Thursday, August 17, 2006

Last Day ='(

Hey this is Judith. Today's the last day for all of us in CPC, but if we get the chance we'll probably volunteer and work here during the school year or come visit.

We spent most of today putting up all of the signs we made on the fences around the garden. It took a really long time but we finally finished at around 5 PM. They look really nice and colorful. It took a lot of work making the signs and everything and now that we've finished with them and we're done putting them up it feels like a great accomplishment. In addition to that, we also cleaned up in the basement and swept everywhere so that there was no more sawdust on the floor.




Overall I think I had a very good experience working here and of course, I'll miss working here. Byeee everyone! =D

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

bye bye...

wow, its the last time i'll be writing a blog again. well for hester street that is. This is jeanette by the way. It's been fun working at hester street. i learned many things such as using photoshop and using Adobe indesign. Its has been fun. i'm might come back for the fall. Today we continue with our "Garden Sign Factory". Today we had to drill the holes into the signs and glue the mascot signs onto the pieces of wood. Then we spray polyurethane all the signs. Then we used liquid polyurethane to paint the edges and the holes that we made in the signs. This is so that we can have the whole sign polish so that when we hang the signs outside in the garden, the signs won't break apart due to the rain. Right now we are still drillign the holes into the signs and painting them with liquid polyurethane. So toxicating x_X so much.

The Garden Sign Factory:


stephaine, fixing and gluing the signs


me, drawing the holes for where i'm going to drill the signs.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

This is the last time you'll see me

Hello. It's JENNIFER AGAIN, but this will be my last post. Work is going to end this Thursday. Ahhh! I really had a lot of fun. I loved the smell of polyurethane, unlike everyone else. I'll also miss observing people at the SDR Park. It's unfortunate that I didn't get to stalk someone. Maybe I can do that later this week! Hahahaha... Yesterday we sanded all the wooden signs. I learned to use the orbital sander correctly. I love it when I get completely covered with sawdust. Just kidding. I really really like how it comes off so easily though.

Today we continued to work on the signs. There are about a hundred signs. Yes, wow. Afterwards Judith and I went to Avenue of the Immigrants (Allen St) to fix one of the people's middle initial. It's supposed to be "Edgar W Hopper," but it's "Edgar J Hopper." I don't understand how they'd mistaken a J for a W. By the way, those are my initials! Hahahahah! Jennifer Wong! HAHAHAHAHA. It was kind of hard to remove the J with only water and some metal brushes. We still managed to remove it with the help of Stephanie, who we call "God."

I'm going to miss these days. It was a very very very fun experience. I might even come back during the school year. It's too bad that Alex went to Texas though.

Well... goodbye then. BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I can't think of anything cool to say...

Monday, August 14, 2006

LAST WEEK?!?! NO WAY!

Hey, it's Steph. This is the last week that we, the CPC interns, are going to be working here this summer. Wow, the last seven weeks have gone by quickly. This has been a great experience. I gained a lot from it and I'd love to come back. I had a lot more fun here than I would at any other job that was offered. Typing, filing, etc? Psh, who actually wants to do that? Well, maybe some people. Anyway, I met some cool people here. SOOOOO, today, we finished sanding what we had left of the Pick Me signs. We started polyurethane-ing them, too. We still have to drill holes into each of the corners, polyurethane the holes, and hang the signs up at the garden. Then, we'll be done! Jeanette's still working on the mascot signs, but she's almost done with them. I attempted to write the summary for the Sara D. Roosevelt Park surveys, but it was hard, and my writing is too sophomoric compared to Alex's. Uh, I guess I'll have to get some help with that later. Anne invited Bonnie to come over and helpus out for the next few days. I guess that's about it for today. This was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. BYE, EVERYONEEE! Have a nice rest-of-the-summer! OMG, THE SUMMER'S ENDING?! AHHH, so soon. (sigh)

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

WHEEEEE

Hello again! This is Jennifer's weekly post! I'm doing it at home because I forgot about it during work. These days I have been working on the SDR Park postcards using InDesign and Photoshop. It's actually kind of fun! A lot of the HSC interns left, and only the ones from Chinese Planning Council (including me) are still working here. It's a little too quiet sometimes. Yesterday we went to the garden as usual, and we lifted a few heavy garbage bags onto a dumpster thing. We used a wheelbarrow that kept heading towards different directions! It was kind of amusing.

