Paper Reflection

I think the biggest strength of my paper is the information about the different energy sources.  I had the best AP Enviro teacher in the county, probably even the state so I was able to utilize what I learned in that class on this paper.

The formatting got messed up when I opened my .odt document on Dirac's computers, so that could definitely use some fixing.  I could have focused more on the anti-advertisement, but I think my paper is more effective the way it is.

Keep in mind that a lot of the information in this essay is stuff that I've learned in my Enviro class.

Class Blogger Reflection

I tried to focus on what we did in class that day and to further what we were talking about, images.  I included images in my post because that's what we talked about in class.  Being class blogger did nothing to change my perspective of the classroom.

post secret thing

1.  I knew exactly what I wanted my secret to be so I opened up the first magazine I took and looked for an ad that was appropriate.  I found the perfect one.

2.  I guess my audience is the class.  Part of the reason I shared this secret is so that everyone can have a good laugh.

3.  My secret directly affected my choices in finding an ad.  I knew exactly what I was looking for.

Peer Review Review

I definitely like the way peer review went today.  It helps to be critiqued on stuff that you've already written to see how well you're presenting your ideas, but it also helps a lot to have your ideas/draft critiqued as a whole.  Sometimes you can get lost while trying to put words down on a rough draft, it's nice to have it critiqued by an outsider who has no involvement in the draft.

Surfing wipeout

I began surfing about six years ago.  Almost every year since then has involved a trip to Nicaragua with my dad and brother.  As we progressed in surfing we moved further up the coast of Nicaragua; the further North you go the less people there are, but the quality of the waves increase.  About two years ago we were staying at a prime surf spot in Nicaragua.  We were also staying there at the prime time, a huge swell was moving in and the waves were getting big.  The waves were so big one afternoon that the normal crowd of about 30 or 40 had gone in and the only people in the water were two older surfers on semi-guns(longer boards used to surf bigger waves).  I was on the fence about going in as I was hungry and tired, but a seemingly perfect wave rolled through so I got out there.  The paddle out was surprisingly easy as I completely avoided most of the waves.  As I sat in the lineup I realized why nobody was surfing.  The waves were significantly bigger and gnarlier than they appeared, there was also so much water moving around it was impossible to sit in one spot for more than five seconds.  By the time I realized this I was already about 50 yards out to sea.  I paddled against the rip current to get back into the lineup and was motivated by the excitement of an outside set(bigger set of waves that breaks farther out then normal).  I was able to get into the first wave, but there was so much water moving out to sea and so much wind that I got held up at the top and had no other choice but to airdrop down to the bottom.  This wave was definitely the heaviest wave that I've been on, it was about two to two and a half times the height of this classroom and had a barrel(hollow portion of a wave) big enough to hide a truck.  I was in the lip of the wave when I realized I had only one choice.  When I hit the bottom my knees buckled and I made a last ditch effort to dive to a safer place, there was none.  I got ragdolled around in complete darkness for about 40 seconds, holding your breath during a wipeout is much harder than holding your breath while calm, this 40 seconds would be about 2 and half minutes if calm.  The chaos finally stopped so I began to swim to where I thought the surface was.  I was just about out of breath when I finally reached the surface where I was met with a wave breaking on my head, three more seconds and I would've been dead.  Anyway, I made it safely to shore and promptly called it quits for the day.

Response to review

I'm going to change the way my paper reads.  Right now it's almost entirely a biography, but it will become an analysis.  I will argue why Feynman is an icon, at least in the science world.  I don't think any of the suggestions weren't helpful, but some are hard to follow.  I'm not sure if I like this response technique.  I think it helps more with a discovery style draft, which I consider mine to be.  I think it can serve as a guideline or even a separate prompt focused at your essay. 

Peer Review

The peer review really helped.  I was given a really good idea of where to go with my paper that I will definitely use.  I asked how Max would tie the image and the book together if he was writing my paper.  He gave me really good input that I'll use.  He had a really good idea to move parts of my paper around to make it focus more on the assignment.  I had never even thought of this before, but I'm going to do it because I think it will completely change my paper.