WEX blog post

First piece: Exhausted

It was the first day of X-block (in high school) so I was kind of excited. So during X-block all the students in the x-block walked down to a park about 6 block away from the school, not to tiring. As soon as we get there we are told to get into lines, and once we where we ran drills repeatedly. All of which involved running at your best. Sure it was really fun but the human body has it's limits. With the last few minutes we played a little scrimmage. Which involved quite a bit more running, then Chris tells us "if they score this whole team gives me 25 push-ups." My team didn't defend our end zone and we ended up having to do 25 push ups. At the end I had to carry back a 25 pound bag full along with my stuff (which at the time added up to about 10 pounds). The lack of energy didn't make me behave any differently however my body was taking a sway in one direction every time I took a step, and my arms swung along with the direction that my legs moved. The sleep that night was amazing.

Second piece
"Kevin shut up, I am trying to help you but you keep making me laugh." I said still laughing. "If you're not going to be serious go copy Dimitri's." 

"okay fine" Kevin responded.  He presented his P.O.L in front of me one more time but constantly keeping popping a dirty joke every now and then during the several practice rounds we went through.  I saw no problem with it because it relived all his tension, best get those out now instead of during his P.O.L  During the practice rounds I kept hearing 6th graders running down the hall past the office we where practicing in I turned towards the blinds and just listened to the incoherent yelling.  I turned back around, and heard Kevin in a serious tone starting from the top.  He tried again, we giggled every now and then during that round but in the end he did really good, then came my turn.

Third piece

The penguin looked around with shifty eyes, for it was in a pickle.  The secret undercover penguin was looking around and was surrounded by Tiny Tony Waffles' mutant ninja monkeys.  Using his quick thinking skills he waited for the monkeys to charge and pour syrup all over the floor.  When the monkeys slipped he belly slided away.  He had overcome that obstacle but it was not over for him, he still needed to destroy the famed waffle-copter to prevent Tony's escape.  Using his penguin ninja skills and 50 pounds of dynamite he blew up the waffle-copter.  The second it exploded he busted down the door and help up his WPA badge (world pancake association).  Unfortunately for the penguin there Tony stood along with his MNMs (mutant ninja monkeys) and the penguin was all out of syrup, he would have to think quick.  A split second later Johnny Pancake comes in through a window and shoves a pancake in Tony's face and sent him flying out a window, and he went "SPLAT" as he went down 1 billion stories.  

Cooking post

Well today after school we got together to make guacamole as a final product of the L.U.L.S project. The whole point of making some kind of recipe was basically to try and make ourselves live even a bit more sustainably by growing just a tiny bit of our total food supply. So basically by doing this we answer one of the essential questions of this project. "Why don't people live more sustainably?", basically because they generally don't feel like taking the time to do something to help themselves and much rather take the way that everyone else does it, or they don't feel like growing their own food. As for the second question, "how can we convince them to do so?" if we can show that we can do this (as 14 year olds) than adults can certainly do it, and it just takes a few minutes to prepare it. Most people won't do something unless they know someone else can do it.

In this recipe it called for two herbs, cilantro (which was plentiful) and cayenne peppers. There is no 'one' right way to harvest the peppers but it is mainly meant for different recipes, basically we used the peppers in their green state which after many searches over the Internet says that is when they are spiciest but they are mainly picked at the point in which they turn red to make salsa. As to why we chose this recipe, mostly because it did not require a lot of time, it was simple, and it tasted good! The process of how we actually created it is unknown to me because I had to run down to the store to buy chips to eat the guacamole with.

In the end (or when I got there) it tasted pretty good. One of the biggest things I would have changed is actually brought chips so that I wouldn't have to have ran and missed out on the process of making our guacamole. That is probably the only thing I would have changed. As to how I think, it did not really change much because I already have some of my food grown at home so I did not really expect any change.

