I’m Done!

With school! For now!

Digital Photography! A!

Biology! A!

Painting! A!

Geography! A!

History! B!

But, a B is still amazing considering that was the absolute worst class I have had so far, and I was fully expecting, and had made peace with the fact, that I was getting a C. On all 5 of the exams throughout the semester, there was not one that I completely finished. As I got to over halfway done each time, a little message would pop up saying “There is two minutes left. Please save your work as it will be submitted for grading.” And I would panic and quickly race through the rest of the test franticly clicking random answers hoping I would get some right. I never did. On the very last exam, however, I only had one single panicked click. One. And I missed three questions. I was fully expecting to get another D or a C on the test, because normally I always missed so many. I never had trouble on any of the assignments. I got full points on just about everything, except the exams. But since I did so well on the final, it pulled my grade up instead of down, and I ended the class with a final score of 84.66. I am very happy with that B.

My second worst class was Biology, but it turned out to not be nearly as bad as I had expected. The “horrible” teacher who made Joel and I split up in lab the first day, turned out to not be nearly as awful as she seemed. In fact, by the end of the class, I felt sorry for her because just about everyone else in the class talked about her behind her back, using language that, 70 years ago, would have gotten them 12 bars of ivory soap crammed in their mouths. She may not have been the greatest teacher in the world, but she did not deserve the names they called her when she couldn’t hear them. The only thing that made her “awful” was the fact that they didn’t like her tests, mainly because it was obvious they didn’t study enough, and half of them didn’t show up on the time, if at all. By the end of the class, 6 people had failed just because they missed so many labs, and most of the rest came very close to failing. It was their own fault they didn’t get good grades, but of course they blamed her. They were all adult age, but they acted like babies. It was very pathetic.

On the day of the final I was sitting outside the class studying, waiting for Joel to get back before I went in, and she came up and told me that she just wanted to tell me that it had been a pleasure having me in her class. I’m sure if Joel had been there she would have expressed the same thing to him, because out of all the other students, I’m pretty sure we were the only two not to either give her any grief or gossip about her with the other students.

Geography was an okay class. I took it because I had to, but I did choose it out of a bunch of other classes because I don’t think I know enough about geography. I still don’t but I know a lot more now that I did, and I plan to keep learning. You may recall THIS post, well, I still have that coloring book, and we actually only used it during the last two weeks, which is a shame since I think it really helps you learn. So I plan to just keep working on it, and I’ll just keep on learning as I color in it.

Digital Photography was my best class. besides the reports I shared from geography, that was the class that I shared the most on here from. I learned the most, and it was the class that in the long run will probably benefit me the most career-wise.
My other favorite class was Painting 1. I had a lot of fun in that class, and now that class is out I have all my paintings back, so I will start sharing them on my blog. I just need to get them set up and photographed. That will have to wait for a little while though because most of my free time will be spent getting ready for Christmas. Thanks to my Digital Photography class, I will be using my newfound knowledge of Photoshop to restore more pictures for my Grandma’s Christmas present. (See! It’s already coming in handy!) :) She knows I’m restoring them, as I had told her a few months ago that I needed to for a class for school, but she probably isn’t expecting me to get them all printed up for her for Christmas. So if I have time before Christmas I might get some of the paintings up on my blog, but otherwise it will have to wait until the holidays are over. Either way, I’ll get them up here eventually.

Next semester I am taking a graphic design class, just a basic one to brush up on the subject, since it has been about 4 years since I went to ITT Tech. That will be an online class as it wasn’t available in a classroom setting. Not sure how it will work, but I’ll find out I guess. I am also taking my LONG awaited Design 2 class, with one of my favorite teachers. I loved taking that class in my first semester. If you’ll recall that was the class where I learned how to use a sewing machine and I made a kite that wouldn’t really fly, except to swoop down and attack the person who was launching it. :p You can re-read all about it and see the pictures HERE if you’d like. :) This time Joel and I will be taking Design 2 together, as he had a different class to take during that semester and he took Design 1 the following semester. Joel and I are also taking a class called Digital Drawing, which is another graphic design class. Due to the name of the class we are hoping it will be making use of drawing tablets, (The computer kind). The other class we have together is Painting 2. No waiting over a year for the second class here. :) I loved the first class, and we had a great teacher, so I am really looking forward to this one as well.

