Poop Happens

This past Saturday morning was easily the most stressful morning that I have experienced in a long time. I think the last time I can remember feeling this way was in high school, every time I would drive down San Felipe or Highway 290 in Houston to pick up my girlfriend, I would be nervous as can be. But on this particular Saturday, I was close to losing it; muscles tense, escalated heart rate/breathing, and just about to pull my hair out.

As many of you may already know, I lost my wallet with every form of picture ID I had, some cash, and my debit and credit card. Not to mention I had to be at the airport in 45 minutes. Enough of me whining and complaining, let me get to the point.

Thanks to a handful of friends helping me clean my place, look for my wallet, cancel my debit/credit cards, and dealing with me flipping out, I had reason to relax just a little bit. I got to the airport and made it through security with not as much heart ache as I had anticipated, which calmed me down a little more. But, I was still stressing and beating myself to a pulp for my carelessness on the plane ride from Redmond to Portland. I don't know if it was my B.O. from skiing the day before or the altitude, but something clicked in my hungover brain. I began telling myself, "I can't keep getting this worked up over something that is over and already in the books". All of a sudden I could breath again, and think clearly. Later on in the day I swear I caught myself a few times where I had completely forgotten about losing my wallet. It was not a big deal anymore. I was in the position to look ahead and take action to fix my situation. When I got to Chicago, I found a monitor to give me the information that the flight to my destination had been canceled. Normally I would have freaked!! I had no money, no food, nothing!! Instead of going down that route, I just laughed. You know what they say in Russia (if you don't know, you better acsk somebody).

Final note: when something doesn't go your way and your stressed beyond belief, try to step back, deep breathe, and take an action that will help you get out of the mess your in. MUCH EASIER SAID THAN DONE! I know I will be working on this part of my personality for the rest of my days.

Journal entry #2, 48hr. solo, Utah desert, 3/18/08

I woke up this morning and all I could hear was silence. Nobody around to tell me to get moving, and not having to listen to anyone else's worries. It's just me, a pack, sleeping bag, water, and clothing. This is a different, but exhilarating feeling. It's not weird, it's just different. This morning, right now, I feel no distractions. Finally!!! It's just me!

In the book, "The Dharma Bums", I read something last night that was saying the mountains are his buddha. They have been here for millions of years. They are peaceful, there is no rush, no judgements, it's all black and white, and slow. It took over 300 million years for these canyons to look how they do now, and I find peace and feel grounded, because of the patience of the dirt and the abundance of life here. The sound of silence!! Life and L-I-V-I-N is outdoors. There's so much to learn, I want to soak it all up! Next Fall I want to either find a job in Eugene working carpentry or construction, or work in northern Cali with Mike's friend, if that can happen. I don't want to go back to school yet. I have a lot of learning and reading I want to do before I go back.

About 30 minutes later with my handwriting looking much different...

Well that was tight. Trip just came to my solo spot and asked for a liter of water, because he used a liter for the dinner last night. While I was filling his water bottle up, he asked if I wanted to smoke (big surprise)! I just cracked up laughing and said, "ok". So, I'm pretty high, in the desert! That's nuts! It's actually a really cool feeling. There's a lot of life scurring around this morning. It's awesome.

"Home is where you make it" - Joe Dirt

Yesterday morning, I was cooking a big breakfast and listening to "Car Talk" (a normal weekend ritual Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m.- 12 p.m. on NPR). If you have not listened to these guys, I highly recommend it. Anyways, during the show they call someone that called maybe a month or two ago about a problem concerning their car. The idea is to see if the two guys were correct in diagnosing the problem. This woman called in from Seattle a couple months ago wondering what car would be best taking a road trip all over the country. This woman just had her daughter leave home to go to college, and she was sick of Seattle (which I don't know how that could be) and wanted to "find herself"; maybe find a new place to live.

She ends up driving over 18,000 miles, sleeping out of her car, staying with friends/family, and exploring the U.S. What I find interesting in this story is, in the end she moved back to Seattle and settled down in the place she desperately wanted to leave. I do not really have anything philosiphizing to say about this, but there is something here and I cannot exactly put my finger on it. Maybe some day.

Side note: The two guys on the show were recommending her a small truck to do the trip, so she can sleep in the bed of the truck. She ended up getting a Ford station wagon, and had nothing but great things to say about it. Therefore, the result was that the two guys were wrong.

"Don't quote me on this, but..."

I don't know about anyone else, but I am stressed to the bone about school and a bunch of other horse apples bobbling around in my head, that takes over you and your emotions like your hot math teacher in 8th grade (I don't know anything about that though, obviously). There are multiple ways that we all deal with our stress. Some ways benefit us and our overall wellness, and other ways may hinder us. For me it is a constant struggle. But, today was a different experience that I have not had in a very long time.

