A Day in the Bay from Sebastian Zermeno on Vimeo.

During the last classes we were supposed to make a video about any topic that represent us. The video should only have photos of three seconds each and videos no longer than 10 seconds, it must have a duration of 2:30 min. For the theme of my video I focused in the Sun including the beach in some photos. First, I thought to make my video about the Malecon or my life in a day, but I reconsidered all my ideas and I chose the Sun for my theme because it is easy to make many photos about it.

To make my videos I use all the states of the Sun: morning, evening and night. The part that I enjoyed most was the activity of taking photos, I took my cell phone and started to take them placing it in some good spots to get some really good photos and I think I did. I took like 90 photos and put them into the school´s computer. Then, I put a name for every photo, which took me a long time to name all of them. After that, I had to take different pictures from a minimum of 5 classmates, many photos were pretty bad, almost nobody put effort in taking them, so I just chose 5 pictures, the better I could find. As soon as I finished that part, I had to arrange the photos chronologically, following the transition of the Sun. Then, I just added some transition and video effects, and the song: "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra. I had many problems while I was doing my video, for example: the computer I use at school, froze every 10 min. and I had to save it after any change I did to it, them when I wanted to open my video, I spent 5 min. waiting the computer to load the video. I had many problems like these, so those problems made me publish my video 3 days after the due date.

Today, our teacher showed a video about showing one day on Earth with pictures and really short videos. The video was just an trailer about expressing any part of your life in one day. The video shows the good and bad moments the Earth is coming through, the starvation, pollution, wars, but also the happiness of people who live in peace with each other. It makes you think about the problems that we are ignoring and we should do something about it. It is really good because it makes you think about your life and what are you doing with it. It really gives you the idea of showing your life in a 24 hour period, expressing how you identify yourself and things that you like. Our life could be represented in any way, videos, pictures, sound....anything thing we love to do.

The video shows very powerful scenes that are occurring today on the world. For example, the one-leg man that high jumped a height of 1.80 meters. That short video has a great impact because it makes you think, what are you doing with your legs? Just sitting all the time in front of a computer doing nothing productive. In the video, there are many things that really get into your mind. It gives you the idea of changing the world, making it better for all the living things. Actually, we can do that if we put it as a purpose, making that every single person think about what is happening today in the world, encouraging everybody to make everything better.

Fuel Efficiency

During the last days, we have been working with Excel measuring the amount of fuel we waste every day, week, and year. We measured the amount of fuel our cars, dreamed cars, and hybrid cars use. There is a variation in Liters/Km. between the cars, but all waste fuel. We also measured the amount of fuel wasted by alternative means of transportation. If we multiply the amount of cars in Puerto Vallarta and the amount of fuel each wastes, that's a lot of fuel. Hybrid cars are better than normal cars because they can use electric energy as a fuel. They also are made from organic products.
After looking at the huge oil spill, I realized that the use of fuels is very dangerous for the environment. During the worst oil spill 464 sea turtles and 60 dolphins were found dead at the spill area. The owners of the BP are trying to clean this mess up, but it is a huge quantity they spilled up, 190 millions gallons of oil in three months.
I wan to have my own car but I know it will harm the environment. It would be nice to have one but after I remember this events I prefer to wait until I really need it.

Measuring With Google Earth

Since two weeks ago we have been working with Google Earth. Now, Mr. Picketts assigned us to do a chart with the amount of gasoline we use per year while we go to school, a total of 185 days . My 2008 Ford Pick-up Limited FFV 4WD uses 817.948 liters per year, I think that's pretty much fuel for just one car. My dream car,2011 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder spends less fuel (736.4666 L,), but is smaller than the Pick-up I have. In a way it is better because it spends less gasoline, but it is a small car, so I think my Pick- up is better in a way. Now, I think that my car spends a high quantity of gasoline, but almost every car spends the same.

