The Last English Blog?

Wow, what a semester this has been.  Quite a shock in getting back into the english class after such a long break.  It's been a bit of an adjustment realizing what you can and can't do the way that you want when writing papers for this course.  Maybe it would have been a little bit better by taking the class in the room but it's a little late for that now.  I've been a bit disappointed by the grades that I've received but that just shows me that I need to put in a little more time on the assignments.  I will say that the last essay that we had to read, about the country of Ireland and their poverty problems was a bit disturbing, especially since I have 2 young boys myself.  I think the saddest part about it is that it does happen somewhere in the world with the infants.  Well, I've still got roughly 4-5 years of school left to get my degree in MIS from WSU, so it better be worth the long adventure that I've set myself up on.  Wish I would have done this right out of high school instead of 10 years after.

A Modest Proposal

Wow, is this ever a loaded topic for anyone who really wants to get into it.  There's a couple of issues that I could propose, but don't want to get into it too much as I get pretty fired up about some of them.  One of issues, especially this time of year is people who illegally take wild game, or poach them.  The slaps on the wrist that most of these people get outrages me.  A few weeks ago, this year, a young man had posted his hunting conquests on his Facebook page and someone noticed that he had done some illegal activity.  This somebody reported him to the local conservation officer and he was fined, etc.  He had taken an illegal buck that he tagged, taken 3 more Canadian geese than the limit allowed, harvested a legal buck that he didn't tag but took across state lines to Wisconsin and was going to have it mounted.  He was fined around $1800, lost his hunting privileges for roughly 3 years and that was it.  This is obviously a case of someone who knowingly has poached previously and didn't care.  The DNR should have seized his vehicle as well, due to the fact that he took an illegal buck (2nd buck taken in a season) across state lines.  But the sad part is, it still won't matter either way.  This young man will still continue to poach. 

Thanksgiving, what are you thankful for?

Well, it's the week of Thanksgiving again.  It came upon us quick and without warning this year.  Maybe it's because of the late summer weather that didn't have us thinking fall.  I don't know.  But this time of year in Minnesota also means deer hunting.  My family and I are lucky enough to have permission to deer hunt on an apple orchard (don't worry, it's all fenced in so it's not as good as you think).  I am starting to get a little more acquainted with the property and the "hot spots" that hold deer.  I had discussed with my hunting party where I wanted to go on opening morning and where they were going to go and when to meet up in the late morning.  Everything was in the plans and very cold on Saturday morning, for what we've been used to anyways.  I was sitting in my spot that I had decided and got cold, so I moved a few times and started to wander around the area to see what was around.  I came out of some thicker undergrowth and noticed a big wood platform that someone had built, so I climbed up in it.  I made a few calls for deer but nothing came in immediately.  After about a half hour in the stand I hear the leaves rustling in the thicker undergrowth, and this wasn't the squirrels either.  I look up, with my gun laying down by my feet, of course.  What do I see?  Antlers, and lots of them.  Here comes a buck and he's headed right at me.  There's a problem in my area that I hunt this year though, the DNR has enacted an antler restriction that makes a legal buck have to have 4 points of at least 1 inch long on one side of his rack.  I was looking really hard and counting but I couldn't get a good visual on his rack because of the undergrowth.  Well, he finally steps out of the undergrowth and starts walking away from me, at 40 yards.  He has his head down and puts his left front foot forward and I let loose with the first shot, miss.  I reload as he runs towards me and stops around 15-20 yards away from me.  I steady myself, center my sights on his front shoulder that is facing me and let loose with the second shot, direct hit.  His shoulder and front leg are done for and he takes off running in front of me so I let loose with another shot but miss.  He piles up in a great ball of fur and antlers 20 yards on the other side of the stand I'm sitting in.  He was a great 9-10 point buck with long tines on his antlers.  He's the biggest buck that I've shot by far and very proud when it only took the 1 shot that hit him to put him down.  Once I got up to him and looked him over, I noticed that he was still rubbing his antlers on trees to mark his scent and when you look at him from the front, he has a mow-hawk on top of his head, pretty cool looking guy.  This is the thing I am thankful for, being able to spend time in the woods with my family and have the opportunity to shoot a quality animal like this nice buck.  And later that day, about 1 hour before sunset I shot a big doe also.  The day couldn't get any better from a hunting standpoint.

