3.1 The First Thanksgiving

January 26, 2016 by petewcook 1 Comment

Hey y’all. So I recall learning about the first Thanksgiving when I was in elementary school in Mountain Home. I remember the teacher telling us about the Pilgrims and how they dispersed into the original 13 colonies. We then progressed into how these colonists met the Native Americans and became good friends with the Native Americans. I remember Squanto, which was the Native American who interpreted the English to the Native Americans and vice versa. He and some of the colonists decided to make a great feast in order to give thanks to God for such a blessed new life and a new beginning. I believe they feasted for several days, in which everybody had a very fun time. They ate water fowl, turkey, had cornucopias, corn, potatoes, etc. Also, that reminds me that the Native Americans taught the colonists about growing corn in order to sustain their growing population.

Some of the activities that I can remember doing in school are the How to cook a turkey article, coloring a Thanksgiving turkey, coloring Pilgrim pictures, reading about the Pilgrims and then doing a crossword or some sort of related activity. We also watched the School House Rock videos, studied what the Pilgrims wore, how they wanted to escape the rule of the King and practice religious tolerance, and I’m sure there are more activities but I can’t really remember them at the moment.

Pete Cook

1.2 Bridges by Pete Cook

January 18, 2016 by petewcook 1 Comment

Hey y’all! The purpose of this post is to:

briefly compares and contrasts the two bridges’ designs, environs, and how people choose to frame and depict the bridges in their photos;
hypothesizes what the differences in the bridges reveal about the times in which they were built;
hypothesizes what the persistence of these bridges (each has been renovated and reinforced, but not redesigned or replaced) suggests about the beliefs and/or values of New York City and San Francisco.

The Golden Gate Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge are both a form of suspension bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA is a suspension, truss arch/causeway bridge that consists of the weight of the roadway being hung by two cables passing through the two main towers that are fixed in concrete at each end. There are 27,572 strands of wire in each cable and 80,000 miles of wire in the main cables. There is approximately 1.2 million rivets in the bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge in N.Y.C., NY uses a hybrid cable-stayed suspension bridge design. The materials used in the towers are Rosendale cement, limestone, and granite. There are numerous passageways and compartments built into the bridge’s anchorages.

The environs around the Golden Gate Bridge are the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, and Marin County. The strait is 6,700 feet long, has strong, swirling tides and currents, with a water depth of 372 feet in the middle of the channel, frequently strong winds, and terrible blinding fog. The environs around the Brooklyn Bridge are the East River, N.Y.C. (Civic Center, Manhattan – Dumbo/ Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn). The bridge was built 6 times stronger than designer Washington Roebling thought it should be due to the possibility of wind stressing the cables, towers, etc. (this was before the use of wind tunnels to test the impact and force wind can have on a bridge).

People choose to frame and depict the Golden Gate Bridge in their photos as a prominent American landmark, with its international orange that compliments the backdrop of the surrounding bay and beautiful display of lights. It has been used in books, movies, and video games. They also choose to depict the Brooklyn Bridge in photos such as wide shots of the NYC skyline for t.v. shows and movies, and also in books and articles.

The differences in the bridges most likely reveal the newer technology, design, and architectural/structural thinking of the times in which they were built. Neither of these bridges were tested for wind impact because they were made before the time of the test, but they were built to be better than what the designers thought they should be, so that they would withstand more impact than anyone had ever thought of before. These bridges pioneered the way for newer, bigger, and better bridges around the world, because they were the best at their time.

The persistence of these bridges suggests that the beliefs and values of San Francisco and New York City are to preserve these national iconic American landmarks with as much originality as possible. These two cities were the foundation of very strong, possibly ahead of their time, suspension bridges that were the biggest and best in the world at the time. The two cities want to preserve the original looks, structure, and materials as much as possible but also it is okay if they need to use different materials in order to achieve that goal, because with newer technology, we now have better means of keeping these bridges up to spec.

Pete Cook

01.1 Your Lens: A Little About Me – Pete Cook

January 13, 2016 by petewcook 2 Comments

Hey y’all! My name is Pete and I’m planning on majoring in Civil Engineering. I am 19 years old, a Freshman here at Boise State, and without further adieu here is a little about me!

