More Pictures

I have collected more pictures for our big Latin American Project. So far I only got pictures of rivers and pictures of San Diego's history. Michae Lung here I will post the link for the picture I found. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.waveberg.com/art/sandeigo360.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.waveberg.com/wavenergy/bod05.htm&h=360&w=360&sz=31&hl=en&start=61&tbnid=bN5MjYlo7G9EVM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSan%2BDiego%2BWater%2BHistory%26start%3D54%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN
I only posted one because it was an incredibly huge link. I am a bit confused as to how our video will look. Because we plan on having a news style video in which an anchorman introduces the audience to the issue and then we go right into our interview. After that we have pictures. But our pictures are just ones of rivers so it will seem boring. And I cant find any different types of pictures. Our script contains a lot of complicated terms and it will be difficult to show them as pictures.

Not much research left...

Well I believe we have gotten most of the research that is needed for our video and all that is left is trying to meet all the deadlines. Jesse, if you are reading my blog remember to do that interview and do not break the camera because I do not want to have to go through the trouble of telling the story of how Spencer Pforsich annihialated you and Michael because you broke David Jean's camera. The nest deadlines is that Flash animation. Jesse got an idea of what to make. He wanted us to make a flash that started out with a paper airplane flying and then landing in front of someone. Then that person would open it up and there would be the news. At first I thought that would be too complicated and noone would like it. But since none of us had any better ideas we deided to go with that one. If any flash masters are reading this we might need your help for this so come looking for us and ask for what help we need.

Time to find some pictures

After reading my script I have found some pictures that might match with some of the words that are said. I will list them here starting with San Diego Rivers: http://ucsdmasa.org/cutenews/data/upimages/n3303623_33997686_8063.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1158/544972474_7a1c74e0e9.jpg\
http://www.ci.santee.ca.us/Modules/ShowImage.aspx?imageid=73
http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/images/riverMaps/diego_river_1hr.png
http://www.zbirding.info/SanDiego/DSC02138%20015.jpg
http://www.sandiegoriver.org/images/KrystalatSanteeLakesoutflow.jpg
http://pangea.stanford.edu/courses/gp104/waterscape/users/alexp33/disp_SanDiego.jpg

Tijuana Rivers Now:
http://www.nature.nps.gov/nnl/Registry/USA_Map/States/California/NNL/TRE/images/TIJUANA_RIVER_CA.jpg
http://www.projectcleanwater.org/images/tijuana_topo.jpg
http://www.netconnection.com/tjriver/TJestuary_interpcntr.jpg
http://www.water-technology.net/projects/tijuana/images/img1.jpg
http://www.wildcoast.net/mznews/archives/IMG_2419.jpg
http://www.oasisdesign.net/images/img_book/GraywaterStreetTijuana.jpg
Ok thats all I got so far. These pictures fit decently with our script. But I know I will really have to find better ones. These pictures include mostly the rivers and water. It is very difficult to find more pictures of something else. Anyways, Michael those are all the pictures I got so download them if you believe they are necessary for the success of our video.

Required Classmate Blog Comment #5: Gabriel Ayala

Finally, I found a final blog who had some interesting information on a similar topic. Gabriel's blog was very interesting, to me, mostly because of a specific post. That once specifically explained the side effects caused by pesticides. It was new information that we could have much use of. So here's the link if you need it...http://spikeywaffles.blogspot.com/. You could even get a lawyer on that website just incase you have some disputes invloving pesticides. On other sections of that website they listed the side effects. This information will be very useful to us and as I stated in my last post, it will only add more evidence to our statement-that the Tijuana River is unhealthy. Today I feel liek using my habits of mind so I will use the one called Evidence. This website seems credible although I cannot find an author for it. But knowing that the organization who made the website is a lawfirm than I can guess that the side effects they listed are all harmful because they want to get people to hire them.

