Annie Chen Public Feed
The Shapers Podcast #2
Immigrants and Refugees in the Modern World
SLAmbassador Video Presentation (Pauline & Annie)
Advanced Essay #1: Finding Me
Introduction: My goals for this essay was to convey my story of change. I wanted to pass on the message that change is never easy, and there will always be challenges ahead. But with every challenge, every obstacle, I will grow and learn to know life a little better. I am proud that I remembered so many details from Toronto, so that I could write about it and make it entertaining. I am proud of the way I wrote my essay and I was pretty strict with myself while writing, I wanted there to be a specific tone. I wish I could have more space to write even more about how Philadelphia has changed me to this day. I wrote more in the past tense, about how I felt in the past moments.
Finding Me:
It was a Tuesday morning during 3rd grade at Blake Public Middle School, right outside of downtown Toronto. All morning, we have been working on “Me Posters!”, all the other 20 students and I had to brainstorm, write, and decorate a poster that would reveal who we are at age 9. Joshua was writing about playing basketball everyday, and Joanne wrote about how she loves medicine and her passion in becoming a doctor. I don’t know what passion is, I don’t play sports or instruments, my life is boring. I sat there for an hour looking at my blank poster before Ms. Barr came to ask, “Annie, why haven’t you started your poster?” In which, I exclaimed, “My life is boring, I’m boring, I don’t know anything about myself. I’m no fun.” “Everyone has their own story Annie, and they are all unique in their own way. You’re not boring, you are always smiling, always kind, and you love to make people laugh. People always change, try new things, and become new people.” So I did what I could with my poster, I drew the places I would go to. I paid close attention to what I was doing on a daily basis, how I interact with people, and I was more than ever aware of my words. But still, I was only 9 years old. So I hadn’t taken anything seriously yet.
Trying to find yourself at any age can be very challenging. And most times, everyone is always changing, like Ms. Barr said, whether it be minimal or drastic. Changes in a person can be a result of many factors. One of those factors is the environment of the person. It becomes the people a person interacts with daily, the places the person adventures to, the media, and of course, the person itself. While I was in Toronto, I had a few friends. Luckily for me, my school was very diverse. I was exposed to different types of people at a young age, which opened my eyes about people in general. I had two best friends, Zoolnad and Azka. Zoolnad was Pakistani, and she was always the prettiest girl. Her mom always made the best Chicken Biryani. Azka was Indian, Azka and I lived close to each other so I would try to go over to her house. In which my only guardian, my grandma refused. Azka was a lot darker than Zoolnad was. Here’s the thing, most traditional older Asian people tend to be racist. “You never know what they could do to you, I am only doing this for your safety. Those types of people are scary, dirty and dangerous,” my grandmom always said Pretty soon, I submitted to her ideas, and Azka was gone.
Up until leaving Toronto entirely, I lived there for almost three years. I was 12 when I left. What I knew about myself was: I was a tomboy, I loved riding scooters, I laughed at everything, and would cry about anything, I was still boring. All those things about myself weren’t relevant to me. To be honest, I was scared about the future, I lived in constant fear that I would never be able to live with my parents. So when I was on the steady 14-hour bus ride to the city of brotherly love, I was incredibly excited.
I arrived in Philadelphia on June 13th, 2012. The first day of 4th grade was rough, I had bowl cut bangs, deep dimples, and my Cinderella backpack. The Cinderella backpack was not my idea, the worker at target said that every girl has it, so I should get one too. I realized how much I missed my friends in Toronto. I had never seen so many white kids than I did in class that day. Everything seemed so dull and sad. The kids were not nice, but they had made fun of me because of my haircut. It was the first time someone made a mean comment about me. I cried about it when I ventured back home. My parents were at work until 8:30 pm, so I barely got to see them. I would fake a smile for them.This was the first time I truly felt sadness. I dreaded going to school the next day. For two years, I hated my life. “You’ll get used to it” was not the case for me. I was homesick in my new home.
Towards the end of 5th grade, I grew out my bangs, and started shopping at a store called Justice and Forever 21, no more WalMart clothes. I felt not like me, but change is necessary. After a couple of months, kids at school were being friendly to me. They started talking to me outside of school, and then came my new best friend, Allie. She was white, the popular girl and perfect for me. We had the best time ever, we would Oovoo each other everyday afterschool. Allie and I did a lot of things together and pretty soon, I adapted her talking language, her sense of fashion and I even decorated my room like hers. It was the new me.
