Masterpiece Academy Questions

Matt Reynolds

Dr. Preston

Expos comp.

2 June 2014

                                                             Masterpiece Academy Questions

   

   I have changed so much in the two years I have had Dr. Preston as a teacher. I remember the first day of school as a sophomore, he told us about the class and how he would like to take it, then he just walked out and told us to take a vote. It was unanimous, and thats how my journey started. Honestly it took almost the entire year to understand that this class could be whatever we wanted it to be and that the learning is all up to us. Thats why I decided to take his class again as a senior. I was not disappointed either, I had a leg up on most kids because I already knew the structure that the class would follow. So i did my own thing with Preston watching over my shoulder to guide me when I would get lost. 

   I spent most of my time learning about stuff I knew would be useful in my future, stuff that had to do with aviation. Flying, planes, airport management, the whole lot. I think as the class progressed I improved my writing skills and the way I would think about just about everything.

  One thing that is a huge issue in Open Source Learning is trust. Without trust you have nothing to work with, sure I could say that I've been working at home but its honestly hard to show proof of everything. As a class though we were mostly honest and did our work. Most of us earned it through our dedication to our masterpieces. I do think that some people took advantage of it though and really slacked off.

   I have connection with my passion for flying, I mean I got accepted to my choice college under a BS in Aviation Operations so how sweet is that!? I will continue to learn about this at SJSU and hopefully make a career out of it in the future. 

Something that made me "LoL" would have to be reading other peoples blogs. I dont mean this in a rude way at all. I just find it amusing to see what my friend has to say about something we both had to write about and how we could come to two very different conclusions. 

  A theme that connected the presentations would definitely have to be passion. Without the passion to work so long on one single presentation it would have all been crap. Just about every person in the class worked their asses off to make their masterpiece. That took a very clear passion for the thing they love, but also a lot of dedication. For example my masterpiece was on Aviation, it took almost three months from the start to get everything in place for a 30 minute presentation. 

I don't think I have completed my journey. This was more of my first challenge, now that I'm graduating soon Ill be going to a university to continue my education and i feel like that is where my real journey begins. This was just a warm up to get me ready for the real world. 

The Masterpiece

My interview is here

Our edited video is right here

Elizabeths interview ...

and some cool pictures Lizz took.  :D


Special thanks to Danny Luu for editing this video and letting us use his gopro, Ed Mandibles for letting us fly in his plane. also Dr. Preston and Scott Howell.

Hope you all enjoyed these videos. There is about another hour of footage but we didnt want to bore the class to death, so if you would like to see those follow me or Danny Luu on youtube and we will try our best to get those up.

5-13 update

Interviews are done. All the video has been shot. Now we are waiting on Danny Luu to edit/revise our videos, and Elizabeth Sandoval to create her picture montage.

Beginnings 2

She put a finger to his lips. "Stop," she said. "We shouldn't"
Eddie pulled away. It had been like this the past couple of days he thought. He pours himself another drink and then sits on the couch to watch the game. "What's going on?" He asked. "We rarely talk anymore."

She walked over to the balcony, back turned to him. She said over her shoulder "I just don't know if I can do this anymore, living like this, as if we rule the world and money is nothing to us." She turned around and faced him, "I miss the way things used to be, back when we had nothing but the clothes on our backs and each other."

Eddie looked away from the tv and took a drink. "This is what you wanted." He said, "Back then all you spoke about is how great our life would be if we had money, and now that we do, all you do is complain about it."

Eddie got up and walked over to the balcony.


To be continued...

What the heck is this? I've heard stories about how people get a few hundred views a week. This is the blog I have had since day 1 of this class. Sometimes I feel extremely unmotivated for this class. And I think this is the reason why. I have no audience. I have no comments. Hardly any page views. Some of the only comments I have are from other students when it was a mandatory homework assignment.

Masterpiece interview

Elizabeth Sandoval: Elizabeth is working on photography and journalism. She is doing this because it's what she wants to do with her life and she thinks it's fun and interesting. It is significant because like I said in the previous sentence it's her passion and it's what she wants to do with her life. One thing that surprises Elizabeth is that there is beauty in everything. Especially from the sky, a simply barren field had it's own story when you fly over it at 800 feet. What she needs to have this done on time is to edit all the pictures and video together.