2008 Ford Pick-up Limited FFV 4WD						26.1 L/100 Km.	2.21067	11.05335	408.974	$3,680.77
2011 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder						23.5 L/ !00 Km.	1.99045	9.95225	368.2333	$3,314.10
2011 Honda Civic Hybrid						5.9 L/100 Km.	0.99946		185.9001	$1,673.10
2011 Mercury Mariner Hybrid 4WD						7.8 L/100 Km.	1.32132		244.4442	$2,200.00

Goodle Earth Tours

Since the last week, we were supposed to make a Google Earth Tour about our vacation trip and then post it into moodle. Today at class, we watched 3 different tours from our classmates. The first tour that I saw was from Sofia. She did it just fine, I like it. At first, she showed the five places she traveled during her summer vacation, and let some time to observe them which is really good. One thing she could improve would be the movement of the screen, because sometimes she moved it very fast so just to move the screen slower. The second tour was from Hope, she did it really good. In her tour she put some comments about her summer vacation, that gives us and understanding about her travel. One thing she could improve would be to let the spectator some time to look at the places she went. The third tour was from Rodrigo, he made his tour just in Puerto Vallarta. He showed very well all the places he went during his summer vacation. He also let some time to observe the places, that was a good quality. One thing he could improve would be to put some comments or describe his travel through Fluvial. In my tour I put all the places I traveled during my summer vacation, I started from a very far distance to show the country I was traveling on. One thing that I should improve would let more time to observe the places I went, and add some comments.

JOY

  This weekend I worked at my dad’s restaurant. It was pretty entertaining because there was a group of Americans that were having a great time. I enjoy working at my dad’s restaurant because I get to meet new people and also have fun. Not only that, but my dad buys me stuff from time to time. For example, the TV and the iPod Touch I have were bought to me because I worked at the restaurant. It is also a great experience because you get to learn all types of values.

Something I would like to do for me would be to enjoy life at its maximum. For example I love videogames. One day I would really like to invent my own videogame. It would be pretty awesome because I would create all this new characters and their weapons and stuff. It would be really cool to be able to experience with all kinds of new characters invented by myself. Creating something or doing something that you like is way better because you enjoy your work.

What makes me special is that I can be a very good friend. I go with my friends if they need help or something and that is a very good quality because whenever a friend needs help I will help them. Another good part of me that makes me special is that I am also funny. In the tensest moments I can say some random thing and break the silence. They say that laughter is the best cure to sadness and depression, and that is something that even though we all have to go through, we don’t have to suffer that much.

Typing Tracker

During the last year at Computers, we have being doing some exercises about typing to write better on the computers. Everyday after recess, we come in to the lab and we start to type on our Typing Tests, sometimes from 5 minutes to 20 min. At first, I had a medium speed at the keyboard, but then by the pass of the time, I did it faster. Now, at viewing my typing tracker I realized that I improved my speed and accuracy. In my opinion I have a nice speed at the keyboard (about 27 words per min.). I am very comfortable with my speed.

I don't think that typing should be included as part of the course of study in ninth grade because really, it is a waste of time. We could use that time to do something else than just type and type, like to start with our work because we never have sufficient time.

MAP Graphs

Math Score

This graph really shows my score in math because it shows how I increased my score on the MAP tests from last year. Then it goes down because I have not taken the next year's tests. I think this is the best graph because it shows my score in a simple way.

Language Score

This graph may be kind of complicated because it doesn't show immediately my score, but at least it shows my results in my MAP tests.

Reading Score

This is a very simple graph. It shows my results and how I changed them by the pass of the year.

Oil Spill

Approximately one month ago an horrible accident occurred. In April 20 the Deepwater Horizon (An oil rig) caught fire after an explosion and then sank. One of the biggest reasons of why did it sank was the great distance from the platform to the seabed (1 500 Km.) The ocean currents moved the tube and broke it. The owner of the company in charge of that platform, the British Petroleum Company, has tried many different things to stop the oil spill, but the great distance doesn't make possible those attempts. The oil spill is still going on, if you see at the magnitude of the spill, you will notice that the spill is bigger than some small countries.

