A Tribute To A Tree

When my family moved into their new house years and years ago (Like Freshman year I think, and when you consider that was nearly a fourth of my life ago, it was a while ago for me) one of the things I liked the most was this impressive old Oak (I actually have no idea what time it really was, I just always called it an oak) tree in our back yard (well the backyard of our neighbors whose backyard was behind ours.)  

Standing alone in a field, a remnant from a previous time this tree captured my photographic imagination. 

Literally every camera I've ever owned one of the first thing I'd take a picture of was this tree. 

During every season. (These photographs were taken by my first four cameras.) 

And in all sorts of weather

So it was with a heavy heart that I drove down after a lightning storm to see what had become of my old Oak.

So this is a tribute for a tree which stood as a landmark in my life. 

The Bee's Knees

Bee Closeup by Timothy Reid on 500px

As I promised, a photograph for this post.

It's hard to choose a random photograph from my collection without any idea of what I wanted. I have literally thousands to choose from.

So this photo was taken during my archaeological dig in Montana. We were at the dig site when all of a sudden, bees were everywhere. I mean everywhere! We were enjoying lunch and while most took shelter in the same rock shelter Native Americans had in ages previous I pulled out my camera and started stalking bees. This guy was particularly photogenic, landing on my daypack which made a great backdrop.

I had never been stung by a bee before this point. And it was only an accident that I was stung at all. I was sitting down and a bee crawled up my pant leg through a hole in the knee. I didn't know this so when I stood to get back to work the fabric tighten around the bee and in its panic it stung me. I still feel slightly guilty, so this post is in honor of that bee.

I Wish You . . . Would Just Be Happy

Shoot, a week behind. It was finals week and my part time job turned into a fullish time one. (Not that I'm complaining. I needed the extra money for the season of buying!)

So I'm going to post a rant first, then I'll find a photograph to post next to balance it out. 

This is by no means a new rant, I just wanted to throw my 2cents in. 

~~~~

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Happy Hannukah. Happy Kwanzaa.

Why is there all this controversy over what should be said and not be said?

I mean is it really nothing more than misguided religious pride?

Let us do an experiment then! We'll take out the religion and just use greetings.

Hello. That's how I'd greet someone. (Well, more likely a quick 'Hey' with an awkward wave, but for the sake of this argument, Hello). And that's how most English speakers greet people. *There are literally hundreds of ways to greet someone in any given language, but lets keep this simple please.

Bonjour. That's French.

Hola. Spanish there.

(1)So if I'm in an area that speaks English as a primary language, I'll say hello.

(2)If I'm in an area that speaks, say French as a primary language I'll say Bonjour and grin ruefully at my accent.

(3) But even if I'm in an English speaking region, if I know someone would prefer me to say Hola instead of Hello, I'll say Hola.

I'm fairly certain that most people can understand my above anecdote.

(1) We say what we are used to saying.
(2) We say what we believe is typical/expected to be said.
(3) We can change what we say to make others comfortable.

Now, these three simple rules can be applied to this whole holiday mess.

(1) I'll say Merry Christmas because that's what I've said and heard said since I was a child.
(2) I'll say Happy Hannukah if I know I'm among people who celebrate Hannukah.
(3) If someone says they celebrate Kwanzaa I'll say Happy Kwanzaa without a second thought. (And likely ask them about Kwanzaa, because I realize I know surprisingly little about it)
(3.5) If someone wishes me a Happy Holidays, I'll say thank you and say it back at them.

Because in the end what I'm saying has nothing to do with pushing religion, everything to do with how I wish for them to feel; Happy.

~~~

Seems like a short rant. Originally I had this huge long thing typed up but I realized, what I'm trying to say is simple. So I rewrote it. I feel pretty good about it now.

Anyways, tell me your thoughts on the Holiday debate. Have a different perspective? Share it in the comments below.

And to everyone, I wish you happiness during this time of the year (and all other times while I'm at it)! 

"Oh, what are you going to do with that?"

"Oh, what are you going to do with that?"

This is the second most commonly asked question I get when I tell people my college major is Anthropology.

[The number one question, for those of you who might be curious, is "Isn't that like the study of bugs?" Which I give those people credit, they're close, but they are thinking of Arthopodology. Although why more people have heard of the study of bugs than the study of humans I'm a bit baffled.]

Now before college and during the beginning this question used to fill me with pride and excitement. I was passionate about it and would eagerly tell people about my dreams to travel the world, meeting all sorts of different people.

Oh how glorious and adventurous my future was to be!

But then I moved out of the college dorms where the government was essentially paying for housing, food, and the education. Without much parental help I was, for the first time supporting myself financially. I had learned the meaning of supporting one's self.

[For anyone reading this who is either going into college or has kids doing the same, get out of the dorms as soon as you can! Most colleges require the first 18 hours to be in the dorm but after that get out! Seriously. I figured out that I was paying essentially 800+ per month for room and board. That means me and my roommate were paying 1600 dollars per MONTH to live in a one room apartment with a crappy meal plan with food that'd soon turn your stomach.]

