A Boy Within the System

A Boy Within the System

A boy within
the system
made the boy go crazy
Ima victim of the system
Big man cutting treatment bills from the ill
That's mental
Survival of the fittest
That’s the way they got us livin
Addicted
Liquid pistols and pills
This is how we get committed
system gotchu restricted
Thin white lines
Now your jurisdiction
Turn to crooks that do time
When did we decide
This is a victimless crime
But that's the big man's plan
Keep you weak with a strong extended hand
Bills written in riddles
You misunderstand
Take your right hand
And sit in the witness stand
While the wise man gets tongue taken and tied
Bills get certified
Big man wears power
To hide his vile sty
Making deals with the devil
Roll the 6 sided die
Bills are even
And you’re oddly left with dry bones
mentally acidified

This boy Within
this system
Sees these people
These are the people stuck within this system
Aunt Sally still nagging with a few pumps of oxygen
Little junior taking the wrong path but little junior brings home the dough so he's a fine young man
Crazy old man goes by the name of joe
Joe owns no home
He reeks and sneaks rocks up his nose
Kids on the block knows what's cool
These kids know how to kick it, pop it, and do a flaming lock it
Pass the joint
Don't dare to drop it
This is the system in which we disguise as poverty
Quick pills to take the eaz
Get rid of stress is all they need
This is mental illness, not poverty
These are chains that have not been broken
These are people who have lived unspoken
Brainwashed to believe they need no help
It's not the system
It's poverty
To think your ill is a mockery
Just keep thinking one day you will win the lottery
Say goodbye to poverty
Live a long healthy life
Only to find out
I'm back to the same chain
Wondering why it is this way
But all along you were stuck within
the system
not poverty

I'm the boy within
This system
The boy that's sick
Not mental
Loudspeakers keeps the voices away
Baggy trus white tee glistening shoes keeps me cool
And keeps the abnormality away
Fed with lies and hypnotized life scares the hunger away
Boxes of antioxidants don't make me obey
I'm Delusional
Amphetamine got the best of me
Blurry vision
Got me
straight trippin
Hope the prayers start kickin
Admirable intoxication
Is what build this nation
The world domination
The world is our creation
The matrix
kill the ill give me eaz
Just take the blue pill
I'm mental
Hard to say
The red pill is existential
My demons write my future
Erase my brain with a pencil
I'm fed up
Choked up
Knees shake
Eye roll
God, please
Save my soul
I'm begging you
I'm not worthy
But this little boy needs sum lovin too
Good kid M.A.A.D city
Made the good kid cruel
I'm not ill,
I'm just sick of the same old stew
Same cig don't wanna light up too
Ignorance is bliss
Until the demons take that too
I'm gone
I'm not mental

I'm just sick

My political issue is mental illness. In this poem, I take on the point of view of a, "A boy within the system."In the first second stanza, I observe the community has this brainwashed concept of not needing the help that this bill is taking from them. The third stanza provides insight on how the boy feels in the system, that being stuck. Through the poem, I provide sensory images, slant rhyme, perfect rhyme, rhythm, multisyllabic rhyme, anaphora, as windows to the point of view of the community ad the boy. The volume/ cadence changes in the last stanza when presented the dialogue of "demons".

Your Mental

You're Mental.

Budget cuts are needed
Crooks and crime
Crimes are getting heavy
Crooks are getting time1
These people aren't sick
They just poor out they mind
Heavily medicated
Your crew gotchu manipulated
New York steez is overrated
Bills to make
Bills to cut
The city of dreams is out of luck
Begging for a quick buck
In the streets

Walking high on two feet
With a cig in each pocket
Lean walking
The money you baggin
Got us toe taggin
You the man and you all that?
And you mean to tell me you need help
You mean to tell me you need help?
Now that's mental

Sit outside your porch what's new in these streets
Aunt Sally still nagging with a few pumps of oxygen
Little Junior taking the wrong path but little Junior brings home the dough so he's a fine young man
Crazy old man goes by the name of joe
Joe owns no home
He reeks and sneaks rocks up his nose
Kids on the block knows what's cool
These kids know how to kick it, pop it, and do a flamin lock it
Pass the joint

