Photo Project

I used to take a lot of photography classes in high school and they required me to photograph my environment on a daily basis. So i don't think that this project caused me to experience my environment any differently or see it in a different way since its something i always used to do. However, I think taking photos makes me see things differently than others do. Im more observant, i think about things in terms of how they would appear on camera and I think that in general I am much more observant than others.

My favorite photograph is the picture of my roommates cat lying on the couch upside down. I came to Iowa state this year sort of on a whim and didn't know i was coming until the start of the summer. I had to find a place to live very quickly and looked on craigslist. I ended up finding an apartment with two nice girls my age but one of them had a cat and i had never lived with a cat before. The first semester she bit me a lot and was aggressive and i thought i hated cats but she calmed down and I got used to her playfulness and now i'm really happy that we have a pet in our house, so i thought this photograph perfectly embodied what i wake up to each morning, and the newly discovered nice side to our cat, Yoda.

I like the way that Yoda is looking directly at the camera in this shot, it took me an hour to get the perfect shot where she was looking at me. The light was just right and i thought the blur of her fuzzy body against the fuzzy sofa creates this relaxed feeling that suits the look that Yoda has. She was peaceful and the lighting supported that feeling.

This was also the most difficult photo to obtain, i wanted yoda to be looking at the photo and she is very uncooperative so it was not easy. I think this is also why i like this photo the most because when i look at it, I see all of the effort and trouble i had gone through to get the photo. I have found through my many Photography classes that animals and young children are the most difficult subjects to photograph.

Looking at the photograph which I had mounted, of the small white and pink flowers which had just blossomed on the tree branch, I think it represents my environment well. I am from the east coast, and we have much calmer winters than the past one I experienced here in Iowa. I walked past that same tree every day on my way to school and it was frozen and gloomy and looked dead. So after three months of nonstop snow and wind and just absolutely awful weather, I loved to see those first few flowers bloom on that tree and was eager to capture them and show the environment I had been waiting for all winter. I chose to photograph that same tree that I always see once it looked nice instead of as it looked for the first half of our photo project.

Writing like Annie Dillard

Giving the puppy a bath was always so fun because he loved to play in the soapy bubbles and of course he loved the attention. John and I would put on our bathing suits and hop in the bathtub with him to play and get him smelling like that soft fuzzy puppy he was the day we brought him home all over again. On this particular night though, Jake was acting funny, he wasn't as excited for the bath as he used to be and he was lying on the cold off white bathroom tiles as if he couldn't get up. I went over to see what was wrong, hes a puppy, they get tired, maybe it was just too late in the day to expect him to have energy. I scooped up the little 8 pound fuzzy strawberry blond Golden Retriever puppy into my arms and thats when i felt it.

Right behind his collar there was a thick round yet flat at the center bump. I freaked out as most new mothers do. I thought it was a tumor and my little jake was going to die. John told me to calm down and took the pup in his arms. We inspected the area and found that the bump was a huge, gray, engorged tick. It must have been on the poor puppy's neck for days sucking his blood like a vampire in a ghost story. This being my first dog, I had NO idea what to do. John, more level headed, grabbed the tweezers and asked me to hold the little guy while he pulled the dirty parasite off my baby boy.

So there i was standing in my pepto-bismol pink bathroom, in my rainbow striped bikini, holding on to this tiny ball of fluff while john tried to pull the bug off of him. Jake dug his nails into my bare belly as john tried again and again to pull the bug out. It was so gross looking. Its whole body was fat and full with my innocent unsuspecting puppy's blood. It was the grossest shade of gray that one could imagine, looking strained all around from the amount of blood it had taken in. The worry was that if we pulled it out too quickly, we would break the tick, the blood which was now contaminated and disease carrying, would go everywhere, and the tick's head would still be stuck in my poor puppy's neck. I had to close my eyes because the sight of the parasitic leach was making me feel faint.

John eventually got the tick off, and Jake had a great time playing in the bathtub with us. But I couldn't look at the tick once it was in the tweezers, with its sharp face and gross body. My mom put it in a plastic bag to show the vet so they could identify what type of tick it was.

I think this is why i hate bugs and walking outside so much.

Buffalo for the Broken Heart

How Does "Buffalo for the Broken Heart" fit into the larger "nature writing" canon?

