I can start off with me watching a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode and then from there I can go deeper and choose the episode and then once I get that part down, I will hopefully have a strong artist statement.

American ICons: Resources

Will Smith- Music...

- In his music, well some of the songs I can relate to because some of the things he talks about is extremely accurate with what I'm going through or is happening at that moment. It will also give me a better understanding of him and how he feels about different aspects in life.

Will Smith- Email, Letters etc...

- I can use his emails adress and contact info to talk to him directly about this project. Also, it will be a great experience to be able to talk to him personally. Or I can contact his Manager or Agent and talk to them about it also.

Will Smith- Movies...

- Movies would be an excellent way for me to get more things from him because he has been in an ample amount of movies and t.v. shows that I can choose from. I will be able to improve my ways of portraying how me and my icon are alike.

American Icons Ideas

Will Smith. West Philadelphia he was born and raised. He started rapping at 12 years old. He got the nickname "Prince" because of how he was able to slide and smooth talk his way out of trouble; eventually into "Fresh Prince" when he hit high school. His rapping career started off when he met Jeff Townes (a.k.a. DJ Jazzy Jeff). He rejected a scholarship from MIT to follow his dream. His biggest idols were Michael Jackson, Malcolm X, Fred Rogers, and Carol O'Connor. his influences were Eddie Murphy and Grandmaster Flash. He and DJ Jazzy Jeff were doing really really well until Will Smith forgot to pay his tax and nearly went bankrupt. Luckily he and DJ Jazzy Jeff came out with another album He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper, the first hip-hop LP to go double-platinum. Then in the late 80's he met Benny Medina who wanted to make a sitcom based on his life from Philly to Beverly Hills called Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It became a hit and lasted for 6 years.

I chose Will Smith because he's one of the greatest actors to ever walk this Earth (in my opinion). Will Smith is a really cool nice person. When I met him at the Kids' Choice Awards about 2-3 years ago, I got to talk to him and be able to hang out with him for a little while before he had to go. He told me, "Follow your dreams and be the best at whatever you do; don't ever let anybody tell you that you can't do it."




I chose Tyler Perry because he too had issues with his dad at one point was homeless. He inspires me because of how he never gave up; he was successful in all of his plays and movies.

I chose Jaleel White also known as steve Urkel is because I can relate to his character. Steve has shown me that you don't have to be afraid to be smart.

Welcome Back To School!

What do you hope to gain from this upcoming junior year.



- This year I hope to gain more self consciousness about my work and projectsbecause last year I was very lasy and would go home and just play video games and all that good stuff. But I wouldn't go home and take time to do the homework. So i started to slip at the end but brought it back together and so that tells me that i really need to start pushing myself to my fullest extent if i want succeed. My overall goals are to keep up on work take all honors classes because I know that I'm more than capable.

What do you hope to learn and what do you hope to develop?

- Another is to not goof off and try to be the funny guy of the class and pay attention more also. Basically those are my main super essential goals for this year. I hope to develop a deeper sense of thoughts and not put barriers on what I learn. I hope to accomplish every challenge that is ahead of me because personallly this is a huge step for me because i have to adjust completely to so many different things, and so I truly believe that I'm ready