Don't dare to drop it

Faith can’t help these people out anymore
Little junior might need to grow sum more
Cool kids on the block might need to drop it more
Crazy Joe needs a place called home
Our community needs to care sum more
This community needs help but they're not mental
Quick pills to take the eaz, get rid of the stress is all they need.
This is mental Illness, not poverty
These are chains that have not been broken
These are people who have lived unspoken
Brainwashed to believe they need no hell
It's simply not your fault
Its poverty
To think you're ill is a mockery
Just keep thinking one day you will get out of poverty
Live a long healthy life
Only to find out
I'm back to the same chain
Wondering why it is this way
But all along you were ill
not stuck in poverty
Loudspeakers keeps the voices away
Baggy trus white tee glistening shoes keeps me cool
And keeps the abnormality away
Fed with lies and hypnotized life scares the hunger away
Boxes of antioxidants don't make me obey
Hunger is not a problem
Admirable intoxication
Is what build this nation
The world domination
The world is our creation
The matrix
And kill the ill give me eaz
Just take the blue pill
Im mental
Hard to say
The red pill is existential
My demons write my future
Erase my brain with a pencil
I'm fed up
Choked up
Knees shake
Eye roll
God please
Save my soul
I'm begging you
I'm not worthy
But this little boy need sum lovin too
Good kid M.A.A.D city
Made the good kid cruel
I'm not ill,
I'm just sick of the same old stew
Same cig don't wanna light up too
Ignorance is bliss
Until the demons take that too
I'm gone
I'm not mental
I'm just sick.

My political issue was mental illness. In this poem, I wanted to take the persona of 3 different characters. In the first stanza, I took the persona of a senator. This senator was talking with ignorance as he cuts the bills and doesn't allow people to get mentally treated. The second stanza talks about the persona of a whole community. In this stanza, I talk about how the community is not willing to get treated and just believe the reason they are there is because of poverty. The last stanza I took the persona of a boy. This boy was also ignorant of what he was feeling, he lived in the community of the second stanza. This boy was a person who actually dealt with mental illness he lived his life trying to be normal as the other boys but struggled to ask for help until he gave in as I stated "God please save my soul I'm not worthy but this little boy needs sum lovin too". This represents how he was done with being ignorant and ignoring his issues and ask for help.

Capture the Moment

On our final project, we talked about the preservation of species. Most importantly, why it is important to preserve animals and the type of method we choose to preserve them. On one of our FE’s, we all observed our own owl pellet which are small leftover rodents, birds, and bugs an owl might have eaten. This experiment was interesting as I was able to find all these cool looking bones and teeth to try and figure out what its last meal was. Surprisingly my owl ate a lot of rodents. This unit felt like a wrap up of the whole course as it summarized how important population is. This course showed me different ways to view the term population than just an old picture of the “evolution” of humans. I was able to understand the meaning of evolution from the beginning of when they first existed from ancestors all the way to the end where they may become preserved. I can honestly say I had no major struggles in this unit everything moved at a good pace making it possible to understand the math and science part of this course.

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My Heroes!

For our last unit in stories, we analyzed the journey of heroes. The purpose of this unit was to apply Joseph Campbell’s hero mono myth to our own real and fictional heroes journey. The main guiding question of this unit was how do you analyze a hero? One of our major concepts that lead to our guiding question was Joseph Campbell's hero mono myth this made it possible to analyze the character journey more profoundly to make connections on their journey.

In our final AP we compared a fictional heroes journey and a real persons heroic journey. In my slideshow I analyzed Nacho Libre journey with my dads journey and made connections throughout their experiences. The reason I choose Nacho Libre was because my family grew up with this movie. Nacho Libre was a real person that just cared for the kids and that really just connected with my dads call to adventure. Nacho Libre and my dad had similar characteristics that helped them with their journey. Nacho and my dad did not give up completely during there abyss and showed strength from the positivity they have as a person. Overall Nacho Libre has a lot of heroic symbols that are seen in real people  just like my dad. My dad and Nacho both went through trials with the help of god as a supernatural mentor, allowing them to persevere.

IndependANT Environment

For our second unit of our fall term class called population, we took a longer time than usual. The reason for this was to really grasp this unit and overall understand our organism through evolution. We learned about standard deviation, statistics, permutation and combination, box and whisker plot, and most of all evolution. Throughout this unit, I can honestly say I have enjoyed learning the math concepts and how they tied in with our organism. For this Action project, I decided to stick with my organism from my first project of this unit which was black ants. I wanted to learn more about black ants since we see them in our everyday lives. In this AP I will be showing you how black ants do in my environment and how it will affect them in the future.

Busy Beaver Bill

For our second unit in our humanities class stories, we learned all about fables and moral lessons. In order for us to really grasp on this AP, we learned about an Aesop's Fables, character analysis which we discussed personification on different animals and even made our own observations to get a feel for what are AP might consist of. I personally found this really challenging knowing I don't have the biggest interest in fantasy stories but as we got to analyzing more on the characters and the setting I really like the idea of adding symbolism in fables.

