tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77265079606222304492024-03-12T23:11:28.707-07:00One Girl's ByteOne college student's view on the world. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-23947783316007382312016-10-10T17:14:00.001-07:002016-10-10T17:14:40.241-07:00On Moving<div class="MsoNormal">
One day, I will have a place to call my own for more than a
9-month period. That day is not today. But I lasted from May until October,
which is pretty good for something that began in the summer. I was never that
good at putting down roots anyway. The major reason for the move was
monetary. That is to say, my car and my
gas tank and my wallet said a very firm no, we are not doing this until you
graduate, do not even try.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can put up with a lot, but I cannot put up with my gas
tank eating up my food budget. I have needs. They include something other than
rice, tuna, chicken and canned veggies. There is only so much rice I can eat
before I am heartily tired of the flavor, the texture, and the everything else.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I found a place!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I like it. The cat likes it. The neighbors are a bit
noisier, and it’s not exactly a safe place, but they haven’t knocked it off the
night time delivery list yet, and until I am out of college, that is my low bar
of safety. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once I am out of college, I may have a higher bar. I may
wait on that higher bar until my student loans are paid off. It depends on how
much I make out of college. As with
basically every other Millennial I know, there’s not a lot of hope there in making
as much as people swear I can make right out of college with my shiny new
degree and my basically bare resume. Still, full time work that is meaningful
is kind of the most important thing to me. I’m one person, and I don’t see that
changing anytime soon. It’s a bit of a bummer, but I can keep my bills pretty
low if I need to.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luckily, about all most of my hobbies require is a
connection to the internet and a computer.
I admit that I look forward to getting a powerful desktop so I can go
back to making art again, but I’m pretty happy with my pretty little laptop
right now.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back to my moving adventure though. So. Here I am. My SUV,
dear sweet beast that is, was packed solid yesterday. For field of view reasons, and because there’s
a distinct possibility that for some mysterious reason none of my friends trust
my driving or my car, I was careful not to block my view out the back. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I swear I am a good driver guys. I haven’t nearly gotten
into a wreck in at least five days.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So here I am, my car is full. My darlingest history major’s
car is also full, and we’re on our way to the new place! I would have to make a
second trip with my car, but we definitely had everything I needed for comfort
packed! (Ha!)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m going a slightly less steep route, because The Beast
doesn’t like gaining speed on hills on normal days when it’s just me in it, and
everything is going fine.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Except.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
About a third of the way there, there was a red light. It’s
a nuisance, and I’ve never not caught it, but there it is. And of course I hit
the red light again. So here I am idling at the light, waiting for it to turn,
and speaking in baby talk to the cat who wasn’t fond of speeding up, slowing
down, stopping, or really most of the ride at all. The baby talk soothed her.
Or at least, it stopped the periodic confused meowing, and that worked for me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then my engine stops.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh lordy, lordy, apple pie and rhubarb sandwiches. Not
again. I hit the emergency lights
button. And I think about the dear old
man who rescued me last time. What do I do?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, crank it. Nothing is cranking. Bad Beast. Second
groan in embarrassment cause the light is now green and your car is being a
brat. Third, turn it completely off (park first!) and then turn it on again? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes! It worked.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now mind you, my friend is supposed to be following behind
me right now. I lost her though,
somewhere towards the beginning of our journey, because my faith in the time it
takes two cars to turn onto the road was not, apparently, all that good. I am
maybe not that great at estimating time. This is a distinct possibility.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The long and short of it is: she
one hundred percent beat me there. One hundred percent. No contest.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We did get everything in the
house though, and in time for her to go to class, which is good because my car
and I were not going to go back there.
The Beast has Spoken. None shall defy the Beast less they wish to find
themselves stranded an hour from their destination for the second time,
seriously, one day I’m going to get a new car, and this same nonsense will
occur.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, I like the new place. The
cat likes the new place. I have a bit more bedroom room, and the cat is
enjoying the freedom of exploring the upstairs of the townhome. She’s yet to
figure out the stairs. Give her a bit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And now I have to unpack
everything tonight, so I can put more things in this place tomorrow. Hurrah! Wish me luck, and cross your fingers
that tomorrow’s moving part two won’t come with it’s own special brand of ‘seriously?’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: No mattress. No
couch. One Bookcase. Innumerable books.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-78377754380571436402016-09-19T18:05:00.003-07:002016-09-19T18:05:44.665-07:00Surprise Adventures<div class="MsoNormal">
I went on an adventure! And I’ve been talked into the
occasional post on the little adventures I do also, as apparently they are
interesting? Don't expect too many, but i'm told i need to catch you up on some adventures that I'm suppose have in fact happened.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So. An accounting of today’s Very Scary I Could Have Died
Painfully adventure. I am calling it
that because it involves me driving, and let’s face it driving is something I
do not like at all. Yes, it is freeing, and that freedom is nice, but have you
seen how people drive? Terrifying. I don’t want to be on the road with
them. Plus, cars and I have an understanding.
I avoid them, and I get a lot less car based adventures.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I prefer the adventures when I am on foot, which, I know,
makes me a little odd.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway. So. I’ve been having headlight trouble.
Specifically, I burnt out the bulbs. This is a thing that happens. It’s okay.
Easy fix. So I grab a helper, because
while I like doing my own car work when possible, I like a helper more. I promptly learned my
helper, whom I shall thus forth call Mama Bear, due to her overwhelming Mama
Bear status—She isn’t my mom, but she’s
become the pseudo-mom to the physics success center. She has lots of ‘kids.’ –well
she apparently really, really likes working on cars. So it was more of me being
the helper and her doing it. It isn’t what I intended, but I’m not going to say
no. That part was easy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Until.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh you know there’s always an until.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Until I accidentally knocked a screw into my hood’s lock,
trying to move the screws so I will not, in fact, knock them into the hood’s
lock. What can I say? It takes a certain
amount of ‘ah man’ in order to start an adventure. By this point, Mama Bear’s
friend has shown up, and he’s helping to. Does it take three people to change a
headlight bulb? No. But he was having more luck with the release tabs than I
was, so it was fine. (To be honest, it really only takes the one.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So we’re in the pre sunset stage of the day, and we lost the
screw. I got to see if someone has a magnet, come back, and in the ten minutes
I was gone, we have somehow managed to lose a hex wrench and a socket. I don’t
want to know how. Twenty minutes later, we have retrieved the hex wrench. The
socket, having fallen into a drain, in irretrievable. I should know. We tried.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is bad news. I borrowed the socket set from Old Navy
Dude. Now, I love Old Navy Dude to death, but now I have to go out a purchase
him a single socket. Do they sell single sockets? I mean, I have no problem
replacing it of course (Though I didn’t notice one missing from the set, when I
closed it) but I don’t know if Lowe’s sells single sockets. I suppose I shall
find out. If not, well. This is the internet. The internet will come through.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So here I am, one adventure under my belt, and little tired,
but excited that my lights work. So I start to head home. It’s around a 30
minute drive, assuming there isn’t a traffic jam. Given that there is a
construction site that lasts a good mile, there is a traffic jam a lot of the
time. Not this time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not that I knew this when my Adventure, part two, began. You
see, adventure part two occurred about halfway home. My dear sweet car, does
not like the long steep hill it must climb, but it can climb it, with much
encouragement. I am convinced I use the most gas on my journey just climbing that hill. At the
bottom of the hill, I turn left. I like turning left. It’s easier than turning
right, largely because let almost never involves a 90 degree turn that must be
made in very little feet. I do not turn on a dime. My car does not turn on a
time. I must slow down, because frankly, I really do suck at turning right.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Only, there’s a light at which I turn left.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Only, I got the red light.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Only, my car would not go when the light turned green.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I got honked at as I frantically pressed the gas pedal, wondering
why the car was not doing the vroom-vroom. I have a car specifically so it can
go vroom-vroom and I can go places. It was not.
But. But. I was at the bottom of a hill. So I was slowly, inexorably
gliding forward. At first fast enough I might
clear it. Only I didn’t clear it. I did not clear traffic. The light changed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By this point I have been honked at, had hit my emergency
lights and was in the beginning stages of a panic attack. I don’t know if you guys know this, but about
the only places I ever have panic attacks are in cars. Cars and I, well. We
just don’t get along.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hit the brakes, freaking out, and trying to figure out why
my car would not go. In my panic, and because I was pretty clearly not thinking
at all, I managed to turn off my ac, turn it to warm air, and then hit every
button on my dash I could think of.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s right. I panicked so hard, I thought turning the AC
off and on again would fix my car. Oh Lordy. Panic is so weird. And then.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes there is an And then. There is always an And then.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then the lights changed again so I had to try going
forward. I must have been a sight, slowly
scooting forward, emergencies lights blinking, clearly panicking. See, here’s
the thing. I was turning into a road that was about to start sloping up. That’s
right. As soon as you turn, there’s a slight uphill gradient. It’s not normally
a big deal. It is a big deal when the weight of your car alone is the only
reason you are going forward. I made it…just past where the other lane could turn
in. Not to the parking lot I was hoping to steadily inch to. See, even in
panic, I know the procedure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The car breaks down. Hit the emergency lights, get to the
side of the road, call for aid. I could
not get to the side of the road. The car had inched forward all it would inch.
Right. I was out of the way as I would get. Having determined this, and still
panicking, I did the first thing I could do. I needed to call for help. Immediately,
my brain goes through the list of who can help. Old Navy Dude? Too far away.
Navy Lady? No, she was busy. Mama Bear?
I lost her number. Ah, but I have younger cohorts, and they are clever and
smart and know things. That was it. I called...Physics Chick! Physics Chick is
one of my best friends. Other best
friends who I could have called, I can in fact also refer to as Physics Chick.
Won’t that be confusing, if I ever refer to all three Physics Chicks in one
blog. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I call, and she immediately susses out what’s going on.