I have this research paper due tonight at midnight. I have been very stressed about this paper and of course I waited to do it on the day that it is due. I gave myself a timeline today, that I will work on the paper until three o'clock, and no matter if I was done or not, I was going to treat myself to a walk in the blizzard that mother nature was gracing us with. Three o'clock came around and I just had to finish my reference page, so I was in good shape to take a break. I walked to the top of this butte near my apartment in about 5 or 6 inches of dry, beautiful powder. While I was on the butte, there was no one around. All the houses seemed like they were tucked away trying to fight off the howling wind and snow. On a clear day, you can see the whole town of Bend and more, but today it was a white out. No sound but the wind and my own heart pounding in my ears from the hike. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the sound of the wind. I tried to remember every snowflake that hit my face. Nothing mattered anymore except for the flakes in my beard and the music that the wind was orchestrating. I do not know how long I was standing there with my eyes closed, but when I finally opened them, the tracks that I had made on the way up were mostly covered with snow. I had forgotten about time and my place in the world. Not one thing mattered!

On the way back to my apartment, I started thinking (imagine that). Why has it been so long since I have taken the time to feel this rejuvenated? We all have busy lives, things we need to do, but also things we want to do. There is only so many hours in the day. Everyone has something different that they do to relieve stress. Some people spend hours playing video games and other people want to go climb Everest. What I am getting at is, make time in your day to do something for yourself, whether it is sitting on the couch watching Oprah or going to play basketball, make the time! Some stresses that we have we cannot control, but there are some things that we can manage, and that is what we need to concentrate on. But, don't quote me on this, it's just what I have come up with.

Water

When someone asks you a question about the environment, what come to your mind first? I would assume that a lot of people might say global warming!! Or deforestation!!! Or Melting ice caps!!!!

I was asked that question for my Forestry class at OSU, and was asked to say what I thought was the most pressing issue to deal with when it comes to the environment. My first reaction was something like I said above. Then, I thought for a second about it and remembered my Geology class about natural resources, that I'm sure Guad and Fowl should remember. I remember that we talked a lot about water. In places like Africa, India, and parts of Southeast Asia are having a really hard time with pollution and contamination in their fresh waterways. Contaminates like arsenic, cadmium, fluoride and lead, are in high enough concentration in the fresh water to be harmful to humans and animals. These people have to drink this water daily which will cause health defects in the near future. In the United States, sulfuric acid is a concern in some areas of the country. Sulfur is emitted into the air from the burning of fossil fuels. In the atmosphere, the sulfur is exposed to water vapor and turns into sulfuric acid and falls to the ground from precipitation. Therefore, our fresh waterways are being polluted. In upper New England and some parts of Canada in that region, are finding their lakes and rivers have a higher pH level (which measures the acidity) than they should, due to pollution coming from Ohio, Indiana and Iowa.

I think our fresh water is a very important issue to keep in mind. I would not say that it is the most important, because everything that has to do with the environment (even humans), are all connected in this interconnected web. Everything has an effect on something else, and so on. Kind of like the domino effect, except it can circle back around and hit us in the ass. Which we don't want, or at least I don't, but I guess I can't speak for everyone.

Timshel

Timshel, in Hebrew, is defined as "thou mayest" in the Hebrew Bible when referring to the story of Cain and Abel. When this phrase is used for Cain, it is saying that he has a choice to sin or not after killing his brother. Instead of saying that we are all doomed for sin, death and fire in hell, it is saying that in our every day lives we have a choice between what is right and wrong.

Now my tangent:
I am not a religious person. I am a believer that what is "right" and "wrong" is to the eye of the beholder. Everyone has their own perception of what is good and bad. Now getting back to the word timshel, I believe that no matter the circumstances, everyone has choices to make every day that create themselves as individuals. I know for myself, I have made lots of mistakes, but nothing I can honestly say that I regret. If I am in a position to repeat a mistake, I hope that I would have already learned from my last experience and not continue the same pattern. Obviously, this is harder said than done. I am still struggling and probably will be for the rest of my life with taking my mistakes as a way of bettering myself. I guess what I am attempting to come out of this tangent with is that, whatever you believe is right and wrong, stick by that and do not ever forget. Stay close and true to yourself.

Side note: I am not telling you what to do, I really should not be talking. I'm just thinking while I type.

