12.03.07

Today we learned how to set up the wiki and entered our passwords, and set up an account.  This was pretty easy.  I wasn't really stressed out about the editing tools, but now that I see them, I'm, kind of disappointed, and I wish that I would do more with the tools.  Other than that it’s pretty easy, we set up the timeline, and I set up all the pages and linked them to the sidebar.

 

I've also just noticed that this has no spell check.  That's not good, because I can't spell.  Overall this was pretty easy to set up and start, now I just need to start the research, all I know is that Thermis aquaticus live in temperatures upwards of 160 F.

 

12.04.07

Today I tried to research the habitat of Thermus aquaticus, but it was pretty hard to find anything.  All I found was that they lived in hot springs and they were discovered in Yellowstone Park.  I'm kind of frustrated with the journal part of this project, because it’s really annoying, I would rather be designing a homepage.

 

I want to get started on a homepage, and I have cool idea up in my nogin.  I want to decorate it like I did my binder homepage.  Have like a drawing with “Thermus Aquaticus” on it, with drawings surrounding it

 

 

12.5.07

Today I found a really good intro article about how Thermus Aquaticusand how they live in Yellowstone, It really is interesting that it was also written by the man who first wrote about Thermus Aquaticus, Thomas D. Brock.  I'm kind of worried about how this project is going to come together, since we haven't even started any writing on the homepage, or any other page for that matter.

 

I have a really cool idea for a drawing on the homepage, I'm just not totally sure as to how to put it on the homepage, I think that I need to scan it, and then save it as a JPEG, and put it on the homepage, with the little insert picture link.  I’m also afraid that I did the drawing on an old homework assignment for an upper classman.

 

12.6.07

Today I finally got the picture up on the website.  I thought Megan was going to flip, because it’s kind of a weird style, and it’s not exactly scientific, but I think it will break up the monotony of the black and white pictures of bacteria on agar plates.  Megan seems to think so too, which I'm glad, because she can stress out a little bit.  O well, at least it keeps me on task.

 

I am sort-of frustrated with the fact that I can't set a background color for the website, I'm really tired of staring at a white background, and I think that it just looks tacky to have a white background with black highlighted text.  I'll try and find a better way to do this later.

 

12.7.07,

I played around with the color schemes, and I came up with a number of really gross ones, such as a puke green with pink writing, it is utterly disgusting, I'm going to have to change it, like right now, one second.  Ok, it’s grey on black now.

 

Anyway, today I read over Megan extremely long science lab written by the guy who first discovered Thermus Aquaticus and it has a ton of useful information.  I'm glad she found it, because I've heard about a lot of other people have been finding a hard time getting any information on their project, so they are just putting a bunch of pictures on their website, and don’t have a whole lot of subject matter.  I think that we have the reverse of that.  Maybe we need a few more interesting things, so that it’s not quite to cut and dry.

 

12.8.07

 

Today we made really good headway, I made a little paragraph for the homepage, but Megan didn't like it, so she edited it down.  She said it had too much information in the first paragraph or so.  She was kind of right, but I liked it.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

 

I'm really glad that we have started writing the pages now, I think that my picture on the habitat thing looks really cool.  I'm really not sure that Thermus Aquaticus actually live in that pool, but I'd say the chances are ok, besides, it doesn’t really matter; the thing that matters is the text.

 

12.9.07

I think it’s really cool that Thermus Aquaticus creates an enzyme, that divides DNA strings so that they can quickly replicate.  That just seems really cool to me.  Maybe it’s just me.   I found a really good video at http://trc.ucdavis.edu/biosci10v/bis10v/week7/bacterial_conjugation.mov, which will be helpful for the reproduction page, which is one of the pages I am supposed to do.  Probably why it’s brown and red.

 

 I'm really having a hard time finding out how Thermus Aquaticus reproduce, its not very well documented in anything, so I can assume that it isn't very interesting, but I would really like to know how the reproduce.  It would just be one less thing to worry about.

 

12.10.07

Today was really not a very productive day, I have a big test tomorrow in Spanish.  I did quickly find the classification of Thermus Aquaticus for Megan, which was good, but other than that I wasn't able to do a whole lot. 

 

I've been having trouble linking pictures to the website, most likely because it is hard to save pictures into a PDF, and in Office 2007, you can no longer save files from a document into PDF form, which is troubling, because you can also not cut and paste images into the text either.  This is why our site is currently mostly devoid of images.