Well, that’s all my news for now! I’d better get busy on Grandma’s pictures, only 6 days left until Christmas!

Legendary Creatures Around the World

I have been working Extremely hard these last two weeks getting everything completed for all my classes. Last week I finished an almost 6 page report on Legendary Creatures for my Geography class. I just checked on my grade and aside from a couple “Grammatical Errors” which he did not point out, I aced it. Generally the teachers in the online classes do not write much for reviews, but my teacher did have a rather complimentary, if brief bit of praise to offer.

So far one of my favorite papers since I've been teaching this class (3 years now). I enjoyed the subject matter immensely.

I now have a final exam to complete, and then I will be completely finished with this class, and as this test is the last thing I need to complete for any class, I will soon be done with all of this semester’s work. Woo Hoo!
I know some of you have enjoyed reading my other things about cryptozoology, so I will share my paper here for those of you who would like to read it. :)

Legendary Creatures Around the World

By Jonathan North

The deep forests in the North America, the deserts of the Australian outback, the icy depths of a Loch in Scotland, the snowy peaks of the Himalayan Mountains in Asia, and the dense jungles of the African rainforests; all these are places today that have significant legends attached to them, legends of fantastic creatures. Creatures laughed off by most as just stories or superstition. But what if these stories are more than just stories? What if these creatures all really exist?
Today there are creatures in zoos all over the world that were once laughed at as creatures of myth and legend. Kangaroos, pandas, and many other creatures at one time were disregarded as myths by the scientific community until given absolute proof. In fact, one of my favorite animals was considered a myth until the late 18^th century when Europeans were first introduced to a living giraffe. They had heard of giraffes from ancient Greek and Roman writings, but having never seen such a beast for themselves, it was thought to be an animal that the ancients had invented. Similarly, the giraffe’s only known relative, the okapi, was also thought to be a myth until its official discovery in the late 1800’s by Sir Harry Johnston. In 1903 the first live Okapi was captured, and today you can find them in zoos all over the world.
When explorers brought the remains of a platypus to England from Australia they were accused of creating a fake animal by piecing together parts from the bodies of real animals. It was not until sometime later when scientist saw for themselves living, breathing specimens, that they accepted that the platypus was not a beaver with a duck’s bill taxidermied to its face.
Some scientists think there is a definite possibility that there is truth behind our modern day myths, and have dedicated their lives to trying to prove them as truth. These scientists, working in the relatively small, and often maligned scientific field of Cryptozoology, the study of unknown animals, ask a very simple question. Is it possible that mythological creatures have some basis in reality? While it is unlikely that all these animals are exactly as the stories depict them, I fully believe that for every legend there is, or was, a real, live creature behind it.
All over the world, and throughout the ages of time, every culture has stories of fantastic beasts that great warriors fought and killed. When the great beasts are called a bear or a lion, it is generally accepted that such a story truly happened. The hero’s deeds may be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but generally such stories are thought to have a grain of truth to them. But what about the stories with a creature we don’t recognize?
Many countries and many cultures all over the world had legends of monstrous and unbelievable beasts. Native Americans told of massive birds with such huge wingspans they created thunder as they flew. Sailors have long told stories of encounters with strange creatures, such as mermaids, and fearfully large creatures, from the massive Kraken to enormous sea serpents that would attack ships and drag them to the ocean floors never to be seen again. And many, many cultures have legends of gigantic reptiles called dragons. But these were all just stories, right? Maybe, but legends had to start somewhere.
What if these legends were stories that these cultures used to explain real life animals that they did not understand? It is generally accepted now, that the legend of the Kraken might have been based on encounters with giant squid, an animal undocumented by science until recent years. Similarly the stories of mermaids, may have come from sailors, dehydrated and not able to see straight, who saw sunbathing seals, or swimming manatees. Why is it so different to believe that a story of a dragon was based on a real animal?