I couldn't find two other people because since we had a sub they were just talking about random useless junk.

Post flight update

Well, two planes took off yesterday afternoon. And two planes landed yesterday afternoon.we cheated death again. So just going to give a brief summary of what happened yesterday. So we left the school at 2:15 and arrived at Lompoc at 2:50 we spent the next 25 minutes mounting gopros and going over our flight plan. We had 3 gopros, a still camera, and then a hd video camera. I'm not going to say what we did because you'll see in our presentation. But let me say. It was amazing. And you'll enjoy our edit.

Sundays flight plan

The hopeful flight plan is to arrive to Lompoc airport and equip our tri-pacer with our gopros and cameras. And then make a few laps around the airport. After we get our takeoffs and landings done were going to try and get some formation flying. I'll try to post on Sunday and let you guys know how it goes.

Update

So just an update, this Sunday Elizabeth, Danny, Lesther and I will be going flying to get the last of our video. We will be leaving righetti at 2:30. And will fly out of Lompoc airport!

Design

I think it's easy to hack a class like this. All we have to do is. Do whatever we want, today Preston made an observation on how the desks are exactly the same as yesterday. And it's ironic because me and my friend Elizabeth were talking about how today we would move our seats out of the big group so we don't get distracted or distract others with our project. Unfortunately Elizabeth isn't here and I didn't move my seat by myself.

Definition

Preposition- A word preceding a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause. An example would be "She arrived after dinner."

Is parental involvement overrated?

Studies show that parental involvement may not be as helpful as other were led to believe. Depending on racial and ethnic backgrounds. I don't exactly believe with these studies though. Just from what I've seen it seems like students whose parents parent actively involved in their schooling just slack off and don't do what is best for them. I do agree on some parts that if a parent pushes a student too hard it becomes more of a burden than supportive and helpful. Also on the fact that parents who ask their kids how school was on a regular basis seem to do better on different subjects, I think that is more of a ethical view than an actual statistic. Asians have almost always been superior in math and science regardless of their parents asking how their day was or not. As for Caucasians they have been stronger in English and Literature than others. For me to really believe and respect the statistics shown in this article id like to see a much larger study all around the world or at least more around the United States instead of a few select areas where the College is large enough to take part in such a study. With my experience having a supporting parent who is involved in my schooling has been great and i dont know where i would be going next year (as a four year, jc, or just no more education) The article: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/parental-involvement-is-overrated/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=pl-share&_r=0 was a good start but id love to see a larger study.

The crossroad between should and must.

Should and must are very dependent on what you want to do with your life and where you want it to go. For me, I SHOULD go to school every single day for the entire week. But I MUST, go to my college, talk to the head of engineering, go flying for a few hours. We need to get away from should and go with our must, but going with must sometimes means doing what others say is wrong. But I say follow your dreams and your heart. And in the end everything will work out.

Master piece update

a sneak peak of what is to come. The audio might be a little loud, i tried to add music to this video but i dont have a video editor on my computer so if you want the full experience open a new tab and add this URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZWlDks0nQ      then close the sound of my video and overlap the two :P please comment and let me know what you guys think! It would really help me out

Update

My team has been expanded as of today. Lesther Valenzuela will now be Video editor and co photographer. And Danny Luu will be Gopro Mount expert and co editor. Thanks guys for all the positive feedback. I will be posting a teaser soon.