It isn’t the transmission, there’s no noise, no sign, and I’ve had one of those
go out while driving before. I know what that is like and this was not
that. She and I try and work it out, and
the entire time she’s talking me out of my panic attack because Physics Chick
knows how, somehow, magically. And then, the scariest thing around
happens. Somebody in an official looking
branded car pulls in front of me…and begins to back up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I freak out. I should
not have, because this guy knew exactly what to do, he talked me through
it, and he was all “Your battery just died. You’ll be fine.” And then he just
gets back in his car and leaves after mine starts miraculously! I do not know who that old man was but he was
the best, and he just confirms my love of old men everywhere, because old men
know a lot, and I was on my way again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So everything is mostly hunky dory, and I’ve promised myself I
can finish my panic attack in the grocery store parking lot. So I continue down
the road and to the local grocery store, and pull into their parking lot, and I
can’t get my keys out. I call Physics
Chick back, because you guys know I don’t talk on my phone and drive. I like
living too much for that, and cars are nothing but screaming metal death traps
anyway. I don’t need to add to that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She knew what was up. I completely forgot to actually park
the car. Shush. All of you shush, because I know you are laughing at me, and
you’ll laugh more at what happened next. I get my groceries, starving by this
point, get in the car…and for some reason ‘the ac isn’t working….’ I swear, I got
five miles down the road before I realized why I was so hot. That’s right.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had turned the heat on. In my panic earlier, I turned the
heat on and never turned it off. Y’all
should all know. Some days, you just want to go home, cuddle your cat, and
pretend cars never even existed in the first place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 417.75pt; text-align: justify;">
I did make it
home safely though, I promise. I had to get a neighbor to help me with the
lock, because it got stuck. Again. But I made it! And now, I’m going to enjoy
some pot pie and an ice cream bar, because after all that nonsense, I deserve
it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 417.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 417.75pt; text-align: justify;">
One Final
Byte: Adventure, in its many forms, is often unexpected.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-21655846541213464892015-08-10T04:00:00.000-07:002015-08-16T06:16:52.020-07:00Berlin Day Two<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
First, please excuse any typos. I´m writing this on a German keyboard because I accidentally fried my laptop adapter. The biggest changes are the positioning, addition of umlauts, and my y key is in a very unusual position. Second, I have been corrected on my identification of the submarine from the other day! It was, in fact, a soviet submarine, and once I am back in the states I`ll correct that in the post itself.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
For now, just plain wowzers. What A Day! Berlin is so wonderful. Of course, I only ended up with five hours to explore it after the Reichstag tour, but still! So much wow. And that was five hours AFTER a morning tour of the Reichstag.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A bit about the Reichstag for those not in the know. The Reichstag is where the German Parliment casts its votes and holds Party meetings. As I can hear you asking why I would go there from the hotel in Germany already, I'll explain the appeal of the place to me. One Word: Architecture.</div>
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<br /></div>
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See, this building is a little on the weird side. Almost all of it is the original outer walls of the building, built in the Weimar Republic, which was Germany's first democracy and in the early 1900s era. This means that it is rocking the classical art look, feel, and symbology. You guys know me and the classical period. Ah, my first love in art! Wonderful.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Of course, there was a wee bitty change on the facade at one point in the 1900s, and I should only have to translate it to tell you who wrote it. On the front of the building, in an otherwise unmarred band reads something a little out of place. 'Dem Deutschen Volke.' To the German People. Three guesses on when that was put there, and the first two don't count.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If you guessed Hitler, you were wrong. Try in 1916, and to the displeasure of then ruler Wilhelm II. That's right. Sounds like Nazis and isn't. History produces weird things.</div>
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This is not all there is to this magnificent building of course. You see, after the wall fell and Germany became one again, there was a tiny matter of where to vote at, and where else but the Konigplatz, now renamed to something less kingly, and with government buildings all around. One problem. The Soviets had totally trashed the place, among other things, like bombs falling from the sky. So it got a makeover. The entire interior was removed and build to modern taste, and on top, as a symbol of the transparency of the new government a giant glass dome was built.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Around the building we went, seeing this and that, even preserved Soviet graffiti, which while interesting in its existence, rates only a one of my graffiti scale. It was almost entirely dates, names, and where soldiers were from. Says a lot about the mind set of the soldiers, I think.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This was a good three hour tour and climb to the top of the glass dome by the way. Leaving me with only five hours to see the town and get back to where our last hoorah dinner was going to be. Effectively, with getting around, I had four hours. With eating a lunch as well...only three. THREE HOURS! Well, plus change, of course, but oh what could I do, how could I take in the city? I could not. Not by foot. So I employed the mighty services of a tour bus! City sightseeing buses abounded, and if I only had a handful of hours to see it all, this would be the way. I made my way from the Reichstag to the Brandenburg Gate, and admired that very much, and all too greatly. Then I got on a tour bus with a friend who had the same idea.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The sights! The sounds! Berlin! We saw the victory tower, with the eight meter tall Victory angel on top. The children next to me insisted she was a golden fairy. It was a very good description. Along the route, we also saw Schloss Bellevue, where Merkel lives, we were told Schloss Charlottenburg was also taken in, with all it resplendent glory, as was the beautiful route to the zoo. The Europa Center was admired, and we saw, of course, KaDeWe, a huge shopping mall from the DDR, if I recall correctly.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A trip through Potsdamer Platz and all showed us the magical art area, so many galleries, the sony center, the golden philharmonic, the musical theater with greats from the black and white era and so many more! We even got to see more remains of the wall, and of course we got to see check point charlie, though the bus did not stop for us to get off there, to my sorrow. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Oh the tour was wonderful, and we got off near the Reichstag to head over to a memorial that is wonderful in theory and which I still do not understand at all the deeper meaning behind. That would be the Holocast memorial specifically to the Jews. I did see the one ot the Gypsies as well. It's a reflecting pool with a triangle in the middle. For the jews there is a large plaza filled with stone rectangles of varying heights. They get big enough that you can walk among them, and thanks to cleverly digging down, it looks like they only grow in height maybe three feet.</div>
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I still don't understand it. But it was very memorial-esque.</div>
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After this I had to make my way back to the S-bahn, of the Schnell bahn, the quick train. I took it to the Potsdam station from the Brandeburg Gate, as it seemed that was the closest. From there, I changed trains to one to the Alexanderplatz near my hotel and the restaurant our last horrah was at. I arrived soon enough to briefly admire the TV tower, the largest most modern structure of the DDR in Germany, and then to check out the Statsi Archives.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I don't know the proper name. But in these archives is the most shocking thing in Berlin for me. If the DDR had a file on you, you will now find it there. They had a lot of files, on a lot of people. It's a very large building, and to the front, is this statue of a Soviet working man. It was closed by the time I was there, but for me, this affected me much more than the Holocaust memorial.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Shortly after, we had a goodbye dinner at 'Der Alte Fritz.' The name is in honor of the man who brought Germany the potato....Frederick the Great. There were potatoes at our dinner. I gave up and had them. Germans really love potatoes guys. They really do.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I wish I had more time. I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked. Berlin is just too small for only a few hours, or even only a few days in it, and tomorrow, or rather, on Sunday my plane leaves back for the US. But that, of course, is another adventure.</div>
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<br /></div>
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One Final Byte: When adventures are done, people will be missed.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-56630785149708720472015-08-09T04:00:00.000-07:002015-08-09T04:00:00.236-07:00Day one of Berlin<div class="MsoNormal">
So. Last Night, we arrived at Berlin, tired from a day of
travel, hungry as a pack of wild coyotes, and incredibly curious. The others went for a self-guided night time
tour of Berlin. I went to save the world from me being cranky, and had an
Italian Dream Pizza, and a nice night’s sleep. And Italian Dream Pizza is,
apparently, pesto and mozzarella on a thin crust with marinara sauce. This is
what I get for eating at a hotel bar. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t bad. It just was.
Each slice varied in tastiness, which is what happens when a bartender is
forced to spread pesto on a pizza crust.</div>
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This hotel, by the way, is simply lovely. The rooms are not
the giant American sized ones of course, but the décor is just right, and when
you first enter, the TV flicks on to play soothing music. This is because to have electricity you have
to insert your room card into the electricity slot. Electricity slot, by the way, is how the
hotel translates it into English. It is a very literal name.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After my lovely night’s sleep, and very German breakfast of
chocolate croissants, and not the unfamiliar deli meats that have been a part
of every German breakfast buffet here, we were off to attend lectures! This
time, to cover the aspects of the German Space Agency that are in no way
related to space. Along the way to the DLR Berlin site, I admired the route we
took with cat like curiosity. Let me tell you, along the route we took, there
was not big city traffic. There wasn’t even small city traffic. There was not a
single traffic jam whatsoever. There were an awful lot of cyclists and trains
and buses, but no traffic jam. These things may or may not be related.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh! Also, can I just say that I adore the little classical
art house décor. I don’t have the word for what they were, but it was,
essentially, a painting cut out of the stone attached to the building. It’s not
a sculpture how I normally think of a sculpture, but it was certainly sculpted.
Either way, America should take up the habit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Also, Berlin, I forgive you the lack luster graffiti of my
arrival! Oh, my heart is smoothed for the masterpieces of signatures and scenes
that I have seen on this day. Such beauty! Truly you have talented graffiti
artists Berlin. Mostly just mindless taggers yes, but your shining pearls
certainly outshine those who can little more than sign their own name.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, shortly after some lovely graffiti, we saw IT.
You know what I mean. That famous wall. Every inch of it that remained along
our route was covered in beautiful murals, almost all dedicated to peace, and
some of which that had stood for longer than I’ve been alive. (Betcha feel old
now don’t you?)<o:p></o:p></div>
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It was very touching, for the most part. I think I pretty
much just held down my hand on the take a picture button for my camera though,
and let it go wild. The 200+ photos will all be stitched together….later.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s so much to tell you! Urgh, I just don’t have enough
words people. Like, how do you move on from something as astonishing as The
Wall, to the fact that Germany is dotted by weird little huts shaped like
strawberries and painted like strawberries that sell strawberries! Here’s a
hint. I did it just like that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s so very different being here now, compared to when I
was here last. I think northern and southern Germany are clearly two different
beasts, especially when you throw Berlin into the mix.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For instance, before, I didn’t see many hobby/community
gardens. Here, there’s long fields of community gardens where you can rent a
plot, build a shack, and do all your hobbies there that you can’t do in your
apartment. Let me tell you, there’s a lot of hobbies out there that don’t fit
in apartments. I was incredibly confused
the first time we went past one, and asked our German Group Leader. He
explained that people go there on the weekends and garden, or do other outdoor
hobbies. I even say one with a shallow pool in it. A wise choice in this near 100
degree weather.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And oh, along the way we say the prettiest of trains. It is
a train that you wouldn’t hesitate to board, and you would feel like you
stepped back in time to step through the door, for surely, something as pretty
as this could not be a modern train. Then you enter it and see the seating and
yes, yes it is a modern train.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyway, we did reach the DLR Adlershof site, and proceeded
to be informed of the other things German NASA does. Such as traffic research and building 3D
maps. I assure you, both fo these had much longer and more scientific titles
before I got to them. What really tickled me pink though was our speaker from
the Institute of Planetary Research. He spoke largely of asteroids and the
Philae mission, played silly NASA videos from other asteroid missions, and
informed us if a bolide (the Russian asteroid from a year or something agoish)
comes down to earth, we should avoid being near the windows, so we don’t get
hurt. Even 50 km away. In American, that’s
about 32 miles.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh, did I mention the coolest bit? The DLR Adlershof site is
startling near Albert Einstein Straße. You can bet I got a picture of that, and
a picture of me standing there, looking all too happy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We also got a tour fo the DLR site, in which I got to see
the Exomars camera development model, stare longingly at a full size model of
the Philae lander, and admire several spectroscopy machines and the lovely rocks
the samples for those machines came from. I am told that they make their own
samples in the room attached, because the industry standard samples aren’t good
enough. He said it like that too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, after this we had lunch in a college cafeteria of
the local university. Between that and my college university, I adored the German
university’s décor ten times more, but the food choices were not particularly
varied, or great in number, so I’d have to select my university’s for food in
both variety of flavor and choices to be had. Either way, I’m rather fond of my
university’s cafeteria food, and tired of potatoes, so I don’t think this was
at all a fair assessment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh! This was not the end of my day, by far people. Not at
all. We concluded our organized activities by a thirty minute visit to
Frederick the Great’s summer palace. This was such a favorite place of this guy
that he insisted on being buried there. And as I cannot escape the Almighty
Potato in Germany, I might as well tell you. This man had baby potatoes all
over his grave. There were like 25 on his gravestone. Some had faces. One had a
tiny Prussian toothpick flag. Seriously, Germany, we gotta have a talk about
those potatoes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s good reason for the potatoes on Frederick’s grave by
the way. This man is the man who popularized potatoes in Germany. My guide
informed me that legend had it, before him, people grew potatoes for the flower
rather than the root (the thing you eat). He then went and made it all kinds of
ridiculously popular to eat them, by planting a field, and posting two men to
guard it. People assumed they must be rare and valuable, then stole them,
planted hem, and this somehow led to them eating them? The story was not clear
on that last point.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Seriously though Frederick. Potatoes? Everywhere. Good job on that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the way back, of course I saw some very excellent
graffiti and some of which was clearly commissioned graffiti, but still
graffiti none the less. Germans have their public art scene down people. Public
art is all over the place. Gorgeous. We need more of that America. Come on.
More.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We also passed by an ebay center, which was unexpected,
largely because I’ve never seen an ebay center ever before, and yet, there it
was in Germany. Then, back at the hotel I had to race, one more time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Germany is basically one giant race for me this trip guys. I
speed everywhere. This time was to the Apotheke aka the Pharmacy. The race was
because it closed at probably 6, but maybe 7, no one knew. It was, of course,
closed. So we had to go much farther to find a 24/7 pharmacy. The local pharmacies all take turns having
one night a week in which they are 24/7, so it can be tricky finding one. We
did it though, and after four days of trying to get to a place that closed only
minutes after I got back to the hotel, I finally got more aspirin for my knee.
Seriously. Four days of running out of time.
This is why I’m always racing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Afterwards, I ended up at dinner in a Biergarten, in which I
drank the Sprite and had a salad as I wasn’t too hungry, and my companions had
a Pig’s elbow. This is the translation
they provided. It was HUGE. Looked good, and I’m told was delicious. It’s still
a pig’s elbow though. Eisbein is the name of the dish, if you ever have one,
and they suggest you get it fried so the fat on it is crunchy. By the time we were done, it was time to
write my blog and go to bed. Tomorrow is
the big government building, and a tour of the big monuments, followed by ‘free
time’ in which I shall explore museums to my heart’s content.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One Final Byte: Suck the marrow out of every single day.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-38440925523962627232015-08-08T04:00:00.000-07:002015-08-08T04:00:00.759-07:00Neustrelitz and the Orangery<div class="MsoNormal">
After two days of rushing about, Sunday was rather welcome for most of the travelers. On Sunday, for the most part we relaxed, taking a break from
the frenzied sightseeing of the past two days to breathe in the German Air and
get some much needed sleep. And then came the afternoon, in which we all met up
as a group of campers once more for sightseeing in Neustrelitz. That was
interesting, led at a slightly slower pace than the other two days this
weekend.<br />
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It turns out Neustrelitz had been a pretty important place
in the Dukedom of Mecklenburg at once point, and was home to a princess at one
point in its history. It also had an Orangery.
The tour in general focused largely on the architecture of the town
which was simply amazing, and culminated at the church in the center of the
town. Still active, it’s a protestant church with a six story tower. You can
bet we climbed up that tower, from the inside.
It was steep. It was exhausting. It was worth it. The view from the top
was absolutely amazing, and very beautiful. You could see the lake in town, and
the old church on the other side. You could see the geometry of the town,
designed to have a major road in all eight directions of a compass.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It was beautiful. <o:p></o:p></div>
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High places often are. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m lucky to have seen it! We headed back down one by one,
taking the stairs down slowly. It was, after all, very steep. People wearing
sandals, or in one case heels, took them off for the route back down, and we
met in the church before going to the big event of the day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Wine Tasting at the Orangery.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This was excellent.