Right now the oil spill represents big problems. The hurricanes season is coming and the wind currents will make that oil spill move to the nearer shores (Possibly Mexico and USA.) The BP said it would attempt to drill two relief wells to intercept the oil flow and divert it to new pipes and storage vessels. It said it was also working to fabricate a dome to cover the leak area and channel it into a new pipe to storage facilities. In my opinion, it is really hard to do those ideas because of the distance; but we still have to be positive and think that some day the BP will stop this horrible event. Once that the spill is stopped the BP will clean all the oil from the shores and the gulf of Mexico.

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oceanography-book/Images/ixtox1.jpg

MAP Testing Week

Last week we did the MAP Testing. The MAP Testing Week consists in three tests, Language, Reading, and Math. In every test are from 42 to 52 questions. The tests are very simple, yo just read the questions and select the answer from A, B, C, D, or E. At first, I was kind of nervous because I really wanted to improve my last MAP Testing Results. The first test was about Math, when I started it, it was easy but then the electricity from the classroom went out and all the computers turned off. That was really awful. Then, at the other 3 day I did my MAP Tests. I tried to improve my score and pass my objective, but I only reached one. I improve my score in the other 2 tests, but I didn't passed my objective. For now I am happy with my scores because I improved them all, so I think that's nice.
Image from: http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/psychtoons/glasbergen/StressManagement/StillStressedOut.gif

The Werewolf

And it happened again; some kind of unknown creature had walked into the farm of the old Garrison and killed his cattle. Mr. Garrison informed to the police about the previous events, all the city of New Hills was looking for any clue that could guide to that unknown creature. Henry, a “normal” adolescent from New Hills, woke up near the farm with a horrible taste in his mouth, like if he ripped off an animal’s guts, and his clothes were all torn. He ran to his house and prepared for another day of school. He didn’t understand what happened in that place, and he couldn’t take out of his mind that horrible taste of guts. While he was walking home from school, he saw many signs saying things about the searching of a mysterious creature. He tried to investigate for it, looking for clues and asking things to people who lived near the farm. No one knew anything about it. Later on, he discovered that the creature appeared on a night with full moon, it could stand on two feet and was all covered by a thick fur, he also looked at the poor victim from the last attack and he saw many teeth on the animal’s neck, all were very sharp and big. Then, he tried to explain how he woke up on that place, but he only could think about horrible possibilities….What if he was the mysterious creature?

Henry tried to find different ways to explain what happened that night in the farm, but all was connected, he waking up near the farm, his horrible taste in his mouth, and his clothes. He tried to prove that possibility by taping himself on a night with full moon. He was ready; on a night with full moon, he put his videotape on and started to record all the events of the night. He leaned back on his bed and fell asleep. Furthermore, something horrible happened, his body started to shake and hair grew hair all over him. After that, he converted into a “werewolf” and went out of his house. Finally, he woke up in the woods, at the same situation like the last time, but now he didn’t killed an animal, he killed a man. Henry was in shock, he couldn’t believe that he killed that man. He ran to his house and watched the video. His expectations were right; he was the creature, the werewolf. At the end, he sought to never hurt or kill anybody and he vanished through the woods. He never was seen again in New Hills.

Presentations

Today I graded Laura's Presentation. She talked about the water pollution as I did. She has a very nice presentation, she explained what is water pollution, its mortal effects, and why is it so important to us. My presentation is very similar as Laura's PowerPoint, but I talked about why water keeps us alive, the harmful effects of water pollution and how we can prevent it. If I would have to do it again I would write more information and study what I'm going to say when I have to present it.

PowerPoint Presentation

Today during computers class we saw a video about what not to do in a PowerPoint. He was like a comedian because he explained the flaws in a very hilarious way.

One day Mr. Laposky assigned us a project about drugs. Everybody were in pairs and we were supposed to do a PowerPoint Presentation to talk about our drug. The PowerPoint must last 15 minutes and cover all kind of different questions about the drug. It was a lot of information to talk about it. So everybody copied and pasted all the information. Someones summarized the info but many just copied and pasted it in their PowerPoints. That was very funny because they just copied the information.. they didn't read it before doing that, so by the time they had to present their Power they didn't know what they were going to say.