Lit analysis

                 The Sorceress
Nick takes the twins to London, where he uses Francis to enlist Palamedes, the Saracen Knight, to help them. Palamedes takes them to his home, and they manage to work together to contact Perenelle. She  is still trapped on Alcatraz with the  spider elder, Areop-Enap, after narrowly escaping the Sphinx and defeating the Morrigan. Morrigan had been suppressed sufficiently by the Words of Power that resided on the island that her body was retaken by her two elder sisters, Macha and Badb. Perenelle also makes contact with Scatty and Joan  by scrying. Areop-Enap and its spider army are then attacked by an onslaught of poisoned flies. Billy the Kid has joined forces with Machiavelli in an attempt to kill the sorceress, but Perenelle, aided by Macha and Badb, tricks the pair and steals their boat, travelling back to the mainland with her new ally, the Crow Goddess.
the Dark Elders wake up an ancient being even stronger and more powerful and mysterious than them: an Archon. The Archon, named Cernunnos, is known as the Horned God and is the leader of a pack of wolf people. Cernunnos, the Wild Hunt, and Dr Dee engage Shakespeare, Palamedes, the twins, and Flamel in a vicious battle. Flamel, Palamedes and the twins manage to fight their way past Cernunnos and Dee and flee. They pick up Gilgamesh. What Nick didnt tell  the twins is that Gilgamesh is insane. Though he has no magic,  he can still pass on his knowledge to the awakened human twins. If Gilgamesh refuses to teach the twins, they will be unable to escape back to San Francisco using the Ley Lines and will be trapped in Britain with Dee and the Wild Hunt after them. Machiavelli used his power as head of the French intelligence to lock down the roads around Stonehenge, so they head to one of Shakespeare's nearby safe houses. Here Gilgamesh teaches the twins the magic of water. While the twins are adjusting to the powers Gilgamesh has taught them, Cernunno returns with the Wild Hunt and attacks the twins and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is wounded by the Archon, but the twins use their newfound magical powers to protect the King. While making their escape, Josh loses Clarent, and Dee grabs the sword, reuniting it with its twin, Excalibur. The two swords fuse together to make a new sword. Flamel, Palamedes and the twins flee for Stonehenge with the Wild Hunt, Dee, and the police after them. They meet up with Shakespeare and the Gabriel Hounds who fled the junk-yard using a secret tunnel, the twins activate the ley lines at Stonehenge and the protagonists are greeted by Perenelle at the other end.
Meanwhile, Scathach and Joan of Arc try to get to Alcatraz to help Perenelle but are trapped in a prehistoric era by Machiavelli, who had deliberately set the trap to snare them. They do not know how to return to their time and must try to survive while they wait for Flamel and the others to find and rescue them.


The theme of this novel is to never give up.

The tone of this novel is optimestic and bright. Even though the twins are faced with a daunting task they still give it their best.

During the book the syntax and diction change alot from character to character making the book more fun. Intentionally misspelling words to make it sound more real.

i think that the antagonost is kind of static in this book. Hes still the same Dr Dee as the other two previous books.

After reading this book i feel like i didnt really make any new friends. This is the third book in the series and its starting to feel very repeditive.

raising digital awareness

It is important to bring vistors to youre blog so you can get feedback and create a network.
I am addressing visitors needs and wants on my blog with open questions. Those who view my blog may respond or add their ideas in the comments section.
Some steps I can do to improve my blog is to make it a little more user friendly and maybe add some more gadgets.
I believe digital tools are more important. With digital tools we can collaborate and create networks from all around the world. That was almost impossible 20 years ago. And even then it took days to mail letters, where now its sent at the speed of internet. around the world in a matter of seconds.

I, entrepreneur

I think my expert is an entrepreneur because he is putting something out into the world. His knowledge of aviation. I also believed I am an entrepreneur because of the work I post on this blog. Not as much my masterpiece but everything else I do.  I also feel like this culture really pushes people to be an entrepreneur. I feel like that's why our founding fathers set up America, to be free and let anyone do as they want. Almost everyone is an entrepreneur today some more notable than others. Bill Gates. Jobs, etc.

Entrepreneur

Today in class we didn't really discuss Entrepreneur's but we talked about finding a buddy and trying to make things work out and gain an audience. my buddy is Taylor Harms

10 questions

my 10 questions for my expert are;
1. When did you start flying?
2. How long have you been flying?
3. What did you get your degree in?
4. How long did it take you to get certified?
5. When should I start taking lessons?
6. How much money are lessons?
7. How would I get a job being a pilot?
8.How much longer does it take to get certified as a turbo prop or jet engine?
9. Should I take out a loan to pay for my lessons or save up and wait?
10. Do you enjoy your job as a pilot?

THIS is what we live for

Now this video isn't mine. But if this doesn't motivate you or pump you up. then there is something wrong with you.

My Money Shot

This is my money shot. There is a great story behind this one. But also it was from my second time flying when I was about eight years old. The pilot of my plane is Ed Mandibles (my brothers Father-in-Law) and in the photo is his friend (whos name I cant remember because that was 10+ years ago) so Ed gives me his camera and tells me to take some pictures. A couple of days later my dad gets a phone call from Ed and Ed explains that I have taken one of the greatest pictures, the pilot in this picture said he had spent a lot of money on professional photographers to take pictures of him and never has he had anything as great as this. Ed (without my knowledge) sent this pic to a popular magazine. And a few months later., guess what made front cover.

