Tiny Little Pieces

Warped Tour

2009-07-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

Warped Tour gave many bands their start. Blink-182, Sum 41, Good Charlotte to name a few. Many genres of punk rock music got their start there, skaa, screamo and all kinds of punk came from Warped Tour. Yesterday we saw bands such as 3 Oh! 3 (suburban punk rap?) and as small as Deer in the Headlights (Southern Rock, kind of like a modern Bob Dylan) and bands with a few devoted fans such as Sing It Loud (pop punk gay rights activists) and bigger bands like Senses Fail (Hardcore modern metal?). I found a new favorite band, Anti-Flag, whose lead singer talked about things like tearing down unnecessary barriers between people, like race, religion and how much money you do or don't make. He said that the goverments of the world spend trillions of dollars on creating and sustaining such borders, physical or not. The music was awesome and so was the message. I realized about halfway through the day that it has almost become a modern Woodstock. It's about as close as our generation can get. By 5 in the afternoon, the parking lot it was held in was muddy and they were spraying us with water hoses to keep us cool. Almost all the guys there were covered in sweat and had taken their shirts off, their skinny jeans sagging with the water. People lost shoes in mosh pits, make up was running and everyone was laughing. Joints were being passed around and the parents in the crowd didn't seem to mind. Most people weren't smoking and the security guards didn't notice the few who were. There were circle pits and contests to see who could crowd surf the most. If someone fell down, you picked them back up and the kept doing what ever it was that they were doing.

Anti-Flag - This Is The End (ForYouMy Friend)

Aliens, Faerie Tales, and Ghosts; Oh My!

2009-07-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

I went to the library and got quite a few books, We can keep them for three weeks, so I grabbed many more than I should have! I have already devoured four of them, and they were very good.

Wicked Lovely is about a girl who sees the invisible faeries the cause chaos and mischief around the world. One of them seems to single her out and she cannot figure out why. I will not spoil any books for you, but it is very well written and very very good!

Ink Exchange is the sequel to Wicked Lovely and is mostly about one of her good friends, just as good as the first one!

A Great And Terrible Beauty starts out really slow, but once you get past the first two chapters, it takes hold of you. It is about a girl whose mother is murdered. They are English but live in India. She begins to see visions of moving shadows as she is sent to a prep school in England, set in the late 1800's she is an out cast to the other girls until one of them approaches her with a rule breaking dare that she accepts. Kept me guessing until the very end, I will definitely be checking out the next one when I next visit the library!

The Host is by the author of the Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer. It is about and alien species that call themselves souls. They take host bodies and without them cannot survive. After most of the 'settling' of Earth is complete, a soul that goes by the name Wanderer is inserted into an adult human body that was part of the resistance. The human girl's consciousness starts to fight back, putting up walls that don't allow the soul access to certain memories. This book was excellent from the very first page, I would recommend it to anyone!

Bliss I did not like as much as the others. It is about a 14 year old girl in 1969, her parents raised her on a hippie commune. Her parents avoids the draft by going to Canada and sending her to live with her grandmother in an upper class, racist area of Atlanta, Georgia. Her name is Bliss Inthemorningdew and she makes friends with a girl named Thelma and is a story about how sometimes it's better to not to make friends with the 'weird kid' at school. Their school is an old nunnery and legend has it that a girl threw herself from the third story window. Are the voices Bliss hears this girl's cry for help or her mind playing tricks? The book contains a bitter-sweet love story and tells of the cruelness of teenage girls.

All of the books have great plots, sweet love stories, and horrible tragedy. More to come as the summer wears on! Happy reading!

Ugh

2009-07-01T12:32:00.001-07:00

I think we said about 25 words to each other between going to the library, JC Penny's, Garden Ridge, and the grocery store. Well I take that back, maybe we said 100 words. I definitely did more talking than she did. Colorado won some tickets to Warped Tour and since we had already bought ours, the first choice was to bring Tall and Red. Red refused, so Colorado asked one of his friends, who happens to be an attractive, single young lady. Tall is very excited and Red has expressed her distaste. Colorado and I think it is time for her to get a taste of her own silly medicine. Tall does everything for her, still. Walks her dog, buys her food, asks her before doing almost anything. This is one small step for Tall, one giant leap for our apartment. Hopefully this will solve more problems than it creates. Fingers crossed for Sunday!