Suddenly the question made my stomach drop and my head spin. I came to dread it because I could finally understand what people were really asking me: "Will you be able to make enough money to survive?"

Okay, I realize intellectually that I was putting words in people's mouths. The truth was, I was hearing my own questions and fears in their words. Most people were just genuinely curious.

So there are three answers that I could give to this question. Each with their own truths and lies.

The first being the most simplistic and honestly the most naive:

"Companies and governments use anthropologists to integrate business and different cultures globally so hopefully I can get paid to travel and work with different people."

The second is the one which I've clinged to lately to save me from my own scorn. But I avoid telling people the whole thing for the main fact that it is a defensive answer and I know people aren't trying to attack me:

"I know very intelligent people with 'practical, realistic' degrees who are struggling to find a career. So instead of getting a degree that is specific and will serve me in one field that is sure to change by the time I get out of college, and possibly not even exist later down the road I have anthropology. Anthropology could easily be sold to an employer as the study of communication between different peoples. In this era cultures are increasingly clashing and grinding against each other so a person who could navigate through this chaos would be a valuable asset."

The third answer is perhaps the most honest but depending on my mood can be told with either stupid optimism or blind depression:

"I have no idea."

And I really don't have a solid idea, at least not one that I'm willing to bet everything on. But here is the thing, we live in an unsecure world, in both a positive and negative sense. So while it is good to have a plan, it should be seen as just as important to be able to adapt to a changing world and know how to seek opportunities.

So have a plan. Have a backup. Have several backups. But also have the confidence to let go of plans and adapt with change.

As my mother would always say, no matter how difficult things got, "We'll find a way, we always do."

Happy ThanksGiving Folks

Goodness, it's Monday Thursday so soon! Someone needs to slow this train down cause I'm getting motion sickness!

So I've been debating what to post for this week. A photo? A story? A commentary on how Thanksgiving is the skipped holiday because there is no money to be made? I liked the idea of making it centered around this particular week.

We've got Thanksgiving, the forgotten holiday. And there's black Friday, the retail workers dreaded D-Day. Plenty to write right?

But it occurred to me, that there was a very simple thing which I could do that I feel like gets forgotten in modern American culture. Thinking about what I'm thankful for.

So, what am I thankful for this year?

I am thankful for Sam, who became my fiancee this year. (Really glad she said yes!)

I am thankful that her family liked me enough to both take me on an amazing road trip, and allow me to marry their daughter.

I am thankful that Jonathan helped me get a nice job at one of the better restaurants in the city.

I am thankful for my mother and Mike because in addition to buy me a giant box of nerds which has lasted me since last Christmas, they also got me the camera that I've been taking photographs with all year. The quality is outstanding.

I am thankful to be able to go to school. School sucks sometimes. Debt sucks always. But honestly I know how lucky I am.

I am thankful that I can finally start affording to get my teeth fixed up.


So I know that this list might seem pretty short, and it kinda is, but I'm only saying what I'm thankful for this year because if I did more I'd just end up sounding like a cheesy Thanksgiving special. And I'm only doing major events because it's how I'll remember this year. And only stuff pertaining to me, but don't for a second doubt that I'm not thankful for others happiness too! My mother's health. My fiancee's aquatic addiction (fish). My friend's relationship. Etc.

Have A Happy Thanksgiving and a Safe Black Friday,
Timothy

Inarticulate Ramblings Part II

I haven't gone to sleep yet so it's still Monday! Which means this post is still in time! And means I've caught my blog back up to the correct week! (The editor in me cringes from all the exclamation points.)

So this is a rambling post, which lets be honest can sometimes be the most interesting. 

And no, I'm not just filling space, I actually have quite a few plans for this blog. Future posts.

Okay, so first off lets talk about the blog itself. I feel like a blog will only be successful if it has a goal or purpose. So far I'm not sure if this blog is following any definite trail or is just wandering around in the woods of the web. I've got a lot of photography and quite a few stories and some personal opinion pieces. I guess that's a good start.

Actually that's a great start! The pilot episode is always all over the place, introducing the range of the show right? That's what I've been doing so far. 

Did I ever tell you I co-wrote a TV show? Just a little though. Script writing is too annoying for me. I just like character detailing. 

But the question remains, where do I go from here and is there more I want to do?

Part One - I don't know! I haven't even been doing this for half a year yet. How do I know where to go? I'm still testing the water. What do people (you) like most? The photography? The trail reviews? My occasional rants (of which I want to post more often but am so hesitant to)? I just don't know yet. I'll just try to keep on keeping on posting once a week. We'll return to this later. 

Part Two - Okay, so this has been building up to this actually. I've been chewing over the idea of writing a blog story! I've done it before, rather successfully actually. 

