Colin's Journal

 

Dec 3 : Today Reid and I set up our website for the first time.

Everything went well, Reid did most of the work because I had

soccer tonight. Tommorow night I probably will need his help again

because I have a soccer game till 11:00. Reid and I have worked

out a plan were he works early afternoon, and then I work late

afternoon after my soccer. He cannot work in the late afternoon

because of his gymnastics.

 

In my preliminary reasearch I figured out that our bacteria is gram-positive.

Also, this bacteria is closely related to anthrax. It also lives in the ground, or

in the stomachs of catepillars. It seems to be used as an insecticide.

 

Dec 4 : Today was a hard day, I got absolutely no chance to do work.

I was at a  soccer game from 4:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. We won the

game, but I am rather tired, so I will make tonights journal short.

After hearing about peoples plans to spruce up there web site with

games, I have decided to make 3d models of our bacteria. If I

can get my hands on a copy of the software needed, this will be easy

to do and impresssive looking. Still I am amazingly grateful to have a

partner who can cover for me on these days.

 

 

Dec 5 : I did a small amount of research tonight, turns out that

the Bacillus Thringiensis is mostly used as a pesticide against leaf eaters.

Our site will definately have lots of extended reading. There is alot of

information about our crop and plants, but there is not very much about it

itself. Still it seems to be one of the few safe pesticides, because it can only

bond witha certain cell in animals guts, and only a few insects have those cells.

 

Dec 6 : Tonight I made a flash animation for our website. As I type I am

uploading it to youtube. This animation took me 2 hours to make, and

1 hour to figure out how to upload. Still, I am glad that I have Reid to

cover me when I cannot research. So far we have lots of websites.

We just need to interpret there information.

 

Dec 7 : Today was a friday so I didnt do very much on this project I am hoping

to get alot of the work done on sunday, but I also have to finish my English paper

Still, since I finsihed our animation, I really am starting to see our website

come together. Reid and I have most of our websites lined up, we just have to

note them, review them, and then right our info. I have done none of the

website reviews yet, but those will take me 30 minutes tops. Still we have to

type up our info.

 

Dec 8 : Today was a saturday, I didnt work very much on the project.

I tweaked my animation alittle bit, so the timing was right. Also I read Reed's

journal. His is much better than mine. I still am a little confused on the length

of the journal entries, but hope that mine is close the the correct length.

This project is one of my favorites, instead of writing a bland paper, I get to

create something that people will actually get to read. I think it helps me learn

material faster if I can see a real use for it in my future. Also being able to finish

a whole flash animation has been nice. When I took classes to teach me, I never

really finished a project.

 

Dec 9 :Today was a sunday, and therefore I had alot of time to work on this project,

unfortunately I had an english paper to write, and could not find the time to start.

I really need to start the work before it overloads Reid and I before sunday.

Still, since we already have our websites, the research should not be very hard.

I also have printed out our website evaluations. I will probably be responsible for

about half of them, because Reid has already done about half.

 

Dec 10 : Today I did not get very much work done, this is because I had an orthodonist

appointment after school, and then after that I had to get my haircut. Still I plan on doing

most of my work this thursday, when I have alot of time. I have decided that I will not do

another animation, but will probably have to re upload the current animation, because

theyre still are some timing problems. Still, I think that my journal looks impressive so far,

having completed seven hundred and six words. This is exciting to me because it shows

how easy it is to write when you spread it out over a few days.

 

Dec 11 : Today we had a work day in class. I started to fill out my research. Today I just

filled out my general information, like its purpose, and where it is found naturally. Reid spent

all of class making citations. His citations look really good, and now that he has finished them

Info will start to be added to our notes. Lately I have been working very late on this project

and I hope that I will get a good grade. Especially when Reid and I put so much time into it.

 

Dec 12 : Today I had to memorize a poem for Mr. Pomeroy's english class, and therefore did

not therefore have much time to work. Still, the hardest part of this project is citing all of

my information. It really discourages me from doing notes if I have to cite every little thing.

I think it was a mistake to throw us students straight into citations that college students

use for their disserations. It is mean, and we have had no experience. Therefore we are

prone to screw up a big portion of our grade becuase of misunderstandings.

 

Dec 13 : Today was my mom's birthday. Also I had a soccer game. While I couldnt do any

work tonight, I typed up a large quantity of my notes, and catagorized them. Also I was

that Reid added some pictures. He also seemed to have started his notes. I think that if

Reid and I dedicate a good portion of our saturday, we can make a very good looking website.

Still, I have plans to go to the trail of lights with friends that I may have to cancel. I hope that I

can go as I have never been to the trail of lights.

 

Dec 14 : Today was a friday. Today I fixed our animation and found a video on youtube that

pertains to our bacteria. The video is very high quality, and looks like it was on Nova, or

Modern Marvels. Still there is alot of work to do, but Reid has already edited the info once.

Tommorow will be a big work day. Still, I am feeling really good about our project, at first

there didnt seem to be any information, but once we dug deeper, I realized how much was

possible for our website.

 

Dec 15 : Today was a big workday. Reid typed all of our information up, than I proofread

and added more. Also, I added all of our citations. The citation probably took just as long

as typing and interpreting all of our information. All of the little things that I had to add

was pretty crazy. First I had to cite all our pictures, than I had to edit all the text styles on

all of our pages so they matched and looked consistent. Today was alot of work, but doing it

all will make tommorow much easier.

 

Dec 16 : Today is a big day, I just hope I remember to turn this in on time. Still I have spent

almost a whole other day on this. There are alot of little things that I notice whenever I

surf through our website. Still it is looking really good, and I hope for a good grade. Reid

and I have worked on it really hard. I also added citations for 3 books that I checked out of

the UT library. One of them was a paperback book only on our bacteria. The other two were

bio chemistry textbooks. Still I am hoping for a good grade.