All of that was physical though, as I got older, my mindset changed. I was very observant of my surroundings, I noticed the number of homeless people on the street, I noticed the number of times I got catcalled at age 13, I noticed the sadness and depression in a stranger’s eyes. Not everyone would be happy, and most times, people are miserable. For the first time in my life, I saw the bad, the ugly, it wasn’t playgrounds, sunshine and rainbows. I started doing things so that people would like me more, and sometimes I still do this. It was something I had never done in Toronto.
I didn’t realize I was changing, nobody really ever does. It becomes a self reflection thing. I heard many more mean comments, bought things to please society, wasted time on people didn’t deserve it, try new things, liked it, didn’t like it. It’s all apart of life and I would never regret any of it. Transitioning into a new society can be very difficult for anyone, it causes unwanted and wanted change. Philadelphia and Toronto are both big cities with millions of people. There as many differences as there are similarities. I learned so much about myself in both cities. I am not sure where life will take me in the future, but I will always be Annie.
Element Print-Manganese
What is your element? Name and atomic number
-My element is Manganese, its atomic number is 25.
Tell the reader about your element, history, function/use and so on.
- Manganese has been around for more than three centuries, it was discovered by a swedish chemist by the name of Johan Gottlieb Gahn. Manganese. A good amount of the Earth's crust is actually made of manganese
How did you get the idea for the imagery you chose?
I didn't want to do a generic soda can so I decided that I was going to do a human body with a lot of foods that are high in manganese and I can have that as my symbol.
What process did you go through to make this print?
My process for this was kind of long and kind of easy at the same time, I decided on my design in the actually really like my design but I doubt it it for a while because I thought it was too simple or it was just not going to look well as my final product but I actually love how it turned out. I made three drawing prince before I transferred it onto my styrofoam plate and I picked my best one in my favorite one.
What would you do differently if you did this print a second time?
I think I would have changed how I made my styrofoam plate I would have darkened more areas so that it would have given more deaths to the final product because I don't think I pressed down as hard with my pencil when I was making a styrofoam plate and because of that it wasn't as precise as I wanted it to be.
What part of the project did you enjoy the most? Describe the step and what you liked so much about it.
My favorite part about the project was probably the printing process with a styrofoam plate onto the final white paper. This is because I felt like it was just really refreshing seeing my final print come to life and seeing the different colors that I could have it associated with. So with the printing process I had to use a barrel thing and roll this slow drying paint on my styrofoam plate which then I transferred and pressed against a white piece of paper which was going to be my final paper and so the paint from the styrofoam plate would be transferred onto the final.
Small step to ending Captivity
Previously, you may have read my two blog posts on orca captivity, (post1: Mistreatment of Orcas) (post2: Extinction of Orcas). I was curious about any news on orcas that I might have missed for my blog post 2. In an article by National Geographics, Sarah Gibbens (the writer for the article) writes about another one of the captive born orcas dying at a young age because of infections that stem from the captivity pools. Kyara, a 3 month old orca was pronounced dead at the San Antonio Seaworld after it was confirmed she died of pneumonia. 60 percent of captivity orca deaths are caused by the infectious diseases from the park, according to the investigation done from San Antonio News. SeaWorld has since then officially ended its breeding program for the killer whales. It is a good step because the movement of the people has begun to work. Recently, Seaworld has announced to shift their park from the live whale shows into more education and animal conservation. Although, these are huge steps in ending captivity, there is still so much to do.
Picture of Kyara with her mother Takara.
Another news that had been very big was that the state of Florida planned on proceeding with a bill that would end captive orca breeding. The bill has many rules to change shows or parks like Seaworld into a more educational environment, and slowly putting an end on the live orca shows. Many have argued, and even I have spoken up about the dangers of force breeding, stopping captivity born orcas would be a miracle. Also, from the bill, “An orca located in the state on July 1, 2018, may continue to be held in captivity for entertainment purposes until December 31, 2019, and may be used thereafter for educational presentations only.”, this meansby the end of 2018, in the state of Florida, there will be no more orca entertainment shows. If this bill proceeds successfully, it could inspire other states to act the same.
As I ventured deeper into my project. It has hit me that I could not easily solve it in two months. The next best thing I believed that I could do was to raise awareness so that people can get their knowledge on a topic that is not thoroughly discussed. I decided that I was going to do a fundraiser for a orca conservation organization that aids orcas. I decided on the OrcaConservancy, they are a non-profit organization that help the wildlife and environments where orcas live in. They also act to help orcas get out of captivity by organizing marches and signing petitions. They also have programs where young people can be educated on orcas and help out with volunteering.