 

12.11.07

I feel pretty confident about the Spanish test, and I was able to get alot done today.  I made the Reproduction page, and set up the vocab page and started to link, and define vocab terms.  Not exactly flashy, but I think that it adds depth to the project.  I wish there was an easy way to alphabetize the page, but there's not, so I either have to go through and do it by hand, or just forget about it and let it sort of be in disorder.

 

I think I found a way to put images off the web onto the website, but I still can't put any images from the science lab, that has been really useful, but that means that our page won't be awfully dull.  I've still been unable to find much on reproduction, but I did run the numbers to show how many bacteria there would be after a day and a week, in optimum conditions.  I guess that’s kind of cool, but it would be even cooler if there was a way to make a movie that showed the bacteria reproducing, and the colonies starting to grow, just spread up a little, because the first hour or two would be a bit dull.

 

 

12.12.07

 Today I hade a guitar lesson, and an English test tomorrow, which is easily my best class.  I'm really sick of all the Greek sculptures.  They're all naked guys, and I don't really want to look at that.  So I'm not totally hopeful about getting much done, I hope to get a couple more links done, because Megan's list of things that need links is getting a little long, so I'll probably get a few of them done.

 

 

Megan got her Algebra test done early so we were able to get a few quick things done.  I just posted another picture on the nutrition and growth page.  I finally found a way to post pictures straight off the web.  So I should be able to put a few more pictures on the web.  I actually found a picture I liked, that already had the copyright information posted on the picture.  So now I don't have to do it.

 

12.13.07

 

Now I have concluded that it is impossible to find anything on reproduction, Megan and I have both search the research databases, Megan says she did every single one, but I only did the ones that I know how to use, and use commonly.  I think I will have to scan back through the lab, and make sure I didn't missed anything.  Then I'm stuck searching through the free-web, which is quite a bit harder than the research databases.

 

Another thing is, I think I found a way to make the quiz interactive, and not just one that you have to remember you're answers, because I don't think anyone will actually do the quiz the way Megan wrote it and I formatted it.  I'm having trouble with it, but hopefully I'll be able to get it done by tomorrow.

 

 

12.14.07

So it’s Friday, and we only have a few days left until the project is due, but we're almost done.  We just have to do some links, and spell checking.  I had a really cool idea for a picture, but I'm not totally sure how to do it.  It sort of came when I was listening to Beck, and thought it would be really cool to have a video where we take pictures of ourselves, and then rip and fold them so that they start interacting.  Since I don't think that that is going to happen, I'll try and settle for just a picture.

 

I'm really at a loss as to how Megan gets all the research done, she says that she researched for 3 and a half hours, a while ago.  I just don't see when she can do it.  She's playing basket ball, and is taking an extra Math course.  Maybe she stays up late doing it.  I guess I'll have to ask her about it, because I always seemed cramped for time, even when I'm not playing sports.  She's been doing a really good job with this project, I still don't quite understand the page on DNA, but I think it has to do with how they "untwist" the double helix with an enzyme, so that they will replicate when other sugars attach to the two halves of a DNA strand, replicating it.

 

12.15.07

I started spell checking some of the pages, including Megan's journal, and it is really annoying what she can spell right the first time.  I'm awful at spelling, if spell check doesn't recognize the word the first time; I just have to pick a new word.  Good thing the evil empire developed spell checking for the literarily challenged like me.  (I'll have to check literarily).

 

I decided today that I hadn't done enough on the project, so I decided to make a quiz, make an intro movie, spell check the whole site, find more information on reproduction, and post a video link on the website.  I think these additions will add quite of bit of "over the top".  The intro movie is really cheesy, so I hope it doesn't do anything negative to the project grade.  I don't think it will, it’s a bit extra, and I don't think most people did it.

 

12.16.07

Today's Sunday, last day of the project, so we're doing some last minute editing, luckily we got most everything done before today, so we're not really under the gun.  I think it’s nice to have done most everything done before now.  So now Megan and I are just calling each other looking at the little details and spelling things.  Other than that we just need to make sure that we submit the website to Ms. Tucker early, because we don’t want it to be counted late, and we just want to leave room for mishaps.

 

Megan has been really helpful for this whole project, we may have differed on how to do a few things, but we got along pretty well.  At least we didn't do what some people did, which is where partners started stealing peoples notes and calling them their own, because that would not be very good.  I still don't like all the flowery colors Megan put everywhere, there were a couple of places she put a pastel pink, which I couldn't read very well, so I made it brown:  Much better, in my opinion.

 

WHOA, I just realized its only like three or four days from the break.  That’s so cool.  It’s the 16th right now, and Christmas is on the 25th, to that’s like nine days.