Audience 1: Gamers
How many people play games? The numbers are growing everyday, but the knowledge about how games are designed and created is still scarce. For these people, this paper is meant as an introductory into the mind and workings of designing a game. Games are enjoyed by lots of people and so should the creation of games.
In a way, games are complex systems. But at the same time, they are also logical and coherent. Most people own a car, but most people don’t really understand them because the car is a complex system and could be seen as too complicated to understand. Likewise, many people play games, but few understand how they work.
Going from start to finish will show this audience exactly what goes into the process.


Audience 2: Sixth College Students

For most colleges, an article about game design and development would make no sense, but Sixth college is unique in that it requires all students to become “fluent” in technology. While the required course to fulfill this requirement is far short of demanding, it does give every student going through the college an idea of what code looks like and how programs are structure.

For these students, this paper is meant to show a side of programming and computer science that is often overlooked in the introductory courses. These courses are designed instill basic knowledge about too much into students. In doing this, the courses also often overlook the more enjoyable part of programming which is the fruition of concepts.

To a child

There is a reason why some people are born boys and some people are born girls. There are even some people born in between. A large part of what I've learned is how living things are made. There are a lot of steps to making something live, and it always needs another living thing (a mom.) Did you know some thing don't need a dad to be born? Some things can have kids all by themselves, but people always need a mom and a dad to be born. There is a reason for it that I'm sure your parents would love to tell you about if you just ask them.

Whether a living thing needs two parents or one to be born, or whether it is born a boy or a girl or big or tall depends on some small parts of our body. Just like a hair is hard to see by itself but makes up a big part of your head, the rest of our bodies is made up of parts even harder to see but together they make up our body. One of these super tiny parts of our bodies is called DNA. This thing is so small we can never see it with our own eyes but DNA has the instructions for every part of our body. Its like the instruction manual for every person, and we get it from out parents, half from our dad and half from our mom. Learning about this “instruction manual” helps us figure out what happens when someone gets sick, or why some people grow tall or short or are boys or girls. Sometimes we can even read the instruction manual to find a way to help people before they get sick. If you ever wonder why a lizard is green, or why you have ten finger and ten toes, or why your teeth are white and your parents can't answer, don't worry. There is an answer; stay in school and you just might find it.

To a senior

There is always a specific reason why our bodies do the things they do, and why they wear out. A lot of the changes that happen to us are caused by changes in our genetic composition. DNA is the molecule that determines who we are. As we get older or get sick how we use our DNA, and sometimes even the DNA itself, changes. When it changes too much, or is changed in a bad way people get cancers. When someone exercises, DNA starts getting used to make muscles. When someone gets older, the DNA itself actually gets shorter.

Knowing about how these things change our DNA helps us figure out what to do when they something bad happens. Genetic disease isn't something that can be cured. We can only use our knowledge of DNA to detect problems and try to figure out exactly what went wrong, but we can't change a person's DNA. For example, some people are born without the ability to use phenylalanine. If a baby is given this amino acid, it can cause permanent mental retardation. This rare genetic condition has to be tested for when someone is born. This technology is still very new, so there aren't too many profound practical applications, but in the future genetics will continue to show us what is going on behind the scenes of our own bodies and hopefully we will be able to use that knowledge to live healthier, happier lives.

Rated PG: Psychology Guidance Suggested

Psychology Major: The basis of social cognition in the field of social psychology has to do with categorizing our social world into schemas or mental frameworks based on our prior experiences. These experiences are usually shaped by the social learning theory where we acquire knowledge through modeling the actions of our social world. Different from other branches of Psychology such as Freud’s psychoanalysis, Pavlovian classical conditioning , or Skinner’s behaviorism is that social psychology has to us as the individual figuring out our social world and finding the causes of why people do the things they do and also why we do the things we do. It is less individual based where it not only look at our behaviors alone, but how we as an individual function in a social system in the social interactions that we have. It analyzes how these social dances then affect the ebb and flow the locus of control in our behaviors.

Non-Psychology Major: As humans, we are biologically predisposed to see patterns. Without such tendency, every stimulus that we come upon in our environment will flood our system and we will have to allocate time and energy in analyzing every little thing that we come upon, even if we have stumbled upon such stimuli before. This why is our mind use mental shortcuts or stereotypes in categorizing things in that we do not waste mental energy figuring out the familiar stimuli and allocate that effort into figuring out novel stimuli. For example, if we have no framework for dogs vs. tigers, we will spend precious time figuring out the differentiation between the two every time we come upon a 4 legged animal and whether it is dangerous or not, which by then could be too late and we would be dead. We also do the tendency when it comes to human beings whether grouping people by race, political party, or major. This is because it is more efficient. This is a branch in social psychology where we study how in our mind works in the presence of others because biologically, us humans are social creatures by nature and we operate in groups. So we operate using social cognition, which are the mental processes that we use in order to understand our social world and to attribute the causes behind not only other people’s actions but also our very own.

