My Vocabulary #2

• Biotechnology: The use of genetically engineered crops in agriculture and DNA manipulation in livestock in order to increase product.
• Capital-intensive agriculture: Form of agriculture that uses mechanical good such as  machinery, tools, vehicles, and facilities to produce large amounts of agricultural goods.
• Chaff: Husks of grain separated from the seed by threshing.
• Commercial Agriculture: Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.
• Crop Rotation: The process of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil.
• Desertification: Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.
• Extensive Agriculture: An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area. 
• Green Revolution: Rapid diffusion of new agriculture technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers. 
• Hull: The outer covering of a seed.
• Intensive Cultivation: Any kind of agricultural activity that involves effective and efficient use of labor on small plots of land to maximize crop yield. 
• Labor-intensive Agriculture: Type of agriculture that requires large levels of manual labor to be successful.
• Luxury Crops: Crops not grown for sustenance to include tea, coffee, cacao, and tobacco.
• Vegetative Planting: Reproduction of plants by direct cloning from existing plants.
• Plantation Agriculture: When cash crops are grown on large estates. 
• Furrow: A long narrow trench made in the ground by a plow, especially for planting seeds or for irrigation.
• Mulch: A material (such as decaying leaves, bark, or compost) spread around or over a plant to enrich or insulate the soil. 
• Metallurgy: The technique of separating metals from their ores.

Vocabulary: Spring List 4

1. Accolade: an award or privilege granted as a special honor or as an acknowledgement of merit.
2. Acerbity: Sharp and forthright
3. Attrition: The action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure.
4. Bromide: A trite and unoriginal idea or remark typically intended to soothe or placate.
5. Chauvinist: A person displaying aggressive or exaggerated patriotism.
6. Chronic: Persisting for a long time or constantly recurring.
7. Expound: Present and explain (a theory or idea) systematically and in detail.
8. Factionalism: The splitting of a group into factions; conflict between factors.
9. Immaculate: Of a person or their clothes perfectly clean, neat, or tidy.
10. Imprecation: A spoken curse.
11. Ineluctable: Unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable.
12. Mercurial: Subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind.
13. Palliate: Make less severe or unpleasant without removing the cause.
14. Protocol: The official procedure or system of rules governing affairs of state or diplomatic occasions.
15. Resplendent: Attractive and impressive through being richly colorful or sumptuous.
16. Stigmatize: Describe or regard as worthy of disgrace or great disapproval.
17. Sub Rosa: Happening or done in secret.
18. Vainglory: Inordinate pride in oneself or ones achievements; excessive vanity.
19. Vestige: A trace of something that is disappearing or no longer exists.
20. Volition: The faculty or power of using one's will.

Vocabulary: Spring List 3

1. Apostate: A person who renounces a religious or political belief or principle.
2. Effusive: Expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner.
3. Impasse: A situation in which no progress is possible, because of disagreement.
4. Euphoria: A feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness.
5. Lugubrious: Looking or sounding sad and dismal.
6. Bravado: A bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress or intimidate.
7. Consensus: General agreement.
8. Dichotomy: A division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.
9. Gothic: Of or in the style of an architecture prevalent in western Europe in the 12th-16th centuries, characterized by pointed arches, rib vaults, and flying buttresses, together with large windows and elaborate tracery.
10. Constrict: Make narrower
11. Punctilio: A fine or pretty point of conduct or procedure.
12. Metamorphosis: Process of transformation from an immature to an adult for two or more distinct phases.
13. Raconteur: A person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way.
14. Sine qua non: A thing that is absolutely necessary.
15. Quixotic: Exceedingly idealistic.
16. Vendetta: A blood feud in which the family of a murdered person seeks vengeance on the murderer or the murderer's family.
17. Non sequitur: A conclusion or statement that does not logically follow the previous conclusion or statement.
18. Mystique: A fascinating aura of mystery, awe, and power surrounding someone or something.
19. Quagmire: A soft boggy area of land that gives way underfoot.
20. Parlous: Full of danger or uncertainty.

I, Senior Project/ First Draft

Dr. Preston discussed three questions in class with us to strongly consider and provide answers for. The following questions are:

• What do you want know/do?
• How can you use the tools/processes from the Fall?
• What will you need to do so (Awesome/ no regrets) in June?

1. I want to major in Ag. Business
2. I can research Ag. Business and see the many things I can do in the field and if I'm certain I want to pursue that career.
3. I'm not positive in everything I can do but it will include a lot of research and communication with experts to inform me and answer the questions I may have throughout the semester.

Life After...

After I graduate high school, i plan to attend Allan Hancock College for two years. Following that I plan on transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I really want to major in Ag Business and hope I am able to fulfill my dream. I have been an active member of ASB at Righetti which has helped me quite a bit in being involved and public speaking/ activities.  Outside of school I've been a member of the Los Alamos Jr. Grange and show animals at the Santa Barbara County Fair. Once I graduate high school and am attending college I plan too try and get a part time job that is in the agriculture field. I want to be gaining experience while I am in school studying for a better position. Staying busy and involved while in school is a must because I don't want to slack off and fail. It's my future on the line and I don't want to mess that up. I want to make my family proud and give as much back to them as I can once I've gotten a great job because they've given so much to me.