If you don’t know what an Orangery is don’t worry. I don’t either, and I’ve
been to one. The dictionary tells me it is a conservatory like building where
oranges are grown. I saw no oranges, but
I did see an awful lot of casts from famous statues, some multiple times. It
seems the one time owner was very fond of classical art, Greek frescoes, and
Greek statues.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You of course, likely want to hear about the actual wine we
tasted, I am sure. There were six wines total, three whites and three
reds. One white and one red was from
each country officially represented on the trip. This meant Germany, South
Africa, and the USA. Unofficially, of course, we had Germany, Italy, India,
Finland, Indonesia, and the USA. I think having two wines from each for that
though may have been a bit of overkill.
The whites were all very good, and the reds weren’t bad either, though I
always prefer white wine, I confess. None of it was from a local vineyard, of
course, but it was still very tasty, and very different than the last wine
tasting I enjoyed in Germany. The wine was beautifully paired with the food
though, and the food, whatever it was for the most part, was simply amazing. I
would eat there again, if I thought it was anywhere near my budget. We also got
the other grand piano they had there played for us by one of the campers. Wow
oh Wow! He was good, and played two songs from memory, singing along with the
second. Wow oh Wow. It was nice!<o:p></o:p></div>
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I walked through the Orangery at that point, only to be
pulled back for a group photo. After this, we were off! Off for what, you ask?
Well, it was up to you, but I went with the group that was going to check out
the tomb of the dead but much beloved princess.
It was a nice enough tomb, I think, but I have one very serious
question.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Why the devil do you put windows in a tomb! Seriously though
dudes, the people can’t see in because they are too high, and, you know, the
dead can’t exactly see out. Some things I just don’t understand.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Still, it’s all been tons of fun, and I enjoyed it all so
much. The lectures have been good, and
the projects pretty challenging. For
this camp, I totally give it an A+! I had fun.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think my only real complaint about the German side is that
if they see you searching for a word in German, they automatically switch to
English! It’s very nice of them of course, but I had hoped to use my German
more than I did here. Oh well! That just means I’ll have to return to Germany
in my travels, so I can use my German more! Or you know, any German speaking
country could be nice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One Final Byte: Travel should always inspire more travel to
happen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-65592945183642716922015-08-07T04:00:00.000-07:002015-08-07T04:00:00.912-07:00Rostock and Warnemuende<div class="MsoNormal">
Friday isn’t the only day we traveled of course! Saturday meant another trip, this time by
train! Yay trains! You all know I love train travel.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This one was a two hitter also, and like most two hitters I
just didn’t feel like I got enough time at either place. This time, it was
Rostock and Warnemünde. As a note, that ‘r’ in Warnemünde is nearly silent. It’s
very soft when you pronounce it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Back to the super awesome train though. This train was a
double decker. I kid you not. Two. Levels. Is that not the best thing ever? The
answer, by the way, is heck yes it is the best! Oh man. The only downside was
that Rostock is basically the place to be in Northern Germany on the weekend during
the summer. It was so crowded, we couldn’t all find seats together. This was a
problem because we had one ticket that covered five people at once. It was one
of those special deals that travel companies put on for groups, and there just weren’t
five seats in one area together!<o:p></o:p></div>
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I got to sit on the stairs for the first half, but one the
ticket lady saw us once, we could split up in the same car, and you bet your
bottom dollar that I went for the top as soon as I could go for the top. Of
course, I only had the second class ticket, and you know first class took up
most of the second floor of the cars. But there were some seats for us second class
ticket holders and I took full advantage of people leaving the train to hurry
up before someone else could take one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It worked out well! Second story rocks people. Nicer seats,
a better view, and heyo, nice company too! Hi Dude! Great Star Trek talk there.
Great talk.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Okay, so for the most part, the plan was to stick to the
group we traveled with, largely because only one person’s phone worked
overseas. Hello my phone company? You’re driving me away here with this just so
you know. Seriously dudes, I’m switching
soon as I find a cheaper company that’ll let me keep my number and phone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyway, our first stop was at the old watch tower, which
was, of course, dutifully admired and questioned our German Camp Leader over.
He didn’t have all the answers, but he did have the internet, which was
dutifully queried until we were satisfied. It was a glorious tower, by the way,
and the city shield, along with the shield of the Duke who basically
commissioned the entire town, was displayed. There was also a bull on the tower
but just the head, looking very fierce. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After that, it was a quick walk to the visitor center, with
a stop by one group member to get a pair of shoes she wanted. It took about an
hour of carrying around the shoe box with her old shoes in it to regret that, I
believe. At the visitor center, we picked up a map and set out, after making a
brief plan. We went straight to the
Marien Kirche (Church of St. Mary) and explored the place well, checking out
all the wonders of an old church, and one wonder most old churches don’t have.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That would be a ridiculously detailed astronomical clock
which worked from sometime in the 1400s to 2017, and told you everything from
the time, to the day of the week, to what time Easter would be that year, and
what name day is was! Jiminy Cricket, it was ridiculously detailed, and all of
it in the old German calligraphy that is so hard to read.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For lunch, we decided to have something local, and not ‘just
a snack.’ The Germans consider lunch the biggest meal, for the most part, and
portions reflect this greatly. We chose
to eat at the Gaststätte Ritter Runkel. In English, this is the restaurant,
Knight Runkel. I had a turkey salad which had no dressing, and weird, weird
toppings on my lettuce, but I wasn’t very hungry. I was too busy being amused
by the weaponry hanging up everywhere. Crossbows, pikes, awes, swords, and a
suit of armor. The take the knight theme
very seriously there, but it was definitely good food and worth every Euro.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And then we noticed the time. We had two more churches we
wanted to hit up, but only an hour left to get back to the train station. We
could do it. Barely. If we didn’t go inside the churches. We had agreed to meet
at the train station at a certain time if we got separated, and by that time,
we had lost one member of Team Us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What a race! First we hit up one church, stop, take
pictures, and then check the time. No time to take more than one or two, and we’re
off! The next church was officially on the way to the station, and we hurried
on, only to discover that one was largely under construction. Well, that’s
alright, we snapped several pictures and hurried on, making it with five
minutes to spare to meet our missing member. It looked like, however, she had
gone ahead with another group. So then we were off! To Warnemünde!<o:p></o:p></div>
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We only have a few hours in Warnemünde, and wanted to make
the best. After setting a new time to meet up, and promptly ending up split up we
were off! The idea of a boat tour on the Baltic sounded like the best idea to
me, but we had one problem. All the boats would have gotten in too late for the
time we set to meet up again. The reason? A boat the size of an entire apartment
complex would be on the move, supposedly leaving harbor, at the time of the
tour’s end, so we wouldn’t be able to land! Talk about added time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Seriously though, those cruise ships are super huge. I had
never been so close to one, and the pictures do not do them justice. It’s like
someone forced a New York skyscraper into a boat shape. We didn’t have the time
to do more than check out three light houses in this town, but that was cool!
Also somehow lighthouses are always so much smaller in person. I’m always
surprised that something so thin and short can play such a very important roll.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or course, Warnemünde had been chosen by our German Camp
Leader for a reason. Hello rock concert! We only really had the time to stick
around and see Jorvis life in person. It wasn’t a screaming field of fans sort
of concert on the beach. More like a family friendly venue thing. The music was
good though.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Better, it was all on the beach, and the weather was warm
enough to go in today! Of course, I didn’t have my swimsuit on, but I did walk
in to just below my knees, and let the surf get my pants cuffs wet. I have
stood in the water my ancestors stood in. Never mind that everyone knows
Vikings totally sailed in the Atlantic too. The Baltic is more Viking-ish, I’m
sure.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And then we had to catch the train so we could get to our
train! This was a true time crunch, as
we ended up having to go through the concert goers, promised by a group member that
this would be a short cut. We couldn’t be late, so kept moving at a fast walk,
cutting around groups with all the skill we could. We managed to get there just
barely on time, but with no time to grab food.
As a note: Going THROUGH the concert and not AROUND is never ever a
short cut, no matter what. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, by this point I was tired, but glad we weren’t
going in on the last train in. But it was now dinner time, and I was hungry.
There was a Chinese place at the station and too tired to translate anything,
and with no clue what Chinese names would be in German anyway, I ordered the cheeseburger.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s right, I had an American Cheeseburger at a Chinese
restaurant in Germany.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well. ‘American.’ The condiments were all replaced with one
single condiment of a Thousand Island sort of dressing, but chunkier? I have no
clue, but it was pretty good.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, following this, we still had one more day of
exploring to do. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One Final Byte: My feet stood in the waters of Vikings!<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-41552592808991544472015-08-06T04:00:00.000-07:002015-08-06T04:00:01.496-07:00Peenemuende and Zinnowitz<div class="MsoNormal">
Germany has been grand so far. I’ve been kept so busy as
part of the Joint Space Weather Summer Camp (simply called DLR Camp in Germany)
that I haven’t been able to sit down and write, not really. The camp in the
German side is very different than the one in the US side. The German side had
largely been focused on applications, where the American side focused heavily
on the science. There’s also the daily set up.
Rather than the three lectures daily in the US, we have a discussion and
two lectures. We always discuss the
lectures the day after, and have a sort of ‘homework’ to do every night. It’s normally just think over and discuss a
few questions, so it’s not like it’s too hard to do, for the most part. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Still, it’s a lot of fun! The projects here are
significantly more challenging than the US projects though, partly because
there’s less time to work on the projects themselves. You effectively have about 12-13 hours of
work time, and the projects tend to take the entire time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course it hasn’t been all work! <o:p></o:p></div>
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We spent the weekend traveling to do things!<o:p></o:p></div>
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On Friday, we went to Peenemünde. We were there for the
historical museum that focused on WWII weapons development and rocketry. The museum itself was super interesting. Of course, all the signs and everything were
in German, and my German skills weren’t enough to get more than a gist of what
they said, but even just the images and displays were interesting, and they did
have English language flyers for most of the room, and the English audio tour.
If you’ve never been on an audio tour by the way, you get to wear something the
size of an old cassette player around your neck and listen to someone with a
lovely British accent tell you want is going on for much longer than it takes
just one person to move through just about any room, no matter how interesting.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The museum was great though, very old factory style, given that
it’s in an old decommissioned power plant.
I got to go up to the roof and look out over everything, and see in the
distance a U-boat also from WWII. We also got to do a neat tour in which we had
to sign some paperwork absolving the museum of the responsibility of us
stepping on a landmine. Nobody stepped on a landmine though, so there were no
problems. It’s still a bit intimidating though, to have to sign for that!<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think I liked that tour more. The old town built there during WWII to house
a concentration camp, scientists, and engineers has almost all been destroyed,
but there’s still barracks you can see in the distance, and a house standing, along
with a shelter from the concentration camp.
The big things though were the deep trenches in the ground and the
concrete pathways everywhere. There was even a ten meter high (approximately 33
ft) hill that had been built to protect the rockets they were testing there
from crosswinds, and the people from the rocket fire! We ending up walking over
to exactly where they had tested rockets, where they have a sort of memorial
stone standing up to commemorate it, and an old fire hydrant thing which everyone
promptly begin to play with.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What can I say? It felt like interactive history. We even took a few photos of using clearly working
hard to fight a fire.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On our way back to where we are staying, we stopped at a
little beach resort town called Zinnowitz on the Baltic to go out on the pier. At
the end of the pier was the weirdest little house. It was a pretty teal, with
petals of metal on top, and it was off the side of the pier. Well, you know me, I was curious, so I simply
had to poke around and go in. It involved on entrance fee, but to shush my
curiosity of the funny little building, I will, of course, cheerfully pay the
very small fee. And it turned out to be one hundred percent worth it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I went under water without getting to much as a toe wet. I
kid you not. The entire building goes under, and you watch a movie about
conservation and species diversity and trash in the ocean being bad, then you
go up again. I think the only down side is you had to stay seated the entire
time, though let me tell you, even with us sitting still, it was simply
amazing. Given it was too cold to go swimming, even for the locals, it was
definitely a turnaround for the trip to the Baltic. Of course, at the end, we
had just enough time to grab dinner and then go to the bus at a nice trot.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It was a good day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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One Final Byte: History has two sides: both Winners and
Losers.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-25314717347881552422015-07-30T03:56:00.000-07:002015-07-30T03:56:15.303-07:00Travel is fun!<div class="MsoNormal">
I am in Germany! But first, I need to tell you about the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We went to Oak Ridge and Chattanooga last weekend
for what was basically the last hurrah, and our first stop was the Oak Ridge
National Lab in…Oak Ridge, Tennessee! I had a ton of fun there. It was a
combination of engineering and science in the tour we took, and we got to take
home our guest badges. The first thing we got to see was a room full of super
computers. Obviously, we couldn’t go inside, but it was still exciting to see
Titan, Gaia, and Eos, and just the sheer number of racks for data storage. Then we headed above the super computer lab
to see a demonstration of an analysis that took six months to compute on Titan.
Six months. Can you imagine waiting that long for your computer to do anything?