My watch. now it doesn't seem like much especially because this is a night picture, But I got this watch for my 18th birthday. It is a G-Shock GA1000-1A. its an aviation watch. It has Temperature, International time zones. stopwatch, 10minute countdown. and a compass that has your degrees as well. I thought id share that with you just so you can understand my dedication.

The larger plane on the left is the one were are in from every picture and video. It is a Piper Tripacer.

this is my view on the left seat.

this is my view of the right seat. These two pictures were taken yesterday (Saturday March 9th)

 

So this is our taxi to the runway. you can hear us joke about not having a door. One of my favorite things about being a pilot is the atmosphere you get when you're at the airport or just with other pilots.

Formation flight during the 2013 cub fly in. Around Lompoc Airspace

Flying above Lompoc airport during the 2013 cub fly in. Someone decided to drop in and say hello :)

Some formation flying on the coast, Yes we are flying withour a rear door because we have a photographer in the back seat and it gives him a clearer shot. in the majority of these videos you see there will be no door :P

So this video is about two years old since then I have moved on to the left seat which is the main pilots seat and I also now control our speed.

Bemchmark

My passion is flying. It is important to me because it is something that I have wanted to do since I was about 5 years old. I started flying when I was about eight or nine years old when my brother got married. My brothers father-in-law is a pilot and has often invited me to go up with him.

I am using the tools from last semester by joining and creating networks to help me in this project. I often ask friends for advice or to help me revise something.

My envisioned future is to become a fully certified pilot. Now that's impossible to have done by June so my short goal is to just become familiar with avionics and flight terms so when I go to San Jose State next semester I will be prepared and give it my all.

What impresses my audience is just my passion for flying. It might not be so easy for them to see it. But it is and always has been my favorite thing. If I hear a plane in the sky I have to look and try to locate it. Along with my passion is my drive to become a pilot, I think the two go together and really show that this is what I want to do with my life.

I think my ideas are already past the "what if" stage of things and are now on the. "so next" stage. I got accepted to SJSU under a BS in Aviation Operations so next I just have to get my education.

My peers are my friends the people who I can trust and who I can go to for advice on minor things and revisions. The public is for ideas, they can comment what they think is right (or wrong) and ill always take it into consideration. And last but certainly not least are my experts, the people who I go to for technical advice, flight hours, and in the near future, flight training.

So lets hack this paper just a tad bit. in the next few posts ill show you just exactly what I do and what id like to do for the rest of my life. So sit back. and enjoy the show.

Welcome to my network.

1. Taylor Harms
2. Elizabeth Sandoval
3. Carlos Serrano

I know the post said have 5-10 people but I feel like my mater piece is just a really different direction than most people. If any one happens to look at my blog I would greatly appreciate it if you joined me in collaboration. leave a comment and follow this blog :) thank you

The Magician : The secrets of the Immortal Nickolas Flamel

Plot: Sophie Josh Nick and Scathach arrive in Paris after barely escaping with their lives from John Dee. Nick takes the twins to a former student of his Comte de Saint-Germain. Comte teaches Sophie to use fire magic and how to sort out her memories from the witch of endor. Josh is given a sword of fire magic. Dee along with Machiavelli and a trio of Disir attack the group. Schathach is taken into a river and is presumed dead. Back in Alcatraz Perenelle finds the spider elder Areop-Enap and the two together stop the Morrigan. Back in Paris Josh is in the catacombs and gets a special gift from Mars Ultor. When the get out of the catacombs they find that Dee and Machiavelli set a trap awakening all the statues of paris. The group escapes to London on a train when the book ends.

The theme for this book is to never give up. Many times during this book the Twins are scared for their life and worry what will happen to them, but they continue on and face their fears and overcome them.

The tone for this book is optimistic. It really goes with the theme because so many times during the book it seems like it will be the end of someone and it almost always works out well.

Some elements I saw were foreshadowing(many times) the authors diction. Personification giving creatures and bizarre things human characteristics. Irony.