Today we cut out the garden signs that Yanely completed. They all have pictures of random fruits or animals that you tend to see at the garden. We are planning to place them around the area in order to get people excited about the garden. I got better at cutting with blades! It's more accurate than cutting with scissors. I also learned how to use spray mount. At the beginning I sprayed very unevenly over the signs, but now I know the right way of using it.

Alex is leaving for Texas soon! I thought it was only a trip, but apparently he'd be gone for at least three years. I was surprised haha... And I think this is my second last week here at HSC. Maybe I should work here again some time in the future.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Rain? No rain? What's with the weather?

Yo, it's Steph. So the first thing we did today was go out to Columbus Park to give out our survey. We want to compare Columbus Park and Seward Park with Sara D. Roosevelt Park to see what people like about each park. With that information, we will be able to make SDR Park better, hopefully. While Judith, Eric, and I were out at the park, Jeanette and Justin were working on the stencils and signs for the P.S. 134 Garden. They had to work with the mascots that represented each grade at the school and make it look like the signs that say "Grow Me!" and stuff. Since the mascots are animals or insects, they'll say "Find Me!" or something like that. While they were doing that, Jennifer worked on the postcards for SDR Park. She had to scan and print out the five postcards we wanted to send out first. She also had to call Leah to find out who to send them to, but she didn't pick up. Uhh... When we came back from Columbus Park, we organized the survey answers into a chart. We still had to go back to SDR to survey more people; but before we did that, we worked on the signs for the garden. We cut them out after they were all printed. Alex cut boards for us to spray mount the signs on to. Before we went to the garden, we shaped the boards to fit the signs as best as we could. At the garden, we watered the plants and threw out some garbage. Before we knew it, it was 5:30 pm and the day was over! Wow, how eventful... and... exciting... YES! EXCITING! At one point, it rained for like two and a half minutes! NO WAY! Yes way. Well, that was great. I'm exhausted. Good night.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Today was a bit cooler than yesterday but it still felt like 100 degrees -_- We went out a bunch of times in order to interview people and ask them to fill out our surveys. At first we went to SDR at around 10:30 AM to 10:50 AM. There weren't too many people at that time and we were able to do only 11 surveys. We wanted to ask some of the people at the handball courts and the basketball court but we they were playing and we didn't want to bother them. Later. We decided to survey people at other parks in order to use that information to compare it with SDR. We thought of going to both Columbus Park and Seward Park. First we changed the SDR survey to accommodate the Seward Park survey. Then, we went out to Seward Park at around 1:45 PM and interviewed people there. There weren't as many people there as we expected. It was probably because of the weather. We talked to about 15 people, most of which who were there either eating lunch or watching their kids play. After that we went back to Hester Street and compiled the data into another chart in order to analyze the information. On Monday, we will change the surveys again and go to Columbus Park. We will also continue interviewing people at SDR throughout the week.