Washington

2009-06-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Red has decided to leave. Leave Tall, her fiance. Leave Colorado, one of her first and best friends in Texas. Leave me, her best friend. She is going back home, to Washington. We are all very sad, kinda hurt and resentful. She went home for two weeks and decided she didn't love Tall anymore. He has been so sad lately. I haven't posted since I found out, I was hoping she would change her mind. Tonight is the first night we will get any kind of girl time. We are going to the library and the mall. Tall won't let us have a girl night if he is here. I miss my best friend and I feel like he is ignoring the fact that all of us are loosing her. Anytime she says anything about spending time without him, he sulks until she changes her mind. Oh well...

Mt. Evans, Snow, and Trees

2009-06-19T00:12:00.000-07:00

We went up to the highest paved road in North America, it was snowing about half the way up and it was so pretty from the top of a snowy mountain. We stepped outside the car and into a 32 degree snow flurry! It was so much fun. We also drove up to beautiful Estes Park. I tend to take pictures of the mountains, and nothing else, but they are pretty pictures. Colorado's Aunt and Uncle took up mini golfing, Colorado won, and to get Salt Water Taffy. CO was so pretty and I can see us living there, but it is so good to be home!

Home Again, Home Again

2009-06-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

Jiggity Jig.

Last night we got home at 3:37 in the morning. We had driven all the way from Denver. We left at 1:12 in the afternoon. Mapquest told us it would be 12 hours and 33 minutes, I think that was a really good estimate!! We are about to go down the the pool and soak up some good ol' Texas heat and sunshine (it rained almost everyday we were there, even some hail too)! I'll get around to the pretty mountain pictures tonight or tomorrow!

Partay!!

2009-06-13T22:32:00.001-07:00

Tonight was the whole reason we came up to Denver! Colorado's grandparents (Nana and Papa) had their 50th Wedding Anniversary! We had a bar-b-q last night and a wonderful party with lots of dancing tonight. I met a lot of future relatives and they are just great. Good food, good friends and dancing. I can't take enough pictures! Tomorrow we are going to Estes Park and Mount Evans, which has the highest paved road in North America, or so I've been told. I'm hoping to see a bit of snow. I've seen some snow-capped mountains in the distance so we might get lucky! More pictures soon, I'm tired!!

Garden of the Gods

2009-06-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

"The Garden of the Gods was given to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909 by the children of Charles Elliott Perkins in fulfillment of his wish that it be kept forever free to the public"

I have never seen anything this beautiful. I took so many pictures, I agonized about which ones to show you all! We only spent about 30 to 45 minutes and saw very little of the park. It started raining about 10 minutes into our short walk and the clouds were so pretty! The Garden of the Gods, such an appropriate name for such a breath-taking place. The huge red rocks sunk into the ground, shooting hundreds of feet into the air could not be the work of any other but God himself. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping by the Garden of the Gods, you may only plan to stay for a few minutes, but trust me, the rocks are irresistible.

Mountains and Sunsets

2009-06-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

Soooo... Guess where I am!

Raton, New Mexico

Everything is so pretty here! We are just passing through, on our way to Denver, Colorado to see Colorado's Family! We might be going river rafting (something I have never done) and we plan on going to a water park with Colorado's silly little brother!

These pictures I found online and DO NOT DO THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE JUSTICE!!!

I will be posting pictures of the mountains and sunsets and other such things as I take them!!!

New Car!!

2009-06-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

On Friday night, I got a text message from my mom. It said that Step-dad wanted to buy Colorado a car for graduation. So... On Saturday morning, we went to a Texans Can! car auction! Texans Can! asks people to donate cars to go to auction. All the proceeds go to scholarships for low income students. Colorado came home with a 1994 gray Volvo! It has fewer miles than my Camry does, few dents, and even has a sunroof!! He loves his new car (even though it doesn't have a radio yet) and I'm so glad! Lately we have both been running around like crazy, trying to get both of us to and from work and school, now we don't have to worry about not having a ride to work anymore! Thank you Step-dad, we appreciate this sooo much!!! I will post pictures later!