GA, "Busy Beaver Bill", 2017

Did you ever hear the story of the busy beaver Bill? Well, I'm here to tell you this story. It all started in the great lakes of Beaverville where there is always work to be done leaving no room for chit-chats with friends. The beavers that lived in the great lakes were not the nicest when it came to new incomers, making no exception of the new kid in town Bill. Bill walked through town making himself at home skimming through trees seeing the beautiful dams watching how the sun glistened on his polished tale he was ready for a fresh new start. As Bill started adapting to his new home he decided he needed to make friends despite the fact that he is incapable of having normal conversation although you must admit small talks are the worst. As Bill spent the whole day thinking he finally decided he will make the kind gesture to help the beavers in Beaverville with anything they need in order to make friends.

On the very next day, he hurried to blow dry his fur, polish his tale, and sharpen his sharp pearly white teeth. As he steps out of his dam he was surprised how every beaver in town is already working so diligently. Bill starts to walk towards the group of beavers working on cutting up trees

“Hey, guys need any help” stuttered Bill.
The beavers were looking at each other with smirks on their face.
“Sure kid what can you do? ” asked one of the beavers in a intrigued manner.
“I can do just about anything whatever it takes too kindly help”- said Bill
“How does this sound you cut down this tree and we will see how much of a help you can really be to us,” said one of the beavers
“Let's get chopping,” said Bill excitedly.

As bill chops down the tree the group of beavers notices how fast and precise he does it.
“Wow, that is amazing work, you can come and help anytime you want kid,” said one of the beavers
“thanks, I try my best, and oh, by the way, I’m Bill,” said Bill.
“Haha well, nice meeting you Bill,” said one of the beavers.
Bill smiled and walked away bursting with joy knowing he made friends that day. Bill ran home to get ready to sleep as he could not wait for what tomorrow beholds for him.

Morning arrives with the same routines Bill does blow dry his fur, polish his tale, and sharpen his pearly white teeth only this time he sharpens them twice to impress his friends on his big chompers. Bill heads out to the same place as yesterday as he sees the group of beavers he rushes with a big smile to see if anyone will notice.

Before Bill can say anything one of the beavers interrupt saying “ Hey Bill hope you don't mind us making a list of the things you can do today”
“No problem buddy whatever it takes to lend a hand,” said Bill.
Bill felt a little down that nobody asked how he was feeling or about his teeth he was so eager to show. As bill starts working busily as a beaver he notices the group of beavers isn't working. Bill didn't think much of it and went back to his chores. Once Bill was done he was ready to say his goodbyes to the beavers, strangely enough, they were not in plain sight Bill found it really odd. As he gave up he left to his dam disappointed of how boring today was. But knowing Bill’s pure heart he cannot wait until the next day and help out his friends in need.

Morning comes like every other Bill jumps out of bed to do his daily routine and walks out his door. As Bill walks towards the group of beavers he says “ hey guys I wasn't able to find you guys last night, what happened?”
“ oh..we went to catch a game… we weren't sure if you wanted to come you looked busy next time tho” said one of the beavers
“Wow that sounds like a lot of fun yeah guys it’s okay there is always a next time right,” said Bill.
“ We were able to see the great work you did yesterday and decided to do a bigger list knowing you have a good eye for this kind of stuff.” said one of the beavers.
“Umm...sure  why not I am the handy helper after all,” said Bill.
As Bill left the gang to work on the list he started to feel different towards his friends. He wasn't sure on what was going on but he was too delusional to admit anything.

Days went by with no change what so ever unless you count the list of things I had to do every day. One night Bill was not able to sleep and was up all night thinking why were his friends treating him that. Bill was not sure if he should be happy because he's helping his friends or sad from never going out with his friends. Until he had enough from everything and decided he will not be treated like this anymore.

The very next day he jumps out of bed excited to see his friend but this time for a different purpose. So as always Bill blow dry his fur, polish his tale, and sharpen his pearly white teeth and rushes out the door. Bill walks over to the gang ready to rip.
“Ay Bill ready for today?” said one of the beavers laughing.
Bill gets the list and doesn't say a word. He walks over to the station and started chomping everything down bits and pieces destroyed tearing apart every single thing written on the to-do list. Once Bill felt satisfied he calmly walked over and ripped the paper and front of them. BEfore anybody was able to say anything Bill had left back to his damn feeling happy he stood up for himself the way he knew he could and peacefully went to bed.

“Goodnight,” said Bill.

Moral: Don't let people take advantage of you.

