For Magazine

1. What went well for you during the process of creating this magazine?

I had a lot of pictures that I could use. Choosing pictures was the easy part.

2. What challenges did you face as you moved from an early draft or idea to a final product?

Making my essay make sense. Because the wording was fire department jargon so I had to make the general public understand.

3. What other examples of work—student and professional—stood out as exemplary and served as a good model for your own work?
I used a lot of the national geographic magazine ideas because national geographic has a lot of photo essay style pages.

1. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what improved? How did it get better? Why?

My work is now easier to understand. In my earlier drafts, I had a lot of Fire Department jargon like "fire prop" which i changed to... and "PASS" which i changed from Pull Aim Squeeze Sweep to "I am applying a fundamental tactic that firefighters use (known as PASS): Pull the tab, Aim at the fire, Squeeze the handle, Sweep the base of the fire (PASS)."

2. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what still needs work? What do you think will help you improve? Why?

I think that, getting my final draft back made me relize how much people had helped me. I got plenty of advice on what i should do and some contrdicted others advice. I think that I would choose more carfully the kind of advice I took to make the entire essay sound worded the same.

3. Specifically, show us something that improved and describe the path it took to get better. You can quote your article, your drafts, link to evidence, etc.

My introduction got a lot better. It after a few revisions I had:

"It takes more then showing up to be a hero. The actions that build up to a point where someone can help is often overlooked. The time it takes to be trained is on these peoples free time, and the courage to actually act is another story. A Battalion Chief and a CERT member walk to their destination as they train to someday save your life."

This is what went into the magazine:

"Being a hero takes more then arriving at a disaster scene. We often overlook the actions the actions that build up to a point where someone can help. Volunteers known as Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) do their part in a major disaster. CERT members are trained in fire suppression, light search and rescue and first aid. When CERT has done their initial assessment, firefighters continue the high-level dangers. In this picture, a CERT member is giving a man a blanket to stay warm and to prevent hypothermia."

4. Describe something specific (or a few things!) that you learned about writing.

What really hepled me is the "Concerts not Pancakes" sentance structure I have found improves my writing a lot.

CERT Survive

Being a hero takes more then arriving at a disaster scene. We often overlook the actions the actions that build up to a point where someone can help. Volunteers known as Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) do their part in a major disaster. CERT members are trained in fire suppression, light search and rescue and first aid. When CERT has done their initial assessment, firefighters continue the high-level dangers. In this picture, a CERT member is giving a man a blanket to stay warm and to prevent hypothermia.

A quick jolt and the fire prop is lit. Starting a fire is so easy. A firefighter steps back as he lights the fire prop during a CERT drill. This fire prop is a training tool that trains CERT members to aim the extinguisher at the base of the fire, which cuts off the fuel killing the flame.

I pick up the fire extinguisher along with my helmet, gloves, and glasses for safety protection. I walk towards the fire and scream "Going In". Grabbing my back is a lady, she is my partner. Two in two out is the most important rule. Two people entering anywhere and two people exit. No one leaves his or her partner. The buddy system is basic but highly important to insure safety for everyone.

CERT members take out fires with extinguishers, these bottles last about two minutes, which is all you need to take out a fire of this size. The first hit gets near the base of the fire, but the fire is still standing strong. You must hit the sensors located at the base of the prop to extinguish the fire.

I am applying a fundamental tactic that firefighters use (known as PASS): Pull the tab, Aim at the fire, Squeeze the handle, Sweep the base of the fire (PASS). While sweeping the base of the fire, the fuel that is feeding the fire is cut, deprived of oxygen and starts to die.

The fire is gone within seconds. The problem is over and the drill almost complete. Back out safely and it’s over. Although just a drill this time, CERT members are trained so that one-day they can tackle real danger. CERT has helped out in the 2007 witch fires- driving firefighters around, filling up rigs with water and more. These are all things that helped keep the firefighters out on the front line fighting fire.

