halloween

Jack-o'-lantern. Originally a turnip, this carved vegetable with a candle inside was used by a poor Irish soul named Jack to light his way as he wandered for eternity, denied entrance to both Heaven and Hell — Heaven because of his habitual stinginess and Hell because he had, while still alive, forced the devil into a pact that would spare Jack from ever going to Hell. Boy, did he live (or rather die) to regret it! The Irish brought this custom to the US in the 1840s but found it more convenient to use pumpkins than their traditional turnip, rutabaga or gourd.

city living

I am looking to get an apartment in the city next semester does any one have any good suggestions? Or any good ideas of were to start looking?

smile your on camera

some pictures from the field trip

photo contest

Since out assignment involves taking digital pictures, I thought I would let everyone know about this photo contest:

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-garden/2009/10/chicago-park-district-nature-in-chicago-digital-photo-contest.html

The Chicago Park District is running the 1st Annual "Nature in Chicago" Digital Photography Contest and Exhibition. The Chicago Park District wants to see the best photos taken within the City of Chicago by nature photographers of all levels.
Here are the categories:Native Flora (Plants)
Native Fauna (animals)
Migratory Birds
Chicago Lakefront
People in NaturePhotos by Youth (14-18) in the categories.
The winning photographs will be exhibited at several Chicago Park District Cultural Centers in the summer of 2010.Here are the prizes:
"All winners and honorable mentions receive a 1-yr subscription to the Chicago Wilderness magazine and admission to the 2010 Chicago Wilderness Congress. 3rd prize: Private, personalized bird walk during the Spring Migration Season (2010) with the National Audubon Society and a gift certificate to a camera supply store. 2nd prize: Winners will receive a professional critique of their portfolio or workshop on nature photography techniques (their choice) with renowned nature photographer, Carol Freeman. 1st prize: In addition to the 2nd place prize, winners will receive free admission to the Lincoln Park Conservancy's Annual Gala in 2010, where they have a chance to auction off their work."November 15, 2009 is the last day to enter. By the way, I looked at the contest rules and they're defining "native" as a "species that was present in the Chicago region prior to European settlement or has arrived since through Natural means of dispersal (Chicago Botanic Garden)." This means that they don't intend this to be a photo contest of your average garden plants.

Everyone should become a member!

http://www.chicagowilderness.org

an interesting article

Sometimes what’s bad for the economy can be good for the planet. Or so argued Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute, yesterday. This environmental trend spotter pointed to several developments that may have escaped our attention as the global economy alternately sputtered and entered periods of freefall throughout the past 18 months.
Trend one: U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, have taken a tumble. They’re down 9 percent since 2007, Brown notes, fueled in part by a couple other developments.
Such as trend two: Americans are buying/keeping fewer cars. During the mid- to late-1990s, automakers sold more than 15 million cars a year. "Then, in 1999, [sales] jumped up to 17 million a year, and remained there for about eight years or so," Brown says. This year: Those sales slumped to a measly 10 million. Meanwhile, U.S. motorists are on track to scrap about 14 million cars this year. So the U.S. fleet could shrink this year by nearly two percent.


read the rest here:http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/40601

meteor explodes over the netherlands

Mid-Semester Break

I am excited for this much needed break! This weekend I am going to visit WIU. Hopefully the weather will be better than today, so I can actually get outside and go fishing or go to the shooting range! This weather also makes me wonder how come environmentalists don't really mention weather in any pieces we read, and why we haven't read anything about global warming? I wonder if this is going to come up in the future...

Flora and Fauna in Las Vegas

Did this piece remind anyone of fear and loathing in Las Vegas? It reminded me of the book and the movie a lot! Do you think this was intentional?

My ecological footprint

http://www.myfootprint.org/

Go to this website and take this quiz!

It estimates the size of your ecological footprint (area of land and ocean required to support your consumption of food, goods, services, housing, and energy and assimilate your wastes. The footprint is broken down into four consumption categories: carbon (home energy use and transportation), food, housing, and goods and services. Your footprint is also broken down into four ecosystem types or biomes: cropland, pastureland, forestland, and marine fisheries.

The quiz said if everyone on earth lived my lifestyle we would need 6.56 Earths! This is crazy because I didn't think I was that bad!

Deer

Today I saw two deer run across campus right in front of Carnegie. One of them was a baby deer, they were so cute I wish I had time to take a picture. What was interesting to me though was that they seemed so displaced and lost when running across campus, like they were invading our territory. Yet, really we have invaded their territory by building the college here. I would think I wouldn't be surprised by seeing two deer right in front of Carnegie since deer are a big part of Lake Forest's ecosystem, but I was quite surprised and delighted. Does this suggest my separation from nature or is this a normal reaction?

