Monday 12/3

 I had trouble finding information today. It was likely because of my spelling error that was preventing me from finding much on my searches so I spent most of my time filling up the web page and getting things organized. I ussed Net trekker and then SIRS web sites. I think it may be possible that the original spelling given to my partner and I may have been incorrect but that remains to be seen. I am looking forward to seeing the website start to come together. I feel that the closer we are to finishing the easier to be. 

 I am slightly nervous still that any good information will be dificult to reach if not impossible by internet. But hopefully I will be proven wrong. i have heard that we will be taught how to use the free web as an information source which I think may make finding good information easier though, a little more time consuming.

Tuesday 12/4

 Another day of helpless research brings me to the conclusion that the original spelling given almost has to be incorrect. I have been given more doubt because a few sites have suggested almost identical words whenever I put in just "lactobacullis" it suggests "lactobacillus" which seems to a be a little bit relevant to the material but ther word "Thermophilus" remains un-researcheable.

 On an up-beat, the timeline for the project is complete and it looks as though it should be posible to finish. I hope that we are able to keep it on schedule. It looks like the most tedious part will just be researching and not so much constructing the site. Although I think that a good eye and ablility to construct the sight will produce a better project.   

Wednesday 12/5

 With a new spelling update we are back on track with our research. This day begins the period will all that our work will involve is finding as much information as possible and citing the places we get it from. It is our plan to have built a sort of library of information on the bacteria to be able to just build of and eventually go above and beyond the expectations for the project. The research I have done so far today was still a bit dificult and there are still now hits on the word "thermophilus" but hopefully the free web searches will open that up.

  I was able to open up some information on lactobacillus though. I found that it is much involved in the fermentation processess of things like yogurt and soy sauce. Other articles and things said that it was involved in stopping wemen from having yeast infections which I am not sure if the lactobacillus would be the same specific kind of bacteria as the kind mentioned for fermentation of substances but this should be answered with more research. It seems that there may be a different bacteria with a similar name that is confusing my research. "Lactobacillus acidophilus" is a bacteria in yogurt that is supposed to help prevent yeast infections...Is this bacteria at all related to "lactobacillus thermophilus" or are my searches coming up short again? A litte bit a break when I found that Lactobacillus are the family of bacteria that live in milk products and are classified by a number of other properties.

Thursday 12/6

 We had a huge break through in the research today with the finding of some very old papers that had been written by biologists in the 20's. One in paticular was completely devoted to the study of Lactobacillus Thermophilus. It is likely that a large part of the information we need should be on the page and it may lead us to a place for us to take the project to the next level.

  My computer is still broken and should be fixed by tomorrow which will help the process by a margin. The key now is just to stick to the schedule which we are behind write now. The notes are coming together and with the way the schedule is planned it looks like we will have alot of time to make the site look as good as possible and do whatever it is we may want to do with it. I hope that by the end of the week we will be back on schedule if not ahead and that perhaps we will have found an outlet to use for improving the project.

Friday 12/7

Bad luck with the computer has slowed the project by a bit. But luckily my partner is on track and we should have all of our basic research done by the end of the week. The old papers have defidently proven useful although they are hard to sift through because they deal with the bacteria in such detail that it is difficult to organize the information in a way that can be processed or used on the page. I went and ask Mrs. Rasmussen today about what direction she would want the "above and beyond" to be moving in. She reffered me to focus on the "heat resistant" abilities of the bacteria which I will look into over the weekend. I had looked into trying to find some videos or images of the bacteria and I was able to find some pictures of related bacteria which I think should be useable. As for video substance, I was not very lucky with YouTube though I may be able to come back and find something once I have some more terms down.

Saturday-Sunday 12/8-9 

It was difficult to find time to research this weekend because it has been a bit of a busy one. I looked into "heat resistant" bacteria and I found some information about resent things said to try to find ways to destroy them. This confused me slightly because I have not found anything that suggests that Lactobacillus Thermophilus is harmful in any way to humans. But I suppose there are many similar bacteria that are harmful. Midway through this week i would like to see that the project is finished and that we have plenty of time to perfect it and make it as "above and beyond" as possible. I think it will be a good idea to ask about how much stress should be put on the tidyness of the website and in paticular if we should have any intrest on spending time with the layout of the site. I glanced at my partner's journal and I was pleased to see that he was getting things done this weekend as well. I expect that once we have wrapped up all the basic research and have both focused on extra material, that we will quickly find what we are looking for. hopefully the lab that is due on tuesday will not keep us from doing work on a monday night which is a key day in the next week.

Monday 12/10

Today we were able to get our lab work finished. So all there is to do is to finish the lab report itself which I hope will be easy enough to get some research time in later today. With every day that the deadline is closer it feels as if the project gets just a little bit more behind. On the upside Ryan has proven to be a more than helpful partner in that he has been able to pretty much keep his research clean and productive for all the days. We have been able to keep up with our journals and our notes are filling up with information. Someone mentioned to me today that we may need to even do website evaluations for sites found with data bases as well as free web sites. I hope that this is not true because it will creat alot more work and will completely defeat the purpose using a database.