25 Things I Love/Hate About Facebook

Love Facebook:

1. Ninja Saga

2. Mafia Wars

3. Farmville

4. Friends

5. Facebook chat

6. Pictures

7. Videos

8. Comments

9. Stay in touch with friends from long distances

10. Socializing

11. Meet new people

12. New pictures

13. Get concern about recent news

14. Say Hi to friends

15. Posts

16. Notifications

17. Stalking

18. Simple design

19. Is relaxing

20. Everyone have a Facebook profile

21. News Feed and most recent news

22. Applications

23. Groups

24. MindJolt Games

25. Messages

Hate Facebook:

1. Pet Society

2. Poking

3. Ugly tags

4. Group invitations

5. Gift requests

6. Unknown people

7. Weird people

8. Stalkers

9. FB Chat

10. "Like"

11. Pillow fight requests

12. Too many status updates

13. No privacy

14. Not safe

15. Event invites

16. Chains

17. Weird comments

18. Everyone can see your pictures

19. Highly addictive

20. Addictive games

21. Lots of notifications

22. Facebook quizzes

23. 11:11

24. Waste of time

25. Being tagged in a photo you're not in

Earth Day Rubric

During grading the Earth Day Videos I realized that it's hard to choose the grade both videos deserve. There are many things I want to change on my video. First, introduce more pictures because I thought that we only needed three for the video. Second and last, to make it larger with a bigger poem. Both videos were great, I liked one video more than the other one but the students did great on this assignment

Water Pollution

In my opinion water pollution is the most important problem that the Earth is facing today. I believe that, because without water there wouldn't be life in this planet. All living organisms need water to survive. Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies. Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water; and, in almost all cases the effect is damaging either to individual species and populations, but also to the natural biological communities.

So, as I said water is what keep us alive. If we keep polluting water life on Earth will disappear. Water pollution affects everyone, people, animals, plants.... everything. Boston Harbor is an excellent example of how badly pollution can damage bodies of water. The water is filled with toxic waste and sewage, and routinely receives more waste when rainfall pushes it into the harbor.

There are many causes of water pollution. The specific contaminants leading to pollution in water include a wide spectrum of chemicals, pathogens, and physical or sensory changes such as elevated temperature and discoloration. While many of the chemicals and substances that are regulated may be naturally occurring the concentration is often the key in determining what is a natural component of water, and what is a contaminant.

We can still save the planet, we only have to: Replace shower heads and faucet aerators with water efficient models. Use a water-filled milk jug or plastic bottle in your toilet tank to displace water; this allows your toilet

to operate using less water. Choose non phosphate or low phosphate detergents. High phosphate levels in lakes and streams

can kill fish and other wildlife. Use a broom instead of water to clean your driveway or garage . Do not sweep debris into the

street or storm sewer. Put a spray nozzle on the end of your hose for car washing and plant watering to prevent the hose

from continually releasing water and to control the amount of water used.

So here's my opinion about water pollution. We should take care of it now, when we still have some time before everything in Earth collapses at cause of water pollution. I'm posting too some excellent ways to prevent water pollution so everyone can see them and use them to help the world.

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution#Causes_of_water_pollution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution#Control_of_water_pollution

Earth Day Video

In our computer class we were assigned to do a video about the Earth Day. The video should have a poem or a song, three or more pictures and a duration of minimum one minute. The song we use for this video is named Hana (Flower) by Masaaki Kishibe. It is a really good song, it's some kind of romantic and lovely. So we think that would be the perfect song for our video. We chose three pictures for our poem. The first one is about the Malecon, we chose it to reflect the part of our poem that talks about the sea. The second picture is the moon to reflect the part when we talk about it in our poem. The third image is the Caballito at a beautiful sunset. So we could see one of the most important scultures in the Malecon. The make the video it was very difficult by the time I went back to home Rodrigo was still doing the video. At the end he did it and uploaded it into YouTube.

Spring Break

During the last 2 weeks we were on Spring Break. It was really good to have some time to get relaxed from school. The firsts days I was very excited because I was in vacations! The first thing I did was to have a really good nap. Then I didn't know what thing I should do first...