Where did you grow up, and how did that place, as well as the people around you, influence you? I grew up in Boise first for 6 years, then Mountain Home for 4 years, then Prairie for 6 years. I was influenced in Mountain Home by friends, sports, school, my parents, family members, etc. I became very interested in sports such as football, baseball, wrestling, basketball, soccer, etc. My mom was the receptionist at Hacker Middle School in Mountain Home as well so I was really involved with the Middle School and helped out at many events, helped teachers, knew a lot of the teaching staff, etc. I learned some hard lessons after being curious about what my friends were talking about in school such as adult content, etc. which also helped to influence me to change those actions. When my family moved to Prairie I became much less involved with my influences from Mountain Home, because it is a very small town up in the mountains located about 50 miles from Mountain Home and Boise. I learned hard work ethics from working on our family ranch up there, such as never giving up on a task, working till the job is done, working with cows and horses, building and fixing barbed wire fences, digging ditches, bucking/ feeding hay, etc. I also became very involved in my community and helped many people in Prairie with any job they asked me to help with, and I did so without expecting pay. I earned a good reputation as a hard worker and a good kid in Prairie and that has helped me to see myself as successful and ready to tackle any obstacle that comes my way.
What kinds of books or other texts did you read in school? On your own? The books I have read in school are The Old Man and the Sea, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, A great book about President James Madison, and some other good ones that I can’t really remember the name of. I have read books on my own such as the Cirque Du Freak series, Old Yeller, When the Whistle Blows, some Gary Paulsen books, many of the Goosebumps series and other R.L. Stine series books, books about sports, historical and historical fictions books, etc.
Where (e.g., specific website, television news channels, friends and family, church, etc.) do you learn about what’s going on in the U.S. and the rest of the world? I learn about what is going on in the U.S. and the rest of the world through family, friends, the news, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, etc.
How do you spend your leisure time, and how might it shape your view of the world? I spend my leisure time relaxing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, going home to my family on the weekends and helping/hanging out, and also hanging out with friends. These activities might shape my view of the world by showing me how much more we have to enjoy in the U.S. such as freedom, much less hunger, less poverty (for the most part), more leisure/recreation, etc. than in other parts of the world. I also feel like we might take it for granted because most of us grew up with a lot and never knew what it meant to be poor, or have to grow up with little material possessions.
How has your religious or spiritual journey influenced how you view other people and their decisions? Yes I am a Christian but I wouldn’t consider myself to be religious per say because I don’t follow a certain religion. I would say that being a Christian I view other people and their decisions with both sides in mind. I don’t try to judge anybody by my first impression of them, I look at their good and bad, I don’t point out every little thing that somebody does that I consider to be wrong, and I am very polite and considerate of other people. I am a firm believer in the golden rule, “Do unto others as you want done unto you.” I am respectful, caring, honest, and many other good traits.
Did your parents or guardians come from different cultures? If so, how did these cultures appear in your home when you were growing up? No, my parents didn’t come from different cultures. My mother and father both grew up in Idaho from families within the U.S.
How has your perspective on the world changed as you have matured and gained more life experience? My perspective on the world has changed as I have matured and gained more life experience by I now see things that I didn’t know of or see much before such as heated topics on same sex marriage, gun control laws, abortion, U.S. involved wars, celebrity scandals, world events, mass shootings, local, state, and nationwide elections, videos on the internet, etc. I now see the world in a much broader view and I have my own thoughts and ideas on issues that didn’t matter to me when I was younger. I pay attention to major issues now and I have opinions on these issues.
What specific experiences—e.g., events, conversations, chance meetings, courses, etc.—have made you shift your perspective or change your mind about something? I would say that my sociology class that I took last year in high school definitely made me think differently about certain subjects and topics in the world. I learned about how we are shaped as an individual, certain factors that influence our behavior, how a good person can do bad things, how solitary confinement is probably not a good solution to handle criminals, and many other very important thoughts and ideas.

Are there people or experiences that you consider formative in your life—that is, they are or were essential to shaping the person you are today? Explain. My Mom, Dad, Grandpa Nathan, Grandma Mary, Grandpa Pete, Abuela Reyes, Great-Grandma Priscilla, Granny Black, Uncle Luther, and a few other people were all very essential to shaping the person I am today because I have learned all that I know from each and every one of these people.