While this explanation is usually laughed off by mainstream scientists, Creation scientists have hypothesized that the dragon legends of cultures all around the world, from ancient Babylon, to ancient China, to even more recent examples like the medieval European legend of St. George and the Dragon, were based on encounters with dinosaurs.
Since Creationists see fossils as evidence of a world-wide flood in the days of Noah, they see no problems in believing that dinosaurs were alive at the time of man. They obviously would not have been called dinosaurs, a name coined only in 1840 by Sir Richard Owen, but could they have been known by the name dragon, or other names throughout history, depending on the culture who tells the tale? Since most Dragon legends end with the dragon slain by the valiant hero, perhaps the reason for the dinosaur’s extinction was the same reason that so many species are in danger of going extinct today; us. Humanity is generally thought to be the cause of the Mammoth’s extinction. Humanity caused the Dodo’s extinction. Humanity wiped out the Passenger Pigeon, the Moa, and the Tasmanian Tiger. If the dinosaurs did not go extinct millions of years ago, is it such a stretch to believe that we caused their extinction?
Some people, not just creationists, even believe that some dinosaurs may still be alive, as there are stories all around the world to this day of creatures that fit the descriptions of dinosaurs. There are stories of multiple creatures in Africa, the most famous of which, the Mokele Mbembe, fit the description of a living dinosaur. Australia also has stories, as do the Native Americans here in our own country. Ancient artwork occasionally depicts creatures that do not resemble any known creature today, and some of them look vaguely like dinosaurs.
But dinosaurs are not the only creatures around which legends might be based. All over North and South America, there are legends of giant hairy ape men. To the natives in Canada, these creatures were known as Sasquatch. To Americans, who more often use the name in derision, the creature is known as Bigfoot. In South America they tell tales of the Mono Grande, “Big Monkey”, a giant tailless ape.
Without solid proof, people who claim to have seen such creatures are laughed at, but to scoff at such stories has often left the scoffers with egg on their faces. Until about 200 years ago the scientific community laughed at African natives who claimed that giant, hairy, wild men lived in the jungles of Africa. Their laughter turned to astonishment when a French explorer brought back the body of a gorilla. Is it so difficult to believe that similar creatures could exist on one or both of the Americas?
Similar to these stories is the Abominable Snowman in Asia, or as the native people refer to him, the Yeti. A wild man said to live in the Himalayas. Is it possible that this “wild man” is a type of ape? In Australia, they tell of a creature called Yowie, and their descriptions are also of a hairy ape man. To me, so many similar stories all over the world, can’t be laughed off as coincidences.
Another famous beast, beloved by tourists and derided by scientists, is the Loch Ness Monster a giant beast said to live in the Loch Ness in Scotland. Most accounts told of the creature describe it as what looks to be an extinct marine reptile, similar to a plesiosaur. Scientists say that there is no way it can exist there, but researchers have found evidence of underwater caverns that may contain air, and channels that could lead to the ocean. Who’s to say that “Nessie” is just one creature? Isn’t it far more likely that what people have seen throughout history are just different members of the same species? Perhaps the Loch is just a stop on their migratory rout?
The Loch Ness is not the only body of water said to contain a monster, in fact there are stories of lake monsters all over the world. However, one lake, Lake Champlain, a lake between New York and Vermont, has been the only place other than Loch Ness for someone to provide somewhat credible evidence for the existence of such a creature. In July of 1977 a woman captured an image of the beast that is still debated today. The image shows what appears to be a plesiosaur, even clearer than the ones taken of Nessie. This was in the days long before Photoshop, so the chances that this woman was able to fake this photograph by herself are quite slim.
We humans love stories. We love hearing tales of the unknown, and stories of creatures that couldn’t possibly exist. But every story had to be inspired by something. I think it is completely within the realm of possibility that all these stories, all over the world, told by cultures throughout history, had some basis in truth. After all, The Gorilla, the Panda, and the Giraffe were once stories. Perhaps someday, our descendants will stroll through the zoo and laugh at us because we once thought that Sasquatch and Nessie were figments of someone’s overactive imagination.