Deum non esse

For our first unit in Stories, we studied stories and specifically creation myths. In this class, we had to study creation myths and make them into our own. We had a professional storyteller come in on an FE and tell us about the history of myths and why they are important to learn from. Although I was absent aour class went to the Field Museum and visited the Ancient Americas exhibit as well as the Ancient Egypt exhibit to get a better grasp on creation myths. For our action project, we were asked to create and write a creation myth. We had to describe our planets name, how it got it's name, and some features of our planet.

Deum non esse the planet of non existent god. The planet was created by a man living on earth who was a psychopath and only talked to his subconscious. The more and more he talked to his subconscious, the more his subconscious had a mind of its own. As time went by, the man could not stand the constant conversations in his mind, so he killed himself with only one remaining thing……..his subconscious. His subconscious flew out of earth searching for somewhere to live because it did not want to die. He quickly figured out his existence and knew he needed to start a fresh life by creating a new world. So he gathered stars to bring light, and stole clouds to bring in shade and rain to his fresh new world.

As Deum non esse started to be pieced together, Subconscious knew he would not be able to take care of everything, so he started building groups of people out of dirt, but something was not right with the creations he was making. These people did not have a sense of feel, think, or act. That’s when he sacrificed himself to give each and every human a sense of feel and wisdom. Before he gave his power to his people, he made sure there were to be no ruler nor god as it would bring destruction and power. Subconscious made his people kill him taking one piece of its flesh to eat, by doing this they will have wisdom to take care of the planet. The death of Subconscious was not celebrated knowing he was apart of his people now in a deeper level.

The people in Deum non esse were unlike like any other human beings. These groups of people grew up white head to toe, as thew grew up they learned how to express themselves through art allowing them to paint what they imagined their individuality should look like, to each there own. The people fro, Deum carried themselves through mind over body to feel spiritually connnected to Subconscious.

When the people of Deum non esse started populating, they had a hard time figuring out what they should call the planet. They got together in a sacred meeting on what they should call their planet. The people of Deum non esse knew they wanted to have the name symbolize the remembrance of subconscious. That's when Deum non esse came to be as it symbolizes one of them and not god. The life in the planet was to be seen as a temporary assignment with no strings attached to god's plan, rather live by the swey of trees.

In the book of Genesis specifically the last supper Jesus sits down with the apostles to receive wine and bread that embodies the blood and body of Christ. This compares to my planet when Subconscious fed his people his flesh to obtain wisdom. The book of Genesis and Deum non esse have a very distinct difference. Deum non esse believes in no god unlike the book of Genesis God is the one who created everything.

GA, Deum non esse, 2017 

Little Crawling Creatures

For the first action project in my STEAM course called population, we will be diving into animal taxonomy, specifically one of my choices. I decided to study and learn more about black ants. In doing this, I will be looking at their taxonomy chart and I will be making statements using set theory, a language used to describe groups in a mathematical way. I wanted to choose an ant because I wanted to learn something new about ants knowing they’re everywhere and we never stop and observe their habitat or daily obstacles. On this FE I unfortunately was not able to find any ants but I did venture out into the reptile section thinking they would be hanging out there. Unfortunately i was not able to find any at the zoo but I did search up some videos to get close up observation of my own.

The organism that I picked was Lasius niger or commonly known as the Black ants. Black ants are the most harmless common ants as they are all around you, just very tiny. Although the habitat of the black ants can be a wide range of places, they are usually found in garden species, dry areas, and wet areas. A black ant’s diet can consist of several things such as fruit, leftovers, seeds, and other small insects. Black ants are harmless to humans but when it comes to taking care of their territory they can bite but might not do much harm.

Taxonomy order of Black ants

TAXONOMY LEVEL	CLASSIFICATION OF YOUR ORGANISM	PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THIS CLASSIFICATION
Kingdom	Animalia	multicellular, heterotrophs
Phylum	Arthropoda	exoskeleton, invertebrate
Class	Insecta	three body part, compound eyes
Order	Hymenoptera	herbivorous, wings
Family	Formicidae	6 legs, stinger
Genus	Lasius	rainbow ant native to Australia, feed on sweet food
Species	niger	nest builders, colored appearance

GA, Ant Taxonomy, 2017

“North American Ants.” North American Ants, 5 Aug. 2017

Venn diagram comparison

I was pared up with 2 classmates to compare there organism characteristics which was a meerkat and a african lion. By doing this we all got together to give each other traits of our animal for the venn diagram.When you think about meerkats, Black Ants, and African lions you might not be able to make a comparison from the top of your head knowing they are all distinctively different. One thing they all had in common was the kingdom which was Animalia and they can all sexual reproduce. African lions and meerkat both have sharp teeth small ears and have fur, unlike the black ant. Overall I observed that the African lion and the meerkat had more similarities than black Ant which made sense knowing I was comparing different sets of class.