I contacted them through email to see how they are, why they should be the one organization out of many other ones to donate. They replied in a day and said that they would appreciate a donation very much.
Picture of the response of one of the Orca Conservancy spokesperson.
I thought what a better way to spread awareness than to show a documentary to young people. I had chosen the documentary Blackfish because not only is it just a heart touching, beautiful documentary. It conveys the message of what is wrong about orca captivity, it hits many points, scientific and even personal scenarios. My goal was to have at least 10 people attend and donate. But I had actually surpassed that number which was amazing. I would charge the admission fee be $4 for each person to come to see the documentary. I also gave attendees the option to purchase a rainbow loom bracelet for $1, all proceeds of the event would go to the organization.
Planning the event was very fun, but also very stressful. The constant thought of “what if it doesn’t work out? ran through my head. Planning an event like this was all about the participaters, if there would be enough people to attend and seeing if the money raised would be even a good amount to donate. I made flyers and created my own Google form for people to take the survey so I would have a good idea of how much and who was coming to the screening.
The google form for my screening. (tinyurl.com/blackfishscreening)
After weeks of promoting, emailing, messaging, the day had come. I also moved the time from 4:00pm to 12:30pm because I had seen that on that day, was a half day. This way people didn’t have to stay super long in school. I had friends who were helping me set up the room. These friends whom I appreciate so much. There were other people that were supposed to show
up, but things happened and some people weren’t able to attend.
Setting up, when it was about to begin!
Moving around chairs and such..
Me giving a quick hello, introduction before the movie was going to start.
I sat through all of the one hour and half with everyone else. There were times where I saw some audience members could not believe what had happened in the documentary. I could also tell that people were genuinely intrigued in the documentary. Rewatching the movie for me was nice because I had miss some stuff when I had watched it for the first time. Seeing everyone’s reactions to the movie was eye-opening. I hope everyone had the opportunity to watch Blackfish. By the end of the movie, there were some people who had tears in their eyes.
Some of the audience members during the movie.
Peter Keo, someone who watched the documentary, “it was very gripping..seeing orcas go through this treatment was unsettling”
Izzy Curtin, another viewer, “it exposed many corporations like SeaWorld, it brought light to the topic.”
Caleb McCreary, viewer, “interesting to see orcas, their emotions and how they feel”
After the screening, I was still waiting some people who said they would donate. I raised $50 exact, I donated all of the $50 to orca conservancy. I was so happy that the fundraiser went well and successful.
I had the most amazing experience with this project. Although it was a very stressful project, it taught me so many things about not only orcas, but about being professional. The logistics of planning an event. I will never forget this project, I will hold it to be one of my fondest memories from school. I think I also am pretty proud of myself for the project, I worked very hard for every single part. I made friends with Jeffrey Venture through this experience, donated to a good cause and taught many people about my issue. I think I could have done something else like a bake sale or something to raise even more money. Learning and devoting my focus on orcas in the last months, gave me a new love and respect for animals. I learned that even though it is really cool to see these orca shows, or see animals in theme parks, it might not always be safe for the actual animals. At the very end of the day, animals are a part of nature. Humans have no right to forcibly take them out of their environment and use them for entertainment. My change was a baby step to end captivity, there is still a long road to go.
Negative Space cut-out (Annie Chen)
A. What is negative space (explain this concept to a fourth grader that has never heard of it)
Negative space is when in an illustration or a drawing, there are the spaces that isn't the main focus. Usually it can be blurred in the background of many images. It means exactly what it says, "negative space". It is space that is not the main focus of the image. It usually is a pretty big part of the image.
B. Explain how you found negative space in your cut out?
The negative space in my image would most likely be the sky background because the tree is the central image of the cut out. It is also the areas that are darker than the actual tree.
C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?
It helps an artist to see negative space so they could possibly focus on the main focus of the image. Often, people ignore the negative space but drawing from negative space can also be very pretty as art work.
D. Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why not?
Yes, I feel like often times, we do not look at the background of images so focusing on negative space, it gives a chance for people to also see things in a different manner. It also can make drawings more abstract to make people use their imagery to think what the drawing would look like.