2 Countries 8 Facts

I am getting down to the final stretch! Next week is finals week and I have been studying harder than ever this week trying to get ready. Today I never left my room, except for, you know, eating and stuff… I’m still in my pajamas from last night, and it is currently… Um… Very, very late at night… Again… :p But it was all worth it because I completely finished a huge research paper and an assignment for Geography where we were to find 4 facts each about two different countries. (Though because I am somewhat of a nerd, I beefed up all the facts, so they each contain a bunch of sub-facts. Maybe I’ll get bonus points! :D ) The countries could be anywhere in South America, Europe, Asia, or North Africa. Since I know you are all dying for some interesting Geographical trivia, ;) I decided to share my findings with all of you. Aren’t you excited? Hooray for knowledge! :D

For my first country I chose Latvia, as I have friends whose family immigrated from Latvia, one of whom has now returned, having married a Latvian, and they are currently raising a family there. The second country I chose purely because I wanted to incorporate some aspect of Cryptozoology into my report. I chose Nepal, because it is one of the two counties in which the Himalayas are located. The Himalayas being the home of the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. :p

You guys are all lucky because, as this is my blog, I decided that I would illustrate my report for you. So much more interesting than the one my teacher has to grade! :D

Latvia

The name Latvia is spelled Latvija in the Latvian language and this comes from the ancient Latgallians, or Letts, one of four tribes, who formed the ethnic core of today’s Latvian people. In written sources, they are first mentioned in the 11th century, but not much is known of the origins of these tribes.

One of the staples of the Latvian diet is Rupjmaize, a dark bread made from rye.

Using rye bread for something other than sandwiches would be pretty unheard of here in the U.S., but in Latvia, it is used to make Rupjmaizes kartojums, a traditional Latvian dessert. Layered like a trifle, this dessert uses jam or preserves, along with a rye bread crumb mixture and whipped cream.

Often it is garnished with more bread crumbs and fresh fruit to give it an attractive appearance.

Latvia's national bird is the White Wagtail, so named for the way its tail moves as it runs along the ground.

No one knows why the wagtail is constantly wagging its tail, but reasons for it have been hypothesized, from a submissive signal to other wagtails, to a sign of vigilance that deters predators.

Although the origins of the Christmas tree are disputed by historians, one of the first documented uses in history is from Latvia. In 1510 an evergreen was erected for their celebration in the town hall square in Riga, Latvia.

The grandest building on the square, the House of Blackheads has a domed plaque in front of it, marking the location of this first celebration.

 

Nepal

Early sources refer to the country as Nepala, and the name Nepal is believed to come from the word "Nepa" referring to the Newar Kingdom, which is the present day Kathmandu Valley. Local legends say that a Hindu sage named "Ne" came to the valley in prehistoric times and that the word "Nepal" means, "The country looked after by Ne".

Nepal contains some of the highest mountain peaks on earth. One of these mountains is Mount Everest, which is the highest mountain in the entire world.

Although the height is disputed and Nepal is planning a new survey, the current accepted height of the mountain is 29,029 ft. The mountain is the home of what may be the highest non-microscopic life form on earth, the Euophrys omnisuperstes, a tiny jumping spider.

It is thought that the spider may feed on small frozen insects blown there on the wind.

Nepal's flag is the only national flag in the world that is not rectangular in shape.

The red in the flag stands for courage, and is the color of the rhododendron, the national flower of Nepal, and the flag's blue border signifies peace. The curved moon on the flag is a symbol of the calm nature of the Nepalese people, while the sun represents the aggressiveness of the Nepalese warriors.

Nepal is one of two countries said to be the home of one of the most famous legendary monsters of today, known as the Yeti, or, more popularly, the Abominable Snowman.

The Yeti is said to live in the Himalayas, a mountain region spanning both Nepal and Tibet. The name Yeti comes from a Tibetan word for bear, as some believe that the Yeti is a Man-Bear. Most descriptions given of this creature make it out to be a giant ape, similar to the Bigfoot or Sasquatch of North America.

So, there you have it. All you never knew you needed to know about Latvia and Nepal. :)

Are Dinosaurs Still Alive?

