jkswanson's blog

The very first thing that I did was look up where spiders like to make their webs. I searched "where do spiders make their webs in northeast America. It gave me limited information basicallt saying that depending on the type they can live in many different places from trees to grass to manmade things.  This led me to begin my search in my backyard which is the Newman center and the trees next to the mahar lecture hall. I looked in the volleyball court net next to Newman center and the bulletin board by the entrance of mahar, I found nothing. I then looked in the trees and found a few webs and used a measuring tape to compare the size of each web. The first two were about 5 inches in size and the third one I found was about seven to eight inches in diameter.  I then used the camera app on the iPhone to compare how each web looked in through the camera lens initially without any effects. The third web contained a leaf in it which helped as a reference for size and to help display the web itself. The third web was clearly the best web for the picture so I chose to move forward with that one.

The very first thing I did to find out where to get my pictures, was look up where spiders like to make their webs.  This led me to begin my search in my backyard which is the trees next to the mahar lecture hall, I looked in the volleyball court next to Newman center and the bulletin board by the entrance of mahar. I then looked in the trees and found a few webs and used a measuring tape to compare the size of each web.  I then used the camera app on the iPhone to compare how each web looked in through the camera lens initially without any effects. This allowed me to select the best web for the assignment.

To get the two pictures I had to set some things up for a background and have a friend there.  I first looked at the spider web through the camera lens and noticed the green grass was too light of a background so I had a friend hold up a dark purple folder behind the web.  This allowed for the camera to pick up the web way better. I found the best angle to capture the web at, then I took pictures with the flash and no flash to find out which looked best and chose no flash as it did nothing.  I then pulled the measuring tape to about one foot and held it perpendicular to the camera just below the web so the image shows the size of the web. I then snapped a few pictures. To get the picture of the setting I backed up about twenty feet and used the camera app to focus on the tree with the spider web then snapped a few pictures of the tree and its surroundings.

The next step was to edit the photos to allow for the best presentation of the pictures.  I downloaded the free app Photoshop express onto my iPhone and uploaded the pictures to the app.  I also at this time found a map of umass on the umass website. In the photoshop app I used the pen editing effect to draw a circle around the area I searched and put a dot/line on the area where the tree with the web is.  I then clicked on the make collage choice and selected the three images. I arranged them to allow for the map to be displayed with the map key and for the picture of the web to include the ruler. I then downloaded the collage to my camera roll and emailed it to myself from my iPhone.  

An inference is a conclusion one comes to based on evidence and information.  This evidence and information being seen is an observation. One example is This last week I observed that I had been congested, blowing my nose and coughing.  I also observed that my nasal discharge was discolored which therefore led me to infer that I was sick and needed to call my mother and ask her what to do next.  The conclusion that I came to of being sick was the inference and the evidence for my sickness was my observation.

I found my spider web in the fork of a tree right outside of the mahar lecture hall.  I saw a few and chose the best one for the photo and that was easy to reference for size.  The green grass was too light of a background for the camera to pick up the web so I had a friend hold up a dark purple folder directly behind the web.  I then used a measuring tape for reference and held the tape below the web extended about 10 inches and parallel with the angle of the camera. I took a few pictures with flash and a few without just to capture everything.  I then backed up onto the concrete by mahar and took another picture of the tree where the spider web was

• Woke up

• Checked my phone

• Got out of bed and stretch

• Put on shorts

• Take a drink of water

• Walk to the bathroom

• Brushed my teeth

• Check the bus app on my phone

• Put my orgo notebook and goggles in my backpack

• Took off my shorts and put on pants and a shirt

• Leave my house and walk to Neman cafe

• Order a breakfast sandwich and eat it

Categories

• Moving

• Getting ready  

• Self care

The first part of my day consists of me slowly coming to and moving and squirming around in my bed before I finally sit up in bed.  A few minutes later I get up out of bed from the bottom as my bed is against a wall and a couch. As soon as I get up and am standing I stretch out and yawn and sometimes crack my neck and  back depending on how it feels. Soon after I walk to the bathroom which is just down the hall. After I’m all ready to go or the day I walk over to Newman cafe, juust n the other side of the bushes.   

    Right after I get up the first thing I do is check my phone and see if I have any messages from work or professors, then I’ll poke a round on social media.  After I’m out of bed and stretched i’ll throw on some shorts and my flip flops. When I’m done In the bathroom I check my phone again, this time checking the bus app for the times.  As that is loading I grab my organic chemistry notebook and my goggles and toss them in my backpack. I remembered I actually need pants for my lab so I have to take my shorts off and put on pants and a t shirt.

One of the best thing in the world is when you first get up and have a drink of water, I do this every morning as soon as i get out of bed and have  pants on. Once in the bathroom I brush my teeth with my electric toothbrush for about 2 minutes, sometimes I’ll wash my face depending on if i feel the need to. The last self care step and maybe the most important is I eat my breakfast sandwich from the Neman cafe and then am on my way.

The spider is  small, about an inch in size and very thin.  It is a white and black spider with a small body seperated into two parts.  The body kind of looks like an exclamation mark in microsoft word, the top being long and thin leavdng into a circular part.  The 8 legs are coming off of this ciruclar part and are about an inch in length but are curled up.  Each leg has two large bends and one slight bend almost making the shape of the letter n with a tail.  The legs all come off the circular part going up at amost a 90 degree angle. At the first bend in the spiders legs, there is a band of black with a stripe of whitegoing across it in the middle of the joint.  The legs are quick when he moves and allow it to get anywhere in the cup quickly. The spider doesn't like to be on the cup itself, he likes to be on the web atleast partially.   The web is not visible so it almost looks as if the spider is floating.  Shaking and tapping of the cup itself casued the spider to move away from where the tapping would be.  It was trying to get out whenever the cup was moved.  If I covered the spot where the spider was then it would move to an open part of the cup and poke at the cup.  I think it's main priority was to get out of the cup.

The spider is small, about three quarters of an inch and is suspended in the middle of the cup on its web.  You cannot see the web though so it looks as if it is floating.  It is awhite and black spider with a small body seperated into two parts.  The body kind of looks like an exclamation mark in microsoft word, the top being long and thi leaving into a circular part.  The 8 legs are coming off of this ciruclar part and are about 4 times the length of the body.  Each leg has two large bends and one slight bend.  the legs all come off the circular part going up at amost a 90 degree angle. At the first bend in the spiders legs, there is a band of black witha a stripe of whitegoing across it in the middle of the joint.

 As for behavior, the spider doesn't like to be on the cup itself, he likes to be on the web atlwast partially.  Shaking and tapping of the cup itself casued the spider to move.  It was trying to get out whenever the cup was moved.  If i covered the spot where the spider was then it would move to an open part of the cup and poke at the cup.