Blog 4

Audience: Students

A collage student has many things to worry about. At UCSD there are midterms every other day. Some dont have time to sleep or even eat because of the rigourous currriculum. With so much on students' plates, some do not have any time to engage in social activities and move up the social ladder. Wouldnt it be great if there was just a formula to become ''cool'' in several easy steps. In fact, there is such a formula and it is called the scientific method. The scientific method is originally designed for implimentation of scientific research but with some slight modifications it can also be taylored to meet the needs of many socialy uncool students.

Audience: Parents

When observing collage students it may seem that there is far too much fun occuring and not enough studying happening. Students who desire to climb the social ladder seem to waste their time with pointless activities and tasks. But what if for some students, the time spent gaining friends was not only benifical socially but also had educational value. This is precisely what is occuring when students implement the scientific method in order to become more ''cool''. The steps of the method includes background research, devising hypothesis', performing experiments and analyzing data. Although all of this work is done with the goal of gaining more friends, the concepts of the scientific method are being utilized and undoubtedly will be naturally be learned and transered to the base of knowledge needed to perform academic research.

2 Audience Summaries Take Two

ORIGINAL BLOG 4 LINK

REPOST OF ORIGINAL
Audience1: Non-Computer Science Peers
When I was about six there was this interactive kids story website that I would visit. It was very clunky because in order to progress through a story, I would have to click on a link and then I would have to wait for the next page to load.
Today, web applications get rid of that clunkiness. Web applications are self contained programs on a web page. Google Docs and Farmville are two examples of web applications. These applications provide quick and instantaneous results to the web user.
Having studied in the field of computer science at UCSD. I have learned how to create efficient algorithms and debug my applications which are both essential parts to creating a web application. An algorithm is a set of instructions used to solve a problem. Debugging is finding and fixing problems within my application. With both of these skills, I am able to create a web application that works efficiently and the way it's supposed to.

Audience2: My Sister's Peers (Ages 10-12)
When I was half your age, which was about eighteen years ago, I didn't have Facebook or Webkinz to spend all my time with. I had a lame kids story website that was nothing like those. It was slow and every time I clicked I had to wait for a whole new page to load.
Those games you play on Facebook and Webkinz are called web applications. Web applications are relatively new to the Internet which is why I didn't have those games back then. Imagine playing a game online that made you wait seventeen seconds after every click. Not fun at all. Web applications make it so that you don't have to wait.
The college I go to has shown me how to make web applications. I learned how to make the comments on your Facebook walls work and I learned out to make them work so that when you write on your friend's wall, the message doesn't come out completely different.

Emerging Scientist

To my parents:

My expertise primarily lies in asking questions. Since I am a scientist I am interested in why and how things works. With each new discovery comes a new question. Why do bananas ripen in presence of an apple? Does sunscreen actually protect your skin? These are the types of questions that most people think about on occasion, and the researchers are the ones that probe into it and discover the reason why. They set up experiments, make observations of the experiments, collect data, and draw conclusions.

I played the role of a researcher when I was trying to search for an alternative and more eco-friendly way of using botanicals as a repellent to prevent mosquitoes from harming humans. Initially an extensive literature search was conducted to select various plants, based on previously known medicinal uses. From that information bioassays were set up from the extracts. Bioassays are used to measure the effects and strength of a substance on a living organism. In this experiment mosquitoes were harvested in my backyard by keeping a tray with water in a shady area which was damp with trees and other shrubbery covering it. The bioassays were administered on a filter paper placed on top of the breeder. The breeder was a cylindrical chamber with two compartments. On the bottom larvae were able to grow into pupae and fly to the upper chamber. The adult flies would then be in direct contact with the fumes from the filter paper. After the study conducted several plants were shown to be powerful in killing off the mosquitoes. A separate experiment with commercial products was also conducted. Being that we(my family) frequent India every other year and are always in close proximity to swampy mosquito rich areas, the efficacies of commercial repellents was tested. The data suggested that some of the commercially bought products were just as effective as some of the plant botanicals.

As a scientist I can ask questions and solve problems that plague many people around the world.

Job Interview:

The art of inquiry and probing is one that is innate in a scientist. I have always asked the questions why, how, where, when etc. to my parents as a child and this is what most likely led me to a field in the sciences. The interest in how things work and building an experimental model to ask questions and to solve them keeps me motivated to continue research and discovery.