As my friends, and long time readers of my blog know, I am big into cryptozoology. This semester in my online geography class, we were to write a five page report, and a post for a discussion forum, on any topic we chose, as long as it tied into geography. I managed to tie cryptozoology into geography. It wasn’t that hard to do. :)

For the five page paper I am going to do cryptozoology as a whole, mainly focusing on legendary creatures, Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, etc, but for the discussion post I decided to write about my favorite area of cryptozoology, the fact that dinosaurs could still exist. Some people’s discussions have been a couple measly little paragraphs. Basically they wrote down a few things and called it good. For mine, I ended up writing what amounted to a three page paper. So far the response to it has been of great excitement. As I figured, none of my classmates had any idea that there is still a chance that some dinosaurs have survived their own extinction, and I quite possibly blew all of their minds wide open. :) Today, I will share that paper with all of you, and if you didn’t know that there may still be dinosaurs in the world, prepare to have you own mind blown. (Unless you are a closed minded doubter who scoffs at anything science can’t explain. If so, I pity you. :) )

 

Are Dinosaurs Still Alive?

Jonathan North

Are dinosaurs still alive? If you were to ask the average Joe on the street you would of course get the only sensible answer, “No, of course not.” But for a few people who have dedicated their lives to the discovery of unknown animals, a relatively small scientific field called cryptozoology, you would get a very different answer.

“But dinosaurs died out millions of years ago,” skeptics argue. “The only proof they ever even existed is the fossils, right? They can’t possibly be alive today. Science says so!” As a creationist, I would disagree with the extinction date, but there are other creationists who would still use a similar argument. The only place anyone sees dinosaurs is in the fossil record, so the natural assumption is that they are all extinct. But just because something is accepted as truth by the scientific community does not always mean it is true. Science is constantly being rewritten as new evidences are discovered.

Have you ever heard of a Coelacanth? Said to have been extinct for 65 million years, coelacanth fossils were used as direct proof of evolution, due to the fact that they had fins that looked like they could have been legs. In 1938 the scientific community was turned upside down by the discovery of living coelacanths. Science books had to be rewritten because one of the main proofs of evolution was shown to be alive and well, and it was completely a fish, not a fish/amphibian hybrid as had been previously speculated. If scientists had missed seeing this fish for thousands of years, isn’t it possible that there could be other animals known only through the fossil records still alive today?

“Wait a minute, you might ask. “This is all very interesting, but isn’t this a geography class? What does any of this have to do with geography?” Well, in this case, geography is the most important factor. To be an unknown animal, that animal needs somewhere to hide.

“Yes,” some would argue, “But oceans are one thing. Land is another. Scientists have explored all over the earth, and haven’t found dinosaurs. How does this help the case for cryptozoologists holding out hope for a live dinosaur?”

While it is true that for the most part all lands have been explored at one time or another, there are some places that it simply isn’t possible to get to with all the scientific equipment necessary to search for dinosaurs. Deep in the African Congo, there are miles and miles of deep jungle so dense that scientists can’t possibly explore it all very thoroughly. Even the native Africans that live around those regions seldom venture in.

“Ok, so there are places we can’t get to, I get that,” one might concede, “but the inability to easily explore, does not equal proof.”

And that would be the end of the argument, except for one thing. As you’ll see in the paragraph above, I wrote “Seldom.” The native Africans may not go that deep into the jungle often, but those that do tell stories of huge monsters that live there. The most famous story they tell is of a creature called Mokele-mbembe. In their language this means “One who stops the flow of rivers.” When asked to draw a picture of this beast, the natives draw what is clearly described as a sauropod dinosaur, a long-necked dinosaur like Apatosaurus, or Brachiosaurus. These natives are not educated, and would have no idea what a dinosaur even was, but the fact that their “Monster” looks so much like what we call a dinosaur, should give one pause.

Mokele-mbembe may be the most famous example of what might be a living dinosaur, but it is far from the only one. The Congo in particular, but all over Africa, is a source of many stories from the native peoples, claiming to have seen monsters.

The Emela-Ntouka, or “Killer of Elephants” is an enormous beast thought to be a ceratopsian, like Triceratops, but with a single huge horn. Some have described it as a giant rhinoceros, but it is said to have a long thrashing tail like a crocodile. It lives in the swamps like Mokele-mbembe and natives say that it hates elephants. The way it uses its horn is what gave it its name.