"Buffalo for the Broken Heart" was a good read to place after the many short stories and poems of American Earth, and the amazingly vivid poems of blood dazzler. It showed a calmer side to nature than Blood Dazzler, as it was more of a story, and not focused on one specific tragedy. Yet it was more exciting and held more life than many of the writings in American Earth, as there was a true plot to it. This is not to say that the majority of American Earth writings were not exciting, they were just more reflective than they were story telling. I liked the storytelling aspect of this book. O'brien teaches his reader about the land and the buffaloes and the way wildlife interact. I certainly didn't know as much about the science and specifics in owning a rach as I did after reading this book.

How does O'Brien relate to his environment?

O'Brien relates to his environment in a way that would be expected of a ranch owner. He has such an understanding of the environment he lives in and is surrounded by. He describes the wildlife with such admiration and interest, coupled with this overall sense of control. He is not just a keen observer. He is involved, he is working with the buffalo, he is familiar with the birds and critters that frequent his ranch, and he is however impressed by their beauty and the way that they live, in charge. At least this is the sense that I got when reading the many descriptions of the buffalo and the wildlife on the Broken Heart.

If you were to make one suggestion to O'Brien, regarding his land use, what would it be?

Being a New Yorker myself, I do not know much about the natural environment and the world untouched by man. In fact, the most I know about these things has come from the readings and explorations we have done in this class. Therefore, I find it quite difficult to make suggestions to such an expert on how to use his land. But, keeping in mind my ignorance and limited understanding of these things, I guess I would suggest that O'Brien grow crops. This is something that most impressed me in moving here to Iowa. The usefulness of having cornfields near, and the idea of eating food that was grown mere miles away from where you live impresses me beyond belief, and seems to me like the only thing that O'Brien is missing out on in his vast experiences on his land. (However, Im not even sure about crop growth and whether it would be possible in this environment. But its just a thought.)

Biking in the Bambesch

When I was 10 years old my father moved my entire family from New York over to Luxembourg. We didn't speak a word of french and my sisters and I had never left the country, not even to go to Mexico or Canada. We grew to like it there, but the first 6 months were a real culture shock. My dad tried to keep up with familiar activities that would make us feel more at home even though we were all the way across the ocean from it. One thing we had done at home was go on bike rides, me, my dad, and my little sister Katie. Emily was too little at the time. So my dad found a cool trail through the woods that is really popular to walk and ride bikes on which was called the bambesch. We went all the time and loved it. At first we were unhappy with the dirt underneath the wheels as compared with the smooth concrete of our driveway back home. But we got used to it and were very excited to go out each weekend.
Well one weekend we went riding the three of us and I got over confident. I Thought that I could ride far ahead of my dad and sister since I knew the way and I was getting so good at riding. Well, needless to say, the front wheel hit a twig. I fell off my bike, and opened my eyes to see that the bike had fallen on top of my tiny ten year old frame. An attempt to move showed me that my handlebar was sticking out of my neck. it slid off me and i put my hand to my neck and saw blood gushing over my shirt and hands from my neck. I was scared by this. I screamed for my dad but it took him some time to get to me as he had been so far behind helping my little sister. I tried to walk the rest of the way home while pushing the bike but the pedal had scraped up my knee pretty bad and it was hard to walk on it.
I remember sitting in the dirt, with the sun going down amiss the trees in the bambesch. I was crying and hurt and scared, and waiting for my dad. It only took him five minutes to get to me, but it felt like an eternity, waiting there in the wilderness. I think that may have contributed to my disinterest in the outdoors now. I am very city oriented. I would rather spend the day in a shopping mall than in the woods, and I am completely turned off by bugs and dirt. I have an appreciation for beaches and i like having trees around, I just don't want to live directly in the woods. However, I do see the beauty in nature. And I know i was fortunate to get to live in Luxembourg and bike in the bambesch.