An example of my research initiative is when I was a senior in high school. I created an experiment to help understand the efficacies of various plant species. The title of the work: “Bioprospecting for Effective Mosquito Larvicides and Adulticides” is looking at a way to essentially keep mosquitoes at bay and prevent them from harming humans with malaria. The experimentation did not take place in one day, but over a six month time frame. Initially an extensive literature search was done to find plants that have known medicinal qualities as well as those that are commonly used in the past to keep mosquitoes at bay. The first step was to create bioassays of the plants and oils that were used. The data from this looked at mortality levels of these assays. The method to test this was using a cylindrical breeder. The bottom of the breeder held the murky water containing the mosquito larvae, and once these larvae grew into adult mosquitoes they were able to fly up to the top compartment. The top of the compartment had a vented opening on which a filter paper with the prepared bioassay was inoculated. The findings from these experiments determined that three of the plant species: Tulsi, Sweet Fennel, and Sweet Annie were highly effective in killing the mosquitoes. The results from this experiment were also used to test against Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly to see if there would be any mortality in other parts of the ecosystem. The results showed that these flies were also killed, suggesting that the dosage of the treatment may need to be altered to only kill the mosquitoes and keep other parts of the ecosystem intact. In another separate experiment there was some compelling evidence for the interruption of growth from larvae to adult mosquitoes when using steam distillates of various plants. This data was interesting since if the growth of adult mosquitoes is able to be hindered, then the transmission of malaria will be able to be curtailed.

The research done here helped me to fully understand the pieces of the scientific method and the importance of asking questions and seeking answers.

A lil' about me

Professional

I have a problem. My problem arises every time I invite people to my house. The problem is that if any stranger, passer-by or casual onlooker happens to pass my threshold, it is not entirely unlikely that our 60 pound red-nosed pit-bull terrier will jump on them. It's scary to have a dog barrel down on me at pounce in a oddly hilarious linebacker-style tackle. He's not a wild dog and no one is ever in any real danger, since he only tackles guys and getting tackled by a 60 pound dog is kinda like getting tackled by a school boy. It is, however, quite put-offish. My house is my business, I rent rooms to pay the mortgage, so having a dog that jumps on prospective tenants is actually quite expensive.

Roscoe, the dog, and Chris, the human, are by all means good animals. I live with them so I know this as certainly as you can be about any living thing. Kicking them out of my home is the right buisness decision, but I am not sure it is the right desicion. I think a lot of what scares people about Roscoe are preconcieved notions about the disposition of a breed of dog know as pit bulls, just like what scares people about Chirs and Andy are preconcieved notions about the disposition of a breed of humans known as blacks and latinos. I wasn't really willing to kick him out on the premise that he was a bad dog.

The expense of it had finally gotten to me. Having an empty room for a month is expensive, so I decided on the first of May if I hadn't found a tenant I'd have to give the ruinous news that Chris would have to find a new awesome home to live in. The very last day was April 30, and on that day, after having scared off tons of people, the Idahoan transplants Joe and Gary came to interview. Joe shared our views on animals, which is a good indicator he shares our views on people too. He was able to look past Roscoes faults and observed his gentler nature that comes with time and familiarity. So, Im out a few hundred dollars but at least I live with cool people. I'm not sure if happiness is derived from quantity of money or quality of friends but I guess I'll find out.

Personal

The best driving road I know of is the Pacific Coast Highway. This road has sections that run precariously along cliffs and over short yet immensely deep chasms. A bridge the length of a basketball court might be hundreds of feet from the bottom. There is even a ridge just south of the coastal town of Pacifica that is known as "Devil's Slide" for its dangerous positioning. This part of the PCH runs around the ocean face of a mountain. The view is spectacular as the elevation give the traveller a tall perspective on the ocean and the setting sun, but the traveller would be well advised to focus on the road. Just a few feet from the edge of the road there is no land, only a steep descent into the jagged and unforgiving northern california coast that has, year and again, claimed the lives of wreckless drivers.

My most memorable experience on this road happened to me the year before I left for college. I was on my way to meet my friends camping at Big Sur, and on my way I encoutered a heavy fog that is characteristic of a lot of coastal areas. I was in a Jeep Wrangler that had no top or windows, which was just as well because the windsheild became quickly obscured by fog forcing me to drive with my head out out the vehicle, like a dog. This is generally dangerous, as mentioned before there are scary cliffs on this road, and unadvisable but I admit that it was fun. The reason many people own convertibles, motorcycles and wrangles is to avoid the secure comfort provided by cars, or "cages" as they are known in certain circles. At one point in this heavy fog the magical PCH ascended to a point just above the heavy fog, and I reached this point just as the sun was setting. I was late and off schedule, and rewarded for it by an ocean of pink cotton candy clouds laid out and extending forever under a clear, empty sky. It looked like the inspiration for a cloud level of Super Mario. It was one of those strange and life affirming scenes that challenge the observer to seek out more of life's little easter eggs, although it might be the type of experience that actively eludes the pursuer.

Two Angles

Audience 1: Parents of students

                Do you have a child? Are you concerned for his/her safety? At UCSD, the Structural Engineering department works hard to ensure the stability of buildings, which means that these buildings won’t fall apart. One of these buildings was not the most stable. In 2006, the parts of the concrete of the Geisel building were falling apart. As a Structural Engineer, I can explain some of the reasons why this would occur. For one, the concrete may have experienced excessive external load. This would cause the parts of the concrete of the building to fall off. This can easily be fixed by adding reinforced steel bars into the concrete. Today, with the new ACI 318 building code (the standard building code), the Geisel building is far more stable. Therefore, you do not have to worry about parts of the building falling off and hurting you child.