The Mbielu- Mbielu- Mbielu is yet another massive swamp dweller. This one is thought to be a stegosaurus as its long name means, “The animal with planks growing out of its back.” Natives say that it spends all its time in the water, and algae actually grows all over any exposed skin. It has never been seen out of the water, so they do not know what its legs look like.

The Kongamoto or “Overwhelmer of Boats” is a much smaller creature than those previously mentioned, but is significant because, though technically not a dinosaur, from descriptions given, it would seem that it was a type of pterosaur. It gets its name from the fact that it swoops down at fisherman. Like the others, it would seem that it prefers the swamps. In western Zamibia it has been sighted in a swamp that is believed to be the abode of demons.

Dinosaur sightings are not limited to Africa, though this is where most sightings occur. For years there have been stories of dinosaur like animals all over the world. Even in America people have claimed to see animals they describe as three foot tall T-Rexes, Velociraptors and Pterosaurs.

Australian Aborigines tell of a terrifying creature called the Burrunjor. It walks on two legs and has two small forearms. They say it is about 25 feet long. Does this not sound eerily similar to a theropod dinosaur, such as Tyranosaurus Rex? Even more compelling is that fact that unlike the African cases, these stories do not just come from the native peoples. In the 1950’s, cattle ranchers in Northern Australia, reported that many of their cattle had been killed or half-eaten by a mysterious animal. The ranchers had found giant bipedal tracks and some heard thunderous roars, while others heard it crashing through the jungle at night. A farmer claimed to have seen a Burrunjor from about 250 feet away. In 1961 a tracker gave an account of a huge reptile walking on two legs through a swamp near the Gulf Coast. He said it was about 25 feet tall. In addition, to the Australian sightings, people in New Guinea, Boliva, and South America have reported sightings of similar creatures.

Skeptics would point out that scientists can hardly take the word of an uneducated tribesman at face value, and they would also question the word of an everyday farmer, but again we can go back to the coelacanth. When the coelacanth was discovered by scientists, it was very well known to the native peoples where it was discovered. They were using it as a source of food. There have been many species that western science was unaware of that were just common knowledge to the people in the areas that the animals have been found. The Gorilla, the Panda, and the Duck-Billed Platypus, just to name a few. All species generally disregarded as native lore by scientists until actual proof was produced.

I do not know if dinosaurs still walk the earth today or not, but to disbelieve based solely on the fact that “Everyone knows they’re extinct” to me is just closed minded and foolish. There is so much in our world that we know nothing about. People sometimes just assume that scientists know everything, but that isn’t the case at all. I for one am glad that they don’t. I think that the mystery is all part of the fun! I love to think about what fantastic things might be out there just waiting to be discovered, or in this case RE-discovered!

Another Close Call

Last night I had another close call with neglected school work. I had not been paying very close attention to my online classes and I almost missed the deadline for an assignment in Geography class. Our teacher gave us a list of various cities from all all over the world and we were to look them all up in an atlas or on a globe. This was almost a very big problem, as I have no idea where our atlas is. As you probably know, our house was flooded last year, and pretty much everything in the basement was ruined or moved before it could get ruined. The atlas was on a shelf, so I’m sure it is fine, I just have no idea where it is. Joel didn’t either, but he borrowed one from our grandma, so we could do the assignment. If she hadn’t had one we’d have been in trouble.

The atlas was one from 1962, which worked out fine except for question 11 which asked for the location of Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City was not in the Atlas. When this particular atlas was published Ho Chi Minh City was called Cochin China, Thank goodness for Wikipedia. :) After I found this out, I easily found Cochin China. In case you’re wondering, it’s at 10°N 106°E. :) I submitted the assignment with minutes to spare before it would have been considered late. This is another example of why I needed to cut down on time-wasting things. If I’d have been paying more attention to due dates, I would have gotten the assignment done a long time ago. Procrastination never pays.