The Author uses diction very well I think. Many characters in this book are from different time periods and you can really tell when they start speaking and they use words that are not really in used vocabulary anymore. The same with syntax each character is a little different and it seems the older the character the more formal they talk and word their sentence.

The protagonist is somewhat a mix between static and dynamic. His core views and values seem the same throughout the book. While some things change a little like his views on the twins and Nick. Nothing major its not like he went from pure evil to something nice. But he did change somewhat. So im not exactly sure what to classify him as.

And last of all I feel like I came away with a group of new friends (and enemies) after reading this book. Its kind of weird how something made up and only words on a paper can end up meaning so much to someone or feel like you know them well.

GOOD NEWS!

As of last Friday I was accepted to San Jose State. Which is the only college I applied to. I am so happy and excited to say I am going to college. Whats so special about SJSU? Well its one of the only colleges in CA that has my major (Aviation Operations), plus its right in the hub of technology in the US, my kinda thing. So what is aviation operations? Anything that has to do with flight. My goal is to become a pilot or an Air Traffic controller. Wish me Luck!

Peer Review

Taylor harms http://taylorharms.blogspot.com/
I feel like taylor's blog represents his personality well, is has a decent amount of information but lacks some what in the gadgets department making it look kind of bare. Rate: 8/10


Elizabeth Sandoval http://emsandovalexposcomp.tumblr.com/
Elizabeth's blog is very bland and not that great on visuals to grab the readers attention. It is also not that up to date. Rate: 5/10


Angel Vega http://angelvexpowriting13.blogspot.com/
Cool gadgets, love the music player and wish I knew how to add one I've looked online but to no success, Angels blog is somewhat up to date. id rate it 8/10


Tiana McMann http://tianamcmann.blogspot.com/
Tiana's blog is well laid out and looks like she took time into creating it, it is also fairly up to date. Rate: 8.5/10


Erik Santos http://eriksantosrhs14exposcomp.blogspot.com/
Erik's blog looks well but is really lacking in posts and gargets making it very plain his last post isn't even from this year. Rate: 3/10

Literature Analysis- The Alchemyst

In this book, Sophie and Josh Newman are 15 year old twins. The two twins work across the street from eachother in San Fransisco, Josh in a bookstore and Sophie in a tea and coffee shop. One day a strange man named John Dee comes into the bookstore where josh works and asks for the codex, the book of Abraham the mage. Josh witnesses his manager Nick Flamel and witnesses the two using magic. Josh later finds out with his sister that both Nick and his Wife Perry are Magicians. Perry is kidnaped by John Dee. Nick tells the twins to stay with him and their journey begins. They first go to the house of Scathach, a powerful next generation elder. The team is soon forced to run after an attack from John Dee's minions. The group then flees to the shadow realm of Hekate, where she agrees to awaken the twins magical power. During the awakening Hekate's shadow realm is attacked by John Dee and only sophie's power is awakened. Hekate dies in the battle trying to save her home. The twins Scathach and Nick escape just in time before the Shadowrealm disappeared into non existence.

The theme for this book is to never give up hope, many times the twins were so discouraged and in fear for their life but they kept their guard up and never gave up.

The protagonist are all round characters. Developing more and more as the story goes on
After reading the book it felt like I met a whole group of people not just specific to one person,

hafta/wanna

I think life during high school and life after high school is just the same thing. It's life. yea its viewed totally different but its still the same thing. Honestly for me high school is a waste of time. It was created many many years ago and is taught pretty much the same way ever since it was created. If schools want kids to do well and not slack then teach them what they want to know. I plan on majoring in Aviation Operations. Nothing in high school is going to really prepare me for whats going to happen after I graduate and get into college. And isn't that what the whole purpose of a High School is for? to Prepare you for the next level of education? I will agree, I can be lazy and a slacker and do the bare minimum. But if you give me something that I like and can use in the real world, then ill knock your freakin socks off. And I think that's the problem today. School is ran the same way as always. And students want to be more specialized and not generalized. Fix this and you fix the problem.

Visual Storytelling

Visual storytelling has been around since the caveman. You can see it in the cave paintings and in Egypt everywhere. Visuals are great because they can evoke so many emotions. Like seeing an American flag makes you think of freedom. Or seeing it only half mast you think of tragedy.