Category: nature

Weather, Our Foe

frog31 Comment

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If natural events had emotion…

Would a Volcano be angry and let loose a scream.

Would it be ignorant of the pain that it brings.

Would rain be kind or would it be cruel.

Would it know of its soothing power and cool.

Would snow be as aloof and cold as a winter’s day.

Would it know that its sends men into the fray.

Would a tornado be hyperactive ready to spin.

Would it know that it causes human chagrin .

Imagine if the seasons stood still.

Imagine if the Weather bent to humanity’s will.

Would humans care for the weathers pain.

Or would we think of its emotions as one big game.

At least things are the way they are now.

Humanity has an uncaring foe that will always be around.

Top Shot-Finally a show for the gunman in YOU!!!

backinphillyLeave a comment

A lot of people ask me what I’m interested in other than football and ranting about football. I like to follow literally everything about that sport. But there are other things that I love as well.

I also love firearms. I love weaponry, hunting, sniping, archery, anything that involves loading up a projectile and shooting it away.

My favorite type of weapons are pistols. I enjoy shooting for recreation on ranches outdoors, as well as going to indoor ranges and firing off a few clips.

A few times, my family and I have taken some friends and gone down to Waco, Texas where a friend of my father’s has a ranch full of animals and trap shooters, which fire clay pigeons into the air to practice shotgun aim. While I enjoy firing a long gun, I particularly have a certain fondness of the handguns.

I feel that a handgun allows you to become more personal with yourself and your firearm. A bond can be built between a man and his best gun.

I have not shot enough to build that kind of bond with any guy. However, I have shot a 45 magnum pistol, a colt 22 revolver and a 9mm “cop” gun. All are great guns, but I love the 45. That’s my favorite firearm to date.

Another thing similar to myself and these guns is the connection to the History channel show, “Top Shot”, which is a reality contest show where the contestants compete to be the best marksmen.

I love the show because I can learn about new guns, shooting techniques and get to watch some wild shooting talent such as trick shooting and sharp shooting. It’s an adrenaline rush. As I write this, I’m watching a guy try to shoot a bullet to make contact with the blade of an axe. Axe blades are VERY skinny.

The weirdest part about that shot is that one guy actually was able to split the bullet. He split a bullet in half by shooting onto an axe blade.

It’s completely wild. I love this stuff. Watching things explode and watching guys load up and fire away is just a rush.

Team Rest

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

This weekend was the first time since the start of the season that our team did not have a game.

This is not because one was not scheduled, but because simply we could not compete against Orcutt Academy’s team.

We are a team that defies odds, beginning a season with a mere 20 players in a collision sport.

Players are bound to get injured, and starting with a number that low doesn’t put us in the best position.

Regardless of size, we are a team who trains to compete, to show what we are made of, and even if we don’t always win, to show we will not go down without a fight.

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Black n White.

eternity1030Leave a comment

They are the cutest creatures who are painted in black and white. With a bear shape and a cat face, they are members of the bear family.

Now take a look at them. Black fur on ears, nose, eyes patches, and shoulders and the rest is white. They move slowly and clumsily. However, each movement only makes them cuter and cuter like they care about nothing.

They live in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in the Sichuan province, but also in the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. They spend their lives roaming and feeding in the bamboo forests.

They have simple eating habits. They eat bamboo only, so they have to live in certain places where large amount of bamboo can be found. But in the zoos, the can eat some other things like rice porridge, apples, sweet potatoes and carrots.

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Instinct

frog3Leave a comment

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A Bird flies in the sky

Why it does, it knows not why.

The Fish swims in the ocean depth

A creature on land it has not met.

A Snake is doomed to slither the jungle floor

Why doesn’t it wish for something more?

A broken man’s purpose is maimed

Society does not know his pain.

Humans have wandered and destroyed

They treat the Earth like it’s a toy.

They discard and waste it for the trash it is not

They allow beauty and innocence to forever rot.

They are intelligence

They are strong

Their strength allows them to commit so much wrong.

If they were gone, the Earth would be clean

The way it was always meant to be.

They must advert there fate

Or their demise will come at a sooner date.

South America Bound, Jack Marcus’s Journey to Chile

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

South America Bound!.

^^^^^Here is a great blog from a very close friend of mine.

I have known Jack since we were younger, but we became close friends my freshman year of high school.

I am also close to his younger brother Peter, and we spent many great days and nights together.

I am incredibly proud to have a friend who has the guts to pack up and go to a country where he can’t really speak the language, and leave all major civilization for nine months to be in Patagonia.

File:Cuernos del Paine from Lake Pehoé.jpg

This isn’t his first adventure out of the country alone, his sophomore year he spent a semester in Israel, learning Hebrew, and embracing the life of a jew in Israel.

He loved living in Israel, and while Israel and Chile are very different places, I am sure Jack will love it.

Jack is not known for speaking Spanish, really, he doesn’t at all, and when he does it provokes a good laugh.

Although I have been unable to spend time with him in the past few months, I will be thinking about him through his journey, and hope to go visit him at some point in South America along his journey.

I will keep him in my thoughts, and hope all goes well.

I am sure when he gets back he will have plenty to tell, and hopefully some pictures.

While you cannot read this Jack, stay safe and have fun, we will be thinking about you back at home!

I am sure you will spread your odd humor and good vibes to all the people you are with.

Adios Hermano!

Defeated Again

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

Once I again I walked off of another teams field not feeling the great feeling of victory

This past weekend the team traveled up to Los Olivos, CA to compete against the Dunn Earwigs on their parents weekend, just as we did last year.

We went into the game with high hopes, and a new play series that we had worked on all week.