A cousin came from Guadalajara and was the birthday of his mom. All our family gathered on a restaurant named "Los Gallos". It was really good and all of us had a great time talking and eating. Then my cousin came to my house and played "PES 2009" (a soccer video game). The next day he went home.

Then a friend called Diego came and sleep three days in my house. During the first day we watched a soccer game, it was awesome, but for some reason I can't remember the winner of that game. Then we used my computer. The next day we went with a friend to Plaza Caracol, we bought a hamster and we walked all over the place. The third day I came out of my house without telling my parents, I was with a group of friends. I walked home at 2:00 am and my dad was very mad at me. He punished me for the last week of vacations. If I could change something that would be, I would tell my parents besides just go away.

The last week of Spring Break was very boring, I couldn't be able to hang out with my friends.... One day I went to a boat with my family. We ate at "Paya Las Animas". The restaurant was really good and I fell asleep after eating. Then we came back to home. I watched the soccer game of Chivas vs America (Chivas won 1-0 against America). And the soccer game of Barcelona vs Real Madri(Barcelona won the game by two goals).

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There are thousands of good reasons of why you should learn another language. One of that many reasons is that learning another language can help you to go in another country. If you're tired of your same language and the same people you can learn another language and go to another country!!! Like Iraq, Israel, Vietnam.... or many other countries. You will spend your time in a useful thing. Many languages can make you get many different jobs related to certain language. You will be very entertained learning a new language because it would be a challenge to understand it and speak it.

It would be very interesting search about a language, know from where it comes from, when it was created, and in what regions is that language spoken. You can learn a missed language too, like from an old civilization. It would be harder but it would give a great award, the award of knowledge. There are many many archeologists that use all their knowledge to discover that language, they focus all their energy in that challenge. You can learn a language as a hobby, while you don't have anything else to do or learn it as a purpose, studying it all days until you learn it correctly.

In conclusion, learning a language is one of the best things you could do, because you would have the double of chance than a mono lingual person. It would be very helpful because in some part of your life you will need to speak another language. It's a great hobby, it prevents you to do bad things or become an addict to some type of drug. So, focus on learning a new language now, you can learn 1 language, 2, 3, and even more!

8th Grade Rotoball

8th Grade RotoBall from mistermark on Vimeo.

On the last weeks we worked in a flash video project. The videos should be at least 15 seconds long and the ball should come from left and to right. One of the main problems I had with my flash project was that I couldn't introduce my objects for my ball. I tried many many times using photoshop and other programs but it still couldn't be pasted in my flash video. Finally, I drew the objects and transformed them into the things I wanted to be. I spent like two or more classes trying to paste the object, but now, besides all that problems my video looks very good.

Rotoball Video

I really liked the video a lot. It was awesome all the imagination from the videos. Some have many problems with their videos. Sometimes their background or their moves don't look good, so they have to fix them. I think they should add more frames to add some movements and make good backgrounds because some looks very awful. Only a few people did it wrong, so they have to pay the consequences :D. Fortunately my video was PERFECT! I'm really happy about my results, because I really put a lot of effort on my video. Thanks to our partner Rodrigo for making this great video.

Rotoball Idea

I had many many ideas for my Rotoball video. The idea I like most is the one of taking the ball from the right and transform it into a big gun, then just start to shoot at some guy or something else. I think that's a good idea, and it's very easy to do it. I chose this idea from many others because I wanted to be creative, and have an unique idea. Many other students made a video about kicking a ball and doing some tricks. Boring. So that's why I think that I had and unique idea

PART 3: Social Networking -- Keeping in Touch

Many people fight through the internet because they are afraid from that person. They use internet to not deal with them face to face, they can say to you many bad things but you can't do anything to them, so they are safe. Online fighting doesn't help anybody, it only makes you feel anger and hate for that person, what is the good thing for that?. You can say bad things to somebody and be safe in your comfortable house, but someday you will face him, and that would not be good.