The Wild Talk
Talk Show
SCRIPT:
Alex: Juanito Hernandez, Big shirt and shorts, sandals, black socks, sunglasses, I was with a gang named los Cholos. I lived my life just protecting the neighborhood and I used to smoke a lot of weed. I’m only 20 years old and I’m a dropout. I never really liked reading but the book Wild by Cheryl made me turn my life around.
Lucas Name: Charlie Akoni. Jamaican beanie jamaican colors, lived off land for four years because of Jamaican poverty, spiraled into drug addiction but is clean, met a hyper religious Buddhist man who taught me discipline, and sent me on the road to be a part of the Jamaica Defense Force, got injured, retired, moved to USA, read many books I felt I could relate to.. was disappointed while reading wild because of how Cheryl made it easy for herself.
Cheryl: will I am cheryl and we read the book
Everyone on the talk show will have a brief introduction of themselves
PROPS; sign names for everyone. The “wild show” sign in the back. Water bottles with “the wild show tags”
SETTINGS: in school. In a clean pretty place.
Juanito: Sup fools, I’m Juanito coming from Huejotzing0, Mexico.
Questions
1. How do you relate to cheryl? What problems do you have/had in Life?
Charlie- I can relate to the wilderness survival aspect of her hike, I lived in poverty for four years, age 16- 20 after my parents died. Also, I had a brief period of strong drug addiction as she did before her hike.
Juanito- Yea fool, me and Cheryl relate way back because at some point in our lives we were both drug addicts. You know fool my momma died long ago and I feel her pain.
2. .Would you do the same thing cherly did, cross the PCT?
Charlie- Yes, in fact I would do the PCT hike as a passtime one month, and would not use cars and stoves. Why did you go on the PCT if you just hitchhiked most of the way and gave yourself so much extra help in the beginning?
Juanito- That’s what I did fool.
3.what do you think of my book?
Charlie- I think that the book is a little misleading. It’s name is “Wild” about it was the rash on your foot. I believe that you shouldn’t have it seem like a survival book where you struggled on a trail with land living if it is not that at all. It’s a pure misnomer.
Juanito: I loved your book fool, I loved how you went from your life falling apart to yet again bring yourself back up there. You know, you changed the path of your life fool and that’s tough.
4.What do think of the people I encountered(not just on PCT), like Paul, Doug, you all those people?
Charlie- I think that these people also helped you too much and that if your intention was to do the trail and have an almost spirit-walk type of journey you shouldn’t have surround yourself with people who had privileged themselves so much.
5.What do you think of monster, what should I have done about that huge problem?
Charlie- your backpack, was too overencumbered, and overpacked for the journey that you wanted to take.
Juanito- your bag was too much fool, come one please, you over exaggerated. I only took my sandals and 3 pairs of every clothing. My tims as well.
6. What should I have done on the trail, instead of ride cars most of the way?
Charlie- It’s not what you did on the trail, it’s the misnomer in the title and what you made your journey out to be in your book.
Juanito- To be honest fool, i think you should have walked the full way but your feet were in bath condition fool, so you did the right thing.
7. When do you think it’s sometimes better to turn away from your problems?
Charlie- When you feel that your problem is not worth solving, and when you feel that the answer would be to run away, most times, I like to face my problem head on though.
Juanito- When you feel like you can’t take all the stress, I think that’s the best time to turn away from your problems because it’s time to meditate fool.
8.Do you think wild is a misnomer for my book?
Charlie- Yes, an extreme one in fact. I feel that your title appealed more to people who have interests in the wilderness more than its actual audience. The summary of your book also leads people to believe that it is something that it is not, a survival book, about a challenge through wilderness.
9. How was your experiencing hiking different from mine?
Charlie- I didn’t do that specific hike, however, I did live on my own off of the land for four years, which hiking was a big part of. I had nothing besides the few artifacts that I could salvage from my home before leaving.
Juanito- It’s different because I walked the whole thing.
10.how would you react with your family with doing all that, like coming home after waking/riding cars up the PCT?
Juanito- I don’t have family anymore.
11. I had a lot of support from people when I hiked the PCT, did you have anyone with you when you hiked the PCt as well?
Juanito- I wish I had someone, I was alone. Don’t get me wrong though, it was a nice feeling because it was just me and mother nature. I could relax and find my true identity.
The Final Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnglQlrqN9k&t=32s
The Extinction of Orcas?