Sex Predators

My newspaper of choice is the Daily Emerald. The Daily Emerald is a newspaper created by the students at the University of Oregon. I was sitting in Cafe Sienna one morning about a week or two ago, (for those who do not know, Cafe Sienna is a highly recommended place to eat good Mexican food) and I was disturbed to read about all the sexual harassment that have been scaring the hell out of women. Furthermore, these recent crimes got kind of personal when I heard it actually happened to a friend of mine. I cannot tell you how angry it makes me when I think or read about this kind of stuff. When some guy is harassing a woman or hits a woman, I not only think to myself that that is very wrong morally, but I also picture my mom in that situation. I'll tell you right now, no one messes with my mom. Therefore, it automatically makes it personal in a very weird, indirect way. But, that's the way it is. I have also been reading about people stealing other people's stuff too. I read about three cars that got stolen in one week! That is preposterous! Also, my roommate had his ipod stolen last Thursday while a party was going on, and he was not even here. I have also had a couple of things stolen from me this year.

What I am trying to get at is that we need to all look out for each other. I'm not saying we should always be paranoid and looking over our backs all the time. I am not saying that we should begin carrying around knives to try to protect ourselves. What I am saying is that we should all be aware that shit can happen and we should try to avoid it at all cost. Being educated about these things that are taking place in the places in which we live, is a start to preventing more stealing and harassment to our friends and peers. Guys and/or girls, walk in pairs or more. Try not to get blacked out and stumble home. I love you. We shall prevail! (I have always wanted to say that too)

BBQin'

There is a very unique, special process to the art of grilling (no, not mushrooms). I have a pretty strict step by step way of BBQin'. Although, I must say now that my style of grilling is not the "correct" way of doing it, it is just the way that works for me. I believe everyone develops their own habits and styles the more you BBQ. I must also clear up that the only respectable way of grilling is on a charcoal grill. That is wonderful if you cook on gas, but I'm sorry, its not as toit. Like I say, people have very different and precise styles of grilling which would suggest that there is an art to grilling. You cannot achieve possessing a style of grilling if all you do is turn a knob and your done cooking in twelve minutes from lighting the fire. Doesn't make sense to me. Therefore, I would suggest the sphere style Weber grill that you can find in any department store in your area. If you have a few extra dollars to spend I HIGHLY recommend the chimney lighting device to light your coals. So, know that you have your grill and chimney (or not), now you need the coals.

You can go a few directions with charcoal. You can choose lump charcoal, which is not refined briquettes. Some of the pieces even look to be wood or pieces of burnt organic material. Another option is charcoal briquettes. I have done some reading, from the help of Demonhawk Bish, that have suggested to use both types of charcoal at the same time for your fire. This strategy will help with cooking something for an extended period of time (brisket, whole chicken, and ribs) as well as having a hotter fire. I would not suggest only having lump charcoal by itself. Now that you have your charcoal, here is a step by step list for lighting your fire:

With chimney:

1. Pour charcoal into top of chimney

2. put three pieces of newspaper on the underside of the chimney

3. VERY IMPORTANT: vents on the bottom of the grill must be open to allow air to light the fire

4. now you can light the paper, and make sure you check to see that the coals catch, somtimes the paper does not burn all the way

Without chimney:

1. create a mound of charcoal along one of the walls inside the grill and have the top of the pile reach a couple inches from the top edge of the grill

2. make sure vents are open on the bottom

3. drench coals in lighter fluid and light

You have your fire lit, so now you need to spread the coals. I personally prefer to have a cold side and a hot side (again, there is never a right way, it is the way I prefer and some people have their own way of doing it). I like to bunch up the coals and make a thin layer of coals to one side as evenly as possible.

I'm not going to go into cooking different foods, but I will make this one, extremely crucial suggestion, actually two. First, do not cook with the top open for the whole time that your cooking your food. Do you leave the oven door open while your cooking? Second, after you think your food is done, I like to move the meat over to the cold side of the grill and close all the vents to kill the fire. The meat is not being cooked, but its staying warm and getting that extra smokey flavor. My experience with this method has been that it really brings the juices out. Performing this method with vegetables is not required.

Go forth and conquer our hunger problem!

FML

FML=Fuck my life. This is a terrible saying.

1. This saying a extremely negative. We college students do not have to worry about getting shot or blown up by a suicide bomber while going to Safeway to get food. Majority of us do not have to stress too hard about where we are going to sleep tonight or where our next meal is coming from. Therefore, there is no reason why we should say fuck our lives like they are so terrible, because there are a lot of people in the world that have it a million times worse than we do.

2. I don't like the negativity at all. I believe if you are negative in life about things in your life, you will attract negativity to yourself. "What goes around, comes around" is a quote we all are familiar with, and I am a strong believer.

I would like to propose a challenge to everyone. When you are feeling negative about anything, mad, sad, jealous, just remember that you will be ok. Hard times come and they go. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer (I know that has nothing to do with what I'm saying, but I've always wanted to say that).