This just astounds me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The presentation was that of a supernova explosions, and a
simulation of one that was, believe it or not, accidental and didn’t follow the
theory at all. A while later they found an image using Hubble, I believe, of
the exact scenario playing out in space, and it fit the model perfectly. It was pretty exciting stuff.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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After that we had lunch, a presentation on ‘look climate
change is real,’ and then a tour of a huge facility in which they smash super
small particles in order to see what results, in essence, among quite a few
other things. Unfortunately, it was super noisy and our tour guide was on the
quiet side, so it was difficult to really get into all the hardware that was
being shown to us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next day, we went to the Aquarium in Chattanooga, of
which I can’t recall the name of in any way shape or form, but I did enjoy
greatly. There were so many fish and they were all so beautiful, and they had
several turtles and sharks, and a whole room full of sea horses and another
full of jellyfish! It was a lot of fun, and I took way too many pictures. I
even got to pet a shark. I mean, seriously, have you ever pet a shark? It’s so
weird, but so fun.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course, you guys aren’t too interested in Chattanooga or
an Aquarium. You want to know about Germany. Well, to be frank, there’s not a
lot to say, as I only just got here Wednesday night!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will tell you that flying above the clouds remains for me
that best boost for any sort of creativity at all. And I really just feel
refreshed to be in the air and traveling again! I think I must have just been
homesick for travel lately! Well, I always have had wandering feet, it seems. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The flight was excellent and one hundred percent eventful. I
do wish that was a typo, but it isn’t. While the flight from my home airport to
Atlanta was as smooth as could be when you’re in a group of 23 people, our next
flight, a hop across the Atlantic over to Amsterdam, was one very special
moment after another.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To begin, our flight was delayed four hours. This, as you
imagine, effected our flight down to Berlin from Amsterdam to the point that
was split into two groups of people simply because fitting 23 people on a
single flight is near impossible. We did get upgraded to business class though,
at least in my group, so no real hard feelings there. However, once everyone was aboard the plane,
the discovery was made that the door did not close. That is right, the plane door would not
close.<o:p></o:p></div>
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No biggie, a flight attendant found the missing pin (so said
the Captain) and the door was fixed. The engines revved, we rolled our eyes in
exasperation and thanked God we were on our way, when suddenly, all is turned
off again once more! An announcement comes over the intercom. “We are going to have
to wait at the gate awhile longer everyone.” And then, we get told why. I couldn’t tell whether the number was 17 or
70 but either way a number of guests canceled when they found out how long the
flight was going to be delayed, and we found ourselves with their luggage still
in the hold as everyone’s luggage made it to the plane right on time! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh my Goodness. Oh. My. Goodness. The frustration was palpable in the air.
Forty-five minutes after our already delayed time, we finally began to taxi
away from the gate. I think up until the wheels were in the air and folded up,
everyone was still expecting yet another delay.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So we all made to Amsterdam…and not we got to split into two
parties. Two. This was a bit of chaos figuring out who the airline had assigned
to which party as one of two people seemed to be a bit arbitrary choice wise,
but we did that and things ran pretty smooth after that point. The first party
just waited for the second at the airport in Berlin, and once everyone was
together we traveled onwards to our final destination here, the DLR Summer
Camp, as all our paperwork seems to say so far.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh to fly once more! I got a window seat in business class
for the very last leg of the journey and let me tell you, it was fantastic. The
flight was smooth, the clouds were beautiful, and my mind soared as high as the
plane as least with ideas for writing, for paintings, for drawing! I do love to
travel, especially to fly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course, that wasn’t the end of it. I’m bunking with a
total stranger at basically a town house/guest house in Germany right now, and
she’s pretty awesome. We had two more added to our camp here, from South Africa
and they are super awesome. I’m excited to be here.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I can’t wait to tell you all more. I think the most exciting
sight on the trip from Berlin to where we’re staying was the solar farm that
must have been at least one football field wide, and five football fields long,
if not six. I’ve never seen one so big! The most disappointing was the
graffiti. Berlin, I expected better of you than a few measly signatures!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: I am on the road again in air!<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-28112808628564662422015-07-23T20:04:00.003-07:002015-07-23T20:04:47.326-07:00A full week of Nerd Camp<div class="MsoNormal">
Ah, that familiar hotel smell. It smells the same in basically
every hotel in the US. I’m not so sure internationally, but it is the smell of
travel to me here. I’m on the road again!<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again? Really? Yes. Really. But only for the weekend. The Joint Space Weather Summer Camp, of which
I am an attendee, has a weekend trip to a Lab and an aquarium. Three cities,
three days and tons of fun. The third
city, by the way, is a ‘choose your own adventure’ sort of city, by the looks
of the group schedule.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So, I promised more about the camp las time, and, having
received the appropriate permissions, I shall cheerfully chatter away.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am a part of the Joint Space Weather Summer Camp, a
combined educational camp hosted by <a href="http://www.uah.edu/cspar">CSPAR</a>, <a href="http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10002/">DLR</a>,
and <a href="http://www.uah.edu/">UAH</a> for undergraduate and
graduate science and engineering majors interested in studying the very super
interesting phenomena of Space Weather. And yes, there is weather in space, and
for our local weather you can blame the sun. I should note, that’s both on and
off the earth! On the Earth, of course, the sun drives the wind, which drives
all sorts of other weather. In space, the sun drives a solar wind, which is
produced thanks to magnetic fields on the sun, and how they move through space.
It’s not just our sun doing it, but every star, and there’s even an intergalactic
medium which is not produced by any one star, so far as I can tell, and which
our solar winds might not pierce. As a
student of all this, I don’t really know the answers!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But I am having a lot of fun learning. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The speakers so far have been great. The majority of the
lectures are aimed to an audience between a third year physics major and a
lower graduate level. You definitely need to have, at a minimum, made it
through the Electricity and Magnetism level of your 100 level physics course to
have a good understand. From the sounds of the lectures so far, that magnetic
field is perhaps the most important thing.
A basic understand of quantum, usually a third semester of physics
course, is advised I think, though some of what you need to know, you likely already
do from chemistry courses and the like.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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If you are past a beginning or early graduate student
though, you may be too advanced for the lectures, especially if your focus is
Space Weather! Of course, there’s more than just wind, out there among the stars,
and some of that more can affect people on Earth. Take <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859">the Carrington Event of 1859</a>. I know what you’re thinking. What in space could affect
Earth in 1859? We hadn’t even been there yet! But we did have electricity, and
telegraphs. The Carrington Event was a huge coronal mass ejection that stuck
the earth. It cause telegraph systems all over Europe and North America to
fail, and sometimes shock the operators! Telegraph machines not connected to a
power supply could, in places, still send and receive messages. All because of
a coronal mass ejection. One thought to
be just as big missed the Earth in 2012. I don’t want to know about the margin
it missed us by.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Given our reliance on electricity today, if it had hit us,
we’d be upset. There goes the TV, computer, cell phone, fridge, microwave, and
a host of other electronics. Research into space weather helps predict space weather,
so we know if we have to turn every thing off in preparation for the next
Carrington class Solar Superstorm.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This isn’t even the scariest thing in space weather. More
powerful by far is a gamma ray burst. If
one hit the earth, well, my money is on the gamma ray burst, not the human race
or any other life on this planet. Luckily, because of how Gamma Ray Bursts move
through space, a direct hit fairly ‘close’ in astronomical terms’ would be
super dangerous, but also so minimal it’s not really worth a panic. Some concern is prudent, yeah, just like
concern is prudent on a trip to the beach.
It’s probably not likely your car battery will die while you’re there,
and a gamma ray burst hitting will happen even less than that ever will for
you, but you should probably have cables with you, just in case. We should
probably understand gamma ray bursts, just in case.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m having a lot of fun here. I think one of the best parts
isn’t the lessons themselves, those they rock my socks. It’s getting to meet
people who have never been to the US before. We went to Walmart to get
groceries and a few things accidentally left behind, and wow. The reaction to ‘an
American Supermarket’ was pretty cool. We went through the bakery, and one of
our German students stopped, to admire the cakes, and how one had a camo
pattern, and another was made of cupcakes. Our bread was examined and
determined to be deficient in comparison, and the sight of the snack aisle, the
candy aisle, and the soda aisle caused such wide eyes it was exciting to watch.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Last weekend, we visited Cathedral Caverns in Grant, AL.
That was super exciting, and absolutely worth the trip. Our tour guide was
super duper awesome. He was an older guy, a newer tour guide, and so
enthusiastic about the caverns that you couldn’t help, but be happy to be
there. Apparently, it holds a lot of world records, including biggest cave entrance. Everyone enjoyed the ‘spelunking’ that was
more guided tour on a concrete path that spelunking at all. It was a gorgeous
place, and some of the formations there were mind blowingly beautiful, especially
the cathedral cavern the cave system is named after. Everyone was really impressed, and apparently
caves like that just aren’t found in Germany. Or if they are, our Germans hadn’t
been there!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We had a small pool party the next day too, and having a
game of keep away in a pool with water over your head is fun and challenging,
especially when you have about fifteen people there all playing. We varied from
one in the middle to five at one point, and knowing who was in the middle was
half the challenge. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We’re on the next adventurous part on the American side of
things now, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! The research I got to participate
in as part of the camp was super fun. I think the main complaints from the ‘campers’
were how little time we got to do the experiments and then having to actually
present at the end. That was a challenge of a different sort, but still not
that bad. Nothing like nineteen college students all working until pretty late
on a Summer Camp project though! Dedication, thy name is Scientist.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m getting a bit long now, so I’ll hush now, but next week
I’ll have another, no doubt, super long post for you. After all, next week is
another fun trip, and I have to tell you about this weekend!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: Other’s joy for things you like is infectious.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-12242611217603258472015-07-15T20:27:00.003-07:002015-07-15T20:27:35.760-07:00Unexpected Adventures on the way to Adventure<div class="MsoNormal">
Well. When I told my family that I missed adventures, I did
not mean that I wanted one of the sort I have had. Nevertheless, I have had it!
And to think, all I wanted to do was to go to my nerd camp. By the way, Nerd
Camp: College Edition is a lot different than Nerd Camp: Middle School Edition.
You’ll hear a lot about that. For now, I just have to say, that unexpected
adventures are definitely not my favorite.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I was on my way to Nerd Camp, cheerfully driving, having
just pulled off to have a short break, as I was tired. It wasn’t a long drive, but poor sleep the
night before meant that focus was not my buddy. As I gained entry to the
interstate from my exit, I felt the oddest sensation…deceleration. I pressed harder on the gas, as, well, there
was a hill and my car and hills don’t always get along. This did nothing. Worried, and with a block of cars gaining on
me, I pulled over to the side and hit my emergency lights at the same time,
just making it off before cars going 80 passed me at my very measly 35 and
slowing. I proceeded to shake in place and panic quietly to myself for a few
minutes before I began to attempt phone calls, first trying to call people I
knew lived within an hour’s drive. It was no good. No one picked up.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Uncertain, scared, and not really knowing where I was to
find a tow truck to call, I turned to every girl’s most trusted fixer of
disasters. Daddy. After giving his thoughts, and telling me a few tests to try
to see what was up, he bade me ‘Call the state police.’ And gave me their
number. The state police dispatcher was a very wonderful woman. ‘I can’t locate
you like that. Call 911.’ ‘Are you sure?
Am I allowed?’ I asked very uncertain, because my car breaking down in an
unknown location in who knows where Tennessee is clearly not an emergency in my
mind. ‘Yes. They’ll send help.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I called 911. It was my first 911 call ever. I liked the
dispatcher immediately. She took what I
knew of my location down, found out exactly where I was (middle of nowhere,
Tennessee, just past an exit I knew the number of), and sent aid.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It was, no doubt, appropriately prioritized, because let’s
face it, a stranded college student is a full grown adult who can safely wait
in a car for an hour. It was a scary
hour. Also, that sensation you get when a police officer pulls up behind you is
the same even if they are there to help. The ‘Am I in trouble, what do I do, oh
wait he’s here to help.’ Except that last part. That’s not what happens when
you get a ticket, I assume. I’m not sure. Someone describe the feelings when a
police officer pulls you over for me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Officer Hill, I’m about 80% sure, had picture perfect
handwriting. I would not mind transcribing his work to a database. It would be
lovely, in its clarity. This is,
naturally, what I focused on. We spoke.
He explained the options. I could have a local tow truck, or one from
Huntsville. They could tow me home, or to a mechanic. I chose a local, because
I trusted to state trooper to choose a reputable person. Or at least his
dispatcher. And let’s face it, I don’t know who to call for a tow in
Huntsville. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The officer then remained with me until the tow driver
arrived. The tow driver was nice and helpful. The officer was nice and
helpful. The fish panicked as he was
hauled at an angle onto the truck bed, and managed to tear his fin in his
panic. Everyone else was okay, and at this point, calls among my family were occurring
determining what went where and when. Also, was I safe, where was I, and what
was happening. I was 47 miles from the college. That was all I knew, but I was
pretty sure I was safe, because the tow driver from Libby’s was a nice man who
told me about his family. I mention their name, because should you get stranded
in Tennessee, there’s a very nice tow driver whose wife is retired army. He’s
good folk, and you should pass on info about good folk, especially when someone
else may end up stranded in lower Tennessee 22 miles from the border and very frightened.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not that I remained scared for long. I spent about thirty
minutes shaking in a car that cheerfully shook with every passing semi-truck,
then fifteen minutes assuring my fish he would be okay. After this, I was fine.