Graduation

2009-05-28T17:37:00.001-07:00

When I graduated from high school, I was so scared. I wanted to go back in time to be in elementary school again. Now it is Colorado's turn! I'm so proud of him!

Colorado has had kind of a hard time. His mom raised him pretty much by her self until he was ten. She married his step dad and they fought quite a bit. He ended up living with a few different aunts before he was sent to Texas to live with his grandma. Since he has been here he raised his GPA from a 0.7 to almost a 3.0! His step dad used to tell him that he would never graduate and now he is! Next year he will come to the community college that I go to. I'm so proud of him!!!

Colorado takes better care of me than I could ever take care of him. He is 2 and a half years younger than I am but he acts as though he is older than I am. When I met him, he was a trouble maker and I was a trouble maker in disguise. Since then he has grown up, become a man and he has taught me to be myself. That it doesn't matter what my mom thinks of me, what my teachers or friends think of me. All that matters is what I think of me. And I taught him the same thing. He told me all kinds of things when he met me. He lied about quite a bit, some of it so I would like him more, and some so I would like him less. Since then, we started over. He told me he never wants to feel like he has to lie again. I haven't spent more than 12 hours away from him in over a year. Almost. Last summer we took a road trip to Denver to meet him family, my dad told me that it would make or break us. That was the funnest vacation I've ever been on.

Colorado told me that he did not want to graduate. He was ready to never have to go to school again, but at the same time, something in him would be missing. Once you graduate from high school, you loose that part of yourself. You can never go back. Stockholm Syndrome I call it. Eventually you loose that feeling. At least I hope you do. I feel it sometimes still. High school never ends though.

Ode to My Beauty

2009-05-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

My don’t you look so lovely this morning
Sitting there in all your beauty just waiting
Just sitting ever so patiently
Waiting for me to pick you up, and hold you
Caress your body and stroke your every curve
How I long for you, my dear sweet beauty
Oh this ring on my finger means nothing
My passion and my heart and my soul belong to you
Fore I would be nothing without you
My mind would be mush and I would be incapable of felling
I couldn’t wake up every morning
If I knew you wouldn’t be there waiting for me
Never have I felt such an undeniable passion
Such a love that could over power me this way
It’s so undeniable this connection we have
I can’t stand the time I spend away from you
I sit in class and day dream of you
Counting the minutes until I can come home to see you
And when I open the door my heart fills with joy because there you are!
You are the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on
Never could I let you go, not even for a million dollars
You have been with me through all the hard times
And never once have you left me
You have always been right there next to me
Jeering me on telling me to go for it
Make those dreams come true
Well without you those dreams would never even be close to possible
SO this is my thank you
For everything you do for me and everything you mean to me
This is an ode to you my beauty
Oh my dear Waterbaby how I love you so

Colorado wrote this for me :)

Packages From Usedom

2009-05-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after I skipped dutifully to the mail box, I received the most wonderful of packages! Angela, who I have been visiting and who has been visiting me, sent me chocolates!
Unfortunately, yesterday it was 96 degrees outside! The chocolate was all melted when I picked up the package, so I put it in my freezer.

When it had been properly restored to a solid state, I opened the package. There were chunks of chocolate stuck to all the packages, I couldn't figure out where it was all coming from.

There was also a wonderful little postcard that Angela had filled out with a beautiful picture of the beach on it.

She sent me two chocolates with marzipan, which I had never tried, and two with nougat, which I love.

She also sent me some Lindor Truffles. I think, they melted and because the packages are not sealed, they ended up all over everything! Including my hands, chin and nose!

I love German Chocolate! I normally don't get out my camera when I get mail, but I thought I would share this yummy experience with you!