PART 5: Parenting, Privacy and Control

Our parents are afraid from the "Predators", they are kidnappers or some pervert. They can ask you your personal information or get it from Facebook or MySpace. Our parents only want to protect us but there are not too many "Predators" as the video says. Obviously we are not going to tell a strange where do we live or some stuff like that , but we must be conscious that there are many dangers in internet. Some web sites are very dangerous because everyone can see your personal information, photos, friends, family members, etc. So I think somebody must make them more secure for teenagers and adults.

PART 2: Digital Media in Schools

Cheating is something every student do, cheating is a way to get a good grade from an easy way. You can cheat in many ways like copy the answers from a paper or a friend's notebook, take summaries or read summaries on web sites. Cheating is very common but it is bad to do it, because you must be responsible to do your assignments and homework so if you only copy it, you would not learn anything and while you are copying to get a good grade another student is putting a lot of effort to get a 10. Like when a teacher assign us to make an essay from something we are learning, somebody can start is from the first day by his own, while other student is being lazy all day, and by the end he only search on a web site and find all the essay. Both can get a 10 but it would be better if you put effort and do it by your own.

Growing Up Online Part 2

I think that some of my teachers are entertainers because they have to distract us from doing nothing and help us to learn, my teachers never stop talking and asking question, so we have to always pay attention in class, but some only assign us work, so that's boring and we started to distract in other things. In my opinion this is really wrong because their job is to teach us things and not be an entertainer and our responsibility is to pay attention to our teachers and do all our assignments during class, we come to school to learn and not to play.
If some kid only copy summaries from web sites and giving them to his teacher, he should feel very guilty because he is being a cheater, very unfair because while he is only copying; a true student is putting a lot of effort to his work to obtain a 10. Copying is a easy 10 but if you do it by your own maybe it would be a 10 or not but the good thing is that you will remember that you tried to get it.

Growing Up Online Part 1

The computer is very different than the radio, books, or TV because you can chat and socialize with many different people and can help you in works; but it not so different comparing it with video games because you can chat and socialize with friends too like with the xbox 360 you can have facebook and twitter.Almost the computer in my home is used to download music and get information for homework. Mostly my mom is the only person who use my computer because she is downloading a lot of different songs. The computer in my home is placed in my room its some kind of disturbing because if somebody wants to use it, he or she has to be in my room. My computer is used everyday almost all day, my mom is the only one who use it because of her i pod

Christmas Vacation

During this Christmas I did a lot of things, like hang out with my friends, my family and play xbox. I remember one day that I went to Galerias with two friends, at the end the security guards take us out because one friend was doing ad things, then we went to the oxxo and tried to go in Galerias again but the guards take us out again. I went too to the canopy with many friends, it was amazing because we could see all the mountains during the traveling of all the ropes, we also went into the river it was very very cold. Then we went to Galerias and watch the movie of Avatar, it is a good movie but it has too many fiction. I also spent many time of my vacations playing xbox because I didnt have anything else to do.....boring.

In the Christmas Day my uncle invited my family and me to their house to eat and have a good Christmas Eve. In the house was my four uncles, two aunts and my cousins. We talk about many different things about our life. We ate turkey and pork, I ate a lot because it was delicious at the end all were very satisfied about the dinner and the wonderful night. At home I couldn't sleep I don't know why maybe for the anxious to open the gifts of something like that, finally I fall asleep watching The Grinch about 6 a.m. The next day it was time to open the presents!!!! I was very excited and my sister and brother too. Finally, we opened the presents my parents gave me clothe, a wallet and sunglasses. I'm very happy about what they gave to me because I didn't wish any present for this Christmas. My little brother obtain almost the same than me except for a video game, he seems very happy. My older sister received a kit of perfumes of Dolce&Gabanna. My mom received a bag of Louis Vuitton, and my dad a pair of crocks and a toy!!
At New Years I went to the house of my grandmother from part of my mom, it was all nice and the food was delicious, but the only problem is that almost all my cousins are little kids except one that has the same age than me. We went to the terrace and watch all the fireworks, we could see all the fireworks from all the coast. At the end I get bored and walked home with my brother to our house. When we reached our home it was like 2 a.m. We doesn't know what to do so finally we played xbox until 12 p.m.