Audience 2: Students who go to Geisel everyday

                Looking up at the 110 foot building of Geisel Library, I recollect the SE 150: Structural Design class that I took at UCSD. Although this building looks to be in structural equilibrium (a fancy term for looking structural stability), the Geisel building was falling apart five years ago. Pieces of the building were falling off and the entrance was covered to prevent injury. As I look up at the top floors of the building, I shake my head. Had the designers of this structure known the appropriate amount of steel reinforcement in the columns and the walls, the building would not have started to come apart. Also, the stress, which is the internal resistance to the distorting effects of external forces, along the walls of the building would not cause pieces of the building to fly off and to potentially hurt students, including me.

Pro-Am

Peer Audience

In the movie Total Recall a virtual tennis instructor shows Sharon Stone the finer points of how to serve. Twenty-one years later the reality of such a virtual tutor is right around the corner. Virtual technology that was once so expensive as to be reserved for pilot training on flight simulators, or to train surgeons on delicate procedures, is more readily available on a consumer level.

But, these are not video games. At least not the way we think of video games today; simply played on a screen with a controller. They will be whole body participations that include systems for feedback with physical actions: feedback that will lead to enhancement of human coordinations

The Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts degree from UCSD provides the education to excel in this growing area. This program has an emphasis the computer skills necessary to implement computer technology with artistic considerations. A main focus of the program is the interactivity of the percipient. The combination on both of these areas of study provide expertise for user centered design, where the user of these novel technologies is the prime consideration.

Professional Audience

Neural plasticity is an exciting new field. Where once it was accepted that the nervous system became solidified upon adolescence, it is now clear that the brain can adapt and reorganize itself through out our life span. In motor therapy and relearning there is a process involving the brain to re-acquire lost motor control caused by a damaged area to the brain. A cortical reorganization can permit the nervous system to accommodate control over the consequently affected parts of the body.

Bodily augmentation is not new. A blind man uses a cane to navigate his way around. Cognitive scientists argue that the users somatic senses extend to the cane. The myriad of muscular controls necessary to operate the cane synthesize to a simple awareness for the tip of the cane. Motor rehabilitation, motor learning and augmentation are all on the same axis of neural plasticity.

For example, in surgical simulators sensors are incorporated into a data-collecting glove at the level of the articulations of the hand. As sensors monitor each articulation, information is sent to controls that operate a mechanical hand. Haptic response systems are incorporated into the glove to encourage the user's corrections. This technology can be used to compare the user’s movements to those of experts. Their skill level is then scored accordingly. Research has shown such systems to be highly effective in training.

The sciences that permit these technological innovations often lack the design perspective of artists. The interdisciplinary natue of art combined with a science background offers unique considerations for user centered design. The ICAM program at UCSD has provides exactly these skills to understand and manipulate technology for the use in interactive design.

Audience 1: Structural Engineers

Thanks to UCSD, I am an expert at looking at and solving for forces and stresses. I am an expert in structural analysis, looking at random beams that are subjected to perfect concentrated point loads and perfectly uniformed distributed loading. Another thing I have become really good at is making assumptions and trying to keep things simple.

In one of our senior design courses, we finally get to exercise our design skills but it becomes very apparent that there are many things we are unfamiliar with that will show up in the real world. For instance, the crane operates with a turn table motor, a winch, a trolley motor, and electromagnets. Each component moving and applying non uniform loads to a region that can move along the crane. In addition, there is an entire dynamic side of this structure that is very complicated and can’t be studied with statics. Much of structural design is this way. Simplifying the complex by making an assumption that will allow the design to work.

Audience 2: Non-engineers

Many times, I have come across a large problem and not known where to start. For instance, I’ve had to write many, long papers for design projects. In each project, I am designing some structure like a bridge or a building. If someone told you to come up with a bridge design on the spot, the first question that should come to mind is “a bridge for what?”. They might give you an exact amount and have an idea for what the traffic may be or they may not have a clue. The type of assumptions we make are probably similar to those you may make if you had to prepare food for a party. “How much food should I get?” If the party is in a small room, perhaps buying food for fifteen to twenty would suffice. If the party was held in ballroom or auditorium, you might want to buy for fifty, for a hundred, or more. In both situations, designing a structure or buying food for an unknown amount of people, we envision the most probably worst case scenario. The structure could be loaded with a continuous traffic of people and perhaps have extra weight from snow or wind. For the party, the room could be filled but of course it can only filled to as the room would allow for a comfortable party setting. Making educated guesses like this is what engineers do and what UCSD has made me an expert in addition to looking at how a building behaves.