  Though my computer was not fixed today it should be fixed up by tomorrow. It seems that a little bad luck goes a long way when it comes to major projects like this. This lack of a computer has forced me to work in the library in the afternoons which creates a problem when I am trying to work after school because the library is closed at 6:30. My computer at home can't use the software needed to edit the wiki and my mother's computer is often occupied with her. But tomorrow the computer will be fixed, more work will be done, and we will be one step closer to finishing this project.

Tuesday 12/11

 There was a bit of time during A period for work on the project today though it looks like we will not be spening a whole lot more time on it in class. And with the lab coming up it looks tricky. I nearly was not able to complete the lab that was due today if it had not been for Austin Thom who let me borrow his computer (as the library is locked during lunch). After lunch I was able to get my computer back, fixed which did seem to brighten the path a bit. I stayed late after school to be able to focus and see the basketball game (both teams won). The pre-lab turned out to be more like half of a lab, so I did not spend much more time on the project than making this journal entry. Today I was told that their is going to be a spanish project that will require us to make a power point. So during the time that I need to be finishing this project I have a quiz on wednesday, quiz on thursday, a project due monday, and a lab report due friday. All of these are very time consuming activities that when coupled with swimming taking up afternoons, make it a very challenging week.

  Ryan was able to get some research done on gram stain and other related things. So it looks like our research is done which means we are over the hill. I think it will just take some good, solid, hours to get this project in the air and polished. I am planning on seeing if Ryan and I can arrange to meet up on Saturday and finish by Sunday morning. At this point I think it may be too late and a bit pointless to try to go to the UT Library to get some extreme knoledge on the stuff, but I wonder if it gets much deeper than what the scientist in the 20's came up with. I hope that when we evaluate those sites, that they are not considered "unreliable" because they are so old. But perhaps since technology has changed their results can be proven wrong. It is still curious to me as to why it is so easy to find major and resent research on all kinds of specific bacteria except for Lactobacillus Thermophilus.

Wednesday 12/12

We did the first part of what looks like a bit a of a tough lab today. Both my partners were helpful and our work was smooth but once again the analysis is going to require research which seriously cuts into our project time. Luckily both of the swim pratices left this week were cancled due to weather which ended up giving me an extra 30 minutes today. I took a shot at the some of the analysis question after studying for a quiz tomorrowing and then went to bed at around 10:30pm. I layed there for a while, sort of stressing about how I was gana get so much done in a weekend (the two projects, and the other engagements I have). I just decided right then and there that I wasn't going let this project be an issue. I got out of bed and started working on it. I was able to find some video's and I tidied up that front page a little bit, made some touch-ups  on journal entries, all this and it is  12:32am as I right this. 

 I know that I will be tired tomorrow, but I think that it is gana take this to get it done. To get this project not just finished, but finished well. The research is done, the information is there, and the website is in the process. Now we just have to cut and paste it all together in to somthing good. It looks like all the work is going to come down to saturday, which means, if Ryan and I are together, that we will be in for a long night.

Thursday 12/13

It was very difficult to work today with all the aditional things we had to do. There was no time during class because of the lab report we had to complete. And there was no time during study hall because lent out my computer to someone who needed it. Though this may hold me back by 45 minutes I hope the kharma will reflect on the project. The afternoon did provide for a bit of time to work on the project. Most of what I am doing now is just creating rough drafts of pages and linking them together so that we can see what we are looking at. Then from there we define further what the information gives and touch up the sites to give them a good look. I am a bad speller and will probably have to check over everything a few times before we finally send it off. Ms. Jansen had warned us of spelling being an issue in an email she sent a while back. The only thing that I am still not exatly clear on is the presentation. I am hoping we will be aloud to project the web site on the board and talk about it as we walk through and just explain how we did things. I feel much more educated after this than I usually feel after a test or somthing though so I am pretty much ready for anything they ask us to do in the presentation (even if they want us to actually take a test). Tomorrow should give time in class and in study hall to work and comunicate with ryan on what else needs to be done.

Friday 12/14

Saturday 12/15

Last real day that we have to work has been extremely productive even with the fact that Ryan and I have not been able to meet up. We have stayed in touch by email and just taken it step by step. I have been blown away with Ryan's ability to put together excellent, informative pages in record time. It is because of his speed on working that we were able to finish by the afternoon. The pages are linked together, spiffed, up and ready to go. All there is to do is a little bit a spell checking and just looking it over for any details before we ship it out. I am so releived to finally have this project sort of off my shoulders as it has opened up more time and made me even more appreciate the 3 weeks off that we have soon. This project may be the biggest single assignment I have ever taken on at school, and it will probably be the biggest one for a while (or so I hope). I have reviewed the grade sheet handed out friday and the web instructions to make sure we didnt miss anything. And with that I have the confidence to right some of the last sentences in the journal. It has been tough but possible and I think it will change the way I approach projects from now on. Tomorrow should be a nice day as we ship out the project to Mrs. Rasmussen who should be pleased with our work.