Required Classmate Blog Comment #4: RJ Sheperd

After spending more time out of my life looking for someone else who had a similar topic to mines I found one that could possibly have something to do with it. http://sendingmebackwards.blogspot.com/. His blog contained information on pesticides used in Mexico. This lead me to believe that pesticides could be on of the reasons for their horrible water quality. After some thought I decided to inform Michael Lung about this so we could inlude it some way into our video. So Michael Lung if you are reading my blog right now click on the link above and find RJ's section on Pesticides so you can gather that information. With this much information on Tijuana's water pollution it might be difficult to secretely persuade people that Tijuana's rivers are really bad. I believe with so much information on their pollution it will seem as if all we can talk about is Tijuana's water pollution. Unless we can find some positive things on it than it will seem like that.

Required Classmate Blog Comment #3: Austin Han

After more inspecting I found another classmate's blog who had a similar topic as I. He was researching water but not exactly in the same area as me. But there was a section in his blog that was a bit similar to mine. In this section he posted information on water in Mexico. http://austinhan08.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=12. It might be useful for other poeple researching on Mexico's water quality. When I read it though it was confusing and I just closed the window. For people who are more informed than me in chemistry and things of that sort, that website he linked would be good. There was another link to a website that informed people about Mexico's bad water. It stated that water from Florida was flowing to Mexico creating more unhealthy water. This information will be useful to show everyone how bad Mexico's water is.

Required Classmate Blog Comment #2: JV Hill

I inspected JV's and found some interesting, but complicated, information. Heres the link to JV's blog with the incredible information. http://jv-hill.blogspot.com/2007/09/san-diego-water-polution.html. I skimmed through the 100+ page article on the San Diego River. It had tons of information just not all of it was necessary. The most important part was the section on Water Quality. They listed the concerns, and the cause of them, of the San Diego River. Unfortunately, the article contains some very proffessional stuff therefore making it difficult for a tenth grader to understand. They listed elements I have never heard of, so I will definately need Anne's Help for this. It's only purpose for our video is just to take up time in our video. Because I fear that our video will be very short. That is because we did not want the topic we got but we will have to work with it.

Required Classmate Blog Comment #1: Michael Lung

Thanks for posting all those nice websites on the Tijuana River. From there I can pick out good pieces of information that we might need to include in our video and then collect pictures to match the information. In case there are any other groups out there that need information on the San Diego and Tijuana river's water quality and things of that sort heres a link to one of Michael Lung's posts that contains links to many websites on water. http://blogforspencersclass.blogspot.com/2007/09/rivers-information.html. The information we compiled is all in that link. From this information we were able to select to which side our bias would go towards. We decided we would secretely try to persuade our audience that the Tijuana River is polluted and the quality there is not good to sustain life. We found tons of information on how polluted the Tijuana river is including a list of the dangerous elements in the rivers.

Revising Story

September 17, 2007- Today I revised my Spaniard and indian accounts of the Spaniards arrival to the New World. Actually no one from school revised my work so I had to get one of my brothers. Since have not been around the sun as much as I have, they could not give that much professional critique. They used vague statements. So I had to work with that and so I just continued on with my story. But from reading some other people stories I got inspired to be more descriptive so whoever my audience is can easily picture what I am trying to describe. So that is what I did today but I did not do much of it.

Weekend and I do not feel like working

September 15, 2007- Well, today I really do not feel like working but through some divine intervention I got my lazy bottom off the couch and into the computer chair. I did not research but I added another question to my list of interviewer questions. I forgot what it was but I know it had to deal with pollution in the rivers. We will try to compare the pollution in both rivers and somehow bias it towards our side. I guess we will say that the San Diego river is much more safer or something of that sort.

Third day of Presentations

September 14, 2007- On this day I finally presented and showed what the Mayans were all about. I am pretty sure most people that came to my booth were interested and they learned a lot about the great Mayans. The Mayans were pretty impressive they could even be called "Greeks of the New World." Now that the mini project was over I worked on some interviewing questions for our expert. I deleted some of my other questions that Jesse thought were not good. I made new questions that I believed our expert could answer and I made other questions that an expert in water could answer, such as a proffesor.