This was just another Kelly Adventure. I am very good at adventures, especially
scary ones. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Either way, the tow driver dropped me, my car, and Ivar the
Boneless (Betta Fish Extraordinaire) off at the school, where my dad promptly
reminded me that no, I could not leave the fish in the very hot car. This, once the tow man took himself away, was
a tricky proposition. And so, I went forth, to the halls of learning….a flower
vase/emergency fish bowl in hand, his heater in my pocket.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Ivar currently holds a place of honor in the Physics Success
Center. I have received permission to leave him there overnight. He shall be taken into the dorm tomorrow, or
else go to the fish sitter I was unable to get him too. Probably the dorm,
until the Nerd Camp goes to our next destination!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, did I forget?
Nerd Camp: College Edition comes with this great expansion pack called ‘Trip
Overseas.’ It’s not including in every Nerd Camp, but it is in the one I’m at.
As for more information on my lovely Nerd Camp, I think I should probably check
with someone to see if I’m allowed to mention anything. I doubt they’ll say no, but they may decide
that the level of awesome is just not for the entire Internet to see.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: Never miss your Adventures. They will find
you.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-46524238609003932372015-05-13T16:47:00.000-07:002015-05-13T16:47:15.379-07:00A Return to Adventure<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today, I helped to tame a forest. Well, that may be a bit of
an exaggeration. But it felt like I was
taming a forest. Instead it was ten years of growth for a dogwood shrub. As a note, a dogwood shrub does not look much
like a shrub after ten years. It looks like a series of very young trees. The fact that they look like very young trees
and not trees that are at least ten is likely why it is a type of shrub. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c6/23/6e/c6236ed9fa472f6bc1bc4445c592d93d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c6/23/6e/c6236ed9fa472f6bc1bc4445c592d93d.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To give you an idea of the difference, well. The internet
tells me that this is what a dogwood bush is supposed to look like. It looks like the right variety at least, so
I’ll go with that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tm4lFWBdV28/VVO8n5Pfo1I/AAAAAAAAGps/mTvlaNCsOw4/w984-h553-no/IMG_20150513_160441446.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tm4lFWBdV28/VVO8n5Pfo1I/AAAAAAAAGps/mTvlaNCsOw4/w984-h553-no/IMG_20150513_160441446.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Alas. This is halfway
through hacking my way to the wall of the house. If you will note, there is a large
difference, and not just in the fact that the dogwood shrubs here are not yet
flowering. They do have buds
though. Also, if you look very closely,
you may or may not see the bush that had been planted there before the dogwoods
attacked. It’s just right of the middle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As for an update for what I’ve been doing since I last
updated, well…first let me see when I last updated! I’m sure I have loads of
stories. I apologize for not updating of
course, but it turns out college is a lot of work. It’s at last one and a half jobs worth of
work and a good three jobs worth of stress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I appear, it seems, to have </span>accidentally<span style="font-family: inherit;"> gone nearly a year
without a post. If I am ever short of stories, I shall attempt to recall some
adventure that happened this past year to tell you! I can tell you that I have
had some adventures, though the past year has not led itself to the near
constant adventure that was, in fact, living in Germany!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was however, college for a year. For the most part, it
has been tame, though not without its troubles. My mother’s mom, my
grandmother, passed this year after a fight with cancer. Unfortunately, she lost,
but given her age, it was almost to be expected. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There had been high points as well, including the gain of a
pet! He’s terribly sickly though, so it’s been a small adventure to nurse him
to health. You see, I can’t just give <a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-GvYjKuqM8IA/VLw7Bf4iiNI/AAAAAAAAFPc/3E2F13u7m5o/w984-h553-no/IMG_20150118_170258461.jpg">Ivar the Boneless</a> a pill. He happens to
be a fish you see, one who has had fin rot since I bought him. Fin rot, it
turns out, is tricky to treat entirely because it may not be fin rot, but
something else, so you basically try a series of medicine and see what works
best. Or at least, that’s how I ended up
doing it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It could just be that I really should have asked a more
experience owner because my diagnostic methods sound like something from an
episode of House. As I am ridiculously
proud of my very playful and friendly fish, you may all now gaze upon his
wonder. Seriously, this fish plays with
lasers. You get to see him in an older picture before the fin rot was too bad,
because I won’t be embarrassing my fish that way. He is very sensitive and it’s a little
disturbing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GvYjKuqM8IA/VLw7Bf4iiNI/AAAAAAAAFPc/3E2F13u7m5o/w984-h553-no/IMG_20150118_170258461.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GvYjKuqM8IA/VLw7Bf4iiNI/AAAAAAAAFPc/3E2F13u7m5o/w984-h553-no/IMG_20150118_170258461.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you look closely you can see that he has the beginning
stages off in rot in this picture. That clearish bit on his tail is fin
rot. This is a fact I did not know at
the time, but I do now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, I can sense you are very curious now as to why I
was trimming bushes in a house when I am a college student thus do not, in
fact, have a house. This is because I am spending the first half of my summer
helping out my Dear settle into a house on his grandparents property that has
not been occupied in around ten years.
Ten years is a very long time for a house to not be occupied, you see,
and it results in things like, say, dogwood bushes attempting to create their
own forest. If you are wondering who my
Dear is, well, I mentioned him in <a href="http://onegirlsbyte.blogspot.com/2012/04/week-fifty-my-adventure-in-rome-part_20.html">an earlier blog</a>…and I can tell you the rest later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Half a summer is, perhaps, a bit too long to get this place
up to snuff, given the sheer amount of work put into it before I came, but it
means I’ll also have time to relax and unwind some from my college courses.
This is just what the doctor didn’t order, but strongly recommended because ‘I
can’t make you do anything.’ Or rather, she insisted I take a vacation sometime
soon, but this is practically a vacation given that I am not currently
studying. I’m giving myself a good two
weeks off of studying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As for the second half of my summer, well, I never could
resist a good adventure, and an adventure in the form of a scholarship opened
itself up very widely for me, so I took the leap! The second half of summer, I
will be a part of the Joint Space Weather Summer Camp. Being as how you don’t
know what that is, unless you do of course, I shall endeavor to explain! Or
rather, I shall copy-paste their description because that’s plenty good enough,
don’t you think?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 17.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 9.4pt;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"> The Joint Space Weather Summer Camp (JSWSC) is an
opportunity to learn about space physics in the context of meeting a very
practical need -- to understand the influence of the Sun on the space and upper
atmosphere of the Earth and its related impact on the technological systems and
needs of modern society. This is a new, exciting, and emerging discipline
called Space Weather, that has </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">attracted
the attention of the White House and senior leaders in government because of t</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">he importance of ensuring that our technological
investments are properly protected against severe Space Weather.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;">About twenty students from UAH and from a variety of
universities and research centers across Germany participate in a multiple week
series of lectures, hands-on projects and experiments and excursions as they
learn both the theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of Space
Weather and solar and space physics.</span></span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It boils down to a scholarship for a single, specific,
course and a trip to Germany for two weeks!
Hurrah! I will return to Germany! But only for two weeks, and much of
the day I will be in class, as far as my understanding goes. That doesn’t mean adventures will not occur. I am one with adventure. Adventures are one
with me! Besides, if you look at it just
so, anything is an adventure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You all get told more next week!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One Final Byte: Adventures are more viewpoint than series of
events.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-92194785316466197432014-07-19T08:54:00.000-07:002014-07-19T08:54:46.611-07:00An Unexpected (Rather Tame) Adventure<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On Friday, I
discovered that I was going on an adventure.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It was not meant to be an adventure, but halfway through it turned into
one.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It was just supposed to be a visit
to see my maternal Grandma, an extended family in Texas. Alas, this was not to
be.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My quest was cut very short by a
force we have yet to be able to do diddly squat about.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That is to
say: My flight got canceled due to a thunderstorm. It was not a small flight
either, being six seats across and completely full. By the time I got to customer service, I had
been in line waiting an hour. It took a
further hour and a half to get the ticket back to my home place, having
discovered the next flight available…was still in danger of thunderstorms, and
completely full besides. That is to say,
according to Mr. Meterologist, my one true chance was not this weekend at all,
thank you very much, as thunderstorms and lightening were predicted for Dallas
the entire time. Ergo, to preserve my sanity…I came back home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You see, I
didn’t have a direct flight. I had one of the lovely flights were you go in the
complete opposite direction before you head the right way. This, being a rule of travel, is not so
surprising. What was surprising was
suddenly finding myself in Charlotte, North Carolina unable to contact my
family to let them know, not sure what the right choice was, and with, get
this, an ankle that is most certainly still sprained and it most certainly did
not like going through the airport twice, thank you very much.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By the time
I got to the gate my flight back home would go through, my ankle was roughly
the size of a particularly fluffy cat’s head. Also, it hurt. I was about 50 % sure I undid all the healing
I had done, but only 50%. Being as this
is now Saturday, I can assure you that my ankle was just being a bit of a
whiner, and it’s back to its mildly swollen, healing state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I do not
advise my form of health care, by the by. It leads to a startling number of
adventures and an awful lot of sighing from your friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To give you
all a run-down of the excitement, I must tell you I arrived at my local airport
at rather very early, also known as 8:06. Armed with my firefly shirt (for the
purpose of finding fellow nerds along the route), a backpack for the weekend,
and my purse, I felt well prepared for travel.
Given I was two hours early, I was, in fact, a bit too early for an
airport the size of my home airport. From there, everything went smoothly. We took off a little late, but apparently
were waiting for a member of the crew, and we more than made up the time in the
air, arriving twenty minutes early.
Given that I had to go from terminal E to B, I didn’t look at the
departures board, and instead rushed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Clocking
easily three times my usual speed, I near jogged to the other side of the
airport, as They Have No Tram. Really,
Charlotte. You are much too big to not
have a tram from A to E, at the least.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This, I
should note, was my first mistake, if you don’t count booking when there’s bad
weather. Had I seen that, I would have seen my flight was mysteriously delayed
by thirty minutes. Hmm…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Seeing this,
I despaired half a moment before trying to call my Grandma. Given I don’t have a cell number for her (and
suspect she has none) I tried her house phone.
This did not work. Well, maybe she was on the way. It would only be a
little late, and easily make up thirty minutes in the air. Everything would be
fine. It was bothersome, but that’s all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Right as the
flight should have left, we received the announcement. The flight would be
canceled due to lightening. The TSA could not approve it under the
conditions. One of the other passengers
confided she was from a nine am flight that had suffered the same. I checked the weather and said a foul
word. It was necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And then
began the mad chase. We went to customer service. This was not correct. We went
to the East Check In desk, booking it as fast as I could limp. My ankle was mad,
but I, while complaining to myself in the manner of writers everywhere (out loud,
and to myself) was mostly calm. And then
I checked Dallas’s weather again. The
long wait for service and the weather reports I had at hand made up my
mind. I could not go, not this weekend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Given how rarely
I see her, this is the disappointment of the year, thus far, that I care to
remember. Were their greater, I do not recognize them. Still, all would be well, I decided as I
waited about an hour after getting to the desk for the ticket back to my home airport.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After all, I
am good at adventuring. It’s become nearly a specialty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the way
to the opposite side of the airport once more, and really, wondering if I
should flag a look you’re disabled cart down, I met a lovely New Yorker as my
stomach growled, demanding sustenance. I
have adventures. Sustenance is needed for adventures. And so, I had a
cheeseburger, and we talked and walked to her gate, as mine, of course, is the
very last possible gate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Arriving, I
sat down to chronicle my adventure and right as I expected to begin boarding and
had begun to put my things up, I receive, the news. That is to say there was an announcement of a
twenty minute delay due to something that I do not even know but sounded like
Lal. What Data’s daughter is doing delaying
flights in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, I do not know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have
decided I don’t want to know. At this point, I sighed, and decided such was
fate, then promptly wondered if I’d make it home today at all, or if I should
find a particularly cushy spot of airport floor to sleep on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However! The
good news is that I have successfully made it back, thus ending my
adventure. It was quite the
excitement. I enjoyed it thoroughly,
even if it did sadly cut short a trip I had been looking forward to happening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One Final
Byte: Adventures have their place, but not at airports.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-22874743959554540142014-03-19T19:06:00.000-07:002014-03-19T19:06:53.567-07:00Justice Corrections Corporation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/kpel965.com/files/2013/03/handcuffs-on-black-closed-photo-by-Ken-Romero-630x352.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/kpel965.com/files/2013/03/handcuffs-on-black-closed-photo-by-Ken-Romero-630x352.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The lights that hung two stories above did little to
light the grey concrete hallway as a man in a suit led a group of five other
men all in grey suits as he was, down the hallway, gesturing occasionally to
one of the pods on either side, each filled with a single body, a screen on the
door of the pod reading the vitals of the person held in stasis inside.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I assure you all, despite the protesters this
remains the most humane way of dealing with violent criminals on the planet.” His voice was smooth as warm chocolate, his
eyes lit from behind with greed. A
security guard passed by on the walkway that served as the floor above. Up there, the pods were a part of the wall
itself, each one sunk partially into the concrete the building was made of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I’m certain, but I also noticed they seem to be
released earlier than their sentences would suggest. That isn’t comforting to the voting public,
Mr. Reynolds.” One of the group spoke,
and the other murmured agreement. The
views of the voting public were especially important around election time, and
there was one around the corner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh, don’t worry Senator. These men and women serve their sentences like
all others, just in a different manner, a more humane one.” Mr. Reynolds assured the politicians. “We believe that our facilities offer a
better chance at rehabilitation. Our
rate of return is significantly lower than that of other prison systems after
all.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course, they often returned to the world with a
complete lack of knowledge of what had happened while they were serving their
sentences, and the culture shock made finding jobs, among other things, even
more difficult, but they never were returned for violent crimes. So long as
that was true, who cared about the fate of a criminal?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I will give you that Mr. Reynolds. Your former prisoners are not eager to
return.” The Senator paused by one of
the pods and peered inside. Behind the
lightly fogged glass lay a woman, looking for the entire world like she merely
slept, at peace. “Who is this one?”<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Ah, this is our most infamous tenant, serving four
life sentences. No need to worry
however. The intravenous drip that our
prisoners receive their nutrients from keeps them in the cryogenic state, so
long as their body temperatures remain below a certain level.” He assured the politicians. “It even slows
their aging so that they don’t lose out on too much of their life while serving
their sentences.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mr. Reynolds opened the door without fear, and
leaned the dark haired woman inside forward.
