brainstorming for topics

"It came to me in a dream"! haha. Well, not exactly.  When I decided to write about recycling it seemed to fall out of nowhere.  I was really planning on writing about supporting local farming and eating organics because Healthy eating is a topic i am passionate about.  When blogging about ideas though, recycling provoked my interest.  I grew up hearing about the three R's. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.  They are important in protecting the environment, but as I matured more i started hearing otherwise.  I heard recycling is actually not so green, and that recycling releases more fossil fuels and poisonous gasses into the air than landfilling things.  Because i'm now on my own I have the option to decide whether or not to recycle.  I chose recycling as a topic to debunk the myths and find out whether recycling in Dayton is effective.

Walking With a Farmer

WOW!  He was like a local, real life John McCandless from Into The Wild.  I admire

The research project is moved slowly, but I found  great facts on recycling.  I learned that recycling is indeed effective.  It conserves natural resources, decreases the use of slow degrading landfills, provides jobs, and makes for cleaner air and water.  Everything i found on recycling is great, but a problem that arose was finding info on recycling in Dayton.  I feel like I did two sets of research so it took me a little longer than I thought to write the paper.  It was worth it though.  I had a great personal interview with a local recycling employee, and I learned the importance of recycling.  Its time to start!
 

The Two main questions I have for my research paper are:
- Is recycling effective?
       -What is the carbon footprint?
       - are it's benefits better than other forms of waste management?
       - does recycling really help protect the environment?
- Is recycling in Dayton Oh effective?
      - Are the companies up-to-date on the latest technologies
      - What are company policies?
      - Is recycling easily accessable to everyone?
      - Is the community educated about recycling opportunities
To find the information I need about recycling in general I can search through academic and scholarly journals to find hard facts and statistics.  This will help tell how effective recycling is in protecting the environment.
To find info on recycling in Dayton I will call local companies and do some personal interviews.  I will also visit the Ohio epa website to check out recycling reviews and stats for Dayton.    

Thoughts on research topic

where do i live, work, and go to school? City water and gas...  bringing organic farming more into dayton.  more parks and hiking trails. keeping up the parks.  a city garden? more education?.....What are important values to have?  recycling plant closer to my house.  What are some things big cities are doing to help with the green movement?  what are some issues in the neighborhood.  Keep water clean so children can play in creeks, lakes, and rivers. government school food should go healthy or organic.  obesity rate is crazy and the organic healthy food is so expensive. support local farming and artists. making it affordable and easily accesed.
-project examples-
- noise pollution
-how to get a better grocery store in an area
-how to start a community garden
-ceasars creek marina
-plastic bottles
- not allowing plastic bags at grocery stores
- what happens to all the old computers
how many plastic bottles are thrown away at great clips in the area? 

walking with a naturalist

walking with a naturalist was a great experience. He was passionate about birds and my fist thought  was that birds really aren't that exciting.  As i was listening i learned that birds are direct descendants from dinosaurs, their songs are actually war crys and territorial disputes, they show off to women, and natural selection has made them very smart.  We have over 300 types of birds that can be seen in ohio, and they are imperitive to wildlife.  After the short lesson, and hearing some fun bird calls I had so much new respect for birds.  I also found myself very envious of the naturalists way of life, and his passion and love for his job.  It helped me clear a little bit more of my path to finding a major!

my last argument

My last argument was over watering house plants.  It was the first time i had lived with another person other than a family member, and i didn't know the difficulties that would arise.  I thought it would be fun and easy. My best friend and I would hang out all the time and laugh.  How wrong I was!  A few weeks into my new livingsituation I learned alot of new things about the person I was living with.  As the weeks went on bitterness and problems started to build in my head.  My roommate wasn't like me. She didn't do things the way I did.  Things like dirty dishes and scattered paperwork bothered me to the point of anger.  Finally, one night I cracked. I was watering the plants, and she hinted there was a beter way to do it. An argument blew up over the correct way to water. Eventually i left for my room in a fit of rage.  After i cooled down I realized the pettyness of it all, and i went back down stairs to work things out.  We both realized how important it is to be open when something is botering to make sure bitterness doesn't build up to the point of explosion.  That night was a humbling night and taught me alot about relationships.  I also believe living with a roommate is good practice for marriage.  It wont always be fun and games, but if we humbly consider one another better than ourselves than it makes for more peace and faster make-ups.