This blog (the blog I wrote a story on) has remained silent for many years now. Written back in High School (Pre-Meyer, thank you very much. Rice Era!) it got quite complicated when the girl I was dating at the time became the main female in the story, there was a baby hoax in the story which leaked to real life, then me and that girl ended things. So I just walked away, swore I'd never write people into stories again. Then I met my fiancee (she was the one with the yellow umbrella) and the rest is history in the making. 

Anyways if you want to check it out ----> Living With Lycanthropyh Lycanthropy <------

Be warned, it's as bad and as good as you'd expect. Possibly more.

I LOVED writing it though. Developing the characters in a paced way, kinda like they do with sitcoms, web comics, book series, etc. And I kinda want to do that again. I miss writing. 

But now I'm tasked with the question of should I. Right now, my core readership is about three or four people that I know of(THANKS GUYS), and I'd like to expand that. Would a story help or hinder? It wouldn't be all I did of course, it'd be additional to the content I already provide. 

And the second question to this sub-question to the main question I asked at the beginning of the post (I told you this would be inarticulate ramblings, I told you.) What would I be writing? 

I'm a sucker for werewolf/vampire fiction but lets be honest I think we (as in book lovers) are getting somewhat tired of it. Plus I've already done it before. It might be fun to try and redo Living With Lycanthropy (love this title, best title I've ever come up with, probably) but I think it'll remain on the table for now. 

I've been playing with the idea of a dystopian technologic world, set mostly underground with grungy characters and cool gizmos. I've never really written anything tech though, I'm usually a more medieval/organic author doused in fantasy so it'd be a challenge. 

What do you guys think? What would you like? What is your opinion? JUST COMMENT DAMN IT! (Thank you to the guys who have. Makes my week to see a single comment on any post.) 

Is lets actually a word? It's a contraction so I probably should use an apostrophe right? Let's. Let us. Lets. The spell check (got it for you three out there, you know who you are, and you're welcome) does not approve of lets. At all. Grammer nuts and technical writers, what is your opinion?

Whelp, that's all for tonight. Let(')s get some sleep. 

Life -uh- Finds A Way

I couldn't think of a less cheesy and overused title. Sorry 'bout that.

Just a road that got cut off from a main road and nature is slowly reclaiming it. Also, I hid a geocache in the area, so it's a cool little place for some photography. 

The Wisest Men Have No Teeth

Oh geez, time has a habit of getting away from me. I'm not two WEEKS behind with posts. *sigh* A post a week won't be that hard I told myself! Okay, I owe three posts between now and the end of today (It is currently 12:05 Monday morning).

This post is my excuse for not posting last week.

I got my wisdom teeth removed! Now this might not seem like a big deal to most people but I've got quite a few dental problems (poor brushing habits and a massive sweet tooth, curse younger me!) so this was the first step for me. Also, lets face it, I'm just a big kid! 21 an adult does not make. So this is one of the first things I've done with was 100% me (with some prodding from my fiancee of course)

So, I should have guessed from the fact that to get three wisdom teeth removed was only costing me in the ball park of $400 that I wasn't getting put under for the procedure. However it was only until the day or two  before that this fact because terrifyingly obvious to me. I was going to be wide awake for this thing which almost everyone else I talked to say hurt like hell, after they woke up! If it hurt so bad after the fact what would it feel like during?

Oh, and if you're curious why it was only three, it's because my fourth is impacted. The tooth literally grew in at a 90* angle to the other teeth. (Bottom Left) Just my luck.

Please note, that while I wouldn't classify it as a phobia or anything dentists FREAK ME OUT. (I'm writing in capital letters for emphasis.) They always have, always will. They take very sharp looking object and jam it around in my mouth which I have to keep open for ungodly amounts of time trying not to think about what they are doing, which is easier said than done. And it's no small feat to speak when someone has their hand rammed in your jaw playing with your molars!

I digress.

So Sam drove me to the dentist, assuring me that I would hardly be in any condition to walk much less drive and I got situated in the comfy chair and have three match-like sticks with some raspberry flavored goop rubbed on my gums. Shortly afterward the doctors came in with, I kid you not, an almost two-inch long needle and shoved that puppy deep into the flesh of my gums.

And here's the kicker. While all the other teeth only needed about two shots of a numbing agent to be lost to me, one wisdom tooth required six, SIX TWO INCH NEEDLE STABS, before I lost feeling completely. Of course, I was glad the dentist went to such lengths to make sure I'd feel a little as possible.

The rest was actually fairly easy. He'd poke the gums (he told me this, I really didn't feel much) and wiggle the tooth a little before taking a pair of pliers and ripping those teeth out. He gave me a quick lecture about how to care for my bloody sockets and I was out the door feeling hardly worse for wear.

Luckily, while I was feeling fine Sam was wise enough to buy the soft foods and strong meds so when my face regained feeling it wasn't as bad as it might have been. Thank goodness for her!

The first day wasn't so bad. Second day I slept. A lot. And discovered that I'd last exactly 24 hours on a diet of applesauce and jello before my body would start shaking from hunger. Worst part of the whole thing. Third day I worked, was NOT ready for it. I was still on pain meds and so dizzy and drowsy that my co-worker kindly kicked my butt out. Fourth day (Yesterday) I felt pretty much back to normal. I'm no longer in pain or sleepy or unable to open my jaw all the way!