Her short cropped hair did nothing to hide the diodes that ran down her
dark skin along her spine. “It’s easy
enough to move the prisoners and keep them in shape enough that they are able
to walk and move after their internment, though even with her age slowing, Ms.
Adams will be not have too much time let by the time she has finished her
sentence.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He laid her back, hiding the diodes once more and
closing the door. “I’m sure you noticed
the drip going into her wrist. Ms. Adams
is well and truly held here.” He
said. “And will serve four lifetimes,
as she was sentenced, all in the computer generated world where all of our
inmates serve their times. As you men
know, they begin life again from birth.
We at Justice Corrections Corp believe that this allows them better to
rehabilitate themselves, by truly giving them a second chance.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Senator nodded at that. “Then is seems all is in order. I believe it won’t be hard to convince the
others to award the contract to JCC.
After all, this is a rather human facility.” He said and walked on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the pod, Ms. Adams eyes fluttered briefly before
closing once more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Excellent.
Given the boom in populations, prison facilities like this are truly the
best choice. We can fit more prisoners
per square foot, with less resources, than any other.” The man boasted, pleased. “Across the 12 worlds, Justice Corrections
houses almost 7.2 billion criminals. An
extra facility is sure to help, given how quickly the population grows.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Of course.
Isn’t the program becoming rather crowded?” The Senator asked, and Mr. Reynolds smiled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh yes, but no worries. We’ll be branching out. In the computer
world, the prisoners will have a breakthrough in space travel. Though it will be just enough for them to
colonize a second planet, and a second prison.
It will be called Mars.” They had
already named it, some of the prisoners from many decades ago, after all. The planets and stars had only been designed
so the prisoners would not panic over it.
Anything too unrealistic and they may break free somehow.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The programmers were already designing the new
prison system, and the details that would be found there.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The contract of course, was Justice
Corrections. It just took enough donations to enough senators, after all.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-6040968456276136472014-02-12T14:02:00.002-08:002014-02-12T14:02:47.088-08:00In Case Of Cell Phone, Break Glass:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqLDIlXIMNMWzhYvD2dWJDmGO8akuXlRMHOxw3IVSCQz6LWmItU-QSzZJGD1QVvOie463Ih-d0zx3o2RSLBssjW986Iq1L7PD4qotk20vILz7GIpT1b9TZEHJFIJNXkCXlSreh8JH5yomI/s1600/IMG_20140212_155302944.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqLDIlXIMNMWzhYvD2dWJDmGO8akuXlRMHOxw3IVSCQz6LWmItU-QSzZJGD1QVvOie463Ih-d0zx3o2RSLBssjW986Iq1L7PD4qotk20vILz7GIpT1b9TZEHJFIJNXkCXlSreh8JH5yomI/s1600/IMG_20140212_155302944.jpg" height="320" width="179" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Okay folks, I’m tired. I am sick and tired. I am so sick and tired, I am going to blog about it. Also known as let’s have a talk, about your cell phone and you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Allow me to demonstrate. This is a typical, I repeat, typical, complaint between several a different friends of mine and me. On average, I hear this complaint at least once week.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Friend: My boyfriend/girlfriend/fiancé/husband/wife is always on the phone. I can’t believe it. Worse, s/he is too busy on the phone to talk/flirt/mate like a wild animal with me!</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">This is very much what I hear, all the time. Allow me to tell you a series of solutions:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Make a Rule about cell phone use when together.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Healthy relationships have rules, spoken and unspoken. We have unspoken ones like ‘do not say I look like an elephant, even if I do.’ Then we have spoken ones like ‘no you may not poke my friend’s with a stick when they bother you.’ And yes, that is a spoken rule in my relationship. Apparently, poking people is not encouraged.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Either way, rules make people happy, and will make your relationship happier. If the cell phone use is bothering you so much, then it’s time to discuss rules with your special somebody. Just be aware. Everyone gets on everyone else’s nerves in some way especially with prolonged contact. They will have rules for you too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When on a date, don’t take your phone with you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Oh no! The reader gasps in horror at the very idea of not having their cell phone with them. What about in case of emergency!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Allow me to now stare at you in sheer horror. Unless you have dates that occur deep in the woods, or the desert, or the jungle, or the middle of the ocean, or some other suitably remote place, then you should probably be in public, and let me tell you about public. There are phones in every single business out there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">They are call landlines, and operate via wires. I know this comes as a shocker, but they exist. And if you can’t find a semi-mythical landline, then just find the nearest teenager or other adult. You really should have certain numbers memorized, like your parents, your significant others, your own, 911. Please tell me you have the last memorized. That one’s the important one. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Ah, but I see you aren’t so convinced. Still need your phone on you? Face down in the table, all stacked on top, everybody’s. Then you don’t have it half so easy to fiddle with do you? Everyone will be watching you in disappointment if you give in to the urge. And if that doesn’t work, leave the gorram phone in the gorram glove compartment. Or, if you must…</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Only take a single phone out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">This works on the guilt principle. As in, ‘they don’t have one, so I shouldn’t use mine.’ Just make certain the one the feels guilty easier has the cell phone.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">4.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But what is someone needs to get a hold of me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Allow me to tell you something super awesome amazing. It. Can. Wait. When out on a date with the significant other, it can wait. When out with friends, it can wait. When out with family, it can wait. In other words, when out in any capacity that renders you in a busy status: It. Can. Wait. Even bad news waits, dudes. Even horrible news can wait. It isn’t good for you to be in always constant contact anyway. It can wait. They can wait until you are available. If all else fails, you get a rousing game of phone tag out of it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">5.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But what if plans change, or someone is late, or something happens that I need to know about right now!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Eh. You can’t handle a change of plans, or someone arriving late, or something happening? Dudes, if it’s serious, someone will find you. If not, just chill, relax, and have fun in the meantime. I promise, except in extenuating circumstances, which you would hear about from those around you in public, you can have fun on your own for all of the fifteen minutes that you should have to wait before you can say adios to them and have fun on your own. If you are very patient, you can make it all the way to thirty. If there is a traffic jam, and they are stuck, then find out how back the traffic jam is, then find a good book store. In other words: Just chill. They’ll come find you to let you know, or just be running late. It’s not that big of a deal. Very rarely, do you absolutely have to know right that very second.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">One Final Byte: Dude, it’s just a phone. So Chill out.</span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-3673409930906735482014-01-02T13:20:00.001-08:002014-01-02T13:26:28.557-08:00Injustices<div class="MsoNormal">
So this year, I think I'm going to try something a bit different than last time I did a year of blogs. I think I'm going to try and post either a short scene/story or a poem every Thursday all year long, starting today. I haven't been writing half as often as I should like to, after all, and I think this will get me back into writing once more, and it will get the blog active again! Yay! So, I suppose, welcome back! I hope you all enjoy the new scenes and thoughts.<br />
<br />
<u>Injustices</u><br />
I have seen a boy with low credit,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At age five,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because in order to have a phone, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His mother put the bill in his name,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And could not pay.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have seen two parents with degrees,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two teachers,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unable to send their only son,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To college because two college grads,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Are not paid well.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have seen educated women,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flipping meat,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
College degrees in their back pockets,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Without connections for a good job,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In their learned field.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have seen men, who risked their own lives,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Homeless now,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who gave all their self, their minds and bodies,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And now live trapped, no purpose, alone,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Their support gone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have seen these immoral forced acts, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Choices gone,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People stuck in ways they did not choose,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Punished, for not being born with <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Silver or gold spoons.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-76769633130180000032013-10-15T14:54:00.002-07:002013-10-15T14:54:46.020-07:00MessesI have, I admit, a bit of a problem when it comes to
inviting people over. Though I hardly
keep things military clean, in order to study, I have to have things tidy, or I
simply can’t concentrate. However, when
I invite someone over, sometimes they tend to spread out, quite a bit, then
make a mess, and then, when they leave, they simply don’t acknowledge the mess.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In other words, I’ve invited people into my house that have
made a mess, and while, I wouldn't expect them to clean it all, or even most, I do hope that they will at least put their dishes in the sink.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, I’m not the only one.
The American people invited into our lives, these men and women of
Congress. Some have been there so long,
that no amount of cleaning around them, seems to do the job. They just make more mess. Others are new, and make a stab at
pretending to clean, but don’t do it either.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luckily, this is an invitation we give, every few years, and
like whenever you share a house, it is those in the majority, who get to decide
who stays and goes. And sometimes, right
around the time, that we issue this invitation, we find our house tidy and
neat, even around those long time mess-makers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is as neat as a clever child’s room. They’ve simply hidden it all away. Unfortunately,
this is enough to fool the majority of the people into saying ‘Look at this
person, look how good they have done.
Let’s have them stay longer.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so, they do, and then you go to clean under the bed, and
in the closets, and, well, you discover the truth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think it may be about time, that we do not forget how
messy these long time guests have been, or how they don’t even put their
dishes, in the sink. When someone cannot
do even that most basic of chores, well, sometimes something must be done. And right now, I think that something is
abundantly clear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is time to clean house:
to dust our shelves, to organize our closets, and to stop hiding things
under the bed. We should not re-invite
these guests that we call congressmen, that we call senators. We should not say ‘Look how good you’ve done.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps, they’ve tidied one or two spots, in one room, maybe they've put up their clothes, but there are still legos on the floor. But that doesn’t change the fact, that they
didn’t put their dishes in the sink.