Second day of presentations

September 13, 2007-On this day the Incan group presented and I learned quite a bit about them though I was still not persuaded that the Incas were more interesting than the Aztecs. Here is another cool website: http://www.northstar.k12.ak.us/schools/tan/projects/mayan/relegion.html. This website talks about some of their religious ceremonies. Like I said somewhere in my other posts, the Mayans practiced cruel forms of human sacrafice in which people's hearts were torn out by hand. This cruelness expressed by the Mayans could be compared to the cruelty the Spaniards showed them.

First day of Presentations

September 12, 2007- On this day the Aztec group presented ther research. It was interesting to learn about that Native American tribe, it is my favorite of all the Native American tribes. I got some ideas from their poster boards. I found an interesting website on the Mayan calendar that tries to decipher the Mayan calendar: http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html. The Mayan calendar is pretty confusing but I did understand that the Mayans believed the world started somewhere between 3000BCEand3100BCE. Thats where the Mayan calendar starts at least it continues many years and ends at 2012 so some people have predicted that the world could end at that time. Saying that the Mayans were wrong might be an insult to their society but I feel it is logical not to believe in this. Besides they believed in a flat rectangular world and they were wrong.

Sunday, and I do not feel like exerting force to research

September 16, 2007- On this day I went to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_River to collect some pictures on the San Diego river. I found many good pictures that I could not find anywhere else. They were good sources and they will surely benefit our video. Some of our fellow classmates will be able to connect with those pictures because they could explain how they have been there. I think our bias will be towards the San Diego river mostly because we live in San Diego. I am not exactly sure how we will do that but I feel as if it might have to do with pollution...

Mayan Weapons and Religion

September 11, 2007- http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0310200/mayawp.html. Unlike the Aztecs, the Mayans were not a warring tribe. They were fought mainly over territory but not often. This shortage in warfare gave them the time to advance in cultural acheivements. Of course, whenever the need arose for war Mayan people were eager to defend their land and pride. When I researched I found out that their weapons were so decorated that they did not even look like tools of death but more like decorations. The Mayans used weapons such as spears, knives, Atatl (Spear thrower), and the club. Every native american tribe was involved in some type of physical violence. I am starting to question if they were as brutal to each other as the Spaniards were to them. I've read about how the how some tribes were very evil to other tribes and their cruelty could not be much different than the Spaniards. Such as the Aztecs, they tore out people's hearts as sacrifices to the gods! They did that for the love of their gods just like the Spaniards conquered the native americans for love of their religion. So how do you compare the Spaniards motive for enslaving many Indians to the Indians own crualty towards each other. Besides weren't Indians savage and unlawful. Weren't they unorganized bands of people with no government? If they were then what the conquistadors did was a good thing by bringing organization to those wild savages. Well, that just my opinion I was just trying to see things from multiple perspectives. The picture below is a temple of the mighty Mayan warriors. The temple looks interesting and I am guessing it was built around 900AD-1200AD. That is because around that time the Mayans became increasingly hostile and became involved in more wars.

The End of the Mayans

September 10, 2007-http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/webpages/nativesp99/maya/conquest.html. Heres the link to a good website on the conquest of the Mayans. To my surprise the fall of the great Mayans did not happen exactly because of Spaniards but it happened because of othe Native Tribes. The Toltecs, a tribe of southern Mexico spread south into Mayan terrritory and controlled the Mayans from the city of Chichen Itza. The Mayans were not wiped out but instead they were allowed to live but they had to follow Toltec law, culture and religion. Toltecs encouraged a more militaristic nature of the Mayans. A famous Mayan named Hunac Ceel did not like the Toltecs so he took control of Itza and became the new ruler. His warlike nature changed the Mayans from the "Greeks of the New World" to nothing more than savages. The Spaniards could now easily take them over and that is exactly what they did. What if the Mayans held on to their lands and were united to defend themselves against the Spaniards. History might have tooken a different turn but not a very big turn. Spaniards would most likely have conquered the Mayans even if they were united or not. Plus there probably would have been another great conquistador who would be known for conquering the great Mayans.