The worlds future with water

After reading the essay Water Wars, the author makes some very good points.  It will end up being the next world war.  Who is going to be able to assert their military power the most over the ice caps on each end of the globe is going to be the winner.  Thank goodness that we live in the U.S. on this instance, but everyone else that is in the world is really going to get hosed.  Oh wait, it's the U.S.  We like to help the other countries in the world before we help the people in our country and the country itself.  We've got thousands of people that are homeless, hungry and thirsty everyday, including children, and yet the politicians still think that it's a great idea to go and spend money on other nations first.  I agree that other nations do need help, but where are the other countries in the world that don't do anything to help them and no one says a thing about them not helping.  Water is a valued commodity, now and into the future.  The way that Americans pass through the stuff on a daily basis is unbelievable.  We waste so much water in the items that we produce and the waste that we have with doing dishes and mealtime that should sicken any other nation, including our own.  I'm not opposed to going to war over water, namely because we have a vastly superior military compared to anyone else in the world.  Maybe if our predecessors were a little more conservative over the resource before it comes to this we wouldn't have to kill half the world to save enough ice (future drinking water) for ourselves.

LOGICAL FALLACIES, WOW!

Why is it that every sports company has to have the "big name athlete" to endorse their clothes?  By now, people know what the good clothing makers are and which are not.  By coming out with these commercials that are constantly nipping at your mind saying that you won't be any good at this sport or that sport if you don't get this new sock for $35, you might as well quit this sport.  I'm sort of curious as to how much money NIKE pumps into its' adds during a year.  Not to mention all the money that they end giving to the University of Oregon(blah).  How is this anywhere near a fair advantage to any other university?  You have the largest sports apparel maker in the world in your backyard and you(NCAA) don't think that this is some sort of advantage.  Give me a break. 

Tattoos, what do they mean to you?

For the longest of time, I always thought that tattoos were kind of cool.  It was a form of self expression, which it still is, but as I grow older I start to realize that it's a way to set yourself apart, and not necessarily in a good way.  If you're in a job interview and you need to dress in "professional" attire for your job and you have tattoos that stick out over your clothes, who do you think the interviewer is going to pick if you have the same qualifications as the next guy?  I know it shouldn't be like that, but you have to deal with what the professional world is giving you.  Also, once you start getting, you start to realize that each tattoo costs a lot of money for what you get.  My neighbor dropped over $400 dollars on a tat last year out in Sturgis, on his back.  He can't even see the thing.  What is the point in it?  I can think of a lot of different things to spend $400 on than a tattoo that I can't even see.  And then there's the risk of getting a significant disease from the needles.  That's enough to keep me away from the tattoo world.  Are some of the tats that people get pretty cool?  You bet they are and the artists that created them are pretty good at what they do.  I guess when I see someone who has tattoos covering most of the "visible" parts of their body I can't help to think that they fit into the stereotype of a "loser, drug addict or lost soul".  I know I shouldn't think this way because I don't know the person, but that's not the kind of person that I prefer to hang out.  Just my personal opinion, that's all.

Week 9 post, oops

After running out of time last week to put up my post, I finally have a little break in the action to sit down and do some catch-up work on the blog.  Is it just me or is everyone else fed up with this Brett Favre garbage?  He sent text messages and indecent picture images to some lady that used to give him physical therapy (I think).  Does anyone really care other than his wife?  Now we have to worry about if he's going to start because of a fractured ankle.  His starting streak could be in jeopardy also.  Oh no, not the starting streak.  It isn't going to be the best person that can go out and quarterback the Vikings when it's game time on Sunday, but then again neither is Tarvaris Jackson or the rookie qb that they have.  This team is pretty much a lost cause for this season.  Brett needs to retire while he's ahead of the game, at least for this season and pack away his pride and ride off into the sunset to retire with his wife on their farm in Mississippi.