                                               GA, Venn diagram comparison, 2017

Set theory statements

These statements represent mathematical statements that describe the population of black ants.

M= meerkat, B= Black ant, A= African lion

• M ∈ M : Meerkats is an element of Mammals
• Flying ∉ (m U b) : flying is not a element of meerket and black ants. 
• Animalia ∈ A : anamalia is a element of African lion
• A ∩ M= {claws, sharp teeth, meat eaters}
• reptile ∉ B : reptile is not a element of a black ant

In conclusion, this action project has allowed me to analyze an organism better by doing physical observations, comparisons to other kingdoms, and understanding the mathematical language using set theory. My taxonomy chart was the task that I was most impressed with. The black ant taxonomy chart was impressive because it was the hardest task for me because of all the really long definitions insects have. Learning set theory was like a fun game of speaking in secret code strangely. Throughout the unit, I felt confident which was new to me because math is not my strongest subject but I really pulled through this AP where I understood everything that was going on in class without feeling overwhelmed. Last but not least this AP was a fun way to learn about different organism in their natural habitat.

Works Cited:

“North American Ants.” – North American Ants, 5 Aug. 2017, www.myrmecos.net/north-american-ants/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

“Small black ant videos, photos and facts.” Arkive, www.arkive.org/small-black-ant/lasius-niger/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

Genesis's Food Review

On our third unit of food for thought, we were asked to be in the mindset of a reviewer, more importantly, a food reviewer of our chosen dish. I chose to analyze ceviche as it is a versatile dish that is easy to make and enjoy any time of the day.

Welcome to Genesis's Food Second Thought

Hello, fellow food eaters, today we will be reviewing the inquisitive flavor of ceviche. We will take on the fight of a home cooked ceviche made by the one and only (me) and ceviche from a Mexican restaurant called the "El Burrito Jr."

DS "Bomb.com  Ceviche" 2017

My ingredients:

• Tilapia: .5 pound
• Tomatoes: 1
• Onions: half of 1
• Cilantro: 3
• Lime Juice: 1 1/4 cups

Presentation rate: 3/5
The presentation was not appealing to the eye from the drenched juice that was balled up in the boring container. As they say, don't judge the book by it's the cover.

Taste rate: 5/5

The mouthwatering acting up quenched my thirst with a mix of lime juice and tilapia juice melting in my mouth with a soft crunch of white onions including an earthy kick of cilantro with a small hint of sweetness of the tomatoes. 

Texture rate: 4.5/5

The texture was really spongy with the lightweight chew of every ingredient. The longer it sit on the container the more infused it got making it the same consistency. Overall I rated it a 4.5 considering to my liking I like ceviche to fall in mouth making it easy to chew to be able to savor and enjoy most of the flavor.

GA "amazing ceviche" 2017

El Burrito Jr." ingredients:

• Tilapia
• Lime: 2
• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Tostada: 1
• Cilantro

Presentation rate: 5/5
The presentation was aesthetically pleasing to the eye. This gave a more clean look to the dish adding a tostada. Overall the presentation was good quality.

Taste rate: 4/5
I was very disappointed knowing I set high bars from the presentation. The saying don't judge a book by it's cover definitely followed into this category too. The ceviche had the lime optional making the cucumber the ingredient that makes the dish sour. The tilapia was also cut in bigger pieces from the tomatoes, onions, and cilantro making it a overpowered by other ingredients. I personally like a balanced variety of ingredients to be able to savor each flavor and sadly I was not able to say that for this dish. Even though it was not to might liking I will still recommend you purchasing  just to have an idea of what you might or might not prefer to add in your ceviche.

Texture rate: 4/5

The texture was dense with the chunks of cucumber and fish. It wasn't a sharp of a taste knowing they used lime instead of processed lime juice. Once it hit your mouth it was a smooth feel from it being watery.

Both of these dishes were made from fresh ingredients knowing it only consist of fish and vegtables but they were definitely not organic. Knowing making ceviche is really versatile to the persons liking rather it be the acidic, sweet, or an earthy feel it really does not matter rather it is organic or non. I personally think non organic vegetables are more convenient and cheaper for me which is why I choose it but there should be no reason why you cant use organic products. 

The relation i would reflect my dish with 5 food transformation would be quantity over quality. Restaurants like "El BurritoJr." may not cater to the individual liking of a dish like ceviche knowing they care more about efficiency which follows into the category of quantity. Versus making the ceviche yourself you really get a wide variety of ingredients of your choice. Many consumer may enjoy the fact they know where their products came from.

