Ryan Lin, Age 11

Rise of the Jack-o-Lantern

By: Ryan Lin

Boo! On October 18, 2015 we were at the Rise of the Jack-o-Lantern in the Santa Anita Park. We were here to see 5,000 pumpkins in a ⅓ mile trail decorated full of glowing, well hand-carved pumpkins by Jack-O-Lanterns. Ally was our tour guide and she was the assistant producer.  Ally took us in this trail full of glow. She told us that, when the pumpkin rotten and turn all moldy, they would have to re-carved the 5,000 pumpkins again. “Every week we have to re-carved every single pumpkin here that you see today for the other people to see the best ones that we have” said Ally. When we went to the entrance,  Ally introduced us to the carving master Greg.

Greg is a skilled and talented carver.  He taught us techniques to carve pumpkins. I asked him, “What got you interested in pumpkin carving?” “ well I love art. I love to paint, draw, sculpt, and one day my friend ask me why don’t you try to carve pumpkins? Well, I said sure, and I gave it a try and I like it!” said Greg. He demonstrates the cyclops that he was working on, and he showed us the scary face that was completed. He taught us many skills to carve a pumpkin. So first as always you take out the seed inside, than you start to carve whatever you want. After you ask an adult to scrape of the skin, and then keeping carving until you like it.

After the interview, we went on the ⅓ mile trail decorated with 5,000 pumpkins. There was everything you can think of such as simple pumpkins, animals, dinosaurs, famous people, Disney characters, under the ocean, skeletons, and etc. I learned that they have to set-up for weeks to make the pumpkins stay in place. Also I learned that every fur on the animals and yoda is carved one by one. There was a 50 ft. dragon, which I thought it was very cool. There was also really tall giraffe and real-life looking tigers. There was the Movie Inside-Out. That was my personal favorite, madness.

This was a great experience! I learned a lots of pumpkin carving. Now I am ready to carve my own pumpkin!

Cardboard Yacht Regatta by Ryan Lin

We were at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica Beach for the Cardboard Yacht Regatta last weekend . Only cardboard, duct tape and yellow wood glue can be used for the support structure of the yacht. This beach house is about 5 acres and was a mansion.  They sold the property and made it a museum .

We saw many awesome yachts like Pikachu, Jurassic park Jeep, a rubber ducky, and many other cool yacht. I interviewed people and asked them about their yachts. I like the Jurassic Park Jeep. Their yacht was like the jeep in Jurassic Park with cool dinosaur on it. I asked them a few questions and one of questions were “what inspired them to make this yacht?" “Well, my child inspired me because he loves the Jurassic World, so we decide to make it” answered the owner. We saw many of the yachts not succeed, most of the problems were like water went in, the yachts overturn in the water and etc. But there were still a lots of yachts had finished the race.

My brother and I decided to be in the Regatta next year. We might name ours the “Atomic Bomber". What a great event! This is the activity the whole family will enjoy. It inspire me and my brother to enter the race next year, we already have many cool ideas for our yacht.

PBS SoCal Studio Tour

         Since I was little I loved Curious George and Sesame Street. This is a great opportunity for me to visit the PBS SoCal station at Costa Mesa California. PBS SoCal is a public station where people could go tour and volunteer.  They are a Non-profit organization.There are about 65 people work at the station. They make interview only in small cities. Our tour guides were Ms. Alison Dorff and Ms. Christine Z.

         First, we are headed inside. The first room is the control center. This is the room that they send all the shows to your TV. They have three clocks. The first clock is the satellite, the second is the time right now, and the last one is how long is the film. There are three chairs. Each chair holds an important role like the first chair is the color, seconded director, and last the volume. Next room is the sound room. The control panels that you can move up and down to adjust the volume. There are also sound proof was so the person who is sitting inside to concentrate. Next is the makeup room. This is the place where the actors need makeup, even a boy! They have LED lights so when they go on air they can look exactly what did for makeup. They want the best quality. They have a green room for resting but the room is not green. Then the broadcasting room. The equipment cost lots of money. But what is cool about the cameras are that it looks heavy and they use nitrogen for their camera and they have so much light that they can light up a Lady GaGa concert. Behind all of his stuff there is a green screen where they film with the background because they can’t go there. Alison said that all the lights in here could light up a concert. You could be a volunteer to be sitting and watching the show.

Ms. Alison told us that there will be a show called “Ready, Jet, Go". This show is about an alien from space and he came down to earth living a normal life. It is coming this winter. I am really excited about the show! Being a Junior journalism is cool because we get to learn about PBS SoCal and the things I never know.