CERT members have completed the drill. The place gets dark and the fire is gone. But, even after extinguishing one small fire, more often follow. It’s time to move on, time to save another home, building, and community.

Planning for The Magazine

I would like to contribute my photo essay. I would also like to use my interview.

Possible title is "The HTHMA Experience"

Possible title that I would like to read is "How I connected my life to the real world through an internship"

Immersion!

How important are the following at my internship?

Profit: sort of managing money is big. With a non profit organization it seems that everything has to go under some type of code. Also with grants from the government I am learning that the money is very closely watched which shocked me a little because I have always been told/imagined that the goverment has (or acts like it) has a endless supply of money.

Social Welfair: Highly, I see this a lot in my mentor. She is always concerned with the safety of everyone and is constantly giving. CERT is an orginzation that is structured arould the welfair of others.
Advertising: Thats my job! I am creating a informative video besides that, CERT isnt really advertised only when CERT members go out an help like in the 2007 Witch fires. There advertising is the people in the program giving service.

Promotion: not really. Learning is more imporatant and staying continuing education is stressed a lot.

Markets: nope

Economic/Politics: They have to account for the money that they are receving and log everything to avoid problems of loss of money. This is important because they could loose grants if they don't follow all the rules.

Internship Immersion

For the next two weeks I am going to my internship for 7 hours a day, Monday through Friday. In this immersion experience I am excited to start filming for the CERT Academy. This will be very fun because I will learn what CERT is really about. I have a good understanding on what CERT does but someone telling me their elevator pitch and experiencing myself is totally different.

Along with being excited I also have some concerns. Since I will be creating a short film, I am concerned with the amount of footage that I will be able to film. The reason this concerns me is because I want to have many options when I am editing.

Overtime, Where is the Choice?

Budget Cuts Means More Overtime
Interview with Maurice Luque


“There is that potential that the limit to how much work time a firefighter can work. Once he or she has reached that limit they can't work it anymore.” - Maurice Luque

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque said “there’s a pension program and that pension program pays eight percent on the money that is invested in that program for people. So if there is a chief here that has been with the department for 20 years he is part of the retirement program and he is putting money into that program and has been earning 8%. The city has to pay that interest on that money. This isn’t just for the fire department; it is for all city employs can invest in this pension program. Because of the economy and everything the Board is thinking about reducing the amount of interest that is paid on that money, the money that is invested for retirements. Like banks have reduced the amount they have on savings, they have reduced that amount down. If that amount drops, a lot of people retire early. Because then they can lock in the 8% plan and they wont get stuck with a lower % plan on their savings. So for the rest of there life they will get 8% on their retirement benefits. If they don’t retire and their interest rate goes down, they are only going to get 2. And many times that is not going to be economical for them to stay so they retire early.”

The San Diego Fire Department is government run; therefore the government pays for the expenses of the Fire Department. The city has been thinking about lowering the percent in the pension plan for all city employees, this could result in firefighters retiring early, and those still on the job to have to work overtime to fill the need of the city.

There have been cuts in the amount of people in the actual Fire Academy this year, and instead of having two Academies, only having one. I asked Maurice Luque: How will this affect the way that the department has shifts?

Maurice Luque: If we have a lot of retirements in the fire department, could loose about 100 people who retire early. To lock in that higher interest rate they are getting in on their pension. That will cause us to have our existing work force work more over time until we have an academy to get people trained and all the spots that are open from people that have retired. So we will probably have to hurry up and have an academy and in the mean time, using our existing firefighters the ones who are off duty now, have them work over time. Pay them overtime and keep doing that until we have enough new employs to bring into the workforce.”….. “see right now we do use some firefighters on overtime, you know to fill because it is cheaper to use those people as we need them, call them in as we need them rather then have more people then we can use. And it varies because people get sick, hurt, you know want extended leaves, family emergencies and so forth. It’s a fluctuating figure. And so the way we compensate for that is we call in the people who are off duty to come in and work, they sign up to work when they are off duty and so we just call them in off this list. If we need 10 we call in 10 if we need 5 we call in 5 if we don’t need any we don’t call in any. But we are always calling in somebody if they are on vacation or that type of thing. Well these firefighters are always working overtime and its cheeped to bring people in and have them work over time then it is to higher brand new employs. You know because we don’t have to pay insurance and we don’t have to pay benefits and all the overtime costs.”