In my first post, I explored the horrific actions of orca captivity. As I studied and dug deeper into the treatment of orcas. I found current events about the situation and discovered facts that had shocked me, including brutal images that will haunt me for many days.
Recently, at SeaWorld Orlando, a female orca, named Malia, is living her final days as a captive orca. In the article, SeaWorld of Hurt: Campaign Updates, they had stated that the ten year-old orca has been facing excruciating and painful infections for years, up to the point where the pain had finally broken her down. The painful infections had caused an infection in her upper jaw area. The jaw is now discolored and many of her teeth are either damaged or broken. More than half of SeaWorld orcas have died due to the lack of care, resulting in the infections. Malia’s father, Tilikum and her sister, Unna, have died in 2015 and 2017 due to painful infections.
Image of Malia’s infected jaw. Credits
I found a very interesting article, written by John Jett PhD and Jeffrey Ventre MD, both former SeaWorld trainers. These doctors were also cast members of the documentary, Blackfish. Both Jett and Ventre are orca captivity activists and do amazing things to aid orcas. John Jett has participated in “The Orca Project”, which is a “small but effective non-profit corporation, collaborating with some of the world’s top marine mammal experts and caring professionals from diverse backgrounds,”, stated on their website. There was a section in the article where they discussed the interaction between Corky and Kandu, two female orcas living at SeaWorld. An artificial death that wouldn't happen in the wild. The two already had tension between them for a long time, but one day, right as the show was going to start, Kandu rammed into Corky. Because of the force of the impact, it severed her jaw and severed an artery. Kandu, who was eleven years old at that time, slowly bled out for 45 minutes, in front of the crowds at SeaWorld San Diego, and eventually passed away from the loss of blood.
Image of Kandu bleeding into her death. Here is a video of it happening. Image Credits
For my original research, it was a difficult and long journey. In the beginning, I had big envisions to have multiple interviews with marine biologists who specialize in orcas, but it ended up not working out. I contacted PETA and had gotten some answers back by an animal’s rights activist, Melissa White. Her answers were not what I had hoped for, so I had sent many more emails to anyone I could find. I even emailed all of the SeaWorld trainers that had a voice in Blackfish. I would have never thought that any of them would reply.
A couple of days after I had emailed the trainers, I received one email back from Jeffrey Ventre. It was a genuine exciting moment because I was so pumped that I had gotten to interview with a former SeaWorld trainer and a Blackfish cast member! Not to mention, he is a Physician and a medical doctor too. Shortly after, I emailed him my 10 questions I had, and within 30 minutes, he replied back with his answers.
Image of Dr. Ventre in Blackfish. Image Credits, also click to know more information about Ventre.
Here is a doc with the questions I asked and Dr. Ventre’s answers.
I asked him a variety of questions, ranging from his research to his personal experiences with orca captivity. I wondered what an experienced scientist, who specializes in the topic, would think what would happen to orcas in the long run. Dr. Ventre replied, “The only orca population that is endangered is the Southern Resident orcas, the ones SeaWorld decimated. They now don't have enough fish due to dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. If the four lower Snake River Dams are not breached, I believe this particular group will go extinct in your lifetime.” SeaWorld have captured at least 80 orcas from the Southern Resident waters. When the orcas were becoming scarce, SeaWorld ventured to different oceans, up north, the perimeters of West Canada.
Image of the Killer Whale range from California and up. (capture range)
Going back to something I had pointed out, SeaWorld employees were supplying uneducated people with false information. I thought it would be interesting to ask Dr. Ventre, a previous SeaWorld employee on his experience. He replied that as a trainer, received PR lessons from SeaWorld company about orcas that could be said to the guests. The information was very misleading said Dr. Ventre. To give solace to my excitement, I asked Dr. Ventre about the filming experience of Blackfish. He answered saying that it was a super fun experience because he gotten to reunite with his former trainer friends, and film at a beautiful location. Dr. Ventre, I, and many other people who are against orca captivity agreed that, in order to support the cause, people should not continue purchasing tickets; henceforth, helping the business decline. Also to spread awareness, even if it is simply educating another person the facts behind orca captivity.
I have thought about what I, as a young teenager could do for such a massive cause. For my agent of change, I have many ideas in mind. I could do something creative. For example, making an illustrative book, posters, or create a film. I could also start a fundraiser and with the money, I would be able to donate to an organization helping orcas. I also thought about trying to march in a protest, but since I live in the Northeast, there isn’t protests on orca captivity. Stay tuned because whatever my agent of change is going to be, I will make sure it does become an agent of change.