Break in Boca Raton

I spent my break in Boca Raton Florida. I have been there before. But it was different this time. Thats where my boyfriend, Ian, is from. He grew up there with his mother and father and brother, Drew. Drew is older, Ian thinks he is the coolest person alive, although he wouldn't admit to it. Drew went to Notre Dame, he graduated in 2008, one year after Ian and I graduated high school. He met Donna on the first day of college and dated her from then on. Donna is the sister Ian never had.
Although Ian promised the break would be spend on the warm sand under the blazing sun on delray beach, he didn't know what would be in store for us when we arrived. We spent 2 hours on 2 different days on the beach, hardly what you would call a beach trip. We spent most of our time on the futon in front of the television in the cool woodfloored and white walled rectangle of a living room in Ian's parent's town house. Drew and Donna were there, only unlike the happy, fun presence they normally bring to a room, they brought anger and sadness.
You see, Donna and Drew had broken up months before and neglected to tell us about it. Yet, being 6 years into a relationship at the time of the break up they were unwilling to admit that friendship was just too far off for achievement. Donna would sit with me on the futon instead of with Drew on the chairs, and they would often hurry up the stairs to cry and shout and make a big scene, all the while pretending to stay discreet.
Ian and I soon learned that we preferred that comfort of a giant dark auditorium for out movie going dates, and developed an increased interest in dining out and shopping. If only the weather had been slightly better, we could have stayed on the beach all day. Anything would have been preferable to the tense company of love lost.

Personal response to Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry

I find this to be a very powerful form of writing. He uses commands to grab the readers attention and convince them to live in the manner he is advocating. He wants the reader to appreciate what is all around them and live their life to the fullest, loving and caring for nature, appreciating all of its wonders. I think it is a very effective way of conveying this point because he essentially calls people to action, yet the action he desires is not as obvious and stated as you would think. I like how he ends the poem with the statement about the fox and how it lays down tracks in many direction so you can pin it down,and catch it. But he doesn't just suggest that this is a good way to live, he commands it. "Be like the fox, who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction." I think there is something very bold and strong about this piece. I think the right way to explain it would be to say that he employs Ethos to convey his message and grab the readers attention. It works well.

Analysis of delivery in john muir readings

The john muir readings which I wrote of in my last post are full of feeling and meaning. it is extremely clear how Muir feels about the environment and the state of the world. However, he does not use visuals like photos cartoons etc, to convey this. I think he felt he didn't need them when he sat down and wrote about this topic because it is such an important topic to him. He had such a compelling argument on his own. I think that had he used some photos of the parks he speaks of, it would only have helped to support his argument. However, it wasn't necessary in order to get his message across. He uses visual cues as he switches paragraphs without transitions. This is his harsh way of moving the story forward and keeping the reader on their toes. I think it makes the harsh situation of the environment seem stronger and it enforces the argument further.

Response to John Muir

John Muir is an environmentalist and like Abbey, he uses his writing to call his audience, anyone who is reading and could help, to action. He wants to remind people that the earth does not belong to man, although man may believe it to be so. I think this is a fair point that was also seen in the momaday writing. Most people do forget that the earth is not something to claim, since basically, all we have done is divide it up and claim bits and pieces for ourselves. Muir writes in a very interestingly jumpy style. To me it seemed that maybe he did so in a "wild" way to represent the wild. This may be a stretch, but i felt like the way that you didn't know what to expect next, and the lack of real transitions was interestingly wild. But it was also effective in holding the readers attention because as a reader I was thrown into story after story, there was no slow build, he just jumped right in. He used Ethos, pathos, and logos in his arguments to capture the readers attention and portray his message. Ethos was used towards the end of the passages where he would sum up his argument which maybe wasn't completely clear before but tied together in the end. He stated different facts, particularly in the first passage about how and why man shouldn't believe the earth is his. He uses pathos throughout his passages to grab the readers attention and play on their emotions. This was evident in the discussion about the alligator eating the dog in the first passage and the detailed admiration descriptions of yosemite national park in the second passage. And Logos is used throughout both passages while he backs up his arguments with fact and interesting points. The part that stood out the most as an example of logos to me was in the first passage when he said "man claimed the earth was made for him, and i was going to say that venomous beasts, thorny plants, and deadly diseases of certain parts of the earth prove that the whole world was not made for him." That is a very strong logical point to sum up his arguments.

Abbey: Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks

Abbey's audience is the reader, whoever that may be, anyone who can make a difference. He is outraged and upset at the way things have turned out in the wilderness, and doesn't think that things like Park Service and acts to fix things are really effective enough, nor are they set out to be. Abbey writes to persuade others to take action and fix the problems that our culture and race has done to nature and wildlife. He worries about the way things will be in the future and urges us to fix things while we can, while backing up his points with examples about how things have changed and how what is being done now isn't helping. He has very detailed descriptions which he uses to try to get a rise out of the reader and make them think about what is going on. He wants to call everyone to action for this cause and that is evident in all the choices he has made in this writing.