Mariah Teemsma: are there any concerns because of this?

Maurice Luque: Yes there are and the concerns are, the younger the workforce the less experiences there are and that means that a higher degree of on the job training that you need, the higher degree of supervision you have because you don’t have as much experience. There are things out there that are changing, it’s a younger workforce, and if you have a workforce that has been in place for a long time you have very little people that aren’t experienced and they know what to expect, and they have been to fires, and they have been to rescues, kind of done it all so they work with a minimum of supervision and to have new employs, and new people coming in they need guidance, they need closer supervision. Because you don’t want to get them hurt, make sure they know what they are doing until they reach that level of experience. The workforce is changing right now. And that is the additional challenge of continuing to train them to get in the workforce the thing is in the mean time they have to go to real accidents and real rescues and real fires. And so we have to be very careful about people getting hurt and the right supervision. They are not veteran they haven’t been there and done that before. And so we have to watch over them so it does create a real emphasis on safety, we always have a real emphasize on safety, but even more so when you have a younger worker.

Mariah Teemsma: how do you feel that situations like this could better be handled?

Maurice Luque: Well I think that it’s a real tricky issue here you have a city that has finical problems and they can’t be thinking about getting people pay raises. There is a contention of the firefighters union that they are not paid competitive to what other cities are paying there firefighters and they have done some studies that have showed that other cities pay there firefighters more then the firefighters are getting here, a better contract or whatever. So there has been a little bit of a tough economic time a lot of firefighters were leaving San Diego to go to other cities that paid more money, the police had the same problem two things slowed that down. The first one is the police got a better contract so now there pay was more competitive. Less people leaving the police department, then the economic situation where other city departments are not hiring new people. They’ve seen budget cuts and challenges like we are and they are not likely to continue the same type of pay increase that has happened here. And they are going to kind of hold the line. And the way that slows down people’s decision to move on when there is an unsure economic time. They are not going to leave San Diego for LA when they here that LA cut back on there Fire Department. And they be closing stations and are laying off admin people there so it kind of keeps people in place but you question is how could we avoid the kind of transit of the workforce that leaves. I think that the key is to paying competitively being competitive in your salary pay firefighters, pay police what other departments pay and now you have equity and now there is not a tendency to leave the department to go somewhere else. So that I think is another way, when your benefits are equal.

What blogs are out there with outstanding examples of:

1. Economic advice to Barack Obama?
Paul's Blog

http://psantillan.blogspot.com/

I thought that this was a good blog because his beginning paragraphs were very well done. He explains very well how we have a economic problem.

"Our current economic situation is unstable and government programs pumping money into failing businesses is only perpetuating this unsustainable habit of spending that has gripped the country."

2. Literary Analysis?
Amanda's Blog

http://avalipio.blogspot.com/

I thought that this was good because she writes about how important the characters are and then she states how the author uses characters in the book.

"The author uses character, conflict, and foreshadowing to develop the theme that a capitalist society is an extremely difficult place to live in if you are part of the lower class. The first theme I found to be very important is character. Without characters in the story there would be no plot and no storyline, it is the characters where the story is based upon."

3. Historical Writing?
Vanessa S.
http://nessamert.blogspot.com/2009/02/election-of-1896.html

She explains the current elections that just happened and compares them to the elections in 1896.

"The 1800’s was not a very stable time in American history and there where many issues that were seeking a solution with the election of 1896. With the upcoming election, the lucky voters where persuaded by many factors such as the upcoming war with Spain, the economy and Populism."

4. Anything else that makes blogs great?

Nyachare's Blog

http://nya16.blogspot.com/
This blog looks very professional. I like this because it is easy to read.