Click here for my updated annotated bibliography.
Mistreatment of Orcas
Annotated Bibliography
Orcas in the wild.
During Christmas of 2014, my family took a trip to Orlando for our annual family vacation. We journeyed to Disney World, but we also attended SeaWorld. I was so thrilled because I’ve always loved marine animals, especially Orcas. I was in awe of how close I was to the large marine animals, but it felt wrong because aren’t large marine animals supposed to be in the deep sea? Not in a shallow clear tank. I chose to pick this topic because after watching the documentary, Blackfish, I was so disgusted. The dangers they face are unimaginable for humans.
Illustration in youtube video of possible locations orcas are sent too.
Since 1961, Orcas have been captured from oceans and forced to be a source of entertainment for humans at parks like SeaWorld. Sean Carmody said in his article that orcas learn their pod’s dialect from birth , in which they remember even many years after captivity. Orcas are highly social animals, they travel in groups (pods). Pods consist of 5-30 females, males, and babies. Mothers are essential to baby orcas as they form lifelong bonds. When capture boats venture to catch orcas, in most pods, male adults swim in one direction so that females and young ones can attempt escape. Capturers try to catch the young orcas because they are lighter to ship. “It was kidnapping a child from its mother.” (Blackfish)- John Crowe, one of the men working on the capture boats. When the young are taken, the other orcas devastated, they swim miles and miles behind the boat, trying to follow the little ones. Humans have emotions, that give us the ability to feel empathy, happiness, anger and etc. Orcas are more emotionally developed, as their brains are five times bigger than the average human brain. There have been instances where orcas would die of shock. In these cases, the men on the boats would cut the orca open, fill their insides with rocks and throw them back into the ocean. They dispose the dead orcas into the ocean because it is easier than throwing them away on land. When orcas arrive at their new home, they are suddenly confined to a super small pool. It takes an orca to swim around their confined pool 1,400 times to equal how much of a distance orcas swim on a daily in the wild.
At SeaWorld, they provide false information to the visitors. Informing guests that “the killer whales only live up to 30 years in the wild, they live longer here because they get the extra veterinary care”- SeaWorld Employee video of SeaWorld employee (0:15-0:25). It is known after many years of scientific research that killer whales live as long as humans, especially females. Killer Whales in captivity die immensely younger than their natural lifespan. For example, they’re not in their original pod of orcas, which makes their life lonely and makes them agitated to attack trainers. In the wild, orcas are not violent towards each other because of their dominant social rules, and if fights occur, they would swim away. In captivity, there is no place to hide or run away. In the case of Tilikum (male orca at SeaWorld), two female orcas were aggressively attacking him, but due to Tilikum being a larger orca, he had no place to swim away. The water they are held in can be dangerous because it contains too much chlorine. Most orcas don’t survive over 10 years in captivity. Employees explains that 25% of all male orcas have their fins flopped over. Only male orcas can have collapsed dorsal fin. It is proven that in the wild, less than 1% of orcas have collapsed dorsal fins. These stats show some of the things I just covered.
Orcas are apex predators, they are on top of the food chain, and usually preys on sea lions, other whales and some sharks. Other than humans, no other animals hunt orcas. In captivity, they are fed gelatin, in attempt to keep them hydrated but it’s unnatural for orcas to consume so much gelatin in a day. When young orcas are born into captivity, they are naturally drawn to stay with their mothers. But most times, they are separated due to the babies interrupting their mothers performances at shows. When they’re separated, the mother will let out a long unique scream in hopes of having her baby returned to her. They isolate themselves in a quiet place, while they mourn.
Illustration of facts debunking SeaWorld’s claim of mother orcas.
In the last 50 years, there have not been one single reported case of human death by orcas in the wild. Yet in captivity, there have been 70 reported death cases. Males like Tilikum were used for his sperm. Tilikum, at the time, was the only male to breed with the other female orcas. The female orcas started breeding at a super young age. In the wild, female orcas begin to reproduce at age 14.9 years. At SeaWorld, they start breeding female orcas at age 8-10. Most of SeaWorld’s orcas are inbred, meaning due to lack of males or the artificial sperm, they really only rely on a couple of males. “Katina (popular female orca at SeaWorld) are inbred with even some of her sons.”- a source by the name of SeaWorld of hurt. An offspring’s father orca could also be the mother’s brother. Most orcas born in captivity are stillborn, due to difficulty and stress the mother orcas are constantly suffering from. The average life expectancy of captivity-born orcas are 13 years.