So that's what happened last week. Kinda got in the way of . . . well anything productive, this blog included!

Happy Halloween

Skull in the Sky by RobertVarulfur on deviantART

     Kid you not, one stormy afternoon I was gazing up at the stormy sky, watching lightning, when this cloud took form! Spooookkkkyyyyy~~~~~~~

Have a Good Halloween Guys! 

Movie Review - Edge of Tomorrow

   Movie Review Cheat Sheet

     Before I begin, a brief word on what it is I'm actually doing. Someone used the term critic to refer to what it is I'm planning, and it's no secret that there is rarely love for critics in the creative community.

    First off, I am not trying to be a critic, at least by the popular definition. In modern vocabulary, a critic is someone who expresses a NEGATIVE opinion of something. However, a critic is simply a person who states THEIR opinion on the merit of something (ie. movies). Occasionally my opinions may be negative, but just as often they may be positive.

     Secondly, people seem to have this idea that critics are only professionally paid people. Every time you walk out of a movie, turn to a friend or date and exclaim 'That was the coolest movie ever, did you see those special effects?' or 'Meh, the effects were awesome but that was literally just the storyline from Dances with Wolves' (The response I was given from a friend about Cameron's Avatar), every time someone states their opinion they are being a critic: someone who states their opinion. I'm not getting paid for this, I'm just speaking as a friend on the interwebs, explaining my opinion. Am I always right? No. Do I share the same opinion with everyone else? No. Do I enjoy it? Yep. And so that's why I'm doing it.

XxXxX

Edge of Tomorrow

Summary: The story follows a man forced to fight a war he wanted to run from. The soldier becomes stuck in a time loop, allowing him to grow, both in strength and knowledge of his alien enemy as each time cycle is reset.

Main Actors: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt

Genre: Apocalyptic, Alien, Mech Warfare, Time Travel

Rating: C (Worth Seeing At Least Once)

BEWARE - SPOILERS POSSIBLE - BEWARE

Personal Review: This is what happens when gamers who can't decide why kind of movie they want to watch decide to make a movie! In a world brought to its knees by an alien lifeform, after suffering great losses the humans begin fighting back with exoskeletonal suits equipped with only the most explosive weapons, one man forced onto the front lines against his will gains the ability to reset the level, I mean world every time he dies until the point he can kill the final boss, I mean alien. I don't think I've seen a movie that's combined all these elements before so this is one instance where the sum is greater than the parts and that makes it worth it to watch at least once. 

Acting: C

     Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise. If you've seen one of his movies then you've already seen his character. He does a good job, but lets face it, when he is on screen there really are no other characters. (Of course we could chalk that up to the writers not his acting, so I gave him a solid performance C!)

     As for the other actors, they didn't really get enough screen time to be good or bad in my opinion. No one was openly bad, which settles them all into the average C category. Good job guys! (Once again, writers fault I suppose, not theirs). 

Writing: D+

      D+ does feel kinda harsh, but here's why. First off, like I said before, they took well-worn ideas and combined them in a new way (at least that I can think of, could be wrong!) and I did like that. And as an occasional gamer I got a kick out of the concept of a game in real life (resetting the world when you fail a level). 

     But! Beyond the concept the movie just fell somewhat short. Okay, to start with there was exactly one character in this story. 'But Tim,' you may be saying to your computer as if it were me. 'Don't most stories revolve around one characters journey?' They do, you are quite correct, but where this movie differs is that most stories have side characters who help move the story further and provide depth. This movie didn't really. 

     Due to the format they used for the time travel our main character is the only one with a memory of what had already happened. Which means there really couldn't be any development in any of the other characters (really there was only one other, the bad-ass warrior babe) because throughout the whole movie they HAD to be the same as when the movie started. 

     So on the one hand, you might say the authors did a good job keeping true to the form of time travel where no character except the time traveler changed. But on the other the authors did try to give them depth. All or nothing, I dislike writing that tries to have it both ways! So there were watered down attempts at depth, a car ride in which their past is discovered, Cruises character falling for a girl he'd known for many cycles despite the fact that the girl knew he for a day and a shared kiss. It was forced. 

     

     The other main contention I had of course was with the time travel. (First, let me mention that I LOVE time travel stuff because it's fun to pick apart. Inconsistencies is the bread and butter of time travel.) Okay, so there's the main alien 'brain' resetting the day any time one of its nerve centers (the blue aliens) is killed. The main character gets joined into this system so any time HE dies the world is reset. First off, this has happened to other humans, the Bad-ass warrior babe being an example. Second, according to her if the blood is diluted through a transfusion the power is lost. Third, there must be more that one nerve center at any time because even after the main character gets the power to reset time we still run into at least 2 of the alien nerve centers. 