They’ve made a mess of things. I
think it may be time, to ask them to leave.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: I can
only hope the majority says out.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-10206108897773095162013-08-31T17:46:00.001-07:002013-08-31T17:46:50.128-07:00A Frightful Reflection and the Bill of Rights<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid125" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; padding-right: 1px;">
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid197" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">TV, books, and entertainment media in all its forms has always been a reflection of the current society. In some ways, that is superb, and astounding, and we can learn about the worries and the lives of the time based entirely on reading a book from another decade. In others it is worrying and frightful, particularly when one looks at what is on TV today. The monsters of today are still monsters. Vampires still suck blood, werewolves still attack people (though no longer devour them, it seems) and monsters as a whole are still monstrous. But it feels as if that monstrosity has in a way matured.</span></div>
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<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid199" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">To my horror, people seem to flock to the beautiful monsters. Whether it is a man who tortures others because of childhood bullying or it is a handsome vampire who still kills, and does so freely, but gets away with it because of his beauty. I think that is my biggest problem with monsters on TV. The vampires are only what I could call an Anne Rice Vampire. They are more like an incubus who drinks blood than anything else.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid200" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid201" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Knowing what I know about media and the mirror it shows society all I can do is weep. Our monsters are no longer in the shadows, hidden. Or, at least, the faces of these monsters are not, though their true nature often is. Instead, they are lauded, adored, because of superficial reasons. The modern monster of man, the monster we see and acknowledge as monsters, are not those that dwell in shadows but those that stand in the spotlight, smiling, declaring their vegetarian nature, and how against hunting they are.</span></div>
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<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid203" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">They are the monsters who claim that by spying on the bad guys, they are in fact good guys. In order to spy on the bad guys though, well, they have to spy on the good too. How else do they know who is bad or who is good? There is no longer a presumption of innocence. Instead, you are guilty, particularly if you lack the beauty of the heroes or the seductive nature of the monsters.</span></div>
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<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid205" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">To me, I think, the monster on TV and in the books reflect the true nature of our society today, and it is a nature I want with all my heart to change. The fact that you can buy an expensive sports car whenever you please should not be a get out of jail free card for burning down a dance studio. Nor should being a spy for the ‘greater good’ excuse you from using the moral compass that you hopefully have. It doesn’t have to match mine, but surely you believe in the one thing so many world religions espouse: Do No Harm. </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid206" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid207" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Or at least try?</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid208" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid209" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">It scares me that money or looks can get someone, anyone out of trouble. Whether it is out of the trouble of bullying and harassing another, or out of the legal trouble that breaking the key laws that the US based its cultural identity around.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid210" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid211" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">We are a cultural melting pot, and things change, from year to year, from decade to decade. Change is not necessarily bad, and in many ways can be amazing. But we have a unity, and it isn’t based on the laws that change so often in our nation, but in a single founding document that we all agree on. But, I think, I may need to put it in modern words and modern terms so you can maybe see why these glittering monsters, these pretty littler liars and bloody rich killers concern me so. They are, by virtue of money and media in powerful positions. And lately, all of them have been ignoring what brings our culture together.</span></div>
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<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid213" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Maybe I’m reading it wrong, but this is how I have always read the opening of the Constitution:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid214" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid215" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">We the People of the US, come together to life together, and ensure that justice is served on these lands that we claim are ours. We come together to ensure that any man, woman, or child can have justice, that all of our people do not have worry about rioting, or warfare, or bullets being shot in the streets. We are here, to provide a form of protection made of the people willing to protest, and here to ensure that it is possible to rise above poverty and into a life where you can provide for yourself. We come together as a nation to secure the right of liberty, of freedom to be, for ourselves, and all who come after us. We, the People of the United States do claim and proudly establish out support of this Constitution for the United States of America.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid216" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid217" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">And maybe I just don’t speak legalese well, but this is our bill of rights, as I understand it, in the most plain terms I can think of to say it:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid218" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid219" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment I:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid220" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Congress cannot force you to believe a certain way, or penalize you for believing whatever it is you believe. No religion will be outlawed by them. You may saw what you wish, and the press cannot be told what to share with the people. Congress cannot tell people they can or cannot gather, nor can they deny them the right to create a petition, or the right to have their grievances heard.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid221" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid222" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment II:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid223" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">People, average, everyday people, will be able to protect themselves, and their nation, even from those who govern them, if necessary. And people, citizens, not necessarily members of the military, will form a militia ran by the common man will be encouraged as a necessity to ensure freedom.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid224" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid225" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment III:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid226" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">No soldier, no military personnel may take over your home and force you to host them, in tiems of peace or times of war. If they must, for some reason, do so, they can only do so in a legal manner, following every last step of the law.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid227" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid228" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment IV:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid229" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">No one had to worry about the security of their private life, or private business. Random searches cannot be conducted even with probable cause, because only a warrant with probable cause, an oath that only what is on the warrant will be search, and a in depth description of what is to be search can make a search legal. All of your business, no matter in what form, is your own and cannot be rifled through without first a court issued warrant. Any of your ‘effects’, that is, anything you own, that you regularly carry cannot be taken and looked through.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid230" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid231" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment V:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid232" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">No one, no matter what, will be punished for a capital crime unless they first have had a trial in front of a Grand Jury. The only exceptions are in the military forces, or in the militia, and only then if the US is in a time of war. No person, no man, no woman, no child will ever be tried twice for the same crime. No person will be forced in any criminal case to act as a witness against their-self. No person can be killed, be locked up, or lose their property without fair treatment through the judicial system first. Nobody’s private property can be taken for public use without being given something else, whether cash, other land, or what have you, that comes to the same value of what was taken.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid233" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid234" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment VI:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid235" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">If someone is accused of a crime, they won’t be forced to wait in the limbo of the justice system for any long amount of time at all before they are given a public trial, that anyone can attend, and they must be tried by a jury with no feelings of attachment to them or their victim. The trial will take place in the state and district where the crime was committed. The accused must be told, before the trial, of why it is believed they committed the crime, and of what crime it is believed they have committed. They will have a chance to know the witnesses against them, and they will have, required by law, the chance to have witness’ on their side, and legal aid on their side.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid236" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid237" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment VII:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid238" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">If there is a non-criminal court case, involving a money related argument more than twenty dollars in value, then the right to an impartial jury is still reserved.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid239" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid240" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment VIII:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid241" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">No one will be required to pay a bail that they cannot afford. In other words, if a loan is required for a person to post bail, than that bail is excessive. No unaffordable fines will be imposed on anybody. If they cannot afford the fine, then the fine is too large. No one will be subject to any punishment that causes any mental, physical, or emotional damage, nor will any punishment be out of the ordinary in its nature.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid242" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid243" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment IX:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid244" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">No constitutional amendment gives anybody the right to deny anybody else their constitutional amendment. Nor can any amendment be used as an excuse to be insulting, cruel, or otherwise a jerk to another human being.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid245" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid246" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Amendment X:</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid247" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">Anything not explicitly in the US Constitution, is reserved for the states, or for the citizens themselves, to decide, so long as the constitution does not forbid it explicitly.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid248" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid249" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid250" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">I hope you can see why I am worried based solely on those two parts of that full and total document. I want more than just opened eyes. I want you to ask yourself why. I suppose, because I have often asked why in my life, that I want you to always ask the whys, and to ask them of the people who both know, and can change them.</span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid251" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div class="ace-line" id="magicdomid252" style="padding-right: 1px;">
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;">One Final Byte: Stop and ask why for everything one time.</span></div>
<div>
<span class="" style="cursor: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-41136858819653281962012-11-14T04:00:00.000-08:002012-11-14T05:08:06.487-08:00A Bold Statement<br />
Talk about making a statement. America has made its statement loud and clear. Ouch. As of 8.40 pm last night, 42 states had petitions on the white house’s petition page, calling for the secession of their state. This isn’t by the way, governors, senators, or anyone like that. No, these are ordinary people, making a petition for the president to see. Some of the states have multiple petitions even. <br />
<br />
Talk about a statement, and one I understand.<br />
<br />
These people don’t believe they will be able to secede. Instead, they are, essentially, giving a vote of No Confidence in the entire Federal Government. I hope and pray they don’t secede, but I would not be surprised if they did.<br />
<br />
Forty-two states. When I had checked around noon it had been 33 states, and only one had enough signatures. At 8.40? Much more. As of nine pm last night, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas all had even signatures to land their petitions on the President’s desk. <br />
<br />
I should note, however, that Missouri’s count was split over two petitions, neither over the necessary 25K, and Georgia had three petitions, the middle one over 25K. Texas, however, only had the one petition at the time, and had over three times the amount of signatures needed.<br />
<br />
I think the people have spoken clearly in this vote of no confidence.<br />
<br />
But will anybody understand? Will the politicians hear “They have no confidence in me, personally.” Or will they hear “It’s all Obama’s fault.”<br />
<br />
It’s not his fault. Not entirely, though blame must be shared. He’s been a semi-decent President. Not the best, but not the worst. At best, he’s average. Unfortunately, he has a congress that won’t play nice. And even when congress does play nice, he and his fellow politicians seem unable to get work done.<br />
<br />
The President has ignored the protesting in the streets. He’s ignored attempt after attempt to get him to open his eyes. Corporate media no longer cares. But…we still do.<br />
<br />
I hope this vote of no confidence opens his eyes. I hope it opens Congress’ eyes.<br />
<br />
But I doubt it will, because they choose to be blind.<br />
<br />
One Final Byte: One way or another, people will be heard.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-53866642757672835282012-11-07T04:00:00.000-08:002012-11-07T04:00:18.798-08:00Week Twelve: Voting<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yesterday was Election Day in America, a day where we as
ordinary citizens make decisions on everything from city proposals to the
President of our nation and National Matters.
I don’t need to mention how important it is to vote, every election day,
no matter what, and to inform yourself through multiple sources, even those
with different opinions, about the positions and laws being voted on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Listen to the news, yes, but not just the news. So many news organizations are so political
that they are little more than the mouthpiece for their party. Instead, listen to three or four news
sources, but especially the local news, not the national big news
corporations. Find a few outlets rated
on an international level for trustworthy journalism. Speak to your religious leader, and if you
have no religious leader, then speak to an elder who you consider wise. Talk to your family, your friends, and find
out what they know. Then decide.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately so many people on my campus will not be voting
this election, and for some of them, any election. I have heard a plethora of reasons from ‘My
parents didn’t send me my absentee ballot.’ To ‘What’s the use? My choice won’t win anyway.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To that, to those insignificant infinitesimal reasons, I can
only say ‘You Fools!’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You parent shouldn’t have had to send in an absentee
ballot. You knew where you were going to
be on election day, and you knew perfectly well it wasn’t going to be near your
polling place. Much of your year,
including the election time, is spent in Alabama at school here. Switch your voting registration place and
vote like a person who cares. Vote like
a citizen enjoying the privilege of being able to be heard, because in so many
places they aren’t!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As for the fools who ask what the use is, the use is
simple. Do you want to be heard? Do you want to be a citizen or are you merely
a lay-about, unable to fulfill as simple a civic duty as selecting a multiple
choice option? Can’t find one you
like? I have a solution! Write someone you
think would make a good president in, and heck, organize a write in campaign
for that person!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Participate. You
think it’s hopeless? It’s more hopeless if you can’t manage this simple act.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the biggest fib I have heard, the biggest sign of a
ridiculous head in the clouds ninny-pated fool that I have heard this election
season? ‘I don’t have time.’ The polling place on campus here is open from
7 am to 7 pm. Most employers are willing
to work with employees so they can have a longer break, to vote during that. If your employer is not, consider Early
Voting. Check out the regulations on
that in your state, but it’s an option just in case. You have more time than you think.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In short, there is no excuse not to vote. None.
People constantly complain the elections are bought out. I will tell you now, that you can change that
easily. Look up your civic rights, your
civic abilities. Sometimes, it’s hard to
find information on these things, I know.
But check out a book from the library, if all else fails.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People say that they as citizens have no voice in our government. I say that if you aren’t willing to speak up,
then you have robbed yourself of your own voice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.psoriasis.org/document.doc?id=541%E2%80%9D">Learn</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://lifehacker.com/5859590/how-to-protest-safely-and-legally%E2%80%9D">what</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.howcast.com/videos/88725-How-to-Protest-without-Violence%E2%80%9D">you</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.howcast.com/guides/388-Political-Change%E2%80%9D">can</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9D" http:="http:" pmc.princeton.edu="pmc.princeton.edu" writeabill.php="writeabill.php">do</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://fanfueled.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/top-ten-ways-to-get-the-word-out-about-your-event/%E2%80%9D">as</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.contentcaboodle.com/news-and-society/politics/how-to-participate-in-politics-00-5197.html%E2%80%9Dan%3C/a"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://wps.ablongman.com/long_edwards_ga_12/33/8515/2179954.cw/index.html%E2%80%9D"> American</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-63575603455528544522012-10-31T04:00:00.000-07:002012-10-31T04:00:03.380-07:00Week Eleven: A Bird in the Box<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF2X1wQvIVSX8GzdrzZtQSQRq1QcxMq_qto4rU31fvcMREG_m8z_9h_YvRPNMOGqk3nri92Up46XRp9oYjw-Bvn4fwFZyj_5Lo-ntju7L-nOjgt3AESNyH3mEyYFKvtZoSV7hlSAdjZene/s1600/599065_3406231895178_576214138_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF2X1wQvIVSX8GzdrzZtQSQRq1QcxMq_qto4rU31fvcMREG_m8z_9h_YvRPNMOGqk3nri92Up46XRp9oYjw-Bvn4fwFZyj_5Lo-ntju7L-nOjgt3AESNyH3mEyYFKvtZoSV7hlSAdjZene/s1600/599065_3406231895178_576214138_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pikachu, the Budgie</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well. I knew college was full of surprises, but I didn’t
think that a budgie was one of them. A
budgie, you ask? Well yes, I see. It’s a type of small parakeet, frequently
found in pet stores, that mostly comes in a variety of yellows, greens, and
blues with white and black markings.
Possibly. This one happened to be
very yellow, and very cold.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not that I blame it.
It was around 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was also very domesticated. I know this, because it flew up on a
friend. Quite literally. He called a halt to our LARP battle to reveal
a small yellow bird laying on his chest, cuddling him quite fiercely.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, all this happened while there was a small gaming
convention occurring inside the University Center, a suddenly not so scant 100
feet away. Luckily, a box was found, and
the people running the convention were summoned to help figure out what to do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meanwhile, of course, a group of around 20 bystanders has gathered,
and no one has any clue what to do. My
eyebrow feels a twitch coming on. In
quite firm agreement with the eyebrow, I suggest calling maintenance to get the
poor bird inside until further plans are made.
They are, after all, the only ones available on weekends.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No one called. No one
knew the number, or knew how to look it up.