Two Summaries

Audience 1: Non-Science Majors

We drink water every day and the quality of water is very important for humans. If you are going camping or like water sports, it is important that you know what’s in the water you’re drinking or coming in contact with. If you accidentally drink contaminated water, it can cause water borne illnesses and gastrointestinal problems. Using two simple tests, I can check a water sample for the bacteria E.coli which is found in fecal matter. One test uses a kit named Colilert which includes a special mixture that is added into a water sample. If that sample turns yellow and glows under UV light, E. coli is present in the water. I will then place the yellow and glowing sample on a special medium to allow for growth of colonies. If the colonies appear to be back with a green metallic sheen, I can conclude that the water sample has E.coli present in the original water sample. I think it is amazing that two simple tests can prove whether a water sample is safe for human consumption.

Audience 2: Environmentalists

There are numerous reasons why public waters are contaminated. People are dumping raw sewage in the ocean. There are high levels of run-off from fertilizers and animal waste on farmlands that trickle in water systems. Diseases caused from fecal bacteria can cause epidemics in areas that are underdeveloped, lack proper sanitation methods, are overpopulated, or just recently experienced natural disasters like earthquakes. The government and health agencies have certain water testing regulations to make sure that we are not consuming polluted water yet about a billion people in the world still do not have access to clean drinking water. I can test a water sample for the presence of the bacteria, E.coli. One test uses a Colilet test kit which is approved by the EPA. Then, I place the Colilert mixture into the water sample and if it was positive for E.coli, the water sample would be yellow and fluorescent. Next, I use a small scoop of the yellow and fluorescent sample and place it on special medium plate. If these bacteria have black colonies with a green shimmer on it, it means that E. coli is present. I can confidently say that I have basic laboratory knowledge to help someone test for clean drinking water so that it is for safe human consumption.

Audience#1: Peers not yet able to practice their expertise

As an assistant in a medical research lab, I experience the rewarding opportunity to apply my knowledge of the theory behind ELISAs. My reaserch lab investigates the role of different cytokines in the progression of degenerate diseases, such as liver fibrosis. Once identified, drugs to target these cytokines can be developed and tested. My utilization of ELISAs ranges from the identification of which cytokines are present under disease conditions to whether cells exposed to developed drugs experience adverse effects. Although knowledge of theory remains key, I have learned that only repeated, careful practice of each step yields reliable results.

Audience#2: Educated people not familiar with the tools of biological research

I use an Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) on a weekly basis in my position as an assistant for a medical research lab. ELISAs hinge on the exploitation of antibodies--components of our immune systems--which possess the ability to bind specific targets. With the steps of an ELISA, I can test a mixture of things for one specific molecule, sandwiching that molecule between specially designed antibodies. The color change produced by these antibodies corresponds to the quantity of target molecule present; this allows me to measure, for example, any distress signals secreted by cells exposed to the drug my research lab is trying to develop.

No Expertise

(Parents) 30 years ago, when my parents were my age, applying to college was a simpler process. They applied to one maybe two schools and they got in. The college experience was also much different, if you worked hard, your hard work would pay off in the end. As a biology student at UCSD however, this is no longer the case. Whether you fail or succeed is not longer just a product of your work ethic. It is fully dependent on your relative failure or success to the thousands of other students.

(Bio students) As biology students at UCSD, most of you know the feeling, the feeling of getting owned on a chemistry, genetics, or molecular biology midterm. After studying all night, confident you know the material, only to walk out of the test feeling defeated, confused, and angry. The effects of an impacted major can be felt in every class and after every test and what used to be failing grades, below 50%, are now B’s and B+’s. Hard work and effort are no longer enough to succeed in college, but rather how you compare to the ever increasing amount of fellow students.

2 Audiences Summaries

Audience1: Non-Computer Science Peers
When I was about six there was this interactive kids story website that I would visit. It was very clunky because in order to progress through a story, I would have to click on a link and then I would have to wait for the next page to load.
Today, web applications get rid of that clunkiness. Web applications are self contained programs on a web page. Google Docs and Farmville are two examples of web applications. These applications provide quick and instantaneous results to the web user.
Having studied in the field of computer science at UCSD. I have learned how to create efficient algorithms and debug my applications which are both essential parts to creating a web application. An algorithm is a set of instructions used to solve a problem. Debugging is finding and fixing problems within my application. With both of these skills, I am able to create a web application that works efficiently and the way it's supposed to.

Audience2: My Sister's Peers (Ages 10-12)
When I was half your age, which was about eighteen years ago, I didn't have Facebook or Webkinz to spend all my time with. I had a lame kids story website that was nothing like those. It was slow and every time I clicked I had to wait for a whole new page to load.
Those games you play on Facebook and Webkinz are called web applications. Web applications are relatively new to the Internet which is why I didn't have those games back then. Imagine playing a game online that made you wait seventeen seconds after every click. Not fun at all. Web applications make it so that you don't have to wait.
The college I go to has shown me how to make web applications. I learned how to make the comments on your Facebook walls work and I learned out to make them work so that when you write on your friend's wall, the message doesn't come out completely different.