     This question was actually posed by one of my friends. What happens if two people kill a nerve center at the same time? Or if someone has the ability and someone else, somewhere else kills a different nerve center. Whose world is reset? Would the second guy lose the ability since his day was reset after the first guy died? 

     What determines the reset? For our main character is was when he woke up the day before the attack that led to him getting the power. Why the day before and not the moment he was joined into the alien's ability? (The answer is because he was dying when he got the power, and there's no movie there). And then after he kills the 'brain' he goes back even further? First off if the alien is the reason that time is being reset if he kills is, why isn't that ability lost to him? And what is determining these save points? 

     And the final bit, when he is storming the Louvre where the alien brain is hiding they crash a freaken plane and not a single alien shows up until five minutes later, after they've had time to gather survivors, make a plan, and restart a plan which had just crashed landed before the alien soldiers appear. Lucky huh? But wouldn't you think a super intelligent alien whose greatest weakness is the defensiveness of its 'brain' would lead it to have some sort of protection? I mean they all but strolled up to it and poked it before the alien did anything to stop them.

     The alien was a cool concept and looked pretty awesome, but I feel like the writers didn't really put much thought into it. 

Visual: B+

     Okay, so I'm a sucker for advance technology. The exoskeletons were freaken awesome and I need one, or ten. Stark Industries, get right on that! The aliens were also pretty slick with their spinning and tentacles and exploding bodies with acid blood. And of course the man gamer eye candy of a bad-ass warrior babe, who instead of fighting with a guy like LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE has a giant knife. Yep. 

Audio: C

     Really, I don't have much to say on this point. Nothing special in my opinion but I'm usually more focused on the writing aspect that the audio aspect unless the audio somehow really plays into the story. (Thank you Inception and Alien)

Now hopefully you've watched it before reading the spoilers so in the comment section below tell me what you thought of it. Did you have other questions than I did. Think you have answers to my questions that I miss? Just have a totally different opinion than I did? I'd love to hear about it, and if this ever picked up steam, I might even do a midweek post where I repost the commenters opinions and respond to their questions!

Movie Review Cheat Sheet

     Starting back in high school after watching a movie for the first time a friend of mine would always ask everyone for a rating (A-F) and would have a likely discussion about its positive and negative aspects. (Loopholes were always my favorite part to discuss).

     I figured one of the things I could do for this blog was movie reviews. (Along with book and trail reviews!) So in honor of that fine gentleman's original rating system we used I've codified a rating system for myself (obviously based on common styles) and will keep it in this post as well as links to all my movie posts. 

All movies can be broken down into four sections: 

1. Performance
2. Writing
3. Audio
4. Visual

These four categories will each be rated A-F based on this scale:

• A = Amazing (Speechless)
• B = Above Average (Yeah that was pretty cool)
• C = Average (Not bad really, nothing special)
• D = Lacking (Okay I see what they were going for)
• F = Failed (What did I just watch?)

The movie will be given a total score using the A-F system as well:

• A = 'You need to own this movie'
• B = 'You'll want to watch it again at some point'
• C = 'It's worth seeing at least once'
• D = 'Watch it if you have nothing better to do'
• F = 'Do not waste your time'

All reviews will be broken into two parts, a brief summary with a general rating (total score). This part will have no spoilers (no more than you'd get from reading the back of the case anyways). Hopefully it'll help give readers an idea if they want to watch it or not. The second part will be an in depth grading and will likely contain spoilers. These sections will be clearly labeled. 

Tim's Movie Reviews:

• Edge of Tomorrow

Dreams of Flight

     This post is so late that after I post this post I shall have to post again just to get caught up! ugh. Excuse: Got quite a bit more hours at work (A fantastic thing truly), and it was Mid-Term week and I've been squirreling around so I was in full panic mode. (Still kinda am cause I haven't seen my scores. If I did poorly I may have to drop a class which is always embarrassing for a know-it-all).

     So I MEANT to post this last Monday as a follow-up to the previous post. I had a few questions about the photo of the well-hung inspiration to my pretzel creations, or at least I imagined I would as NO ONE COMMENTS. Seriously guys, ask questions! IT'S SO LONELY IN HERE. And by in here I mean inside my computer, because I'm cool like that and can digitize myself and literally surf the webs. 

      Anyways, this photography was taken on that Montana archaeology trip that I've discussed before. Our dig leader took us about twenty minutes out from our campsite (by the van of improbability, that thing should NOT have been able to drive where it did). We had to hike down into a canyon and true to my Holes name BillyGoat (You remember that Disney movie Holes where everyone got names like Barfbag and Caveman?) I was quickly separated from the majority of the group as they cautiously made their ways across rocks that I had climbed recklessly on all fours. 

      Scattered throughout the canyon were these carvings or people and animals and unfortunately, more recent names etched with dates only spanning back a few decades. Now I'm of mixed feelings about this of course. A lot of people will look at graffiti with distain and condemn those who did it. 

