Camping!

When I was a child, my favorrite thing to do was be outside. My house had a huge yard, well it seemed huge to me, since I was only a little kid. My sister and I were always outside. Winter, spring, fall, summer, we were always outside; playing in the snow or in our tiny inflatable pool. I learned to ride my bike in my yard. There was just enough of a concrete strip so I could ride. Almost all my memories of my childhood in New Jersey are outdoors. One of my favorite memories actually is when my sister and I lost in the crazy neighbor's house and we snuck in to get it back. Probably the most dangerous thing I have done in my life, well not really.

Every other weekend, my uncle's would take all the cousins camping. We loved it. We got to be outside and away from our parents. My favorite part of camping was listening to the bugs at night and pretending that a bear would come attack us. One time a bear actually did take our food, but we weren't at our campsite so none of us were hurt. Funny story, at the time there were a total of 6 cousins. The three older ones stayed at the camp site, while the 3 younger ones, including myself, went off to find the lake. We quickly realized we were lost, and because we were young we started to cry, thinking we were never gonna be found. But my uncle whistled, a sound that to this day I will never forget, and we followed his whistle all the way back to the camp site.

Since I moved to Florida, I have not been camping. It makes me miss Jersey even more, and even if I did go camping here, I don't really think it would be the same. Its too hot out here and there are way too many creepy bugs and worst of all MOSQUITOES!

(Oh and by the way, the one in the pig tails really is me!)

ECHO

ECHO was a beautiful and intriguing place. I know the tour guide said a lot and he gave so much information, but truth is I wasn't paying attention to him. In part I was. I was aware of the small presentations he gave about the simple water pumps, and the cooking devices left out in the sun. But as he spoke all I could think of was how amazing it would be to spend days there. Do the work for myself. When he mentioned that the interns were set the task of living in the conditions available and only surviving by what the land has to give, I felt jealous. I wanted to do that, and that's saying a lot seeing as how I don't like spending too much time outside in the heat of Florida.

I have never felt that type of necessity, and even though it was a mock survival lesson, I think it would be helpful if I experienced it first hand. My mental capacity is great, but my physical fitness is beyond inadequate. I wonder if I could even be able to build myself a simple shelter. I would most likely not survive.

Another one of my flaws is the fear of animals. In nature and since the beginning of man kind, we have depended on animals for food, clothing, and other sources of help. Yet I am terified of even the smallest domestic animal. If I am to depend on a larger animal or animals, I would much rather die of hypothermia, starvation or even be eaten by the animal itself.

When I saw this funky looking animal I was scared to even take a picture of it. The Turken, as it's called, is supposed to be easier to tame, and since they can be considered food and help fertilize the soil and the plants, they are a convenient animal to keep around.

When our world comes to a point of survival of the fittest, will I just be a nuisance and a bother to those who really are capable of surviving?

Food Inc.

There are many movies out there that talk about our world's problems. But a movie that really hits the spot is Food Inc. 

A reason that this movie really hits hard, to me at least, is the fact that they use and abuse of the immigrants. Coming from a family of immigrants, I find it unnerving and irritating how they treat the workers. They think that because they are immigrants that they can treat them like lower than scum and make them work in conditions that are less than ideal. 

Another reason this movie is so controversial is the fact that they also abuse of the animals that are sent and made into burger patties and chicken nuggets. Feeding them things that they shouldn't even be eating, making them sick and potentially harming the people that eat them. I for one rarely eat meat and I definitely don't eat fast food. I don't even like to think of the things those poor animals go through, just so big corporations could make a big profit and sit happily at their desks without a care in the world.

Eaarth: Lightly, Carefully, Gracefully was an interesting read. At first I was overwhelmed with him talking about Kip Culler's farm. I wasn't sure where he was going with it and I was getting confused. But after reading more into it I got his message. I realized what his whole concept is. Instead of giving our money from profits to big corporations, and letting the big weights take all the jobs, we should create much more food and jobs by making smaller farms. His plan is to make us more united, not just the stranger that lives next door. If we share what we have, and help each other out, not only will we be better people, but we will be able to spend less money. Things would go back to the "old days"  where everyone knew everyone and everyone depended on everyone. It's an interesting concept, one that I am not sure I could live by, but if it could somehow help our planet, I would definitely try. 

Hot, Flat, And Crowded

After reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded. my mind was completely blown. There were so many things that I had no clue of. I was so unaware of the simplest things, it was almost as if I had been living under a rock. One of the things that first shocked me, was the extinction of the river dolphin. How could a species so close to our own have been completely swiped clean off the face of the earth. This is a species that I will never get to see in person, and much less tell those who come after me what this species even was. To think that a mammal, very close to the homo sapiens species, has become extinct is almost as to think, are we next? And if we aren't next, how much time do we have left, and is it even possible to stop it?

Something that I had been aware of was the ever increasing gas prices. Yet I was completely oblivious as to why the prices kept going up and why everyone was so furious. Not only is it affecting our everyday life, but it is affecting everything around us. And the main reason why we as a country are now doing so poorly is because of our dependency on oil. Think, almost everything we use runs on oil, meaning everything we do consumes oil, and increases our need for oil. That in turn increases our demand from foreign countries who actually produce oil, and their ability to make us pay for it. A big eye opener for me was that theory that our addiction to oil was paying for both sides of the war. Not only do we pay our troops and supply them with guns and ammunition, but we are also paying for our opposing country's guns and ammunition. We end up giving them so much money to provide us with oil, that we are giving them a much better opportunity to be armed and ready to fight us. It almost seems like we are paying to lose a battle.