Two Summaries

Audience 1: Biologist Mother

During my four years of undergraduate education, I have studied many different aspects of Linguistics. Among assorted sub-fields in Linguistics I found that mastering one set of skills was particularly advantageous to my success. The ability to recognize patterns and anomalies in data and using linguistic knowledge account for them is one crucial capability I acquired. This capacity allows me to tackle many of the unresolved questions that still exist in linguistics. For example, with this competence I can contribute to the knowledge bank of under-described and unknown languages. Without speaking or reading a language, I am qualified to collect linguistic data from native speakers and attempt to explain the natural rules of that language. Many languages in the world have not been described yet and may well go extinct before anyone records their unique characteristics.

Audience 2: Elementary school kids

After I graduated high school, I wanted to learn more about language. So I went to school for another four years and spent that time learning about languages and how they work. One thing I noticed very quickly was that each language obeys certain rules. Different languages follow different rules, but there are also rules that are common among languages. For example, when babies are learning their native language for the very first time, they usually learn vowel sounds before consonants, no matter what language they are learning. My schooling has taught me to identify these commonalities and explain them. I told you that babies learn vowels before consonants, the reason for this is that the vowel "a" can be made simply by opening one's mouth and vibrating the vocal cords. To produce a consonant like "p" requires much more control over one's lips and breathing. So, with these skills, I can learn more about how babies learn language effortlessly, while it takes adults many years to master a new language.

Cadillacs and Blood

Personal: Cadillac

My mother owned an old cream Cadillac. I could swear that it was discovered in our backyard my some archeologists. Whenever we drove it, it would make a continuous rattling noise as if the axels of the car were just about ready to fall off. The car had late symptoms of automotive osteoporosis. Every time someone got into the car and displaced the weight to one side the frame would creak. The eerie creaking sound would continue throughout the whole drive. Over every pump there was a creak. Every turn resulted in a creak. Even when no one was in the car and the car was stationary, it would still creak!
I remember one day as my mommie (that’s what I called her at the time) was driving me back from the store, she just started to sob quietly . I saw how the tears trickled down her checks and dripped slowly onto the blistered navy blue leather seat. She did not reveal what was bother her but I, even at my young age, understood exactly why she was sorrowful. Even though my dady worked from morning till late at night, there still wasn’t enough money to support our family of eight. My mommie barely had enough money to buy us food and clothes, let alone fix her broken car.
While her sobbing continued, she tried to hide her tears from my innocent eyes. She quickly reached up to the rear view mirror and turned it away from my gaze. The car then creeped to a stop as we approached our humble little home. I remember my mom composing herself and then opening my door in order to pick me up out of my seat. As she held me in her arms I said “Don’t cry mommie, when I become a doctor I will buy you a new car, I promise”. She smiled and then a different kind of tear came running down her check.

Professional: Blood

My parents have a countless number of friends and acquaintances. So when my parents introduced me to an middle aged stalky bald man. We engaged in pleasant conversation and I told him about my goals and aspirations. He smiled. It turned out that this bald man was the chief orthopedic surgeon in Nikolaev, Ukraine. Shorltly after our aquantance, Dr. Peter Ivanovich invited me to come with him to Ukraine in order to take part in an international internship program.
I decided to accept the invitation and flew to the city of Nikolaev. I was greeted by Doctor Peter Ivanovich. We engaged in small talk as we flew through the traffic. I was surprised that Dr. Ivanovich had no regard for the law or traffic signals, as far as I could tell he was as importanat as the president himself. I finally stirred up enough courage to finally ask him “Doctor, aren’t you a bit scared that the police will pull you over and give you a ticket”? He chuckled and after assuring me that he was fully paying attention to the road and the to the passing pedestrians he let me in on a little secret. He said “I know the chief of police very well, we’re good friends. His wife was one of my patients. So if a policeman pulls me over asks me for my identification, I will ask for his identification as well”. He leaned over and stated almost in a whisper, “After Ivan Sergeovich [chief of police] speaks to him, I guarantee you that he will never pull me over again.” I smiled. “We’re here” Ivanovich said.
Our car pulled into a gated residence. As I tilted my head as far back as I could, I observed a four story residence. I scanned my surroundings and noticed that the largest river in the city was only several hundred feet away. The house rested at the bend of the river, resulting in a beautiful view of turquoise and deep blue that could be seen in almost every window of the house. The doctor then showed me my private room. Before I was able to open my mouth is astonishment the doctor said, “Get some sleep we have an early start tomorrow.”
My alarm rang at 3:45 am. I quickly got dressed and stumbled into the car. Once we approached the emergency room Ivanovich turned to me and said, “Remember if anyone asks, you are a university student from California”. “Yes of course” I replied. We then proceeded into the emergency room. A nurse met us at the entrance and said “Doctor we have a patient for you”. As we walked into the operating room, I saw a man sitting on the table with his neck sliced open. The cut didn’t penetrate any arteries or his windpipe and therefore he was still alive. “Get suited up, today you are going to learn how to stitch” Ivanovich told me. I was never so scared or exited in my life. I was sixteen at the time.