Simple Website

September 09, 2007-On this day I came across a simple website that has very little information on each of the guiding questions we need to answer, but it contains the information in almost a list format so it is easy to understand and you easily just write down the answers. http://www.courses.psu.edu/anth/anth008_cmg149/mayan.html. On this website I researched some of the Mayan tools they used for their great architecture. The Mayans were a primitive culture in the sense that they had not metal and had to create all their buildings out of limestone, which was rich in that area. I also learned about some of the labor back at those times. Most poeple did agricultural work while others helped in the contruction of important structures. The website I got it from seems a little unreliable. The format of the website seems a little too simple plus there are some mispelled words. But I can back up that information from other websites so it seems reliable. For Micheal Lung, here are the websites that I said I would link for the Big Latin America Project.
1. http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et1094/et1094s9.html
2. http://www.projectcleanwater.org/html/ws_san_diego_river.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_River
4. (This website has a lot of big words but I am pretty sure the website also has good for information on the chemistry portion of the river so here it is) http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/bptcp/docs/reg9addendum.pdf

Little information

September 08, 2007- Today I hardly did any research, but I did glance over some bit of information. That information was about music. As you can see in the picture below there are many mayans playing their wind instruments while other mayans are playing their percussion instruments. They are, most likely, playing for a special occasion such as a victory or a celebration. The flutes, which were crafted out of fired ceramic, were considered the more extravagant and higher ranking intrument. Musicians were considered to be a higher rank than normal townsfolk. Music seems to be a very important part of every great culture that has ever existed. So it is not too surprising that the music is important to Mayan lifestyle.

Answers to some of the Guiding Questions

September 07, 2007- Here are some of the answers to some of the guiding questions. Just click on the link and read the information. http://www.mayan-world.com/cosmos-m.htm. Some of the questions answered are part of the religion and art section. The answers should not be a surprise because Mayan beliefs were similar to other native american tribes. They believed in life after and death and more life after that. They believed life on earth was a just part of a long cycle that was controlled by the gods. This information, to me, is similar to other information I have read about native american tribes. It seems weird to believe that after life there comes another life and after that another life. So basically you live many lives. If that were true people would do more strange things with that many lives.

More Mayan Information

September 06, 2007- Today I took a risk by gathering information from an infamous website. Anyways, if you believe the information might improve your intelligence then heres the link: http://www.conservapedia.com/Maya. The website has some general information that isn't really helpful but it goes in depth into a great Mayan acheivement-the Mayan calendar. It is amazing how people such as the Mayans could develop something like a calendar with their primitive technology. The Mayans were well advanced over other tribes, at least in their culture. The Mayans had a decent knowledge of astronomy, mathermatics, and the use of a written language. They also had something that Europeans did not have at the time and that was the concept of Zero. If you want to read more about that then click on the link above get ready to learn.

Art of the Mayans

September 04, 2007- On this day I found a decent website for information but a greta website for pictures of some Mayan art. It includes sculptures, masks, pottery and more. http://historylink101.com/1/mayan/mayan_art.htm

The sculpure below is of a jaguar which was thought to be a god. The Mayans believed that there was a jaguar god that determined the fate of all humankind. Most of the art that Mayans made were dedicated to their gods. Their art is fascinating because of the complex designs and patterns on the art they made. Mayan art has sometimes even been called the greatest art of the New World. Art was definately an important aspect of the Mayans. One can make many assumptions about them just from looking at their art. Their art reveals a lot about their values. Although I do not necessarily think their art is very beautifull i still find it intreguing.

Mayan Art and Architecture

September 05 2007-On this day I was fortunate to find such a great website. http://www.crystalinks.com/mayanarch.html
On this website I found lots of information on Mayan art and architecture. It is not really new information because most of the information states the Mayans obsession with their gods, which is what most of the native american tribes are obssed with. Some information I found interesting was that not only were the Mayans obssesed with their gods they were obssesed with the calender they made. They would make temples with exactly 346 steps to equal the number of days in their calendar. If you want a good website for art this is a good source. Although many questions arise. Such as how did they get the technology to biuld such great structures with their primitive tools in such harsh lands.