Charles Crawford Outside Reading

Solar Power in California

 

I read on nature.com that California is making big strides in the clean energy movement. Google is even getting involved, pumping many millions into low-carbon energy production to make it cheaper than coal. I really think this is a great thing, because it keeps pollution down. Keeping the pollution down makes the ability to maintain wilderness areas much easier. Keeping the wilderness areas in better shape shows more respect to the sacred-ness of the land. It makes clear the distinction between the sacred of the wilderness and the profane of much of today’s energy production methods.

 

Charles Crawford Student Choice

Planet Earth of the Discovery channel

So I’m watching Planet Earth on the Discovery channel while trying to do these blogs, and I’m completely sucked in by the experience of the show. The show is so amazing, depicting nature as it truly is, without any kind of sugar coating or anything like that. They even manage to capture moments in nature that seem impossible to conceive. The music heightens the experience as well, making the awe created by the show even more impressive. It really rekindles the true feeling of the sublime that I feel in a true wilderness experience. It’s the kind of feeling that makes you want to take your shoes off so that you don’t ruin the ground. Its not a feeling you can always get in person, but watching the show now makes me want to take my socks off now because I feel such a profoundly sacred impression just from the show. Its funny how I can go to the woods wanting to have a sacred experience, but the place chooses itself the majority of the time.

Martin Konkel - My Sacred place

Going back to the assignment we started in class:


I've been to a lot of places, yet I have so much more to see. I've had some special moments in various places rather it be the beaches on the Outer Banks, or the mountains of WV. I don't care much for my room though; I actually spend more money "decorating" my garage then I ever do my room. In fact, my garage houses one of my most sacred possessions, my 79' Malibu, along with all of my tools, and various tin signs of past memorabilia. It's also quite a mess though, with old car parts laying around, spare wiring and electrical components, etc.


Craft played a significant role in my life. As stated, it was a time of personal growth. It was my first dose of the real world and I learned a lot. However, it was a dump, and even though I spent a lot of my time fixing the place up, it's still awful. I don't care to ever work there again, and while I miss the people who worked there, I still get on with life just fine. Most of all though, this dump made me want to go to college. I watched my boss run it into the ground, I saw his son drop out of Community College in the business program, and I witnessed how the other mechanics were miserable there at times. I could of done better then that place (most people worked there because they either had a criminal record, couldn't pass a drug test or in most cases both). It made me want to make sure I would never end up in such a awful place again, so in August I punched that time clock one last time and now here I am.

Yeah, there are many other places I rather be, but if one "place" had a affect on me more then any other, it's got be that shop sitting down towards the bad section of town. Been there, done that, and I don't care to go back.

Megan Howard's Student Choice Blog #2

Student’s Choice
When driving in my car, I feel like I have the entire world at my fingertips. I can go anywhere with an unprecedented amount of freedom. Some would say this is a false sense of freedom, considering that it is my parent’s car and driving it is a privilege that could be taken away in a moment. However, I think my car 9as I like to refer to it) gives my parent’s a false sense of control. They like to control it, but once I have it away from my house I can go anywhere and do anything. The funny thing is, my favorite places to drive are the ones that are the most simplistic and least rebellious. Like driving home from school on Friday with Red Hot Chili Peppers blaring or escaping to the park by my house in the winter and staring at the frost coated trees. My car is my home away from home, I can take it with me anywhere and it is my protection. Because although I like to think that it is the freedom that draws m to it, it is like a little piece of my parent’s that I take with me when I’m away from them. It’s the side of them that doesn’t yell, the side that has dinner ready and asks me about my day, and it is the side that I love the most. My car is the pinnacle of ambiguity in my life with so much freedom but tightly regulated and an entire world of places but somehow always close to where I really want to be: my home.

Megan Howard, Outside Reading Blog

Outside Reading Blog- Aristotle’s The Politic
During ULLC class I realized a strong connection between our discussion about what makes us different from animals and a book I was reading for political philosophy. In Aristotle’s The Politic he discusses what makes us human. We come together, unlike other animals, to form a society and seek a higher life. We come together to escape the state of nature that we are born into and strive for a culture. These are the things that make us who we are. Animals do what is necessary to survive but humans come together to form something greater; we look not just at the survival of a life but the quality of it. We have emotional, mental and spiritual demands that can be renewed through wilderness but need more than just the bare essentials of the wild. As we discussed in class today, what makes us different from who we are and that of an otter? They build habitats, evolve from the past and other things. But we do not just act out of instinct, we have a more creative learning process and develop reason. These are the critical things that make us different from animals.
In The Politic, Aristotle claims we enter into partnerships with the intention of good. Nature is the basis of society but from that we enter into families, then a village and finally a polis. We do this to reach the previousy mentioned ‘higher life.” Like animals we have a desire for self-preservation but only the city allows for the good life to be satisfied.

Class Discussion Reflection, Laura Boleyn

The final class on December 6 was probably the most interesting and fun discussion of the course. I especially enjoyed the discussion on the unfiltered experience and identity and on how people relate to things that are physical.
We discussed how changing the name given to you by your parents is a symbolic gesture of being free. You no longer belong to your parents and you have a different identity and are able to start over new and as you want to be. Crafting your own identity gives you a blank slate, or “Tabula Rasa, “ as we learned in class and in the book on page 239. I have wanted to be called “Liesel” by my parents, not to escape them and what they gave me but rather to give me the chance to leave everything behind and start fresh. I’m not exactly happy with the way things are in my life and would love to be able to go somewhere totally different and be a totally different person and just change everything and start all over again. I can understand why Chris wanted to be called Alex Supertramp and go to a totally new and different experience for change.
Another part of the class discussion that I could relate to was the part on the magical library and that people relate to things that are physical. I have been in the library too, and have heard the books speak to me. I was looking for a book on San Francisco and on my way found a play that I found to be very interesting. I have also had this same experience in a grocery store. I was going shopping for fruit and vegetables for my parents and I was walking through I saw this strange fruit that I had never seen before and I couldn’t help but buy it. As I was picking up that particular fruit, there were other exotic fruits and couldn’t help but buy one other different kind. I had never heard of these fruit, and because of it I don’t remember their names but they were really interesting and a nice change that made the evening interesting.

Trail Magic

I thought the controversy over trial magic that we discussed in class the other day was interesting topic. I had never heard of trial magic before that day in class. The issue was whether people should be allowed to drag coolers and what not out into the woods and leave it for someone to come across. The problem is that the cooler is not natural to the environment. It is possible that animals will find this food and cooler before any human does and that poses a problem because the food is not part of the animal’s diet. In addition, the cooler is still just laying there by the trail. So should trials and parks ban trail magic or permit it? Well I think the best compromise would be to only allow trail magic when the human stays and gives the food to hikers walking by. The best place to do this is by a campground or where the trial crosses the road. This serves the purpose of trial magic and is not harmful to the environment.