Roosevelt: Speech at Grand Canyon

This was a speech given by Roosevelt to the Governor and a group of citizens of Arizona. It was his first visit there, but he manages to maintain his authority and give a strong speech about keeping it's natural beauty untouched. He speaks of the Grand Canyon, his respect for it, and his hopes to keep it as it is. He respects the soldiers from Arizona who fought along side him in battle. He also speaks of and to the Native Americans, treating them as equals, and encouraging others to do the same. It seems a very progressive speech for the times. He uses good details to back up his arguments. He describes his pride towards the soldiers and backs it up with statements of respect like "glorious and honorable death fighting for the flag of their country." He speaks of the Grand Canyon and his hope to keep it untouched in its natural wonder. And he backs this up by explaining his delight to learn that the people of the santa Fe railroad did not decide to build their hotel on the brink. He speaks of the Native Americans and his respect for them and goal to treat them as equal to any white man. He backs this up and encourages others to hold the same view by making the statement that "they were good enough to fight and to die, and they are good enough to have me treat them exactly as squarely as any white man." It is a very compelling speech, especially when considered in the context of its time.

Response to Jordan Julson's Blog

I agree with the points that Jordan made in his response to the momaday reading. We had one point in common which was that momday clearly discusses the respect that the Native Americans have for the land, which isn't common in our society. This is shown through the example I discussed in my blog about the day momaday spent planting the fields of corn with a young boy he hardly knew. The way he reflects on that years later and remembers that as an important thing he did for his culture and the land. This passage reminded me about the differences between cultures living in the same place. I think Jordan felt the same way.

Mammaday Post

Mommaday's story is written for an audience of people who maybe don't know all too much about Native American, and specifically Kiowa culture in this country. He has a lot of first hand experiences to share about his culture and moments growing up. He talks about the land of the kiowa's and the opinions and rituals they hold. They view the land in a much more respectful way than most Americans and he tries to show the importance and rareness of that to readers who may not realize how much they take for granted or how vast the landscape can be. Several specific details stay in my mind after having read the passage. One is the description of his meeting with a young boy his age. How they met up and rode off on their horses and planted fields of corn. The detailed description of what he learned about the cornfields later on and the fact that he had not known the boy at all when he decided to follow him show a sense of trust and admiration that is new to me. I wouldn't just follow some young girl who told me to come with her when I was a child. Another detailed description that sticks out is the discussion of the weapon and the hunter and all the hidden meaning in that passage that was towards the beginning of the reading. That is a phenmomenon I don't really understand, never having hunted or needed to hunt before. I find it interesting how some cultures can differ so much and live among one another. Mommaday's appreciation for land, nature, and culture is inspiring, and shown well through his detailed descriptions and memorable stories.

Henry David Thoreau vs. Christopher Mccandless

Before reading from "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" the only thing I really knew about Henry David Thoreau is that he found nature inspiring. This seems to be the trait people relate to him. Now I see why. Reading about nature through Thoreau's voice made me find his inspiration myself. His vivid descriptions of of the ice on th pond and the slight flurries of snow paint a picture of peace and serenity hidden among the trees in the winter time. He wants to be out there among nature, thats why he intends to build a house rather than just live in a tent. This is one way that, we'll call him Supertramp, and Thoreau seem to differ in ideals. In all of the adventures I have seen Supertramp undertake in the movie he never does anything to make a more permanent home. He lives in other people's trailers, and builds insufficient tents,It seems to me that he wouldn't want to chop down a whole tree in order to make a home for himself. He wants to live in the wild, but he wants to move through it, he is trying to get to Alaska, and even when there I don't think he would take down trees, an essential part of nature in order to build a place for himself. Thoreau however, looks at this a little differently. He says "It is difficult to begin without borrowing." To Supertramp, the trees aren't his to cut down, it would be too close to the brutality of society that he is trying to escape. Thoreau sees chopping down the trees to create a home for himself as borrowing, he has every right to borrow, for he intends to give back to the land, to the woods by Walden Pond, in the careful and respectful way he will live there, which is unlike most Americans.
Despite this vast difference in ideals, Supertramp and Thoreau do share some like-minded views. One strong example being their ideas about travel. When I first watched Supertramp abandon his car and burn his identity and money I thought he was absolutely crazy. My very first thought was "why wouldn't he just go to law school and make money so he can travel?" To him, this wouldn't be worth it. He wants to escape societal norms and travel into the wild on his own, finding his food and his way using his own instincts and strength. Tour buses and hotels never would have made Supertramp happy, he never would have been able to become part of the wild as he has by traveling on foot. Throeau shares this sentiment. It seems other people viewed his situation the way I first viewed Supertramp's they asked why he didn't just take cars to go see what he wanted. He explains that he has learned that "the swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot." This sentiment easily could have been said by Supertramp.
As Throreau writes about his intentions upon going into the woods and his hopes for learning and living before death, i am very strongly reminded of Supertramp and his strong driven journey. The two men differ in some ideals and the way that they view nature, but their similarities are far stronger than their differences. They both seem to find nature inspiring. Now, I can say that statement with true understanding of what it means.