Nature in Paradise Lost

I am taking English 401 which is all about Milton's Paradise Lost and nature is a very important theme in the book. I think it is really interesting that nature plays such a big role even in older epic works. In Paradise Lost Eden is filled with cedars, pines, and flowers and Milton draws a really clear picture of the landscape. Yet, what is interesting to me is that in nature writing, authors often present nature as something perfect and complete. Something that does not need human touch or that is harmed by the presence of humans. In Paradise Lost, on the other hand, the landscape in Eden is something that Adam and Eve need to improve, they have to take care of the land and cultivate it. So this has left me wondering is nature better of untouched like nature writers think it is, or is Milton right in saying that the wilderness needs human improvement?

Seals

Honey Badger

Since we were talking about "The Scavengers" I decided to look up some cool predators. The Honey Badger is a tiny predator, but they have a reputation for aggression and fearlessness even much larger animals such as Spotted Hyena, Lions, or even humans. As a result of this they are not often preyed upon. Folklore says that the Honey badgers first target in an attack is the testicles of its opponent, but this has not been proved or disproved.

Creepy right?

Jamaica

I wrote my otherness paper on Jamaica and how the resort is so perfect it is disturbing because of how fake it is. Here is a picture that might help capture the mood of what I am talking about.

harmony/conflict

I go into my usual intro of “Good Evening, How are you doing tonight?”
The customer usually reply with a “Good how are you?”
Then I continue “Good, thank you! My name is Jeni; I’ll be taking care of you. Can I start you of with something to drink?”
This is my usual routine Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. I jot down their drink orders, go to the service station in the back fill a plastic tumbler usually with Diet Coke, and balance a round tray on my hand as I stroll to the table. Then I scribble down their sandwich, burger, rib orders and make my way to the alohas. I swipe my card, put in their orders and go to the kitchen. My manager is standing at the expo line putting together orders. A food runner taps his foot as he waits for a meal to carry out to the proper table. I look around for side work to do in my free time like running plates, or rolling silverware. By the time I do this my food is already at the table and the couple enjoys there dinner. When they finish I take their plates and bring them the check. They slide in a credit card and I grab it; run it through. They put on their jacket head to the door, as the bus girl is cleaning of the table. Six easy dollars in my pocket.

The host pulls out the chairs and opens up their menus. They sit at table 54 and flip through the pages. I walk up to them ready to deliver my usual greeting. Before I can even say hello, she demands a fresh cup of decaf coffee, and water with no ice and lemon. I go to the back, pour her a cup of coffee after asking my fellow servers if it was freshly made and head back to the table with goods. I ask if they are ready to order and she proceeds to go on a five minute rant about her Cobb salad. She only wants romaine lettuce, no olives, no blue cheese; add onions, chopped, mixed with blackened chicken and balsamic vinaigrette on the side. She can tell I was not happy by the fearful expression in my face, as she tells me to make sure the kitchen gets the ticket right. As she is hassling me, the host seats me with two parties of five. I rush over to the Aloha put in her order, and go to the other two tables. As I am getting their drinks ready I notice her salad should be done, but it is not. I ask the kitchen to check on it and they tell me they could not figure out the ticket. As I try to explain what she wanted, the tray of drinks wobbles and slips out of my hands. I am soaked in sticky coca-cola products and embarrassment. I go to remake all the drinks and clean myself of; finally I bring the drinks to my angry tables that are ready to order. As I begin to take their order the lady at 54 is glaring at me, trying to telepathically drill into my head I am a bad waitress. I go check on her salad, it had been ready but there is no food runner. I run out the salad, she says its not right wants to leave and tells me I am incompetent. I take her coffee dump it on her lap, and slap her. I wake up soaked not in coca-cola but in sweat, thank God this was just a dream.

Weekend

This was a great busy weekend. I worked all day Friday and I got an iPhone saturday that I love!! Now I can blog on my iPhone!

Here is something I wrote about visiting my grandparents last summer:

I looked back at my grandparent’s bleak apartment cautiously, trying to absorb the past two months of my vacation in Israel into my memory in those last minutes. I sulked into my bedroom for a brief time, trying to soak in its atmosphere, since I will not feel it around me for a while. The white bed with the peeling paint on it was standing against the white wall that is covered by a flowering brown rug. The bed spread matches the rug with its brown flowered decorations, two little drawer’s stand next to the bed and a white dress towers over them on the left side. It is not a beautiful picture but it was mine for a time. I was trying to preserve a photo like image because I had treasured that vacation so dearly, I did not want to leave, let alone forget it. It felt like I was never there. The flimsy white door bounced back to me after a slammed it in frustration. I figured that this would be the last time I ever saw this room. I had to preserve it in my mind, because the little details are what made the trip so complete.

early thoughts on sublime philosophy

John Dennis was a British Philosopher and was the first one to publish his comments about nature being sublime in a journal letter published as Miscellanies in 1693. He gave an account of crossing the Alps. His exclaimed his prior feelings for the beauty of nature as "delight that is consistent with reason", yet the experience of the journey was at once a pleasure to the eye as music is to the ear, but "mingled with Horrors, and sometimes almost with despair".

This is a picture of Grosser Mythen, in the Swiss Alps.