Day: October 9, 2014

News Flash

kennyroo

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Young kids are taught this daily. Where did that principle go?

Pop-culture instills a competitive state of mind into children all day, everyday. How do we, as a society, expect for the next generation to come out any differently if we are all stuck in the same cycle?

This cycle may be better known as the idea that lowering somebody’s self esteem somehow makes yours grow.

While this topic may be more prevalent for girls, boys have it just as rough. We’re all just in the rat race to be better than the next. We all are too stuck in the idea that taking someone down raises you higher. News Flash! No matter how much you thrash somebody else’s reputation, yours does not rise.

I dare you reader – I dare you to give a sincere compliment to three people in the next 24 hours. What does that take out of your day? Maybe 5 minutes in total. But to them, that will probably make their day.

gossip
Photo Credit to: http://janessajaye.com/

Bird Boy

instalocker

alien photo super legit completly real

Introduction: The year is 4041. Earth was dying. The only things besides humans were birds. Then, earth made contact with another planet who invited them to come live with them. All humans fled Earth to live on this new planet. All except one infant boy who was left behind. When the humans left, the friendly aliens restored Earth, bringing back all the trees and flowers. Earth was back to normal, like humans had never been there. Sadly, the aliens couldn’t bring back the animals. The boy is raised by birds and this is his story.

“Baka baka” said the boy. His calls were sad and poorly pronounced. “Baka baka” he said again while sitting on the ground. He was left behind for the winter, and not even the mama bird would stay with him. He was an outcast – he couldn’t fly. The five-year-old boy now crawled around the world, never knowing about walking, he searches for a teacher or a friend. Everywhere he goes sees birds and hears birds, but they will never come and play.

The boy is sad, because whenever he says his call there will be no sounds. The air, filled with birds, is silent like he is all alone. Then, a few minutes later there will be anything but silence – birds would start chirping and singing again. Sometimes, the boy would wonder why he can’t fly, or why he doesn’t have feathers. But he didn’t wonder long. He was easily distracted.

Years went on. The five-year-old boy is now 35, and no longer calls for the other birds. He just crawls with his head down, never looking at the sky, because it saddens him. As he was crawling, he hit his head on a tree. He was hurt, and by instinct yelled “Baka baka”. The skies were silent, until a female bird landed right next to him. The bird looked similar to him. She was tall and featherless. The only difference was she could fly. “Baka?” she said. “Ba baka” he responded. She wanted to know why he was on the ground. He said he didn’t know how to fly.

Suddenly the female bird pick up the man and said “Baka ba,” which meant believe. She let go. He flaps his arms, and is about to hit the ground, when suddenly, he starts floating elegantly into the sky. Boom! A loud, unfamiliar sound was in the sky. It was a shot, and it had hit the man. He fell from the sky to his death. The female bird landed, and turned from what looked like a human to the aliens, and said: “Bird Boy test successful. How is the Fish Boy doing?”  shortly after there was a response “Fish Boy is doing well, he can go weeks now without air.” The alien that taught the man to fly said: “Take them to the ship. We need to run more tests. We need to figure out why they can convince themselves to do the impossible.”

The Bear

instalocker

mossy trees

We were hiking across the Yukon on what was only a five-day trip. When I got lost and separated from the group, it was already day three. While searching for them I heard things splashing in the river – it was a large group of salmon flopping up the stream. But that wasn’t all. There was a bear standing there with his mouth opened, catching the fish in his mouth.

I was spotted. The bear set down the freshly caught fish on a rock and ran off. By that time the sun was setting and I had to set up camp. After making the fire, I remembered that my food was in Joe’s pack. So I decided to go and grab the fish the bear left behind. It was enough to hold me over for a while.

In the morning I packed up and continued hiking to the final destination, hoping I would run into my friends. I hiked five miles noticed something in the fields. It was the bear again. I knew it was him from his whitish fur. You could tell he was old and his face seemed strangely welcoming. I sat from a distance watching it until it got distracted by a bird and he chased it around, running off into the woods. As I was hiking, I decided to make a detour and go see what he was doing in the fields before he left. I discovered he was eating at a bush of berries. I didn’t know what the berries were, but I knew the bear lived after eating them and I would die if I didn’t. I didn’t eat them right away. Instead, I collected them in case I had no alternative food options.

Shortly up the trail I ended up in a third encounter with the bear. But this time the bear was hurt. He had a long deep gash along his neck – he was dying. I sat down next to him and began petting him and gave him water. I ended up giving him all of my water. Most of it I used to clean the dirt from his wound. I pulled out my first aid kit and used everything I could. I had to bandage him with ankle wraps because he was too big for anything else. Rather than finding my friends, I felt like it was my obligation to help this bear.

The only thing I did to take care of myself was make a fire. I gave every scrap of food and drop of water I could to this bear. From my little knowledge of bears I was able to determine that he was a grizzly bear. I never realized how peaceful and beautiful they really are. They have soft fur, pointy ears, wet black nose and solid brown eyes. They’re magnificent creatures, far from a beast. But that didn’t change the fact I could become its meal any second.