In conclusion ceviche is very versatile to the consumers liking. I would recommend you to make it at home knowing you get a bigger portion and satisfaction knowing you know it will be good and a light weight dish to eat at any time of the day.

GMOs are the Way to Ho!

On our third unit of Food we did a debate on GMOs. In this presentation I show the reasons on why I am pro GMO including the reasons on why you should too. A challenge I faced doing this action project is the rebuttal. Finfing a strong argument on how GMOs does not cause health benefits

Threat to the World!

In my second unit Death in our class Food for Thought, I made a video discussing how monoculture is the biggest threat to the global food system.

Works Cited:

"Bee collapse is the result of their enslavement in industrial monocultures." The Ecologist. N.p., 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 23 May 2017.

"How do monocultures influence bee health? (John Tooker Lab)." John Tooker Lab (Penn State University). N.p., 02 Aug. 2014. Web. 23 May 2017.

"6 Problems with Monoculture Farming." Regenerative. N.p., 16 Dec. 2016. Web. 23 May 2017.

Baking with Baking Soda!

In our second unit cooking in Food, we did a lab report on experimenting the different types of leavening agents, such as biological leavening agents and biological leavening agents. In order to experiment with the different types of leavening agents, we split up into groups of 3. The most challenging part for me was the test. I tend to freak out about test and timing frames but turns out to get a good grade. One thing I would be proud of is how our bread turned out knowing it was delicious.

Leavening Agents Experiment
Food AP2
5/13/17
Group: Baking soda
partners: RP, EM

For this experiment, we tested different types of leavening agents such as baking soda, sourdough, and yeast.  Leavening agents is a substance creating the dough expansion by releasing gases within the mix. Baking soda and sourdough are chemical leavening agents which would make them experimental groups as they have been chemically altered to rise faster. In order for baking soda to work properly, it must be used with another acidic ingredient such as buttermilk. Yeast would be used as our controlled group knowing it is a biological leavening agent. This means it is a natural leavening agent that may take longer to rise as it ferments the sugars in the food that create carbon dioxide.

Which leads us to our question, Which leavening agent will leaven the bread higher? My hypothesis was baking soda will rise higher. The reason behind this would be when I think of baking I associate baking soda with it from all the previous recipes I've seen.

Ingredients:

Sourdough:

4 cups water
10 cups flour
3.5 tbsp salt
¾ cup sourdough starter

Yeast:

3 Cups Lukewarm Water
6.5 to 7.5 cups of All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp salt
1.5 Tbsp Dry or Active Yeast

         Baking Soda:

3.5 cups flour
2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Procedure:

Sourdough:

1. Combine all the ingredients except salt
2. Let the dough sit for 15-60 minutes
3. Add salt
4. Knead dough for 10 to 15 minutes
5. keep the dough at room temperature for 4-6 hours
6. Slit the top and bake for 1 hour
7. Let sit to cool then slice

Yeast:

1. Mix all the needed ingredients for the dough
2. Cover the bowl and let it sit for 2 hrs in room temperature to rise
3. Refrigerate for 2 hours
4. Make loaf and let it rise again for 1 hour
5. Slit top of the bread and bake for 25-35 minutes at 450 (temp)
6. Let it sit to cool and slice

Baking Soda:

1. Combine all dry ingredients
2. Pour in the buttermilk
3. Gently mix ingredients
4. Take out the bowl and shape it into a ball making sure not to knead it
5. Cut an x on the top
6. Bake for 40-50 minutes
7. Let it sit to cool and enjoy a slice

Calculations:

Baking soda: 
  No calculations needed because the recipe had the perfect serving size amount

Yeast: The yeast bread was done 1/4 of the recipe by multiplying all the ingredients by .25

  3 x .25 = ¾ cup
  7 x .25 = 1 ¾ cup
  1 x .25 = ¼ tbsp
  1.5 x .25 = ⅜ tbsp

Sourdough: The sourdough bread was 1/4 of the recipe
  3 x .25 = ¾ cup
  7 x .25 = 1 ¾ cup
  1 x .25 = ¼ tbsp
  1.5 x .25 = ⅜ tbsp

Variable	Control Group (Commercial Yeast Bread)	Experimental Group 1 (Sourdough)	Experimental Group 2 (Commercial Leavening Agent Bread)
Flour type	Same	same	Same
Dough rise time	2 hrs at room temperature and 2 hrs-7 days in the refrigerator	15-60 minutes	5 minutes
Oven temperature	450 F	500 F	450 F for 15 minutes, then 400 F for 20-30 minutes more
Bake time	25-35 minutes	2 hours	40 minutes
Dough amount	¼ of recipe	¼ of recipe	Full recipe
Other	N/A	N/A	buttermilk

Nutrition: My group calculated the nutrition information for baking soda by finding the the serving in each ingredient we used then added it all up together.