I didn't open the package until late last night, so I probably shouldn't have eaten any of the chocolate, but it was just too tempting, I love marzipan!!

Thank you Angela, I consider you a good friend to have. Anytime I visit you always have wonderful things to say and you can always find the silver lining in any dark raincloud! Thank you for brightening the blog world, one happy word after the other!

New Blog

2009-05-19T21:46:00.001-07:00

I have made a blog that I'll update periodically about the planning of the wedding, I'll probably do quite a bit in the next few months then not touch it again for two years, but I will have it!

Rainy Days and Wedding Dates

2009-05-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Colorado and I sat down and made out a budget to see if we could make the drive up to Denver to see his family this June. We also made a budget for the wedding. I have been trying to show him how difficult it will be to have a nice wedding (the way I want it) and Colorado has come to the conclusion that I was right and that we won't have the money to get married the way I want to. So, we have backed off from the 'one year from now' date. We do have money saved. Since last August we have managed to save quite a bit. But at the rate we have been going, it will probably take us at least two more years, working the 20 to 30 hour weeks that we both do right now, to save up the money for us to get married and have the honey moon that I want.

I was getting into the planning part of it though, I really got excited. That's probably part of why he decided to say we could wait. I was showing him flowers and asking him about colors and showed him this nifty budget thing that I found online and he started asking about why stuff cost so much. We have decided that we will wait, mature, and buy a second car before we get married. Too bad, I had already gone to try on dresses and OMG I loved planning the wedding :) Oh well, this way we both get more of what we want!

June 12, 2010

2009-05-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

Colorado asked me to marry him almost a whole year ago. May 22 I think. We were at his Grandma's house, that's where he lived at the time. Usually I would go over there after I got off work and almost all weekend (when he wasn't working). This night we had found a box of brownies at Albertson's on the 99 cent aisle. So I made brownies while he pretended to watch. We watched T.V. while they were baking. When I got up to cut them, Colorado went to his bedroom. I cut the brownies and put two in some napkins. When I opened his door, he was down on one knee and asked me "Water Baby, will you marry me?"

Needless to say, I said yes. We moved in together 3 months later and now we think we might have a date for the wedding. June 12, 2010.

Kitties and Roomies

2009-05-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

I got my very first cat in August! He was a shelter cat. Colorado has always had cats and so when we moved in together, he immediately suggested that we run to the shelter and play with the many kitties there.

He had been at the shelter for almost 6 months. We went in looking for a kitten and instead came out with the sweetest cat I have ever met.

Soldier is his name and rubbing is his game. He rubs his face on everything! your fingers, your nose, your chin, your legs, YOUR CAMERA!

Finding an angle that is complementary to the soldier cat is almost impossible. Alas I found a few. And also a couple of Patches, our roommates Red and Tall's wiener dog. And also one of Tall sleeping on the couch!

Daddy knows about this but I'm not sure I told yall about Annabell. She was our kitten. We called her kitten and she knew she was kitten. When we moved at the end of February, she got out while we were moving the bed. We still have not found her.

She took to hiding in the water bottle case and ate her meals on our bed side table. She was so tiny when we found her on the side of the freeway. I hope she is OK.

This is it, This is me.

2009-04-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

Usually I want to post a blog, just so I can get a little bit of feedback, from my dad and all of you, mostly his friends, I have yet to make any of my own. I try to blog for my sake, but have trouble telling this huge internet the things that I really should be telling it.

Life has been lack luster. I am back in school and I am working at a 'fun' job and I'm only 20 years old and engaged to this amazing guy. But sometimes I just don't even want to get out of bed in the morning. I just want to curl up and cry.

Nothing particularly bad has happened. I just feel like even if I get up and shower and go to school and do my homework and finish this semester. I still have next semester and the year after that before I really start work on my degree and that will take at least four years, so I will be 25 then. That's not too bad, except that the people in my profession, unless they get their foot in the door when they are a freshman, usually don't even get to see any wild whales or do anything for years because of internships and paperwork desk jobs.