We arrived at the school, and right of the bat the day was not going as planned.

Somehow the ball bag was left back at school, some 2 hours away.

We did not have our own game balls, or our own kicking tee.

We put that aside and made do, and went into our pre game routine of bananas, pretzels, and stretching.

Our Defensive Coordinator John Wickenhaeuser had dome some research that bananas and pretzels before a game does the body good if that comment seemed a little odd.

During our warm ups that same nauseous feeling returned, and I was once again off my game.

I even tried to take medicine to make this feeling go away, but it is clear that it is nerves, and I just need to be hit a few times so that I don’t think about it as much.

When the game started Dunn quickly scored their first touchdown, and we weren’t too worried, that happens in the game of football.

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Eastern Sierras

smackyjackjack1 Comment

This past week, my outdoor education group and I went on an excursion to the Eastern Side of the Sierras.

We backpacked into the cottonwood lakes, as well as another lake with a name that should probably not be repeated on this blog.

Upon reaching our final camping spot (South Fork Lakes), we were all astounded by the view the scenery and view that the lake had to offer. The campsite was positioned right next to a beautiful lake with Golden Trout swimming around peacefully, deer hanging out with their newborns, and some noisy coots. To top it off, a short hike over a hill would lead to this…

We all got up early in the morning to see the sunrise on our first night there. The view was alright.

The highlight of the trip for me was backpacking past an old cabin that was used in the 19th century for either fur trappers or something along those lines. It stood out to me because I was reading a book about the (in)famous Kit Carson, one of America’s greatest mountain men and fur trappers. The cabin stood about four feet tall and was right next to a small river with plenty of California’s state fish.

On our trip, we went in as a group of four students that never really hung out together, or talked to each other much, but by the end of the trip we knew each other even better than any of us expected.

Strangely enough, our sport ends early. We are all going to have to join some other sport that, to me, will not be nearly as fulfilling (no offense Mr. Alvarez). There’s something about the back-country that cannot be replicated anywhere else. It is unique to each person that experiences it, and will continue to be for as long as it’s there. My advice? Go see it quickly.

Elements

displacedlocal2 Comments

Pressure and time.

Pressure and time create beautiful diamonds from lumps of coal.
Elements are created from the reactions within stars.
Hydrogen becomes helium through chaotic explosions that leave heat and fire in their path.
The heavier elements get compressed more and more into the center of the giant ball of gases to the point where they want to break out and explode across the universe sending bits and pieces flying. All of the elements come from this process even the very carbon in our bodies.

People are a lot like elements. We collide in different ways. We create changes in the people we meet. There is sometimes friction and violence. People go to war over land, honor, and the god they believe in. They gravitate towards each other like the heavier elements do. They explore out over the world and the universe. Time and pressure push us together. We collide like celestial bodies in space or world superpowers on the brink of war. We are like the carbon that makes us up. We like to think that the rules that govern the rest of the universe don’t apply to us. But we are no more special to the universe than the stars that crated us.

Back to Reality

moustachulousLeave a comment

Camping with third graders can be quite the experience. I went with a small group of seven third graders for three days and two nights. Wednesday morning, I woke up earlier than I usually do to get ready to get camping. I was at the Floyd’s house helping Mrs. Floyd pack up food for her camping trip. Mrs. Floyd, Connor, Taylor, and myself all drove down to Lower Campus to meet our classes. I show up to the Third Grade class ready to go and I see some familiar faces. I see Alex, daughter of Mr. Alvarez, Hayden, who was my reading buddy in 7th grade, and Ryan, a kid who went to OVS Summer Camp this past summer.  It was quite funny to see some of their reactions when they figured out that I was going camping with them. The two girls in the class ran up and hugged me, while all the boys stood there with an expression of disappointment on their faces. We load up the truck with camping supplies and pile into the bus for the hour and a half drive to El Refugio State Beach.

We arrive at our campsite for the next three days with excitement. Personally, I think I was more excited than the kids were. Basically the first day we just set up our tents and then hung out at the beach all day. We had burgers for dinner and sat around the campfire doing improv. I sat in my tent reading while all the kids were playing in their tents before bed.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of a freight train. I wasn’t very happy about that. We had eggs and sausage for breakfast. We packed up for the day to hang out with the fourth graders at another beach. It was really fun. All the kids got to hang out with their friends from fourth grade. I also got to hang out with my friend Connor all day Thursday.  After the beach, we had quesadillas for dinner and s’mores around the campfire. We had an early night that night. I was so tired I don’t even remember getting into my sleeping bag.

The next morning we ate breakfast and packed up- tents and all. Then we had a last walk down the beach before lunch. We got back to camp, had hot dogs for lunch and put all of our stuff back in the truck to go home.

The drive back seem so long. It was actually shorter than the one on the way there. I didn’t want to go back to school because I didn’t really want to do homework, but I did do some while I was camping. Anyways, we get back on campus and unpack and all of that. I’m waiting for Mrs. Floyd with Connor and Taylor. Taylor and Connor were exhausted and then there was me just like “Oh hey I’m perfectly fine, I actually want to go back.” All they said was “Jenna, you had seven kids.” Anyways, we drove back up the hill and I was glad to be able to see my roommate and my friends again. Everyone was still in sports when I got to the dorms, so I just relaxed, took a shower and did some homework. I walked downstairs to get some water and I find Nicole, my lovely and sweaty roommate who just came back from volleyball practice. She attacked me and gave me a big hug. At that point, it reminded me why I go to OVS- for the people I love and the people that love me. We are all one big family here and it is not the same when one person is gone.

(Sorry that this is like a week after camping, but better late than never.)