•   Calories 1400+240=1640. 66% of your daily usage nutrition. (= 1640/2500)

•   Carbohydrates 4 g from sugar + 322 g from flour + 24 g from buttermilk = 350 g 88% of my daily usage nutrition. (= 350/400)

•   Fat 6 g. 7% of our daily usage. (= 6/78)

•   Protein 50 g. 89% of my daily usage nutrition. (= 50/56)

Analysis: Yeast: The yeast bread lead up to be the only bread that was not burnt. It had the perfect amount of fluff and crust. The before and after height change was 48.1% which went from being 3" tall to 4" tall.

Sourdough: The sourdough bread turned out to be in the last place from the tasting department as it was completely burnt from the outside and raw on the inside. The cause of this might be from the technique used to knead. The before and after height change was decreased by 18.2%.

Baking soda: I I would say my group loaf of bread was the better tasting and the highest results in the height by 62.5%. The outer part of the bread was had a strong crunch which is personally my favorite. The baking soda was better from the sugar and buttermilk as it added a nice fluff and sweetness to it.

:This bar graph shows the before and after height difference in inch:

GA "Leavening Agents" (2017)

Overall my hypothesis was slightly right. The yeast bread increased the most in height but did not expand as much as experimental group 1 and 2 in width or length. The baking soda bread grew the most in height but didn’t change in width or length. The sourdough rose the most in all aspect but was smaller than the other bread.

Yeast:

GA "yeast bread" (2017)

Sourdough:

GA "sourdough bread" (2017)

Baking Soda:

GA "baking soda bread" (2017)

Hi, my name is Onion Onion

In this unit Food for Thought, we learned about the origin and value of food. We were able to choose any crop of our choice and reflect it to our own family recipes. I choose an onion because my family always have onion as an important topping to any of our foods and personally I just love it. The video you will about to see will be an interpretation of brown onion perspective in the first person and several intentional puns.

          

Cited Work:
The National Onion Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017.

Know To Grow!

In our first unit Food, our first action project was about "planting" our own garden from all the earlier information we have learned. We learned about how plants grow, what makes up good and bad companions, biodiversity, and the iterations of organisms.

GA, My Plantation, 2017 

The value I had for gardening and just another living organism has changed over time in this unit. I learned the rules and skills you need to carry to grow a garden. I also learned the several different ways to grow plants rather it be inorganic or organic. The place I choose to place 10 plants was in my backyard. On the right side, there is a fence which may help out when the crops start to sprout it will use a leverage for growth. The plants will grow in a column like station knowing that is the previous space my family uses for growing other crops which made it idealistic to place. The space measured out 3 square by 6 square with a total of 18 ft squared. Next, I placed 3 Tupperware which measured as h=6 in and l= 4.5 w= 5 with a total of 120 in cube each. The plants I decided to grow was cucumbers, parsnip, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, beans, celery, corn, radish, and dill. If I was to grow the peas and potatoes next to each other instead far apart it will cause a bad companion and cause a relation of competition knowing they will fight for survival such as sunlight, nutrients, and space.

My nitrogen levels were at a medium level which means I would have to apply a moderate amount of fish meal to my soil. I chose fish meal because it was a light enhancement. The meal is 4 lbs per 100 sq ft. I first had to calculate my square footage. My nitrogen turned out 1.38 and as for my potassium, it was 307 as it did not need any further calculations and as for phosphorus, it turned out to 2.78.

In this unit, we also read a book called One Straw Revolution and a reflection on Fukuoka practices of farming and how they differ from the norm of agriculture. Fukuoka practiced natural farming which included no pesticides, herbicides, mechanical plowing, and chemical fertilizer. Comparing this to my garden I can say I will not need to do most of these things knowing I have such a small space and using too much can drown the plants into a lot of absorbent of unnecessary chemicals which means I will use his practices on natural farming by leaving it to nature.