Sometimes I wonder if I will even graduate. Will I end up teaching? I don't even really like kids. I don't want to spend the rest of my life getting up early so that I can go to work so that I can earn money to pay for things I don't REALLY need. Will I be happy when I finish this semester? The next one? What about after that? Will I be happy then? Is there something I need to do that someone forgot to tell me about that will make me happy? I should be able to deal with my roommate (a dick though he may be) not wanting to share art supplies without not wanting to speak to him for a few days or wanting to hit him in the face with a metal baseball bat.

Nothing feels worth it anymore. I want Colorado to be enough for me. I don't know why I feel so worthless now. I never used to. In high school and the summer after that I felt so amazing, all the time. Galveston was hard. Harder than anyone knows, it changed me and I wish I could go back to before. I want to take it back. I feel like it took a part of me away and I don't know how to get it back.

Asshole

2009-04-27T09:48:00.001-07:00

This last week I was on my Facebook and one of my friends posted a link to a group called "Nuke the Whales". I clicked on the link and was really hurt by what I saw. There were over 200 members and most of them had posted comments about the group that sound a lot like this:

"Nuke the f***ers! they deserve to die!!!"

and

"Stupid animals can't even breathe underwater, all they do is eat our fish!"

and

"United Nations Indoctrinating Our Youth in Earth Worship; Documentary uncovers the real objective behind the Earth Charter. Many U.S. city and educational officials have already been persuaded to endorse this pro-UN manifesto. Learn why this campaign, masquerading as a plan to protect the environment, is potentially lethal to family, faith, and freedom.
http://www.documentarywire.com/indoctrinating-our-youth-in-earth-worship"

So, in response, I posted a note (kind of like a blog entry) that goes like this:

I know that most of my friends don't necessarily find the Save the Whales cause to be one that they strongly support. Some of you may not even think this cause is valid. I glanced at my home page today and found something that truly offended me. One of my friends had posted a link to a group called Nuke the Whales, most of the wall posts contained members who seemed almost excited by the idea that these wonderful creatures are a drain on society and should be eliminated. I want to dedicate my life to helping restore the world's population of baleen and toothed whales and I was deeply hurt by the ideas expressed in this group. I understand that the premise of the group is intended as a joke, but I am deeply offended by it. Some of you may not understand why, but I don't find this funny. These animals are endangered and are dieing out before we know enough about them to understand them. There is still so much we don't know about whales and the conservation efforts are not moving very fast. In a world where stupid things amuse the majority, I would feel defeated and that my efforts are for naught if more groups like this start popping up and become more popular. Cartoons about stupid people are popular all over the place and I do not want Nuke the Whales to join the ranks of Charlie the Unicorn, South Park or Family Guy. I'll get off my soap box now, for those of you who actually read this, thank you :)

I tagged a few of my friends that I thought might appreciate the fact that I took a stand and wrote about what I believe. One of these people, who I tagged because I consider him an intellectual and was curious about what he thought wrote this to me:

First off, you're wrong. That's ok, most people are most of the time. Including me. The group itself is parody and they're expressing loudly that they think whales are important. This is similar to making racist, sexist or otherwise bigoted statements that are absolutely untrue to point out the ridiculousness of said statements, the only problem is that this group took it to an extreme and made it a little less satirical and a lot less funny. They point being, they're still on your side. None of those people think that losing whales is a good thing at all and I'm sure plenty of them appreciate good humor. Like South Park. Which is satire. Second off, they are expressing one of the most treasured aspects of free speech: you have no right to not be offended. You're bound to run into plenty of people who offend you and it is your job to understand what they are saying completely, to comprehend their motives and methods and realize that 1) they're wrong or 2) they're not so bad after all. The free marketplace of ideas is a harsh place to live, a no-holds bar arena of thought and reason. To be unable to communicate thoroughly or take the time to read the statement of the group (and I found three in a search, all of which were in no way serious) then you should in no way be complaining. Do realize that I love you, but I will in no way coddle you. Your argument is flawed, misspelled, and holds as well as a sieve on a shooting range. And to help you learn from it the best thing for me to do is not tell you it looks like a nice bucket.

