Second Landing in Sheldon.

by Arturo Martinez

An essay is always worded differently. A big challenge is having to take the essay and extended with even more information than before. A good writer is able to take an old piece of work and add on more and more detail to further explain his point. In my Research Paper I have to extend my first trip to Sheldon Lake and give it a little extra importance than how it was before. I will try to include different point of views and present new things that I discovered on my second trip around. The second trip was a little more fun. In my opinion, the digging, planting and conversation with different people helped me get closer to the Lake itself. I felt a stronger and more genuine connection. On the November trip I got to go with a close friend of mine Jesus. In the paper I will focus on integrating the different life point of view. On the first trip we saw the prairies already grown but we weren’t there when they were being planted into the soil. We technically lived the life of those that planted those years before us. I for one cannot wait to go back and see how the waking up early and driving out there will pay off.  One day I’ll see that the sweat and laughs were put into a beautiful earth benefit.

by Arturo Martinez

My hopes are for the research paper to surpass the other ones in the past. Who doesn’t want to go out with a big impression? I have to incorporate my new and improved point of view. From following Collin to digging the view that he will be showing other students in years to come. It would be good for me to bring my son one day and me be able to say that I planted the prairie in that particular section. I even have the shirt to prove it. The good thing was it was really my first actual footprint on earth in a while. I use to do things as a lid with my friends all the time just because we were curious. For example, I remember planting plants out of beans and small seeds just to be able to say that “I planted that” once it grew. If the opportunity ever come up again I would certainly take into consideration and even share some good information to new students in Hamby’s class.  I’m sure they’ll be in the same place I am right now. Typing their 6^th and final blog post.  It’s quite exiting. The blog has taught me a lot. From being time efficient and how to master my wording and sentence structure. Now all I have to do is use all of my strategies and skills to write an exemplary Research Paper. The second trip to Sheldon Lake was a big plus in helping me to write the paper. I for one am really glad I ended up going to the lake. I will never forget it.

Its a ball in a basket

A man’s trash will always have a second purpose. There is a specific term for this called recycling. Our job in this blog post was to open up our trash bags and see how much stuff we throw away. Sadly, while I was at work and my family had a deep cleaning session in the house and threw away my trash. Luckily I saw this coming and recorded everything and anything I threw away and even the date that I threw it away. If you can notice, I have a lot of plastic in my trash can and even some fruits shavings and vegetable pieces. I had a feeling someone was going to throw away my trash can as soon as I heard about this blog assignment. I am glad a light went off in my head that told me to write them down. I do not know why I didn’t really add more to it. Maybe because I knew I was going to have to keep up with it later on for this blog. As you can see, I am a very healthy eater. You can make that assumption by looking at the nutrition drinks and yogurts that I consumed in this short period of time.

google

I will begin to get rid of the fountain drinks and big fast food cups. That proves to me that yes I am a healthy eater but I still have a lot of unhealthy choices. Back when I was a child I had high-cholesterol and for a kid that was 12-14 years old and weighing 160 pounds was not healthy. I am almost bet that if I were to look at how my trash looked back in those days id be so disgusted. The only problem that was noticeable was that all of my friends at the time where just as big as me and it was a very freighting thing to see. After watching all of those documentaries I notice how close I was if not had the sickness of childhood obesity. My trash has gone from looking like a fat kids dream to not really any fast food and soft drinks. I must say, after the realization I had. I am quite impressed. I don’t use that much Styrofoam from the fast food cups or any harmful material. I do see a problem in that the cups my energy drinks came in were all plastic and also the yogurt containers were made of almost the same materials.

google

I really need to start eating out less and begin to consume more fruits so I can see a trashcan full of more fruit shavings and less of receipts. I am glad I kept track of my trash for this blog in a journal that I have with me. As weird as it sounds, I am more than happy to record my trash maybe for the next few weeks to see if I see any kind of improvement. I will more than likely be consuming less foods that require being wrapped in plastic and other dangerous foods. Who knew that so many calories were in my body? It’s like the trash can is an exact replica of my stomach.