Picture of Lolita, the loneliest orca in captivity. Article is very interesting.
I hope to research more and see what I, as a young individual, can do for these mammals. I am looking forward to looking at ways to try and solve the problem and let society get a glimpse of the animal abuse that often can go unnoticed.
Opposition to orca captivity, still inhumane that there even numbers in favor.
New Slide Tech -Annie Chen
I learned new things and new ideas that could help me and my slide that I hadn’t thought of before. I learned that I had a lot of blank spaces and I could use those blank spaces to my advantage. I also learned that I should probably add color to my background because it was a little boring and tepid. In all, the critiques were constructive and all useful. I kept basing my slide off of the one idea of always keeping everything simple and I might’ve went a little overboard.
I made my slide dramatically different as in terms of displacing the words, the images to cover blank spaces. I took advantage of all of the blank spaces I had. I also made my background a light faded blue color to contrast the black letters. I had to pick a new earth image because in order to change the background color, the earth had to have the blank space around it. I had to make sure the picture was also legal to use. The faded blue isn’t very loud, it’s calming in a way, so the letters and image aren’t disrupted. I enlarged the words and the picture. I also slanted the writing, made sure they were all at 341 degrees or else it would’ve looked wonky and tilted unevenly. I placed it exactly 341 degrees because I had positioned it in many different angles, some were nice but I ultimately decided on 341.
The research definitely helped with my slide and my talking parts of the project. I researched other sites and youtube videos about how to make things pop. Most of them all had the same suggestions, and critiques. I really enjoyed looking into Project Zen, when explaining the simplicity of the IKEA signs. Even just learning new vocab words such as contrast. There were many things that I knew of but didn't know the official title for it. It helped a lot, I had less repetition of words. I also learned new techniques that I maybe wouldn’t know or use in my slide. I used the different rules from presentation zen, and the other websites.
More than anything, I think I got inspired when I saw my other classmate’s slides. I saw all the different techniques they had used to make their own slide. When I originally made my slide, I think apart of me wanted to keep it as simple and easy as possible, everything was an average scale of things. When I received my critiques, I decided to go out of my comfort zone with dilating everything bigger.
Annie Chen
This is my slide. In my Me Magazine, I specially mentioned many quotes that are important to me, I picked the one that I use and love.
Keeping it simple
In the Presentation Zen, when Garr Reynolds was in Osako Japan, he used the IKEA signs as an example to explain in design. He said that keeping it very minimal and simple was a very good way to get whatever the selling product is out. As Zach Holman said in his writing, slides, posters, billboards need to be nice to look at for our eyes.
Another vital factor that many people don’t realize is when they try to cram too much information into one slide. I knew I wasn’t going to put as super long quote on my slide and have it in size 11 font, it wouldn’t be comfortable for my audience to read a super long paragraph that is difficult to read. I gave “EVERYTHING” a different font because I wanted to show emphasis on it, by making it a little bigger, different font.
It’s always about pleasing the human eye with visuals, rules such as repetition of patterns are quite nice to look at, also contrast rules are very paramount. I chose to have the white background and to use Black for my font color because black and white contrast color contrast each other. It also looked nice when reading, it is clear to view.
I kept a lot of spaces because also, it gives our eyes a nice view to look at because our eyes likes simple, we don’t like looking at too much things, a lot times, we can't focus.
Image; Instead of putting many images that could go along with my quote, I decided on picking just one to represent my central idea of the quote.
Home Network- Annie Chen
A.) My network starts from the World Wide Web then it goes to my house where I have the Modem/Router from Verizon Fios. The Modem/Router connects to four iPhones, three apple laptops, two iPads and my Amazon Alexa Dot.
B.) Through this project, I learned that the World Wide Web is all connected, nothing on the internet is truly erased. I learned that we should all be careful with the use of modern day social media and technology. I learned different wires of the routers. I also learned that the network companies can be shady.
C.) I would suggest researching what type of network company would be best for them. It is really important to know what is a good bargain for home internet because often times, people who don't know anything about internet get ripped off. If the internet guy were to supply me with a hub, i would know there is something wrong because unless I am specifically asking for a hub, hubs are slow and will not work as well as the usual duo of Modem/Router. Meanwhile trying to find good internet, we also have to keep in mind the price.