I am furious. So I told him:

Thanks Alex, I thought you might have something intelligent to say because I consider you an intellectual. Obviously I underestimated your sense of morality and understanding for other people's causes. I stated that I understand that the groups are meant to be funny, but that I do not find them to be and was simply expressing my opinion that in my current field of study these groups, while seemingly harmless have the potential to be detrimental to the cause I have chosen to spend my entire future promoting. Also, if I misspelled any words, please, do tell! I can't find them.

I know this is kind of long, but I needed to vent. :)

Earth Day

2009-04-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

buzz...buzz...buzz...

Dad is calling again, should I answer?

"Hi Daddy, what's up?"

"Ohh I'm just watching t.v. and was thinking about you, there is a show on Thursday night at 8 o'clock about orcas by Jean-Michel Cousteau"

. . .

Turns out that Orcas are very cultured. The matriarchal resident pods of the Pacific North-West are the pods that most of us know about. They stay with their mother's their whole lives and when a full grown adult male looses his mother, they have been known to mourn for weeks, sometimes dieing from lack of food. They have been known to help lost boatmen find their way and were sensationalized in the 1980's and 1990's by Keiko (Free Willy) who was taken from his mother in the waters of Iceland. Keiko was eventually returned to the Atlantic Ocean only to be rejected by the tight-nit pods of the area. He would eventually take his last breath on the coast of Norway.

There are other cultures of Orca all over the world. Orcas have the largest range of all the marine mammals but number fewer than 100.000 worldwide. The residents off the coast of New Zealand are not matriarchal but do stay in very tight nit pods of 20 or 30 individuals. They hunt baby baleen whales, sharks and manta rays. An orca might find a manta ray and call over another orca that is better at catching the rays. The second orca will then roll over on it's back and pick the ray out from under a rock and flip it on it's back, making the ray go limp. The two orcas will share the manta ray.

The calls of the orca are also cultured geographically. The calls of the Australian orca tend to sound 'twangier' (much like the people of Australia) than the calls of the transient pods or pods in other parts of the world. Orca have dialects down to the family level and do not tend to mix well with orcas that have a different cultures and languages. Some transient orca meet with 200 or 300 other orca to hunt huge balls of fish that gather near the North Sea. The year that the team went to film this Orca feeding frenzy, the orca didn't show up. Neither did the fish. The waters that at one time were teaming with fish and orca were almost completely deserted.

The second half of the two hour special was about salmon farming. The salmon farms of British Columbia have depleted the wild salmon from the rivers, and sea lice are infesting salmon spawn before they are ready, before they have scales. Salmon are the main food source for the resident Orca certain times of year. Salmon also feed the bears, the sharks and humans as well. Salmon are also predators of the deep. The fish, whales and even humans all contain alarming levels of toxins. I'm not sure what we must do about this, but I know that something has to change.

Yesterday was Earth Day. Save the Whales.

Informative Speech

2009-04-16T18:31:00.000-07:00

I GOT A 95!!!!!! It was horrible though, I was so nervous, but my teacher didn't see to notice!!

Oh and my dad sent me a link to a post he did a few years ago. I really liked it and I don't think I read it the first go-around so... Here it is!

My speech today

2009-04-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first speech in my, well, speech class. We have been talking about how communication works and how to avoid disagreements and to solve things rationally without fighting about it. I suck at this. I think about what I'm saying and how it will be perceived by the person I'm saying it to and somewhere along the way "shared meaning" is not achieved. I stopped writing and talking as much when we were going through that section of the class. So I have decided that studying the way I talk is nothing if not detrimental to my speaking habits. I will not be taking anymore speech classes after this. Not my thing.

So today I go in to class, all dressed up and nervous about my speech. I am thinking of all the different ways I can explain to my classmates "How Yoga is Beneficial to Students of all Athletic Abilities" (an informative speech). I show up to class almost 10 minutes late (my teacher comes in shortly after I do) and have forgotten my evaluation sheet. As we are getting organized my neighbor has an extra (YAY!) so I give my outline and evaluation sheet to my teacher and put my name at the bottom of the list of presenters. Mrs. PhD, my teacher, is in a particularly bad mood today. I am scared out of my mind. Mrs. PhD decides that we need to practice speaking so that the first time we are up in front of everyone is not when we are being graded. I'm first. I get up to the front and my heart drops into my stomach.

