January 20-26

What I Did This Week

            This week I did the last step of the creation of my product: have it printed. I am glad that I had it printed earlier than the day before it is due, because I encountered a few problems that I would not have the time to solve in one night. More about those problems in the next heading. I also organized my Personal Project binder according to the table of contents given by my school.

Difficulties Faced

            Printing the calendar was a huge issue for me. I simply did not have time. On top of that, the workers there could not open my InDesign files. I found out that they could only open picture files, Photoshop files, and PDFs. Later, after the problem was sorted out, I was looking through my calendar and found a typo. One typo. And a blank page at the back.

How I Solved the Challenges/What I Learned

            Since I did not have time to go to the print shop, my mom went for me. Also, since the workers could not open my Indesign files, she had to come all the way home and wait for me to save all of my calendar pages as PDF files so they could be printed. We fixed the typo and reprinted the calendar. One of the only differences was that I filled in the blank page with a picture of myself taking a picture outdoors, with a caption saying my name and school.

Although I had some issues with the printing of the calendar, overall it turned out very well and turned out just as I had imagined it. I am so happy that all of that is officially over and done with, and hopefully I will pass with good Personal Project grades so I will not get held back next year and have to start the PP process all over again with a different project.

            This will likely be my last process journal entry, ever. Hope you enjoyed looking at how my Personal Project has progressed and how I have grown throughout the process. Now, to conclude, here is a picture of me with my freshly-printed calendar. Thank you.

January 13-19

What I Did This Week

            I finished all my calendar pages. After all that, I am finally done with my product. Now all I have to do is have it printed and it will be ready for evaluation. The calendar pages that I finished this week were the Wildlife Conservation page (September), Park Maintenance (October), Tree Planting (November), and Hydroelectric Renewable Energy (March). Screenshots are below.

Difficulties Faced

            I realized that I still did not have the Water Conservation picture, so I ended up using my Grand Canyon picture and doing the Park and Zoo Maintenance calendar page instead of the Water Conservation page. Another difficulty I faced was that I was not very organized, and I had not decided on what month would go with what topic.

How I Solved the Challenges/What I Learned

            To solve the problem of my disorganization of the various months and their topics, I created a table and organized my topics according to the month they would correspond to. As I was creating the calendar pages, to be more organized I filled in the box with yellow once I was already finished. All of the boxes are yellow now because I have finished. A screenshot is below.

Although there were quite a few ups and downs and things that went wrong during my process, I have learned from my mistakes and even if a certain circumstance was not my fault, I have learned to be prepared to solve the issue (if it can be solved, which it usually can).

December 30-January 5

What I Did This Week

            This week, I finished a few more calendar pages, specifically for September 2014 and January 2015. Respectively, their topics are Wildlife Conservation and Biodegradable Plastic. I also went on a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon, as my family and I are currently in Las Vegas on holiday. I got a picture of Hoover Dam there for my Hydroelectric Renewable Energy calendar page, and the pilot of the helicopter told me a few informational facts about the area and the Canyon and Hoover Dam itself, which I will use in the informational part of my calendar. I also got a good picture of the Grand Canyon, which I can use as backup if one of my topics does not work out. The Grand Canyon picture would likely fall under Park and Zoo Maintenance calendar page, if needed.

John McArthur, the pilot of the helicopter my family and I rode in

Hoover Dam

Grand Canyon

Difficulties Faced

            A difficulty that I faced was that there were other people in the helicopter, and so whenever I tried to take a picture through the window, there would usually be someone else’s hand or another body part in the picture, which was not a good thing. Also, I had forgotten to bring a notebook because I thought I was only going on the helicopter ride for the picture, so by the time I got back to the hotel, I had forgotten quite a lot of what the pilot told me.

How I Solved the Challenges/What I Learned

            For the problem of unwanted people accidentally getting into my pictures, I was able to crop some of the pictures without them looking too bad. I was unable to fully solve the problem of not bringing a notebook as my memory is quite bad, but I remembered a few important things, which I used in my calendar. I learned to always be prepared with a notebook wherever I go. I also learned to have a backup topic for certain large projects just in case something goes wrong with one of the topics and one needs to change it, fast. I feel more at ease now that I have my Grand Canyon picture, because I know that I have a backup topic. This is the last week before school starts up again, and I am planning to finish all my calendar pages before the break ends, so when I get back that is one of the primary things that I will try to get done.