TED Talk Reflection

The TED Talk for my 20 Time project went well. I stayed within the time limit and go through the main points I needed to hit. I think certain phrases could be worded better in order for the presentation to flow better. If I had more time to present i would have gone into depth on specific pictures I was particularly proud of and why. In the time allotted I could have explained why I chose those pictures of people. I related my project to my past experience of how my mom took pictures of my entire childhood and how I want to continue telling stories through pictures.
In the preparation for the talk I finally realized that I have pride in some of my photos. I went through all my photos I took for the project, some of which I had not posted, and chose the ones I thought would be the best to exemplify the entirety of my work. Through the presentation and reflecting on the photos I realized that even if I do not have an complete end product, because a story does not end, I can still be proud of the progress I make along the way. I was really inspired by the talks about nutrition to eat healthier and monitor my food intake.

Photography 20 Time Project

I wanted to this project because I have found that pictures can carry a story and change the way people think and view the world. I wanted to focus on the beauty in Saratoga and share it with people via the internet. My initial plan was to write captions for my pictures and go around Saratoga and to get people to focus on the nature around them. The process started out with a series of failures. Instagram was not functional on the computer I have. Then I made a Facebook account. This account was a separate account named Sara Toga. This was the height of my success. I was posting fairly regularly (for a week) and continued gaining followers. I sent out around 2000 friend requests and about half responded with at least 5 replying each day. This is when a second experiment came into my 20 time. In addition to inspiring people with photography, I wanted to see how far away I could get with a facebook account. After a few days, FB began recommending friends from different countries I continued sending requests to them. Many people blindly friended me and only a few asked who I was. Many people I did not have any mutual friends with and they still friended me. This surprised me because I have always heard about people trusting too much on the internet, but it was not until I saw it for myself that I realized how people hide behind a screen and can trust complete strangers. The page grew quickly, but the security at FB quickly noticed my unusual friending patterns and shut down my account in a week or so. I was discouraged when FB shut me down, but it did give me some hope in humanity in the sense that there is security for fake people on the internet. Coming off of this I was quite frustrated with my project. I had no way to share my pictures and I felt like I had failed the project. When I regained my motivation to continue, I created a page connected to my facebook. This challenged me because I did not want my name to be publicized on the internet. At first, only a few of my friends had seen the page. This page is much less successful than the other page because I cannot send requests to strangers. Then what I was afraid of happened: a stranger started messaging me. I dealt with this by not replying. After I leave this class I will probably discontinue my FB page, but continue to take photos. Toward the end of my project, I turned the focus from the nature in Saratoga to the Saratoga Community. I took photos at events at the High School and elementary school. This is when the story of photos came through to me. I saw how a photo can be a snapshot in time for that person and the community. In the end, I don't think I can ever 'finish' this project; new experiences and moments are happening all the time. This project introduced me to photography and I think I will continue. Looking back at photos of my childhood I see how a series of photos gives you a fuller story that lasts and I hope one day I can make a story of photos to leave behind.
The end of this project I have some photos to show for my success, but not a cohesive page of my photos. This project tried my patience and perseverance. I think I deserve an A because I challenged my comfort zone by putting pictures on the internet linked to my name. I also went out in public to take pictures which also challenged my comfort zone. I could have rebounded from my setbacks faster, but I did still come back from the FB and Instagram failures.
Here are some of the pictures I am the proudest of.
Here is the facebook page.
Ted talk outline
1. Starting goal: take photos of the community to explore beauty around us
2. FB Problems and power
3. Power of a photo

Best Photos

River Clean Up

At the clean up we went down a trail parallel to the San Thomas Aquino River. On this trail, we picked up trash. The most common type of trash we found was chip bags and wrappers. There was a pile of garbage bags and trash caught in the bushes. In this project, I learned the power of community. An individual would have taken much longer to clean up the area, and would only be able to clean up that area. But when a community comes together this river and many others can be cleaned. The coordinator of the event said over 60 creeks are being cleaned today. This cannot be done effectively by one person, but when people unite they become more powerful and can actually make a difference. 

