Sunday, May 31, 2009

Don't Jump in the Lake

I normally try to have some sort of hook as the first sentence of my blog. I assure you that it doesn't always work as I plan, but I don't want people to start reading my blog to know that the following blog is going to contain nothing worth reading. No, I like to lead you on, and THEN let you know that you have just wasted two minutes of your life. Wait did I just break my "oath" of not blogging about how I suck at blogging? Because I don't think that counts. So please tell me: after reading this first paragraph, do you actually WANT to read the rest of this blog, or are you simply left feeling obligated to see it through to the end?

I sit here not knowing exactly what I'm going to write. I try not to do that with blogging. Usually I have at least one thing on my mind, but not today. I am going to start with your questions and see where that takes me.

What do you think of the whole "green" movement? Is it reasonable? Do you think the government and other independent environmental groups are asking us to do too much or too little? Are people responding to the call for more environmentally-friendly actions?

I'm all for the green movement. I was part of the green movement before the green movement was a thing. Kind of like how I liked Harry Potter before it was a phenomena. Yes, I have the official bragging rights. Mostly. I don't think we're asking people to overstretch themselves. Start small. If you need to buy a new light bulb, why not just buy a florescent and be green? If you're going to by cleaning supplies, why not buy stuff that's safe for the environment? If you're going to buy a new car, why not a hybrid? The consumerism part of it is pretty simple, because we all know how to buy stuff. Recycling and composting, however, is a little more difficult.

People are lazy. You see it everywhere. We have drive-thrus so we don't have to leave the car; we have disposable products because we don't want to clean up and re-use; we have machines that help you excercise. We have so much technology that aids us, making us more and more useless in our own lives. When I look at the rewards of recycling based on the effort, it seems worth it to me. But of course, not everyone feels that way. Because people are lazy. I still think they need to get over that and recycle, but ultimately, it's a choice and you can't force people to go green.

I'm not saying everyone should run out and buy some solar panels to heat their house, but I don't think a few small and gradual changes are that big a deal. Things like cloth shopping bags and using your resources wisely are simple for us intelligent creatures. The royal We made a mess and now it's up to the rest of us to clean it up. We have to start somewhere; why not start here?

How was your weekend?

Fantastic. My house elf costume was a hit, although it had it's drawbacks. It kind of limited my music and all the little kids kept asking my who or what I was. I kept telling them, "I'm Inky the House Elf" (I decided on my name!), and then they would ask who Inky was, or what movie she was in and I would proceed to explain that she wasn't in a movie. Yet. They didn't like that. They said I should've been Dobby, even though he's a boy elf. But I got a lot of attention, which is nice every once in a while.

One thing I wanted to let you all know is that most lakes are cold. If you are ever in a situation where you are at a lake and people are pressuring you to swim telling you things like, "it's not that cold," or, "it starts to feel warmer once you've been in for a while", you should run away. All that stuff is just a blatant lie, probably because they want you in the freezing cold with them, to share their pain. It's not nice, and yet we continue to deceive each other.

At this camp, I decided that I would go swimming. I never go swimming at camp if I think the water is too cold, (except for one swimming pool, one time) but this time I felt I needed to. Who am I to call people insane for jumping in the lake when I've never actually participated myself?So I did. I swam to and from the dock. Now that I've had the experience, I can truthfully say that those people are crazy for submitting themselves to that cold water. Yes, you body does get used to the cold, but do you know why that is? It's because your body temperature drops, and that's when you're really cold. The initial submersion is nothing compared to the shivering and chattering of teeth that happens if you actually stay in long enough for the water to feel warmer.

Don't listen to those people. Say no to peer pressure. Or not, if you like that feeling of ice cold water surrounding your body. coughyou'rementalcough.

That is the end. The camp was good. I, unfortunately, do not have any pictures of me in my costume, but I might put it make on and take one, so I can share it with you.

Alex: What are you looking forward to most right now? (and don't be all vague and say summer or something like that. I want specific event or happening)

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