I completely forget what I am supposed to say. I cannot remember what my speech is even about.

I sit back down and wait until it's my turn to melt under the pressure of the spotlight.
Lucky me, we ran out of time.
Darn now I have to go through the whole thing all over again.

Just because...

2009-03-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

Just because I need to take a break from writing my speech on the benefits of yoga on cancer patients.
Stress management
Freeing the mind
Freeing the soul
So I can put off studying for my lab practical concerning all the body systems of humans *and the pigs we dissected*
Veins and arteries
Ilium and plasmodesmatas
Cellular respiration
So that I don't think about weather or not the pictures I found of the whales being hunted to extinction would be considered "emotionally disturbing" or just "icky" by my speech teacher.
Babies taken from their mothers
Creatures we know nothing about
Destroyed
Wondering if this is really what I want.
Or if this is what I think I want.
Maybe both.
Or not.

Listen!!

2009-02-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

I heard about peotry day after the fact and wanted to post something, but I couldnt think of a poem that i knew that would be good enough for me to post and really think about it. I found this in my Fundamentals of Speech book. I love it.

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice,
you have not dont what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problems,
you have failed me, strange as that may seem.
Listen!
All I asked was that you listen.
Not talk or do-just hear me.
Advice is cheap:50 cents will get you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself;
I'm not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
but not helpless.
When you do somethign for me that I can and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and weakness.
But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational,
then I quit trying to convince you and can get about the business of
understanding what's behind this irrational feeling.
And when that's clear, the answers are obvious and I don't need advice.
Irrational feelings make sence when we understand what's behind them.
Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes, for some people,
because God is mute, and doesn't give advice or try to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work iit out for yourself.
So, please listen and just hear me, and, if you want to talk,
wait a minute for your turn; and I'll listen to
you.

I'm not sure if this peom is about God, or the opposite, but I like it.

Life and Death

2009-02-04T12:45:00.000-08:00

The Japanese government conducts 'research expeditions'. On the expeditions they plan on killing marine wildlife. Whales. In 2007 they illegally and inhumanely used grenade tipped harpoons to brutally kill more than 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary near Antarctica, using a loophole in the international moratorium on whaling that allows catching whales for so called "research" purposes.

50 endangered fin whales - the world's second largest animal & oldest living Mammal - as well as 935 smaller minke whales.

This article is dated but provides a starting point for this movement.

Don’t buy the argument that Japan’s motivation to continue whaling is about maintaining their culture or conducting scientific research as they claim……

QUOTE: “The Japanese have no tradition of crossing 3 oceans and two hemispheres in factory ships to slaughter these highly intelligent and defenceless creatures. The Japanese tradition was no different to that of many maritime nations (including Australia) in previous centuries that conducted whaling off their coasts and used the whale product for fuel and food”.

- Quote by Ian Campbell (Former environment minister of Australia - 19th August 2008)

This facebook group, while slightly racist, has the right idea.

I believe that if we get enough people, in enough circles of friends, on enough websites and gather these people and push this cause into the public eye, we can stop this inhumane practice. We can solve this problem. If mass media would devote air time to this cause, our government and governments around the world would hear us and the average person could push this out front. I ask you to please type a short email, write a letter, or make a phone call and repost this. Add to it and find things to help support this worthy cause. If everyone did something, there would be a lot of somethings out there. One voice gets lost in the crowd, 100 voices can be heard. The more people we get to back this cause, the louder it will be until we cannot ignore it anymore

