Walking with an expert.

After walking with a representative from Five Rivers Metroparks, I got to know more about the history of the rivers around the areas and how much their organization does for the conservation of wildlife, and preventing the cities from flooding. I also learned about the low damps located along the river and its functions. I liked to see that there are walkways to use along the river for exercise which is really nice.

Topic of my choice: Soccer

Soccer or Futbol as we call it in Argentina, is our second religion. Since we are born and throughout all our life we, directly or indirectly, watch, listen, talk, play, etc, about soccer. It is the common topic to talk about every single weekend and the first couple days of the week when we go back to work or school. To give a bigger picture of how much we love soccer I will describe a few places and instruments that we use to play soccer. Places: street, patio, classroom, kitchen, bedroom, shower, tennis courts, volleyball courts, basketball courts, in sand, in snow, in grass, on the roof, churches. Elements: (consider that they are all shapped somehow to something that looks like a soccer ball and can be kicked around.) paper, bottles, bottle caps, cut board, socks, old t-shirts, plastic bags, ballons, any kind of sports' ball, tape, rocks, etc, etc. As a matter of fact if you ask a boy in Argentina what they want for christmas or their birthday as a gift, 85% will pick a soccer ball.

My last argument

The last argument I had was about allowing my cat to be outside the house with out a leash for a few minutes or not. It is not actually "my" cat, is "our" cat, my gf's and mine. My cat wnated to play outside for a few minutes but we were about to eat so I suggested to my gf that we should let him outside with a leash, a long one that allows him to play around a little while we were eating. My gf said that something could happen to him, or that could run away. She is used to having dogs and we all know that dogs run away pretty easy with out a leash; but im used to having cats! and I told her that they are fine, they never go too far away from the house if you let them  free, they usually just hang around the house, but free! So she agreed because of my experience on alloqing him to be outside, but if something that what she prevented happened, it was going to be my fault and the cat will ever get be out again by itselg. Of course I agreed, and after finishing eating we went outside and as I said, the cat was laying next to the walkway in the grass just enjoying the outdoors! so I won :)

Update on the Research Project.

The project is actually going good, it was satisfying to find many different sources of information with valuable data to apply to this topic. I am glad to see that as I thought before, finding a topic that relates to my career field helps a lot towards motivation. I find this topic more interesting than ever before. Its great to see how much green roofs help the community and people. I been having problems with citing the sources, it is a little confusing with so much material to read, but hopefully by the end everything is cited properly. I would NOT like to plagiarize anything, or to be tagged as somebody who does that.

Website Evaluation.

The website evaluation lesson was a really good form to analyze which places are good sources of information and which ones are not. The tip that surprised me the most was to check if there was any publicity displayed on the website. This could mean that the page is not going to give any information that could play against their businesses. This is something hard to see today since pretty much all website depend on a sort of sponsor to survive. So it is good to know where to look for an academic kind of information and no an opinionated one.

Research Questions

My two main questions for my research project are: What are the benefits that green roof could provide to the community and individuals? and How big is the industry of the green roofs?

To find the answers for this questions I have to pretty much base my research on articles and studies on this field. Since green roofs is not a common topic, it is hard to find enough information in local places, besides the library. Studies are developed all over the world, which helps to a better overall understanding of the topic and its characteristics.

Visit to my Research Place

The research place that I picked  to visit is actually the main campus of Sinclair Community College. Sinclair worked perfect for my topic, green roofs, since it currently has 8 built. The places were really good looking with its colorful plants and grass. The biggest one is located on the roof of the library, many students spend a lot of time there or just simply walk by with out knowing that it is a "green roof" which is one of the benefits of this kind of roof system. The place was not too noisy despite it is located in downtown Dayton, the buildings around it work as a shield preventing the "city noise" get into it; which it makes it really nice to seat and relax for a moment.

My Neighborhood

The neighborhood where I live at is located in the city of Huber Heights. I have lived here since we arrived to United States with my family in 2008. The place is a really nice residential place between two big strip malls. All the businesses are located in two main roads: 201 (Brandt Pike) and 202 (Old Troy Pike). There are a wide variety of stores in Huber. Big stores such as Lowe's, Kohl's, Elder Bermmen, Applebee's, Marshalls, Dick's, Walmart, Target, etc, etc... Most of the people who lives in this area work on the Wright Patterson Air Force Base. There is a lot of green around the city plus a few metroparks also, where people can go to enjoy the outdoors.

Walk with Robert Gilbert

The walk with Robert was something really interesting. Although I new the places and topics we talked about during the walk, since I visited the lab with a previous class, it was an eye opener for me to see that I actually could use something related to my career as a topic for my research paper. This could facilitate my path towards the perfect topic, since something related with construction would be exciting to write about.

The Green Fire Film Project

This video is really appealing to me because I love nature and to do things outdoors. My parents, and grandparents always thought my sisters and I to enjoy nature, to take care of it. What I learned from this video is how important Leopold was and still is. I never heard of him before, I guess it could be because im not from this country, but I probably wouldnt know either. The passion that he put into what he believed was the best for all of us, and actually infuencing so many people through out the years is what I admire the most about him. There is a lot of people who believes on things, but never fully follow those beliefs having fear of what others can say about it, or that simply that because is just them it will not make a difference to the world. Leopold is a perfect example that by developing those ideas to make the world better at least just for what is around you, can make a huge difference in the long run.

Blog 2

1. I believe that when Leopold writes "only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf," the meaning of this sentence is that the mountain has been in taht place many many years, seeing everything that is attached to her, live and die, so beside the meaning that each individual can give to the howl of the wolf, the mountain knows the objective meaning. It doesnt mean to kill, it doesnt mean to scare, or to bring attention, it is something bigger than that, something somehow including all this but is something that scapes all of us and is only known by the mountain.

2. "In wildness is the salvation of the world" this idea by Henry David Thoreau is repetaed by Leopold on his essay. I think that Leopold might mean by sitting this, just to reinforce the idea that everything has a balance, that wildness that takes the animal to hunt, the deer to run from the wolf, the deer to eat the grass, the hunter to look up for the wolf, etc. all if this is just a set of roles that if is kept with balance, everything will be ok.

Thinking like a Mountain

I personally agree with Leopold on the idea of that "we all strive for safety, properity, comfort, long life, and dullness." which for me it can be summarize on a "happy and succesfull life." But like he also says "too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run." And combining this last sentence with the entire meaning of the essay, too much is never good, neither too little. There is a natural balance between everything that exists on this planet, we are all here in a certain time, in a specific place for a reason. We can see it all the time with examples, like the mountain and the wolf, or something bigger and more common, the relationship between human beings and earth. As humans we are constantly unbalancing the nature. On current days is the environment who has shown us that many things that we do, are on "the long run", bringing us more problems than solutions. Like global warming, less amount of food to distribute, more ilnesses, etc, etc. Nobody has the right to say what all the planet should do or not, although we willl think we are the most rational and "intelligent" specie in earth, so we should say what to do; but with all what is actually going on on this planet, are we as good as we believe?