Facebook Friends

"What?! You have a girlfriend?" exclaimed my partner in caffeine acquisition as I slipped into the too green lawn chair. The day had been long and coffee is a mandatory recovery supplement after 6 hours of straight coding. Add to that same real human contact and some resemblance of reality can be restored. At least that I what I hoped for when I grab my current companion.

"Why have I never heard about this before?" continued the now caffeine infused interrogator before I could even begin to respond.

As I began to set my medium, 100% recycle cup filled with dark french roast slightly drizzled by a quarter packet of sugar, the continuation of questions came, “How long have you been together? Do I know her?”

Steam lazily danced from the single portal of the coffee cup, but unlike my companion, this steam will run out much sooner. I heaved a small sigh and started explaining, “We’ve been together for 3 years now and …”
A look of confusion crossed her face. “Why isn’t this on Facebook? Where are the pictures.?”
Now it was my turn to look confused. “Why would I? Not everybody has to know.”
Before the last words I spoke could have possibly even been heard, my companion ejected herself from her too green lawn chair. Grabbing her belongings, she marched off. Maybe I was suppose to beg her to stop, but I couldn’t find a reason to do so.
After finishing my caffeine, I submitted to the guilty pleasure of Facebook. It seems like I have one less friend.

Vindications

Professional:
I drum my fingers on the lab bench, waiting impatiently for the numbers on my timer to slip down below the five minute mark. Close enough, right? I peek into the drawer like a kid sneaking a hand into the cookie jar. Technically the reaction occuring in the wells of my test plate shouldn't be exposed to light yet. But it's an enzymatic reaction; it should be leveled off by now--nothing should really be happening. I anxiously try to pre-evaluate my success. Row A: good. Row B: good... Row D? Damn it, that well shouldn't be so dark. Days like these--when I cannot for the life of me obtain decent replicate values for an assay--remind me why I changed my login password to 'blowme.'
The necessary addition of sulfuric acid to stop the reaction in the wells further sours my mood, as I lament the change from aqua to assaultingly bright yellow. I don't bother hiding my defeated stomps on the way to the spectrophotometer. John raises a quizzical look, but I offer no explanation for my crabby mocking of the machine's bip...bip...bip as it reads my plate. Where did I go wrong?
Barbara bustles in at the sound of another timer. "Oh!" she exclaims from across the lab. Her giggle of excitement catches me off guard. "Stephanie, this plate is perfect! Look at the replicates for your standard." I survey the comparison plate I had been testing with a mix of exasperation and relief; all my mismatched replicate values stemmed from a bad batch of plates.

Personal:
The squeaky hinge of a lawn chair to my left draws me up from the depths of my reverie. I refuse to open my eyes. You've got to be kidding me. Over a mile hike toward the desolate outcroppings of sun-scorched cliff line--the solitude-seeking portion of my frontal lobe staging valiant attempts to reason against the screeching protests of my raw blisters--and yet this irritating presence still managed to fumble into my peripheral. Curiosity gets the best of me. Lifting my head in the weight of this heat feels impossible, but I manage to elevate my vision a few inches, just enough to inspect the stretch of sand to my left. The mild looking couple and drooling toddler, complete with sunhat and retro baby-chic shades, seem harmless.
Gravity plops my face back into the musky threading of my beach towel. As my thoughts log their daily complaint at the lack of escape from all these cookie cutter houses, with their shoebox backyards and ceaseless freeway noise, the ocean's waves lap at my subconscious. Shielding my eyes from the late morning rays, I turn my head to watch the water gurgle up the shore. Four years of living here and still the vastness hypnotizes me. A wild thrill chases up my spine knowing I can tip toe to the edge and all that civilization crushing in behind me just stops. Nevermind my complaints. I send a quiet smile out to the endless horizon; I remember why I'm here.

Not Too Late

1. It is an unusually cold and stormy winter day for San Diego and I am standing in the freezing cold rain sweating profusely. Under my waterproof raincoat, it feels like my body is trapped inside a greenhouse in the middle of summer. My heart is beating so hard I can feel it through my whole body. Under my umbrella, the rain falls around me as I wait for the shuttle to take me home. I had walked a from my class, a mere 100 yards away and yet my body felt like it had just completed a marathon.

Over the next few weeks, I started to notice more and more symptoms that I simply attributed to just having come back from studying abroad in Sweden. I would tell myself, that I was sweating because I was used to colder weather in Sweden, I was out of shape because I had not exercised much when I was abroad, I was tired and forgetful because I was stressed out, etc, the list went on. Unexplainable hand tremors eventually prevented me from volunteering as a dental assistant at UCSD’s Pre-dental student run free clinics and began to fall behind in school. As obvious as it may seem in retrospect, that something was not right, I continued to tell myself everything was fine.