True to my word, I unsubscribed from a whole bunch of YouTube channels, and I deleted Northern Imagination. I did however, save a bunch of posts from the archive and I integrated them into this blog. They are mainly writing posts. I’ll link to a few of them here if you want to read any of them. Most of them are pretty funny.

This was my most recent post on my other blog. CLICK HERE. We had eggplant twice last week and it got me to thinking, why is it called an eggplant? It got me into one of my random humor moods, and I wrote a brief rant about how silly the name was, then I researched it and wrote what I found.

This was another example of my very random sense of humor. CLICK HERE. My random sense of humor is very easily fueled by randomness from outside sources. :)

This post started out as a comment on my cousin Shaina’s blog. CLICK HERE. She posted about coffee shops and how they were one of her favorite haunts. Of course this brought to my mind a very different kind of haunting, and I posted a comment in character as a ghost. I turned that comment into a whole blog post in itself. :)

This was a post about a terrifying sight at the Wellness Center one morning. CLICK HERE. Yes, this is hyperbole. :p

One post I did earlier this year was about a weird quiz on a cereal box. CLICK HERE. A while after I wrote it, I posted this follow up. CLICK HERE.

This post I wrote on my birthday. CLICK HERE.

All my old posts kept their original publishing dates and even their comments, so they blend into this blog quite well. This wasn’t all of them, so If you’re feeling adventurous you can find more of them. They’ll be in the post archives, between today and May.

As you can see I changed the background and color scheme of this blog. Since Fall is almost here, I thought it would be a good idea to have my blog match the season. I also redesigned my photo-blog again, and I have posted a 9/11 tribute picture there, as today is the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. You can find it by clicking HERE.

That picture did not always look as it does now. Joel and I have finally begun learning the basics of Photoshop in our digital photography class, and thanks to Thursday’s lesson I was able to turn this:



Into this:



I LOVE Photoshop!

I’ve Been Rather Busy…

So I’ve kind of been neglecting my blog the last few days. I hope that this will not be a continuing habit, as I like to make regular posts, but with being back in school now, it is kind of hard.

School is going ok so far. And by ok, I mean simply that, ok. It isn’t going great, but it isn’t going bad. The reason it hasn’t been going great, is for many reasons, each class has had its own form of unpleasant-ness.

Digital Photography is the first class. To begin with, on the first day we received an e-mail from our teacher, telling us that class would be held in another room, in another building, clear across campus. (By the way, this teacher was my teacher in Photography 1 and both Joel’s and my teacher a year ago in Launching the Imagination) So we go to the new room and find our teacher standing outside with a huge group of students. The room had been reserved for a faculty meeting. So we had no room and ended up going back to the art center and having a very abbreviated class in the entry hall. The reason the class had been moved was because the room that we were supposed to be using has not even been finished being built yet. It was supposed to have been finished quite some time ago, but has not been yet. Apparently this new room will be a state of the art Mac lab with scanners and printers and everything a computer artist could ask for, so hopefully, this inconvenience will be worth it.

Biology is the second class, and it is so far the worst class I have ever taken. (This is not to say it’s awful, as I haven’t ever taken any truly awful classes, but in the time I have spent at school, this one wins for most unpleasant) I really hope it will get better, but when someone gives you a bad first impression, it is very hard to change your mind about a person. Our teacher gave me a bad first impression by telling Joel and I that we were not allowed to work together. She did not ask nicely, she straight-up told us, “One of you is going to have to move.” She has some sort of problem with relatives working together and claims that one will do all the work and the other will do nothing. I don’t know what kind of wacko-land she’s from, but this is not a problem that exists solely between relatives. In fact, I would go so far as to say that when this is an issue, it almost always will be with non-relatives. Regardless of her issues, the appropriate response to finding out that we were related would have been to explain why she has an issue with it, and then request that we find a different partner, instead of treating us like misbehaving kindergarteners.