     However as a possible future archaeologist I can't help but see it as the petroglyphs and pictographs of the present. Honestly we do not know exactly why people carved and drew what they did so long ago. We have theories, some seem so likely that we except them for truths, but they are not. So when we look at a carving done several thousand years ago of a human hunting a deer is it really that different from a picture of a pot leaf? Both show us what a group of humans were doing during a particular time.  

     BUT! I do NOT condone the destruction of previous materials. So the guys who carved their names on a bolder near the petroglyphs on this canyon. Cool. Those who carved a giant penis  across ancient petroglyphs? Not cool assholes. 

     I digress, It was an interesting feeling to stand in a spot where humans had stood thousands of years ago and etched. To stand level with them in some ways and see the individual marks they made to create this representation. The sense of history, a feeling with not everyone gets to have when they step into an old church and an ancient campsite, was almost overwhelming. 

     Out of all the carvings though, this one was my favorite. Something about how the artist carved himself (or just a man) next to a thunderbird struck me as beautiful. Call it reading too much of myself in the stones etches of the past, but I'd like to thing this artist had dreams of flight, to see the world as the thunderbird did.

Dreams of Flight by RobertVarulfur on deviantART

Cow Patty Pretzels

Wow, is this blog ever late! This week has been crazy for me. It's the week before finals which means massive catchup PLUS due to someone leaving at the place I work I've been given more hours. (I badly needed them too so wahoo).

Anyways, here is 'this' weeks blog post. I'll try to get the next one up closer to Monday!

XxXxX

My fiancee and I enjoy cooking together, though it's hard to find the time so a while back I had bought a pretzel making kit, and finally last week we were able to put the time into making it. (Truthfully it wasn't suppose to take that long, only about an hour).

Because it involved yeast I mixed the dough and set it aside myself so we could have fun making the shapes and such later. Sam, my fiancee, was busy with homework herself. (I should have been doing homework but I reached that point where I just couldn't do it anymore!)

So twenty five minutes pass, the dough looked like it nearly doubled in size, a good sign, so we set the table up for us to roll out the dough so we can shape it into the classic pretzel shape.

Only the dough was so sticky that we couldn't shape it. It was runny and just generally not something we could work with.

It was at this point that we realized that I had added about a cup of water too much to the mixture. Needless to say, I was annoyed with myself for a silly mistake.

But my lovely bride to be decided to try and fix it. So we pulled out the flour and she began adding flour like a true chef, without any measuring instrument. But I pointed out that the original mixture was likely more than just flour so we threw in some baking powder and some sugar and even some salt, just in case.

She managed to get the dough to a point where it was moldable, mostly. I didn't exactly have high hopes for the taste of the pretzels so instead of wasting my time trying to make them look like perfect pretzels, I started playing with the dough like it was play-doh.

Due to the elasticity of the dough no matter how hard we tried to shape them they ended up shrinking in on itself and Sam pointed out they looked like cow patties, hence the name Cow Patty Pretzels.

She made herself a Pretzel Person for fun because I made a mention that we could make stick figures out of them (Top Left). Not to be outdone, I made my pretzel person in the traditional design of the Native Americans of the Montana region (Bottom Left). #immaturearchaeology

Without high hopes for the final result of these pretzels we threw them into the oven. Much to my surprise they turned out pretty darn good. So the moral of this story is even if you screw something up, have fun with it and you might get a good story out of it. 

Trail Review - Sac River Hiking/Biking Trail

     So I've decided to try and write reviews for some of the places I've hiked. This is a dual purpose in that I get to practice practical observation and writing skills, as well as hopefully if I get into it I'll force myself to go to other interesting locations to write reviews of.

     For my first review I'll be doing the trail that I most recently went hiking on with my usual hiking partner Jonathan. (Go check out his blog)

     To get the trailhead: Take Kansas Expressway (Hwy 13) north, aprox. 3 miles after you pass I44 take a left turn. There are signs, follow them!

     Map of Trails

     There is a nice gravel parking lot at the trail head with a small covered shelter with a table. Useful if you want to sit for a bite to eat or have to wait for friends to show up.

     Now this is primarily used as a mountain biking trail, but I'm more of a hiking then I am a biker so this will definitely be from the perspective of a hiker.

     The first interesting thing which caught my was a cemetery just beyond the shelter. It was very interesting because despite the fact it was all fenced off and even had a sign naming it Wilson Cemetary  there were no visible gravestones.

Wandering off towards the wood I happened to see a white banner through the trees and when we walked over to it found a second unmarked cemetery! While the first one had been a nice square shape this second one was oddly sectioned off and honestly if there had been no fence or sign I doubt anyone would really be able to tell it was a cemetery at all. 

     Finding our way back to the trail we continued hiking, ending up walking alongside the Sac River for a while. Now I'm sure it's not 'allowed' but there were some perfect fishing spots (and you could tell they were well used spots as well) where the river slowed and deepened. We saw several types of fish and some flat shelled turtles. 

     We followed the trail up and around and down and through the woods, wandering on the outskirts of the hiking area on the Blue Trail (4mi.). 