Steps to a smile

Ever wonder what a step by step program will do to you. Maybe think of the way that the plate of food got in front of you? I did, for this blog post I chose to follow the trail of production that worked together for me to get the meal that was in front of me. I decided to follow my McDonalds meal.  

from Google Images

Everyone loves fast food. Well, most do in that case. Yet, I always wondered how it got here. Yea I drove to go pick it up but how did it get to this location and who brought it here from where and how? These are all questions that boggle my mind way more times than I can explain. If anyone knows McDonald then they probably know that their meals are really good and great tasting, but no one really knows what is behind the scenes. I decided to follow the trail on how did they get the meat they produce.

Lopez Foods Inc. Images

After various websites and papers I found out that McDonalds got their food from a supplier called Lopez Foods. After being interviewed he was asked what does he think about being one of McDonalds food suppliers. He responded with “I think what makes Lopez Foods special is the family atmospherethat we all have in the company. And from management all the way down to theproduction workers, we come together to achieve that goal on McDonald’squality.” - Ed Sanchez, CEO, Lopez Foods. This shows us that he is excited about working with them.

McDonalds Truck Image

Lopez foods is found in Oklahoma. That is approximately 7 hours of truck driving to reach a Baytown destination. Let us go over what we have on the beef. We have a company in Oklahoma producing the beef. Secondly, they drive 7 hours to a location that really joins it all together like Houston. After that they get shipped to small restaurants and joints. After being processed and decontaminated they are ready to be put in small frozen boxes and shipped to a nearby location.

In that destination they grab box and freeze it until it is time for it to be eaten.

Now let us say I order. They go to the back and get the meat and they begin to cook it, after that they serve it to me and I drive all the way home and begin to eat.

Once it gets to my house it has reached its final destination.

It’s crazy to think that the burger I am eating was produced in some factory in Oklahoma then driven by a truck driver that made it after 7 hours. Then driven again to a nearby McDonalds. Picked up by me and eaten at home 10 minutes away.

Everyone’s experience is different. I for one thinks it is cool how you have to connect different states and locations while also creating jobs for people.

google images

You have a job driving, cutting the meat, sanitizing it, and even selling it. The food that is right in front of you, and is feeding you was  brought by someone that works day in and day out to make sure that smile happens.

                            

Where is your menu?

Ask anyone in the world what they thought of this countries obesity rate. I am almost positive that nine times out of ten they will say that it is killing us slowly and I agree. Our job for these last 5 days was to watch what we ate and keep record of it.  First of all, I’d like to state that I am surprised of the results that came about. I recently had something personal happen in my life and I entered in a state of trouble. I would not eat, sleep, and even drink anything but drinks from the machines at my job. It is very interesting how someone’s mood affects even your life necessity’s like eating and drinking. Everything was great when I found out what the third blog was going to be about. I even took a picture of something I ate right after class. It was a grilled chicken sandwich and I was quite excited to eat. Then the days became longer and more troubled. No real food was being consumed. Only some small snacks here and there but nothing that could fill the body of an average 19 year old.

from google

After a couple of days passed, life started getting better and I started to eat and even sleep. My meals still we not enough to satisfy my needs. Then again now that I think about it, I never ate the same after I was told i had high cholesterol back when I was the 7^th and 8^th grade. 

by google

The things the Doctor would say would scare me so much that I never got close to a coke or a hamburger until the age of 18. These last few days I realized that I ate a lot morChick-Fil-A with a sweet tea. That is about the only thing that I can eat with a good stomach. Those usually where usually after work. On average I will spend 100 dollars on just food in a span of two weeks. Which is not bad considering I spend more money on myself.

e healthy now. I have come a long way since then. I don’t think I will ever go back to those days. I will not allow myself to do so. I rarely ate before work only because I have a weak stomach. I’ve been to many Doctor appointments and I haven’t found the cause for it. That is also a reason why I’ve lost so much weight. I usually ate flour tortillas with the restaurant sauce. Im not sure why but it taste so good and it prevented me from being hungry at the moment. I also would eat the spicy deluxe from

I should start to change my habits though. Stop eating flour tortilla and fried items. I know I will see a change in my appearance and maybe I can even see an improvement in my health. I will certainly be keeping up with my food log and seeing how my habits change over time.