Other than the teacher, I like the class, the material is pretty fascinating. I have always loved science, that is why I wanted to take this course to begin with. I just didn’t count on having a vicious harpy for a teacher. Ok, so she isn’t really that bad, I’m still just ticked off at her, so you’ll have to excuse my hyperbole. I’ll get over it, and blogging about it helps. :) Also, I tend to (Sometimes foolishly) look for the good in everyone, so I’m sure I’ll warm up to her eventually. (Unless she really is evil… :p) I don’t think she is trying to be a “Mean ol’ school marm”, she did say many times that she was having an especially bad day, so that most likely played into her demeanor. I think once I get over the teacher, I will really like the class. Until November that is…

Toward the end of November there is a day in biology set aside for dissecting a pig fetus, so I have been thinking of ways to have a tragic accident or get myself deathly ill in order to avoid that day. So far I haven’t really thought of any diseases or injuries that I’d rather have, so I may just end up having to go anyway. It’s not like I’m too squeamish, and am going to puke at having to cut up a baby pig, I just do not want to do it. (If there were no such profession as “Butcher” I would be a vegetarian. There is no way I’d kill an animal myself for food.) That particular class is in late November though, so I can always pray for divine intervention in the form of an interstate-closing blizzard… You can pray with me if you’d like. :)

The last class that we have to travel for is Painting 1. “What!?” you ask. “Why didn’t you have a great time in that one?! You’ve been looking forward to it all year!” Well, after traveling almost an hour to get to the class, all we ended up doing was going over the syllabus and introducing ourselves, with the promise of getting started next week. So almost two hours of drive time for twenty minutes of sitting in a classroom, when what I wanted to be doing was learning how to paint. That’s why it wasn’t a great class. I hope that the second day of Painting, which is tomorrow, will be better. Speaking of which, I really need to be getting to bed…

Before I go, I’ll quickly mention my history and geography classes, which are on-line. Both of those only fall into “Ok” territory, because they are mainly reading and fact memorizing. I was really looking forward to using the geography coloring book, but that doesn’t get used until toward the end of the semester, so that was somewhat of a disappointment too.

So all in all, my first week of school was not a good one. I am forever an optimist though, so I’m sure that it will get better. :) I can’t wait until my first real painting class! :D

The Start of a Busy Week

Today I worked, which is not completely unusual, but it was the first day of what will be a long and busy week. Tomorrow school begins again!
Tomorrow morning Joel and I have Digital Photography, followed by Biology, which is split into two classes, a lab and a lecture. This will pretty much take up the entire day, as the lecture doesn’t end until a quarter after four.
Wednesday, we have Painting 1, which I am quite excited about! That class lasts from 1:30 to 4:30.
Thursday is about the same as Tuesday, but without the lab.
Friday and Saturday I work from 2 till 10 on both days! I rarely get 8 hour shifts, and I am quite surprised that they scheduled me for all three days that I told them I could work! That almost never happens!
Then on Sunday we are having a graduation ceremony/party for James. We’ve been waiting to have it until after Jared got back from Afghanistan, so that he could attend.
I’m not sure what the next week will hold as far as work, but my school schedule will get even busier, as I start my two on-line classes, history and geography. Speaking of which, guess what arrived in the mail today!

I am way too excited about my geography class. :)
Well, I had better get to bed. I’d like to be able to get up at a halfway decent time in the morning…

The Most Awesome Boring Class Ever!

I was just looking up my classes for next fall, and comparing textbook prices between my school’s bookstore and amazon.com. (Always go with amazon.com, kids. Your school bookstore is a fountain of greed and corruption, there to milk every last penny from your withered wallet while you stand there shedding bitter tears, watching them toss your money in the air and dance as it showers around them. Seriously though, amazon is WAY cheaper.)

This fall I signed up for Geography because I needed to get a diversity requirement out of the way, and I really didn't feel like taking African American History or some other liberal nonsense. Not that the history of blacks is inherently liberal or nonsense, but given the current political climate and the state of education in general, any college class that calls itself “African American History” and is listed in a section that fulfills a “Diversity Requirement” is bound to be an extremely left skewing class.

ANYway… Geography has never been one of my favorite subjects, and before today it was one of my least-looked-forward-to classes. I have been figuring that it was going to be the most boring class I had to take this semester. However, as I looked through the list of books I would be required to purchase, I came across this.




Suddenly, I am looking forward to this class almost as much as Digital Photography and Painting. :D