     I managed to find a pretty cool skull of some animal or another (I'm not great at identifying bones). [Sorry about the quality, I took this photo with my phone and not my camera for some reason]

     We also came across an abandoned building which I traipsed all over and even tried to climb the tower in the back. Jonathan decided not to join me for fear of getting covered in bugs. Joke was on him though because in a particularly skinny part of the trail where bushes hung across the path we got covered in itty bitty ticks. Neither of us had been smart enough to put on bug spray, and he was even more foolish in wearing shorts. It wasn't pretty. He refused to show his legs in the days to come because of how horrid they looked. 

     So, ultimately what did I think of it? Despite the bugs it was a nice area to hike. It looks like it'd be fun to bike as well and I may go remind myself how out of biking shape I am and go back over it on my bike. I've only hiked half the total trails so I will be going back regardless. 

     One-line review: With 8 miles of relatively flat land it is an easy hike/ride but is secluded and wooded enough to make for a peaceful scenic afternoon. 

     

     If you liked my review, please leave a comment saying so! If you didn't leave an even longer comment telling me why. I want to improve my ability and I need the feedback of all my readers to reach that goal! 

     Also, if there is anywhere outdoorsy or just plain interesting you'd like me to go check out and write a review about, leave a comment sending me in the currect direction.

~ Tim

Birds of a Feather

Sorry about the witty title.

And sorry this is several days late. I've been busy with work, school, and being lazy.

Feather Texture by Timothy Reid on 500px

Taken at the Omaha Zoo on a 'road trip' with my finacee's family. I loved the texture of these birds.

How Responsible Teachers Ruined My Life

     Responsible teachers have ruined my life. 

     It was my many speaking teachers who taught me that when writing/speaking on a topic on which I'm presenting my own opinion it is safest to start by making sure definitions can be agreed upon. 

     A teacher is any person who has passed on their own knowledge or wisdom for the benefit of a student through any various means such as speech, text, or conceptually through other visual means. 

     The next part is to detail exactly how my life has been ruined by the responsible teachers who've taught me through the years. To do this I'm going to follow a chronological approach. 

     Our first teachers, through not always the most responsible is our parents. And I have a wonderfully responsible pair, who did everything they could to ruin my life. From them I was taught two lessons which have possible made my life the most difficulty. 

     The first lesson was to question everything. Children are naturally inquisitive, any parents reading this will know this as the "Why/What" phase, as in 'What's that?' and 'Why do I have do do that?'. Responsible teachers promptly stamp this inquisitiveness out. My parents not only failed to tame it, they downright encouraged it! 

     When I asked my mother if Santa was real, she told me the truth that he exists as the spirit of Christmas (not literal spirit but more like the 'joy' of christmas). When I asked my father to explain divine intervention he had to pull the car over and stare at the sky for a while in an attempt to find a way to answer his far too curious son. 

     The second lesson they gave me which may possibly be as bad as the first is that in life I needed to follow my passions and do what made me happy regardless of money, because as long as I could dream it I could find a way to make it a reality. They taught me to chose happiness over money. Who does that!?!

     These two were the first of many teachers who failed me.  

     Now we move down the timeline of my life through the schooling system, the realm of certified teachers. Luckily for myself and those many students around me society has done its damnedest to eradicate responsible teachers in the school system, and to keep the responsible ones so focused on test scores and pushing kids up through the cracks that they cannot afford to be responsible. 

     But responsible teachers are a resilient bunch and a few continue to manage to survive. Generally the teachers who I personally can think of which collectively worked to ruin my life had one main lesson they were trying to brainwash the masses of innocent children with:

     Ignorance is not bliss, its a bias.  

     These people taught countless children to not only question the world around them but also to question the answers they received. They continued the dastardly education provided by responsible parents! 

     Unfortunately for myself my teachers weren't content with simply ruining reading or watching the news, but wanted to go further and try to open the eyes to the fact that there is always another side of the story in all walks of life. 

      For example in any food establishment it never fails that in the last minuets before the doors close that someone will show up hoping for a meal that a capitalist society cannot help but serve. And while those saved from the burden of responsible teachers are free to despise those people I cannot, knowing that their side of the story might explain that 8:30 was the earliest they could get the entire family together because both parents worked until 8 that night and they really just want to have one family dinner where no one has to worry about cooking or cleaning. 

     Now I'm in college, sinking further in debt because I was taught to follow my passion and worry about money only as far as I need it to accomplish my goals. I'm majoring in Anthropology and minoring in History and Folklore, all fields I shouldn't expect any money in, because I was taught to question all things and to actively seek out the story of those who have not had their stories told. Worst of all there are even more responsible teachers training me how to do it. 

     Perhaps now I'm a responsible teacher for having taught you how responsible teachers can ruin our lives. 

The Worth of a Photo

     Hope ya'll enjoyed your labor day weekend. I did too, which is why this post is a day behind when it's usually been put up Monday.