The next morning, day five, was the worst of them all. The bear was on his final hours and was mad. He wouldn’t let me help him at all. He just lay there ghoulishly and moaned. I had to just watch and hope that somehow he would push on. As it became afternoon he stopped moaning, just breathed heavily. I walked over and hugged him. I didn’t let go for hours. Not until I heard dogs barking and lights coming from several places. It was a rescue group. Before I could say anything I was in a helicopter.

I woke up in a hospital and there was a Alaska state trooper sitting next to me. The first thing he said was “You know, you saved that bear.” I smiled. That was the first thing that I wanted to know. They said they were bringing him to a zoo in San Diego. That was his new home, because he was too old to be in the wild. My face lit up. I looked back at him and told him “I live in San Diego!”.

ASITs, attention! ASITs, begin! Put ‘cho shoes on, put ‘cho shoes on!

indigoshell

A full day of being an ASIT starts at 7:15am and goes to, on a bad day, 9:30pm. Which is nearly 14 hours of work and “work.”

Morning rounds are the first thing we do every day, even before eating breakfast. After breakfast we clean our ASIT lounge and then head off to morning courses and classes

An ASIT tradition is that we take about 10 minutes to put on our shoes.

Courses are week-long commitments that can range from Riflery to Adopt-an-Animal. Classes are just for an hour. Seniors (ages 12-17) have courses in the morning and Juniors (ages 7-12) have classes in the morning, and ASITs are split up to assist with classes and courses.

Sometimes, assisting can mean you’re an extra pair of eyes and you get to join in with the class. Sometimes, assisting can mean teaching the campers how to be safe with the animals.

ASITs usually help with Junior classes and courses, as younger children in general need more supervision. Some classes and courses, like the Jungle or the Habitats, require more supervision because of special animals.

Our lemurs and large (4 foot long) lizard enclosures, for example, need extra supervision, as they can be slightly dangerous or more sensitive as, say, a ferret or parrots.

We have lunch and Free Time for about two hours, as well as Leadership Training, which is basically talks about enthusiasm or how (or how not) break up a fight between campers. After Leadership, Seniors have classes and Juniors have courses, and basically the morning is repeated.

Dinner, then free time, then we have Evening Activity. Activities, like the Bug Hunt and the Fashion show, require the ASITs to prep for it, which could be clearing out 20 tables and 200 chairs or simply spreading out around camp and hiding. Sometimes ASITs have to help clean up after Evening Activities, like putting the tables and chairs back or cleaning up water guns and balloon remains.

Curfew can be from 9:45pm to 11pm depending on how many ASITs we have and how well we’re behaving. Though, after a full day, most ASITs want to sleep by dinnertime.

Message Received

raining17Leave a comment

The concept of recurring dreams are a message sent from you, to be received by you. The idea portrayed is one of importance, for it sticks in one’s subconscious and continues to swim to the surface for the dreamer to acknowledge.

Sometimes an innocent dream and sometimes a daunting nightmare, recurring dreams continue to come back until they reach the dreamer’s conscience and they become aware of the subliminal message.

The message is always one of high importance, and is often disturbing, for there is no way to get rid of it. The only known way is to fully understand the reason, as well as the cause behind the dream, and to make appropriate changes.

If the dream perpetuates, it tells that the cause for the dream is being continued. Although the circumstances might not be the same, the dream still indicates a recurring pattern in everyday life. The pattern is most likely caused by a strong emotion, such as stress, or sadness.

If one suffers a traumatic event, they will often have a recurring dream where they relive that event. Those dreams tend to be very detailed, and therefore quite scary. Even if it’s not a full length dream, it could have a plot relevant to the event, or with a similar theme.

Instead of a full dream, people sometimes have a recurring theme, or a recurring symbol. These symbols most likely relate to the dreamer’s everyday life, and the symbols are very relevant to oneself.

Although the dreams can occur as often as every week, or as far apart as once a year, the dream is attempting to portray the message nonetheless. If the dreamer acknowledges the reason for the dream and makes appropriate changes, it will discontinue the dream, and most importantly, the message will be received.

Photo Credit: http://www.wall321.com

Trapped

raining17Leave a comment

All day I am stared down, laughed at and mimicked. Stuck behind bars, I try to say hello, but all they hear is a roar. I’m not as fierce as I appear, but they’re scared of me, and I’m not allowed to cuddle up to them, to show them who I truly am. I yearn to be free, to go on a long run and splash in a stream. But I can’t, for I am held captive. Day after day, it’s always the same. I wake up to see all of them laughing at me: at the way my mane blows in the wind, the way unwanted flies are always buzzing around me, and the way I carry myself as I try to escape the onlookers. To my left are the zebras, and to my right, the bears. All so different, we are placed together, for they think we relate. They believe that since we walk on the same ground and breathe the same air, we must be similar, when in reality, we couldn’t be more different. Not only do we look different, we come from different prides and we all communicate in different ways. The days continue, and I go to sleep again and again, signifying the next day where although they might move the sea lions, nothing more important than that will happen.

Photo Credit: http://www.magazinehive.com