The links below provide links to pictures (since they where to big to fit on the page)

This I believe

http://thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=5&lastname=Gates&firstname=Bill%20&yval=0&start=0

I didn't chose this one because I'm big on computers or anything like that, mostly just because some of the things said in here I really agree with.  Especially this quote from his essay "I believe that the death of a child in Africa is no less poignant or tragic than the death of a child anywhere else. And that it doesn't take much to make an immense difference in these children's lives." I personally believe that every single life on this planet has just as much right to be cared for, nurtured and have chance to live as the next one.  I also liked the connection he made between his optimism and creativty.  It just spoke to me as a happy person you seem to invision more for your self and others giving you a goal or somthing big to go after later in life.  

Food blog post

Here are a few recipies I thought looked good click below to see them

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/cowboy-nachos/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/the_best_chocol/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/05/how_to_cook_a_s/ 

3 herb recipes

1. Spicy Cilantro dip-basically just a dipping sauce for chips etc.

2. Seviche- basically seafood cooked in lemon juice, sometimes served with certain vegtables depending on who made it

3. Tacos- basically spciy tacos we are going to try and make

pictures (in the same order from above)

1

Sustainability Visit

Interview Transcript

Question: What is your name here and do you serve any particular role in this market?

Answer:My name is Sylvia, and I my role here is selling what I grow at a ranch that people have set aside for us to

grow our food

Question two: Why do you choose to garden your own food?

Well I chose to because it is a nice advantage to grow your own food and my whole family enjoys growing vegetables and

agriculture so we decided to put that to good use.

Question three: When did you first start working here?

Answer: About a year ago

Question four: Do you garden all this food at home, why or why not?

Aside from the ranch I do grow some of my food at home

Question five: How did you find out about this particular place?

Answer: Well the people that manage us move us around so I learned about it when I was moved here

Question six: What would be your advice to get others to do what you want?

Answer: I don't have any

Blog Assignment

What struck you about the location you visited?  Was it what you expected, or very different?

 

What struck you about the location you visited?  Was it what you expected, or very different?

 

Well the very first thing that caught my eye was that I expected it to be at least inside of a building but instead it was a group of tents with food out in front it was a very un-expected look or at least not what I had anticipated.

 

Do you think you will go to a CSA/Farmer's market more often?

 

At the moment I don't have a definite answer but I would probably say that I would

It is just the feel of being there and plus everything tastes better there (I bought a few things while I was there)

 

How do these locations fit into our essential questions of "why don't people live more

sustainably" and "How can I convince them to do so"?

 

I guess the locations fit into the first question because these people growing their own food are taking a few steps to living more sustainably and in a way seem more like the opposite of the question. Seeing as how these people work for their food I would say the reason some people don't live sustainably  is because they are simply lazy, that is just guess and only a possibility.  As for the second question I would say explain the positives of growing your own food, that way some people might start doing it, once again it is only a possibility, other than that I do see one more thing.  Maybe these places might inspire to encourage to people to start living even a bit more sustainably watching people make a few bucks of what they grow (sometimes money is all that drives people).

Ecological Intelligence

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884776,00.html

What is Ecological Intelligence?

Ecological Intelligence is basically trying to figure out whether something is as good for the environment as is portrayed in commercials and companies.  Trying to see how helpful it actually is.  As revealed in the article not everything is as 'green' as it may look.  The transportation for everything that is needed to make it, or the chemicals for the dye are harmful for the water and other aspects of the environment.  It means to try out best to meet our needs with out harming the planet.  

How does this article relate to the essential questions of the project?

Well the first essential question is "Why don't people live more sustainably?" and this really relates to the article.  People don't live more sustainably in my opinion because they don't know they aren't living as sustainably as they may think they are.  The resources used to make these 'green' products use many more hurtful resources than those green products will ever be able to cancel out.  Also because some people might not know what to do in order to help or how to access organizations or people that could help.   

The second question is "How can we convince them to do so?" and in the article it gives a pretty good idea on how to do so.  The article stated that people re-act to problems when they see what is happening and it's effects on a certain object/place etc.  So if we some how got people to see what they are doing to the rest of the planet maybe they could see what their impact is and what these green products are actually doing.  

How high is your ecological intelligence? Give an example of ecological intelligence in your life?

My ecological intelligence is not that high.  Many of the things that are bought for me are not really very green and fail to even fall under the category.  However there are a few things at home that are at least to some extent helping with living sustainably.  We grow a small portion (very small) of food our selves and although it might not be much its a small step towards something greater.