I am a college student studying Marine Biology. I want to one day find the breeding grounds for the elusive blue whales. Now they are hunting Humpbacks and Fins, will they continue to more
endangered species next? When will this stop if we don't make them? My heart breaks for these
giants of the sea, these beautiful creature most people never even get to see. You cannot put a
humpback whale in a zoo or create an exhibit at Sea World for a Fin or Sperm whale. These
creatures must stay in their homes and since it is our fault that home is being destroyed, it is only right that we should take the steps necessary to ensure that they are not killed. Japanese Whaling Ships have been known to find pods of Sperm whales and wait for the adults to submerge to the deep so they can hunt and attack the babies. This is outright slaughter, cutting re-population efforts short right where it is most important. If this cause got the media attention if deserves, people all across the world would stand up and demand that this inhumane practice be stopped. I ask that leaders and followers alike demand that this issue be pushed into the public eye.

Do not sugar coat this issue, it is a matter of life and death.

Brandi

2009-02-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

Every little girl wants a horse, I'm sure if you ask him, my Daddy would have plenty of 'cute' stories of me as a little girl, dressed up in a stuffed horse for Halloween, pretending my bicycle has a name and listens to me, her name was Starlight, she was a Palomino. I am not sure if you have heard about Junior, my uncle, but he is very ill in the hospital(I will elaborate in another post). Well one of Grandma's best friends, Martha, called my mom the other day because of all of this.

My mom, in turn, then called me. "Water Baby, do you remember a few years ago when Grandma bought that horse for Brandon?" Yes, I did, but I had all but forgotten about it. "Well Martha called and wanted to know if you wanted that horse, Brandon has never gone to see it, and Grandma won't mind."

And so I have a horse. My own horse. A horse that I can go see. Whenever I want!

Brandi is chestnut, kind of, she also has sploches of white, like she is greying, on her rump and shoulders. She has big brown eyes with blue rims and you can see the whites of her eyes. Martha thinks she is an appaloosa. Brandi hasn't been trained and barely walks on a lead rope without nipping at you. She is three years old and Martha spoils her like a baby. I hope that going to see her will help her stop nipping and maybe I can help train her.

Rath Roiben Raye

2009-01-26T11:45:00.000-08:00

This is a poem I wrote awhile back, its published in some poetry contest book, but I just like it cause it's based on my favorite book, Tithe. It was only ten lines long but I just wrote the rest. I would like some feed back if anyone reads it.

Rath Roiben Raye!
With your hair of silver and eyes of grey,
daunt me not, but woo me sweetly;
for though you be foe, I love you discreetly.
Of different clans we are destined to be
but into your eyes I wish to see.
An arrow of thorns that is lodged in your heart
is all that prevents us from being apart.
The flesh of the fruit, so juicy and red
would be as my heart as you over me bled.
The queen of the fae, or those of Unseely
would bind me and tithe me and never would free me.
Your name I might use, force you to kill
do this for me, in spite of your will.
In death may we meet, in life we may not
new beginnings ensue as you leave me to rot.
Our love you deny, for sake of my own
a riddle to me you did intone,
a faerie who lies cannot be found.
But I can and I will, to our love am I bound
'A faerie who lies' scoff the gentry of fae
then how do I lie? and I do, as I lay.

I'm back!!!

2009-01-23T12:10:00.000-08:00

So it turns out that I had a blog tucked away somewhere just waiting for me to find it. I could very easily connect it back to my dad over at Bulletholes, but I would much rather just start from scratch. I may not post very often but I will post every once in a while. My last blog I hadn't logged into in almost 6 months,I was busy and didn't have internet access, so when I tried to log in I could not remember my user name. or pass word. This old blog I created to tell my dad's friends about my marching band experiences. I will probably tell you about them as well. So now I aim to pick up these tiny, little pieces that are left behind and start anew. So welcome all to Sierra's new blog. It is sure to be a place of fantasy, poetry, and distant rambolings. I am not who I think I am, so I must try to find my sence of self. Help me with this if you please, but do not comment for the sake of commenting. Input into my growing mind should be careful. Precise. I hope to grow as a person and keep this blog until I have no need for it anymore. It shall be a place for half finished stories, those I have barely starte and strings of word that I may or may not find poetic. you may or may not like what I say, but niether shall I. Good morning and welcome.