Everything changed one weekend when I flew home to visit my family. At the airport my mother was taken aback by my apparent obvious change in appearance and demeanor. Even with her concern, I continued to brush it off, saying I was fine. That evening, as an old episode of “Friends” played out across the screen of our TV, I settled down on our couch with my mother to relax. Leaning my head back I heard her gasp, “What is wrong with you neck?!” My hand immediately flew to my neck, and as I gulped down my breath, I felt the literal lump protruding from my throat.

2. My eyes flew open as I was jolted awake by the sound of a gurgled cough. As I came to, my eyes met the angry glare of my father sitting across from me. I glanced down apologetically and mumbled a “sorry” through my facemask. Had I really just fallen asleep holding the suction straw in the patient’s mouth? Yes, yes I did. But could you really blame me?

Summer is supposed to be a time for students to be carefree. I wanted to be lying on the deck next to a cool glistening pool, soaking up the sun’s radiating beams. Quite on the contrary, my father enlisted me to assist him at his dental office, 5 days a week, for the next month. This meant waking up at 6 am and sitting in the Bay Bridge commute traffic. It meant sitting under blaring fluorescent overhead lights for 9 hours listening to San Francisco’s local “smooth jazz” station hunched over patients. Instead of the smell of sunscreen and chlorine, my days were filled with the smell of cleaning solution and minty toothpaste. My hand dried out more and more with each new pair of powdered latex gloves I put on and all I could think about was the smell of a cool ocean breeze and I inhaled the stale moist air from within my facemask. This was the price I had to pay in order to save up some money before college.

I told myself that over and over again as I forced my eyelids open, concentrating on avoiding eye contact with my father and the slightly disgusting task of suctioning saliva from the patient’s mouth.

Perseverance

Professional

                It was 4:00 AM. The chilly night air hit my body like the refrigerated vegetable section at Costco Wholesale. As I opened the door out from the lab, I noticed how the wind pressed against my body as I made my way towards my car. Annie, Nick, and I had just finished working that night for our three foot bridge for our class. We were in the lab since 7:00 PM.

                The bridge was made out of plaster of Paris, which is the same material composite used on most walls at residential homes. Plaster of Paris (or plaster Paris as we liked to call it) was very high maintenance. After I measured the correct water to plaster Paris ratio, which is two to three, I began to mix. I put in the powdered plaster Paris into the water at increments at a time. I did this so that there wouldn’t be any chunks of the materials, which would weaken the material. Therefore, I placed my whole hand into the mixing bowl and made sure that the chunks were eliminated. In the end of one batch, my whole hand was encased in a glove of plaster. My hand was an awesome piece of artwork! I repeated this procedure about five times more throughout the night.

                Also, after we had finished the pouring the plaster into the molds of the columns of our bridge, we had to wait over an hour our columns to dry. This stop and go process made the whole process unnecessarily elongated. The actual work time only took about three hours. However, we could have watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in the time that we waited. The night before, we were in the lab until 8:00 AM in the morning. Tonight was not as bad, but we were still not finished with the project.

Personal

                Sweat was dripping down my forehead. My sweat glands were working overtime as I was standing in the front of the classroom. My heart was racing at a countless pace as I was about to give the message. It was my turn to teach this Sunday. Although I knew that I would be nervous, I didn’t imagine that I would be scared to the point that little five-year-old Ellie would say, “He’s sweating!” Then I remembered that public speaking, even in front of a class of twenty with fifteen of those being kids, has never been my strength.

                When I was in second grade, I recited the Lord’s Prayer that I had memorized in Korean. It was in front of the whole church. There were over a hundred people in attendance. My sister and I were standing next to the pulpit. After my sister had recited her lines, it was my turn. She handed me the microphone. My hands were shaking as I took hold of the mike. As I started my lines, my voice started shaking as well. As I continued on, despite the noticeable fluctuation in my tone, I came to a sudden hindrance in my recital. I forgot the right word! But instead of moving on and playing it cool, instead of just skipping the phrase altogether, I said, “Oops…” in English! This was in front of a Korean congregation. They had all laughed at me. After I had finished my lines, I ran to my mom. Tears were running down my face, as I ran towards my mom. I felt the temperature on my face reach over 100 degrees as even more people laughed at my reaction. I buried my face as I wrapped my arms around my mom.

                As I continued to teach the children, I noticed that I was still quite nervous. Therefore, I said a quick prayer under my breath. Afterwards, I realized that I gained more confidence in myself. It was like “The Little Engine that Could” who kept saying to itself, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…” As the lesson went on, my voice sounded calmer and more relax rather than fluctuating like a sine graph. As I came to the end of the lesson, I gave a sigh of relief that it was over.