Raising Digital Awareness

When building a website or blog, there are many things you should consider as to the amount and quality of content. What makes one so appealing is its purpose and value it serves. Websites enjoy traffic because that is how they get their product, which is viewers. They feel that the viewers are looking for something, so it is important that they view your site because you want them to see your ideas. As for my blog, I am doing this by providing genuine content that does has some value because it is just that; genuine. There is room for improvement though. I could post more often and with things more personal, with more insight to general ideas. I feel that human interaction is the most important thing because that is the fundamental purpose of the internet, and blogs themselves. Make your blog your own creation, and the traffic will take care of itself.

Literature Analysis #3

Splinter Cell "Fallout" by Tom Clancy
1. The novel starts out with Sam Fisher, a spy, doing training in San Francisco. He is then called in to travel to Maryland because his brother, Peter, was found barely alive, riddled with a deadly disease caused by a Plutonium Hydride chemical. Obviously an assassination, he is now fueled by vengeance as he must now stop a Islamic Fundamentalist and North Korean plan to eliminate the West, by destroying its oil supply with a strain of petroleum eating fungus.

Masterpiece Test

To prove my worthiness in my masterpiece field, I will need to demonstrate my knowledge of the fundamental purposes of my fields, not necessarily the technical items, but why they are so important, showing I have what it takes to be worthy of pursuing it. Experts prove their worthiness by their beliefs. They express what they believe through what they do. They are a role model by both what they say and do. A test that I need to pass would be one where I can prove how I could integrate my interest in child psychology, with Civil Engineering.

Test:
1. How can certain school designs affect how students learn?

2. What is one thing cities are designed around?

3. If you were working at an Engineering firm and you had connections in the schools giving ideas for a future school, would you design it with that in mind, or design it based on cost and personal preference?

Resource of the Day 3/17

Today's resource isn't so much about engineering or psychology, but about a passion of mine. Hiking, but more so, backpacking. A lot of people get these too mixed up but they are fairly different. Hiking implies a day trip, during a camping trip usually as something to do. Backpacking, however, I feel is more intense lasting at least over one night, carrying everything you need over many miles in usually hardly maintained

Resource of the Day 3/15

Here is a complete occupation guide to Civil Engineering from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A new thing I learned from looking at this is that Civil Engineers usually specialize in a few different subjects, but one that stood out was Geo technical Engineering. This is a branch of Civil Engineering that ensures that the very foundation in which projects are supposed to be done is stable and substantial. A very important part of any structure.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/civil-engineers.htm#tab-1

Maybe He Knows What He's Talking About...

Today's (well yesterday) in class essay assignment was a welcomed challenge. I hadn't done a full 2 and a half page essay in 35 minutes in awhile, not since last year when I was prepping for the AP test. I felt that I definitely understood the prompt, and it felt good to finally feel prepared for a test like this. I read the articles and paid attention to the lecture, and I'm glad I did. Typically I just zone out and wait for the period to be over, but it was interesting so I paid attention.

Anyway, I felt that I did fairly well on it overall. I understood the prompt, and how to get it done. Before, I hadn't really seen myself as much of an entrepreneur, especially in regards to my masterpiece topic. When Dr. Preston explained his version of an entrepreneur, it clicked in my head that everyone is in entrepreneur in the exchange of thoughts and experiences that hold value for other people. Now, everything makes a bit more sense. Although I'm still confused as to what exactly he means by a 'project', I now see a bit more value with what he says about everyone having a 'product' to sell.

Resource of the Day 3/11

Today we look at a fusion of my two fields. This is how I could apply civil engineering and design skills to help students in the learning process. Believe it or not, the environment in which a student learns and lives is absolutely influential on their success in the future. This study conducted throughout 2008 tested the effects of three different school designs, each with different methods of lighting, classroom capacity, and hallway traffic systems. I think it is truly interesting that there is a correlation between the effective education of students, and the very structures in which they learn.
http://sdpl.coe.uga.edu/research/TannerResearchAward.pdf

I, Entrepreneur

The expert that I had previously designed the 10 questions for, has no name. I haven't found that one expert that I truly admire and respect. Frankly, I don't really want to have that one amazing idol that makes everyone else look bad. I enjoy diversity. I feel that the entire community of Engineers or Child Psychologists collectively make one sentient being. If i just have that one person, I am only seeing the successes of the things that one person has tried. I want to know the successes of all things tried and put to the test. However, the entire community of either field is filled with entrepreneurs. They are hired because they have a quality that the company needs. Being hired to a firm or starting your own is simple economics; supply and demand. In the real world, an entrepreneur is the supplier, and the public, the demander. Services are exchanged based on need and functionality and the ones that have true value are the ones that stick around. Take Apple for example. It had a very bumpy start and nearly went out of business, why? Because they didn't provide the correct supply of what it was trying to provide. When it finally met the expectations and later surpassed them, it sky rocketed to the computer giant it is today.

Blog Review Disclaimer

To all my classmates viewing my blog tonight, just know that I have a fairly busy schedule so I may not have every post possible, but I assure you my posts are of good quality and my real answers.

10 Questions

Here's a list of 10 questions I would have, should I ever communicate with an expert in my field:
1. Why did you choose this field?
2. How do you value your work aside from a salary?
3. When did you decide that you wanted to do this for a living?
4. How did you make up your mind?
5. What is some advice you would offer a student thinking of pursuing this field?
6. Do you have any regrets?
7. Are you truly passionate about this work?
8. What has inspired you?
9. If you didn't get paid, would you still do this?
10. Are you happy with the daily life this career has influenced?

Resource of the Day 3/4

Todays topic is Civil Engineering and the resource is a project called the Alameda Corridor. It is a 20 mile stretch of freight line connecting the Port LA and the Port of Long Beach consolidating rail traffic. This stimulates the economy because transporting freight by rail is far more efficient than by truck. More can be carried at a cheaper price, getting more goods to their destinations, quickly.

http://www.asce.org/People-and-Projects/Projects/Alameda-Corridor/

Resource of the Day 3/3

Of the few topics I am researching, todays is in regard to Child Psychology and this article comes from a resource recommended by Dr. Preston in an email conversation we had the other day as I was clean out of ideas.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140228160616.htm

This article from the University of Warwick is about the relation between child nightmares and the rate of psychotic traits in children. There obviously must be a relation because they can affect each other creating a snowball effect. The quote that really grabbed my attention was, "... according to new research that shows that children reporting frequent nightmares before the age of 12 were three and a half times more likely to suffer from psychotic experiences in early adolescence." this is an astonishing fact and definitely requires further study in order to find a treatment, improving the lives of the children affected.

My Super 5

Erika Packard: Child Psychology (Expert, wrote article)

Helen L. Fisher: Child Psychology (Expert, wrote article)

Gregg Fiegel: Civil Engineering (Cal Poly Professor)

Yarrow Nelson: Environmental Engineering (Cal Poly Professor)

Alypios Chatziioanou: Transportation Engineering (Cal Poly Professor)

Resource of the Day 3/2

Todays resource will be a career review of a Landscape Architect

http://www.princetonreview.com/careers.aspx?cid=179

Vocab:
Environmental: the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences

Preservation: to keep alive or in existence

Restoration: the act of restoring

Urban: of, pertaining to, or designating a city or town

Survey: to take a general or comprehensive view of something or space

Masterpiece Essay

                                What Is My Piece to Master?