Profile in Courage

Courage to me means to have the strength to do something you're scared of. Facing your fears! Having courage helps you a lot because you can experience so many awesome things through it. We should all have the courage to be different and not care what others think all the time. It helps people because you won't be so stressed about situations your in throughout your life. Becoming courageous may be harder then it looks, but remember it will all be worth it in the end. You don't have to face your biggest fear all at once, but step by step. Never be afraid!

Vocabulary: Spring list 2

1. Accoutrements: An additional item of dress or equipment.
2. Apogee: The highest pint in the development of something; a climax or culmination.
3. Apropos: Very appropriate to a particular situation.
4. Bicker: Argue about pretty and trivial matters.
5. Coalesce: Come together to form one mass or whole.
6. Contretemps: A minor dispute or disagreement; unexpected and unfortunate occurrence.
7. Convolution: Coil or twist; complex and difficult to follow.
8. Cull: Reduce population by selective slaughter.
9. Disparate: Essentially different in kind; not able to be compared.
10. Dogmatic: Inclined to lay down principles as undeniably true.
11. Licentious: Promiscuous and unprincipled in sexual matters.
12. Mete:Dispense of allot justice, a punishment, or harsh treatment.
13. Noxious: Harmful, poisonous or very unpleasant.
14. Polemic: A strong verbal or written attack on someone or something.
15. Populous: Having a large population; densely populated.
16. Probity: The quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency.
17. Repartee: Conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies.
18. Supervene: Occur as an interruption or change to an existing situation.
19. Truncate: Ending abruptly as if cut off across the base or tip.
20. Unimpeachable: Not able to be doubted, questioned or criticized; entirely trustworthy. 

Vocab: Spring 1

1. Adumbrate: Report or to represent in outline.
2. Apotheosis: The highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax.
3. Ascetic: A person who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals and practices extreme self-denial or self mortification for religious reason.
4. Bauble: A small, showy trinket or decoration.
5. Beguile: Charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in a deceptive way.
6. Burgeon: Begin to grow or increase rapidly; flourish.
7. Complement: A thing that completes or brings to perfection.
8. Contumacious: Stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority.
9. Curmudgeon: A bad tempered or surly person.
10. Didactic: Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.

Hacking My Education

Hacking:

Things have to change this semester. Last semester we focused on how to use all the tools provided on the internet. Why not put all those tools into good use. It's time to make them help me in the long run and not just for the English class.

• Make the blog more personal. Each post should somehow connect with the field I want to major in after high school. This shouldn't just be a blog answering the homework my English teacher assigned me anymore for credit. This should be a blog that helps me in some way to succeed. 
• Be more creative in any opportunity I get with projects/assignments assigned in class this semester.

This semester my classmates and I want to focus on turning this course into something that we want to do, speaking out our ideas and putting what we know to work.

3 Must-Haves:

• Dr. Preston
• Public
• Experts

There's people willing to help us succeed as long as we're willing to look for them. Whenever we have questions we may always start by asking Dr. Preston. If he is unable to answer our question we may always ask the public for their thoughts.

My Vocabulary #1

• Depreciate: to lessen the value.
• Ergonomics: Human engineering
• Soil Analysis: Test of a soil sample to determine nutrient and contaminated content, composition, and other characteristics such as acidity or pH level.
• Soil Biota, Soil Fauna: collective term for all the organisms living within the soil.
• Crop Emergence: Defined as a function of the effective daily temperature sum since sowing date. It is based on the thermal time accumulated between a base temperature and a maximum temperature.
• Furrow: A narrow groove made in the ground, especially by a plow.
• Forage Crops: Plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock.
• Calcareous Grassland: (Alkaline Grassland) an ecosystem associated with thin basic soil, such as that on chalk and limestone down-land.
• Agricultural Yield: Refers to both the measure of the yield of a crop per unit are of land cultivation, and the seed generation of the plant itself.
• Farmstead: Term referring to a farm, including its land and buildings.
• Loam: Soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even proportions.
• Agriculture: The science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products. 
• Aquaculture: The rearing of aquatic animals or the cultivation of aquatic plants for food.
• Fluctuation: An irregular rising and falling in number or amount; a variation.
• Greenhouse: A glass building in which plants are grown that need protection from cold weather.
• Horticulture: The art or practice of garden cultivation and management.
• Livestock: Farm animals regarding as an asset.
• Agribusiness: Commercial agriculture combined with characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations. 
• Agricultural Origin: Agricultural health.
• Animal Husbandry: An agricultural activity associated with the raising of domesticated animals, such as cattle, horses, sheep, and goats.