     I had quite a few idea for what I wanted to do with this particular blog post having gotten the introduction posts out of the way. But I decided something that would perhaps be less wordy and more picturey would be fitting. 

Rain over the Desert by Timothy Reid on 500px

     Over the summer I went on a road trip with my then girlfriend's family to Colorado. This is one of the many pictures and stories I gained from it.

     The day began with the howling of wolves from the valley across from where we wer camping on National Forest land. After trying to get some nice photographs of the wolves we were crammed back into the FJ (a car with a subculture all its own, story for another day) and were off to the mountains.
   
     The FJ is an off road vehicle and it turned out Sam's parents were into off roading so we crossed a mountain range on a washed out rocky path that could only loosely be considered a road.

      While not the smoothest of rides it was worth it for the amazing views which only those with monster trucks for cars, or hikers of course, could see. The valley on the other side was a massive birch forest, which unfortunately had suffered a forest fire but was growing back and was still beautiful.

     The most amazing part of the journey was rounding the last foot hill of the mountain to see a sand dune. A massive sand dune right at the base of the mountain.

     The Great Sand Dunes! It just looks so out of place, but there it was. We parked the car at the base of one of the sandy mounds, to stretch and get lunch. The plan was to go into the park from a different angle and drive around on the sand, but the challenge of climbing a sand mountain was too strong and all male members of the car, myself included, were soon competing as to how high they could go.

     I started at a running start, and made it perhaps 1/20th of the way up before I was out of breath. One cannot truly appreciate how steep it was until trying to climb it. I quickly over took the two others who were carving their names in the sand because I had to reach the top.

     It was high altitude and, lets face it I'm not in the greatest of shape. I was dying. Absolutely dying. I had to stop ever four or five meters just to catch my breath. But I made it all the way to the top. Of the first dune. To look up. At the next dune.

     I might have tried to keep going, if not for the fact that there was a strong breeze at the top of the sand dune. Now I don't know if you've ever been pelted with shards of glass repeatedly, but that's sorta what it felt like when the wind kicked the sand up.

     I managed to slide back down without face planting and after a brief lunch we drove away. It was at the edge of the dunes that I managed to snap this shot as the storms which were keeping the sun from searing up and the sands wet enough we could walk on top without sinking terribly far.

     So the moral of this story is if you ever get the chance to climb to the top of a sand dune, do it. It's worth the view, even if you can't take your camera for fear of sand.

~ Tim

Gather 'Round

     This is the introduction post. The "Who Am I" post.
   
     I have tried my hardest, possibly still unsuccessfully, to avoid the awkward 'I've copy and pasted this from a dating website' vibe that readers so often have to deal with when it comes to introductions in online material. (And sometimes satirically on the inside cover of a book with the authors bio).

     From a young age, or at least as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a storyteller.

     The rest of my life can basically be traced back to this one simple desire. To tell stories.

    My major and hopefully future career path? Anthropology, the study of people and the cultures both past and present. The field that most interested me within anthropology was ethnography, the telling of peoples stories.

     My obsession? Books. Reading and writing. I feel as though this is pretty obvious how it relates to the desire to be a storyteller.

     My passion? Photography. A picture is worth a thousand words, and its a lot of fun to try to tell a story within those thousand words. Every picture I take, and I've taken some 10,000+ (though I've deleted about 2/3rds of them) have a story behind them.

     My hobbies? Walking. Biking. Hiking. Camping. Backpacking. Rock Climbing. Scuba Diving (Eventually). Now while these all might not immediately bring up the idea of storytelling, the goal of all of them is to get me out into the world. Where are interesting stories made or found, sitting in front of a computer or television screen or out there [at this point please look out your nearest window]?

     I suppose that just makes this blog my digital campfire, where friends and strangers can gather 'round and listen to me tell my stories. Guess you guys'll be needing [these].

     ~Tim

Inarticulate Ramblings

     So having derided myself for my general lack of improvement in my life I'm doing this. 

     What is this? Good question. I have no idea. Really.

     This is simply the inarticulate ramblings of a 20something year old trying to figure out what it is life is going to hold in store. Its a blog. 

     I have tried blogging before. Embarrassingly quite a few times. With exception of one, all have died a slow, quiet and painless death. The reason is almost unquestionable and unavoidable that I get distracted away from them and forget about them until they have rotted away to the point I see no purpose in trying to revitalize them. 

     Mistakes I've made before:

1. Kept the blog a secret
2. Stopped posting regularly because no one was reading
3. Quit

     How I'm going to avoid my mistakes:

1. I'm going to do some PR work. Facebook. Friends. Random Internet Strangers. 
2. I'll post regularly. Even if people HATE what it is I'm writing, they'll still have read it. I do want people to read it though.
3. I'll try not quitting. . . that's easy enough right?

     So basically this is a jumbled mess of words meant force me into action. I'll be posting this and showing some friends who will force me to stay on task and do something with it. (Hopefully)

     Its a rough start to a rough blog that I hope to polish over time. 

     Feel free to join. 

     

     ~Tim