Instead, the people in charge and I decided to make other plans. I put my cloak over the box to aid in warming
the small cold thing, and someone with a car volunteered, then asked for
someone else with a GPS in their phone, and someone who knew…okay, I’m still
not certain why he was there, but he proved important later.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh. Don’t be stuck on
the bit about the cloak. LARP means Live
Action Role Play, and I have great fun doing so in costume. Plus, it was cold. I needed the dratted thing to protect against
the wind. Well, now the budgie needed it
more.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It took three tries to find an open vet, and after the
second, we finally just searched for an emergency animal clinic. This is around 5 pm by the way, on a
Saturday. Yes, the emergency clinics
were the only ones open. It’s a
Saturday. They need a break too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We spoke to the vet at the clinic. The vet examined the bird, gave us a breed,
offered to take it over, but admitted the owners had little hope of finding it
that way, and said that she couldn’t find any more information on the bird,
because the band on is leg was of no use.
This apparently just shows it’s domesticated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Drat. Still, it wasn’t
a bird specific clinic, and most vets don’t have an awful lot of avian
visitors. At least we knew it was in
good health. From there, now in a rather
unfamiliar part of town, and with sunset rapidly approaching, we needed to find
a pet supply place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We found PetCo shortly after the sun disappeared and a cage
and basic supplies were located. The
bird in the meantime, had acquired a name, and had his gender identified. Pikachu, a male. I did not name the Budgie. But I liked it more than Pidgeotto and
Zapados. I fiercely defended the name Pikachu.
It was two against two, but as the other two in the car couldn’t agree
on a name, the united front won out. For
now, no doubt.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, what do you expect? He was small, yellow, and found during
a gaming convention. At one point, he
flew inside even. There’s more than one
reason the box was needed. With the
supplies, we now had to return, temporarily.
Most of us had left a wide variety of our things there after all, and it
was there that we met up with the temporary care provider.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That mysterious fourth person earlier? He turned out to know someone who loved
animals, and had family in the area that also loved animals, and needed to
change the food and water daily for those animals, so could do the same for
Pikachu. This is important, as everyone
but the driver had called at least two other people, and no one else found anyone
else who could take a poor helpless bird in immediately.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, it takes a bit of time to pull gamers away from a gaming
convention, so, while everything was being set up, and the caretaker acquired,
(and some of us ate dinner) the Budgie was snuck into the convention to hide in
one of the empty back rooms, where he was allowed to wander around for a bit
and stretch his wings outside the cramped box that he only barely fit in.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And don’t tell me we should have let him out earlier. We let him out in the car, and that proved to
be a poor idea, because he had to see out all the windows, and then he decided
there was food on the mat of the driver’s side door. Needless to say, we came to a very careful
rolling stop in a parking lot.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Budgie was put back in the box after this. A PetCo he decided to fly off to another part
of the store. I am willing to bet this
is not the first time this Budgie has gone missing. He’s a runner.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Either way, he was soon back in the too small box on his way
to his temporary accommodations, everything provided for until his still
missing owner could be found. As we
believe it to be a student, most of us don’t have much hope. He would have been an illegal pet on campus
after all, and to claim it would be to invite trouble.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the owner isn’t found, a bird lover has agreed to take
him in on a more permanent basis, as it’s no good for a Budgie to be on his own
like this, and I don’t think turtles in an aquarium count as companions. I could be wrong. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or rather, permanent until this summer when, if the owner
isn’t found, I will suddenly own a bird.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Girl’s Byte: Do I now say I choose you Pikachu?<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-37166454050217907072012-10-24T04:00:00.000-07:002012-10-24T04:00:00.142-07:00Week Ten: Hypocrisy<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes I entertain myself, especially once I realize I’ve
done something I advise against. Talk
about hypocrisy! I have to apologize for
last week’s blog. I wrote it in about
twenty fast minutes between two classes, rather than doing what’s right and
using the time I normally set aside for it to think and write properly. I chose to play games rather than write,
despite that I like both, and take great pleasure in this blog.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Worse. I rushed like
a ninny, which is incredibly hypocritical of me. Unfortunately, I’m probably not the only one
who has hypocritical moments. I suspect
we all do, though many of us are less willing to admit to it than others. Unfortunately it still occurs. I’m of the opinion that hypocrisy shouldn’t
be mocked or chosen as proof that the person in questions view point is
wrong. After all, many times they don’t
realize it until it’s pointed out to them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am rarely aware of the difference between my writing when
I am in a rush or am hyper and my writing when I am calm and thinking it
out. If I’m still in a rush when I read
over it, then often it sounds well-paced to me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many people are hypocritical. They say one thing, tell you to do things
this way, then do it completely different and don’t even seem to notice. Most of the time, they don’t pay attention,
and fall back to a habit. Habits can be
dangerous things, after all.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People often condemn people of faith, regardless of faith, of
not practicing what they preach. In many
circumstances this can be true. But next
time, before you mock someone for being hypocritical, pause and think yourself. Did they mean to be? Are they realizing they are? Pause and think on it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Likely the answer is no.
Very few people mean to. I intend
to get into the habit of not judging the people who are hypocritical, and
instead simply forgiving them. I shall
even try my hardest to practice what I preach.
After all, if I take a breath and breath, and focus on what I want to
do, rather than multitask and do sloppy work, I’m certain I have more than
enough hours in the day to get everything done.
No need to rush and be hypocritical.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: Fall
is truly my favorite time of year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-1354432923448882062012-10-17T04:00:00.000-07:002012-10-17T08:45:23.284-07:00Week Nine: Fall is here.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s officially fall here, as of this previous week, when
the leaves began to chance. I think it
started on Monday, as not all the leaves have begun to, just yet. Fall is undoubtedly a beautiful season, and
one of my favorite seasons by far. It is
neither too hot nor too cold, and the plants are either green and lively or
colorful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a way it’s a sad
season, though I like to think of it otherwise.
People often say that fall is when the plants are dying. Now, fall is merely when they finally get to
go to sleep. They’ve been awake, all
summer long, after all, and need some rest.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To me, I think being a conifer would be the hardest job out
there, always awake, only parts of you allowed to rest at any one time. If I
were to be a plant, I don’t think I could be a conifer. I’d like to be something else. Maybe a maple tree. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I were a plant.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, I am not a plant!
I am a college student, which is a rather different sort of thing. Speaking of, we recently had inspection, and
I helped another student clean their room for it, my own room already being clean. I have decided that I am in the top ten
percent of clean people I know. Maybe
even the top five!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s an odd thought, considering I’m one of my messiest
family members. I think my summer with
my grandparents definitely helped however.
Though that’s not to say my grandpa would find my room ship shape. The top of my dresser and my desk would
bother the fire out of him, I suspect.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Inspection was interesting though. They walked in and five minutes later were
done. Male RAs did the female rooms and
female RAs did the male rooms. I’ve yet
to figure out why, other than, perhaps, to eliminate bias?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t really have much to say to be honest. I’ve been too busy to think, which may be a
dangerous thing. Perhaps I’ll slow down
this next week and assure myself my head is still where tis supposed to be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I’m too busy to think after all, what important thing
might I have missed?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: A
slow path means you can truly live.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-45249558722318252612012-10-10T04:00:00.000-07:002012-10-10T04:00:21.647-07:00Week Eight: Popularity Contests<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes, I wonder why we hold popularity contests at
school. In both high school and in
college, though I confess, most of the time I vote based on how pretty I find
the name. In other words, it’s
homecoming week at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I wasn’t aware the practice continued on
into college. In fact, until sometime in
the middle of last week, I wasn’t even aware that we had a homecoming week.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How one is supposed to enter into this popularity contest I
never figured out. There didn’t seem to
be a way anywhere I saw. I assume you
have to be in a sorority in order to be queen.
It certainly seems it! Still, at
times I wonder why such a popularity contest is held. This is college. It’s certainly not a party college
by any means, and yet, they’re having a popularity contest. This is a research
college for goodness sake.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suppose, if I think deeply on it, it holds a purpose. After all, those who covet such a title must
keep themselves trim if they want to win, knowing the shallowness of my
generation. They also have to have a rather
large network, and one that is primarily locally based. I suppose they also must know how to best
present themselves. Those are three
things that certainly benefit you later in life….and three things that can be
taught, experienced, or achieved through pretty much a gazillion other things
out there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yep.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still a popularity contest.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know. Maybe
it really is shallowness, or maybe it does serve a purpose, but to me, such a
thing ought not be in college. We’re
here to learn things that we couldn’t learn in high school. Not, to re-learn things we did. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not to say we can’t have fun. We need to have fun too, if we’re to
learn. Balance and all that. It’s just
I can’t help but not find contests like this at all interesting. I voted alright…on the name I felt worked
best together.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I vote on the merits of the decision the parents made. Sometimes, it’s the most unique, other times,
it’s the one that flows the smoothest.
But I don’t know these people, and I don’t like their lack of creativity
in posters. A good half of their pleas
asking me to vote for them includes their last name and an internet meme. How is this supposed to convince me?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps I am cynical, but that is my opinion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: Popularity contests: Politics, TV,
homecoming, and high school.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-37219159747410408322012-10-03T04:00:00.000-07:002012-10-03T04:00:11.540-07:00Week Seven: Counter Productive<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher took a book
away. I was informed it couldn't possibly be my book; that it was too advanced for me and I was much too stupid
to read it. The teacher refused to
return the book until my parents were called, and the principal got
involved. I got told I shouldn't read in
class.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This seemed…odd. Very
odd. In fact, it seemed rather counterproductive,
the whole not being told to read while in school thing. A lot of things in life are this way. On the surface, they seem entirely
counterproductive. Of course, the
teacher meant I shouldn't read non-class material in class. It was disrespectful of me to do so, and now
that I’m old enough I can see that. But
the wording…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One should always be very careful with the words they use, I
believe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In life, people do things that don’t make one wit of
sense. In fact, they do things that,
simply put, are senseless! This happens
more than you would think, and there is very little anyone can do about it. People simply don’t make sense. It’s hard to deal with at times. Harder to understand.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The older you get, the more often it feels like you
encounter people like this. People who
run counter-productive to everything you know and thing you understand. This is not wrong of them. This is simply them. Who they are as a person. Everyone is different in that way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are people out there that confuse the dickens out of
me. They do things or say things that
seem out of place or odd. There are
people who confuse me on their gender, or on their opinion. I know people who had a different opinion
every day of the week on the color the sky was, it seemed. Charlie Brown would call them wishy
washy. I call them confused.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite this. Despite
how counter-productive I think they behave, they are, in fact, completely
fine. They are even necessary. Recently, people have chosen to protest or
even have been driven to form angry mobs over disagreements on a horrible
movie. It insults their religion, and so
they believe this is an excuse to harm and hurt others, to destroy property and
cause general chaos.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This seems counter-productive to me. It seems as if they ought to not do
this. As if, if they truly cared, they
would find a different method. Instead,
they do something else, something I find odd, but they find right. Something, in this world, that is, however
distressing, necessary.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mankind is odd. But
we must all be different, must have different responses to continue to grow as
a species, as people, and as individuals.
For mankind to thrive, we need to disagree on the small things, and
agree on the major.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The major things are what all people agree on, though
everyone’s actions do not always agree.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among these are that all life is precious, children should
be protected and cherished, and peace is desireable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now if only we could agree on that peace.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte: It is
our differences that make life precious.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7726507960622230449.post-2437816078544779012012-09-26T04:00:00.000-07:002012-09-26T04:00:16.782-07:00Week Six: Writer's Workshop<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the PR officer of the creative writing club on campus, I’m
not certain my free time exists.
Apparently, in college, being a club officer is rather more like a part
time job without pay than anything else.
It’s an entertaining experience, if nothing else, as I get to design
flyers, logos, and devise ways to get the word out that we do exist, and people
ought to join up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of those ways is a Friday Writer’s Workshop. In fact, every Friday, it looks like I will
be running one. I can’t help but being
highly amused by this as we do have a published writer in the club, though he
isn’t an officer. So the very unpublished
by the Publishing Companies writer of this blog, now will teach a Creative
Writing Workshop on Fridays. At
four. Perhaps it’s a good time I didn’t
stuff my schedule with another two classes, like they want me too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My personal favorite so far, is the very short notice I get
to put out flyers and information for the club’s novel writing month. This is, essentially the National Novel
Writing Month, moved a month sooner, due to exam time. Or rather, due to the need to study really hard
in November, for the exams the first and second week of December.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I might take part, but with an abbreviated word count on my
writing. That will likely be an option
for us. Perhaps 25,000 a month, rather
than the whole 50K! It leads to about
820 words a day being written, if we do it that way. A less intimidating amount than 1,667 words a
day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, the whole goal here is to finish the book! I’m
counting it as a win if the book is finished, regardless of the length of the
novel. As for the kickoff for the Writer’s
Workshop?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We get to learn the most important skill of the novel
writing month: not using the delete key.
I plan on making it plain, by giving them all pictures of a key to rip
in half.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because really, who doesn’t love ripping paper in two with a
gusto! I happen to love it., and have taken this Writer’s Workshop as an excuse
to do so, even if it does mean I have to cut out thirty strips of paper.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hm. Perhaps I didn’t
think that one through. Ah well. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One Final Byte:
Sometimes, raising your hand leads to tricky situations.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0