severe delerium and anxiousness

hey its Emazing Em writing. Yesterday was 106 degrees, and its was awful. Well, not really for me becuase I got to stay inside all day long, and didn't have to go to the garden like the rest of the troop who had to eventually run to CVS pharmacy to seek refuge from the unbearable, poor-kitchen-atmosphere-like, deadly hot air. So, I was sitting at the computer next to Yanely who also stayed inside, and was focused on finishing a sign for the garden fence project. I told myself that this had, HAD to be done by the end of the day. The first design looked extremely ugly; I didn't like it at all. Then the second design, which I was okay with, was not approved by Alex The Boss. He took one look at it, and tried to politely say that it basically looked like a piece of poop. Anyway, so I was intent on designing a successful sign, and my determination made me go a little crazy. Z100 was blasting the same tunes over and over again, and Yanely and I kept humming along with our eyes glued to the computer screens when suddenly Alex ran down the stairs (thankfully he did not dramatically bump his head and fall on his butt at the bottom of the staricase again) to check up on us. I showed him my new design, and he seemed okay with it. Then he plopped into a chair next to us girls and tried to explain to me how to use Adobe InDesign when Yanely interupted him, and Alex exclaimed "be quiet before I kick you in the tooth," and as a result, this made us laugh quite hard and then we couldn't stop. Yanely and I had been sitting in front of the computers for a little too long which made our eyes a little fuzzy, and the excessive Z100 tunes made our ears hear things a little differently; we were obviously not in our usual state of minds. We concluded that we were suffering from a severe case of delirium and anxiousness to finish our assignments. However, our determination helped Yenely finish her signs, and helped me almost finish my sign. It was a very successful day and we got a lot done. Hopefully in the future, actually in my last two days, I will not suffer from severe delerium and anxiousness again.

too hot to function!!! >=o

hi this is jeanette again. Yesterday was really really hot but we still had to go to the garden because we had to water the plants or they might have die from the heat. We harvested some beans on monday and yesterday we harvested some lettuce. There wasn't much to do at the garden because i went to the garden late and most of the people before did most of the things that need to be done. I spent the whole day with Ona working on the mascot stencil for the different grade. We finally perfected them \^0^/~~! There is a bee, ant, humming bird, dragon fly, and squirrel. Our style was to have certain parts of the animal/insect be seperated. We spent a lot of time thinking about how to disassemble the squirrel =\ . Later on we scanned them into the computer and fixed it up. I learned a few more things about using adobe photoshop now =)

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

water please!!!

Uhhh! Its absolutely deadly outside. It is supposed to reach 100 degrees today with a heat index of 110. This kind of heat can be overwhelming and can sometimes cause death especially among the construction working crowd. Well, I guess I should consider myself lucky becaue i am not a construction worker but rather an HSC worker. I am privileged to nice cool air conditioning and icy cool people who entertain me and keep me good company. Today was a stencil day. Jeanette and I worked on ways to create a uniform style for the stencils so that the t-shirts and posters that we make are drop dead attractive. We want people who pass the p.s. 134 school to stop in their tracks and gaze at the soon to be garden related mural on the northern brick wall of the school. I drew a lot, and I cut a lot, and I cut some more (the wings of the humming bird took alot of razor edged slicing), and produced three new stencils. Not just any kind of stencils. These were new, sleek and built to perfection. They are durable and reliable. HOWEVER, its not the end. We are still going to have to come up with stencils that have an angle kind of perspective. This is a hearty challenge, one that I am looking forward to plunge my teeth into.
Until next week,
JUST KIDDING!!!
There will be no next week! This is my LAST week at HSC:( . Therefore, this is my last blog! So i hope you enjoyed reading about my lovely days (I hope you also got a little jealous of my superb experience) and I hope you have a nice life.

Goodbye!
QUEEN ONA

It's August...

Awww... It's August already! Half the summer's over! Oh well. This is Jennifer again! Hehe. I didn't write a blog last Tuesday, because I had to go to CPC Workshop (Career Exploration). It was so boring, and I'd rather be here at HSC. These days I've been working on categorizing our postcards of the SDR Park in different ways. We categorized them by the area at first, but then we started dividing them by age group and type of activity too. Stephanie and I made different charts for them. Judith, Eric, and Justin are going to go to the park later to pass out surveys. We're pretty much done with our observations of the park, so gathering the opinions of random people seems to be the next step. This might be kinda hard because of the language problem, but there are people who are willing to translate. Last week we presented to the Park Department. I feel much more comfortable with presenting now, so yay! We also had a Pot Luck last Thursday, and we all contributed food from our own cultures. It was very fun! I had a red bean popsicle and some watermelon! Work is very fun as usual, and it's even better now because I've grown closer to the people working here.