Overall I can say this unit Really opened my eyes to find out how fragile everything really is and how easy it is for organisms to develop unbalanced. I also learned That everything on this Earth has a purpose in life in a way that we help each other out to grow and keep surviving as a balanced community similar to what Fukuoka has stated

My M.A.G.I.C. Plan

In this elective term M.A.G.I.C. I learned several qualities of "successful people and the "successful" journey I will take. In the begging of this class, we identified what success means to us and my definition of success would be being sustained and fulfilled. Throughout this class we had multiple people come in and talk about their journey of the profession they have whether it was a UIC women's soccer coach, politician, life coach, a mentor, or a poet. I grasped a lot of information from the people and put it in terms of what I want to do for my personal journey. My Influencer was Stephen King who is an author of several horror novels. The reason I choose him as an influential person because his skill to bring word to life in a thrilling way is admiring. Last but not least my M.A.G.I.C. plan is being a film director.

Dreamcatchers

For my second unit in Who am I we learned about dreams. In this class we analyzed our unconscious and consciousness mind and the affects it has on dreams. We learned about the Freud theory which consist the id, ego, and superego. With this information we learned how and what is pathologist. In this process we learned the definition and meaning behind making a dream catcher. As we created our own into our own definition.

GA, Dream Catcher, (2017)

      This is a wide shot of my dream catcher it is meant to catch bad dreams and let the good dreams pass through. It advocates positive sleep, that were created by Native Americans. It lets the good dreams pass through the circle and then flow down the string into the individual. The bad dreams are caught in the circle and then they disappear when the sun rises up. The hoop of the dream catcher indicates strength and the center of the hoop means your bliss. The center of your dream catcher often is something that makes you happy. My bliss would be G-D. This symbolizes my religion which is catholic and the strong connection I have with my belief. For the hoop I wrapped it with yellow and blue pipe cleaners because they are my favorite colors. They symbolize harmonize, sooth, creativity, power, energy which is what I want to keep in my dreams. I also brought white thread in the center of my dream catcher. It symbolizes the good and the bad, such as positiveness, emptiness, open-minded, darkness, and uncontrollable. As I sleep I like to experience everything rather that is good and bad dreams as I believe they both have a powerful meaning.

GA, close up of the Dream Catcher, (2017)

      One dream that affects my dream catcher is me getting kidnapped. In this dream I had to go through games and levels to no get caught. I this dream I did not feel scared rather happy of getting kidnapped. At the end I lost and got robbed I woke up before I can see what would happen to me. The blue and yellow both have the same meaning which is the joy and rush I felt completing each level. The white thread represents how clueless and curious I was to finding out what will happen next as I didn't knew f it was good or bad.

    In the bottom of my hoop it represents togetherness. The blue strings started of as 3 individual string but as I connect them in a braid. This represents how each individual can bring there strengths to the table and share within a group to success. If I was able to ask this dream any question I wouldn't. The thing I like about my dream is how I try figure out the meaning and why I had it. So if I was to ask it a dream I would know the answer which is what I don't want. If I was able to go back to this dream I would like to have undone choices that made it harder for them to catch me. For example, I chose to help a little girl from a kidnapper and take the journey with me. If I was able to go back I would of left her behind as she nearly killed me.

My Solution to Pollution

As I end Fuel with the 3rd and last action project I introduce to you "My solution to pollution". In this course we learned about the impact pollution has on yourself and the world around you. In this project we learned how much we and our neighborhood pollute. While we learned the impact and importance of pollution we also learned ways to improve our choices to decrease our carbon footprint and what actions we can take to decrease the global carbon ppm. One of the challenges I faced was balancing chemical bonds. Something that I am proud of is the knowledge I gained in terms of knowing how severe pollution really is.

Hydroelectric Is Your New Investment

In our course Fuel we are making a renewable energy infomercial of our chosen energy source. I picked Hydroelectric, and in this infomercial I talk about the advantages, disadvantages, and business who uses this energy source. Once I found out how much a hydro plant costs to built and its annual savings I was able to turn it into a function to find out how many years it will take to make a profit. The most challenging part for me was being able to record the audio to my presentation. What I am most proud of is what I have learned in this course. I learned about functions, types of energy, and nonrenewable/renewable sources.  
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I Believe

In this class Who am I we learned about truth and memory. We learned about our definition of truth and belief. My belief was dreams. My strength throughout this experience was the essay. I enjoy writing everything I learned and connecting it to a main message. One of my challenges was the audio as had not many resources. I recorded and edited all of my podcast on my phone. In closing I found out my truth and belief ties in together in a wave of change.

Natural Gas Pshh...More Like Pathetic Trash!

In this unit of Fuel we presented a slideshow on our chosen nonrenewable source. I picked Natural gas and the ethane molecule. We had one country to compare its consumption to that of the US. With my chosen country which is Ukraine I used several math equations that involved finding my slope, equations, and the point of intersection for the two countries.