Unit 8 Reflection

This unit we explored the anatomy and physiology of the muscular system. The muscular system includes muscles and tendons and it works closely with the skeletal system for to achieve support and movement. The muscles are made of bundles that are also made of bundles of muscle fibers. This allows the muscle to stretch and contract. The epimysium bundles the outside of the muscle, the perimysium separates the bundles, and the endomysium contains individual muscle fibers. Fascia is throughout the muscle to help bind the fibers together. A tendon is connected to the end of the entire muscle as connects it to a bone. This allows it to move the bone. There are many different ways to move. Below is a video of the types of movements.

The movements are able to be performed due to the different types of synovial joints. The planar joint allows the bones to slide past one another, such as the carpals. The hinge joint has one bone inserted into the other and moves like a hinge. The elbow is a hinge joint. The Pivot joint has a ligament ring holding the bone in the dent, like the ulna and radius. The saddle joint has an indent like a saddle. This is found in the metacarpal of the thumb. A condyloid has an oval face that fits together and is found in the wrist. The ball and socket joint moves in many directions and is found in the hip or shoulder. The muscles that help to move our joint are named by the shape, location, movement, origin, size, and direction of fibers.

In order to contract the myosin must grab onto the actin and hold to hold the contraction. This happens when a nerve impulse comes through and Acetylcholine is released. This triggers a release of calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum into the cytoplasm. Ca2+ then binds with the troponin and opens up the binding sites also changing the troponin to tropomyosin. Then the power stroke of the myosin begins. ATP binds, then divides to ADP +P and releases energy that is used to swing the myosin head forward. P comes off and the myosin is attached to the Actin until the ADP comes off and the myosin detaches. Many heads on each myosin crawl up the until the nerve signal stops and stops the entire chain reaction.

The structure of a muscle by its bundles. Going down drawn of a smaller level. 

The different types of muscle fibers depend on the pathways that they use for energy. Fast oxidative fibers are used for short exercise. They do not have as effective blood vessels and rely on glycogen stores.  slow oxidative are used for long distance. They are red in color due to the blood vessels and fatigue slowly. 

fast glycolytic are used for quick sprints. They have few blood vessels and high glycogen. They fatigue quickly. 

In regards to my new year's goals, I have kept up on the relate and reviews and have not been running.

This video explains what happens after death. Muscles help us in ways we often do not realize. The earliest effects are seen when the muscles of the heart no longer pumps blood. The circulatory system relies on cardiac muscles and the skeletal muscles pumping the blood through the body. The first 1-2 minutes explain what the lack of muscles works; the second half explains more of the decomposition side of death. 

Rigor mortis happens when the myosin cannot detach from the actin due to the stop of flow of ATP. Eventually, the muscles go limp after the beginnings of decay of the fibers. 

Facebook: Pay or Get Lost

I learned that Facebook is not a very good way to spread a page if you are not willing to pay. I cannot send requests to people like a normal page can so I do not get many views. This is probably why FB does not allow companies to make an account and only permit pages. Friends are easy to get, but views are not something that can be earned for free. Now I understand how facebook can make money and not just off of adds.
Over the last few weeks, I have made a facebook group and posted my pictures to it. I have been able to write captions on a few of my pictures. The challenge I have been facing has been not having many people seeing the page. I have changed my expectations to not needing the page to grow very quickly. For the remainder of the project, I plan to take one more set of pictures and post it on FB. The final goal of this project is to spread images of nature and beauty that is around us. I hope that the people who see my photos are inspired to look around and get outside to look at the nature around us.

Why We Stretch

"The proprioceptors detect any changes in physical displacement"(1).
To detect the location of limbs the body senses changes in the location of limbs. If you stimulated the muscles with an electrical signal and the person could not see, would you have a proprioception confusion?
"[stretching] helps to realign any disorganized fibers"(1)
This can help in recovery from an injury or just daily work. Daily stretching can help to keep the muscles in line and straightened out. I wonder if this would help prevent or treat knots or tightness in the muscles.
 In "What Happens When You Stretch" the benefits and physiology of stretching is discussed. A stretch needs to be kept for a longer period of time to get the complete stretch. Stretching helps to align the muscles and extend the muscle fibers. The lengthening reaction takes time to happen. Stretching first extend the muscle fibers then the connective tissue. The middle part of the muscle stretches first then the edges begin to stretch when the stretch is held.