Wildness Symposium Alternative: Patricia Smith Reading in the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival Saturday Night Sampler- 09/27/08

I watched several clips of Patricia Smith reading aloud from Blood Dazzler in place of attending the Wildness Symposium, since I had to work in Des Moines all weekend long. However, the one reading that stood out the most was the reading of 34, from the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival. In all of the readings I was immediately struck but the amount of feeling her voice brought to the poems that wasn't there before. I found them to be fairly powerful and in some senses disturbing poems to begin with. But after hearing her read them, it was as if i had not read them at all. They were such different stories coming from the mouth of the woman who created them. She feels so strongly and has been so effected by Katrina, it is clear with each word that she feels a strong connection to her stories. 34 was particularly memorable to me. I remember reading that story in the book and sort of understanding it. I got that the poor elderly in the nursing home drowned because it was not evacuated. But I didn't quite realize until I heard her read the full poem in its segmented parts, that she had set it up so that we heard the last thoughts up on the roof of each of the 34 people who drowned. Some were angry at their children, as they had not come for them. Some were relieved it was almost over, while others were sure they were going to make it through. She read each person's thoughts with such feeling and emotion, you could sense the fear, and despair, and exhaustion, and tragedy of each person's last moment. It was disturbing, yet captivating. I think most of the class should try to listen to some of her poems being read aloud because it is so much more powerful that way.

50 Word Post

For the first ten years of my life, I had a place. I lived in Long Island New York. My backyard was the most magical place in the world. We had a blacktop where we rode bikes, and drove the Barbie Jeep around, and a swing-set with three swings, a fort and a slide. There was my fisher price play house, set on the grass among the pine trees. I loved it back there, it was my place.

At 10 we moved to Luxembourg, yes as in the country in Europe. We didn’t really have a yard anymore, and even though there was a small garden, it wasn’t my place. This was evidenced through the teasing of my accent which I endured each day in classes, along with the fact that I couldn’t speak a word of French. I felt like an outsider most of the time because there was no familiar place to go and hide in the worst of times.

I found my place once more when three years later we moved to Baltimore Maryland. It wasn’t an instantaneous connection. At first I felt lost because I was the “foreign girl” but as time went on, I realized this was my place. My school with rolling green hills and beautiful buildings, my theatre program, my soccer field, it was my school. When I was elected president 4 years later, it only solidified my feelings towards Maryland. This was the place for me.

Map of a place you've lived: Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a tiny country in Western Europe bordering France, Germany, and Belgium. This map is accurate however not particularly detailed. The makers have included the countries that border it, and the most well known towns and cities, as well as the rivers. Being as small as it is, Luxembourg is not very well known, especially not among people in the United States. So it is important to layout its position in Western Europe on the map as opposed to just showing the country itself. Based on the fact that the countries’ names are written in English, it can be assumed that Americans will read this map among other English speakers. This map was created to show the position and general placement of Luxembourg and its cities in Europe, not to convey the feel and culture of the country itself. As it does not show the lush countryside which sits directly next to the cobble stoned streets of the city.

The Three Graces, 272 Feet (c. 1865-66) by Carleton Watkins

Majestic and towering side by side. A wonder to behold. Three trees stand side by side creating a wall of rugged bark and wood. People respect and admire trees even more as they age, unfortunately they do not respect age among one another. The concepts reverse, an old tree lives on, enjoyed by generations to come. A younger tree becomes paper. Younger people, spared as they represent the future, while older people become second rate. Three fantastical, elderly, startling trees stand side by side and create a sense of nature, spirit, and place, a sensation worth preservation.