I'm published! 1-31-13

I'm published. Well I have been before in a neighborhood paper called the Porch Press, but this is bigger. It's the National Audubon Society's branch for the Atlanta section. And to top it all off my article was featured in on the 2nd and 4th pages of Wingbars (the newsletter/paper)!

Part-Time Crusader 1-30-13

Yeah, I've been busy being an absolute nerd and complete geek seeing 3D printers, watching a friend weld, and struggling through trying to use twitter for my robotics team. Okay so you're tired of hearing me talk about silly little things that chuck fribees at you at 4000 revolutions per minute. Just you wait... when I'm ruling the world and my awesome "chunk of metal" can do cool stuff that's absolutely incredible. You'll thanks me. Admit it. Okay so I don't really want to rule the world with frisbees, but I thought you might have want to hear from one of my many imaginary me's. Can you imagine a world with no trees all metal machinery and smog that makes you choke? Sure there's people out there that are looking into the clean energy. The green alternatives. I'm not trying to discount anyone because boy are you guys out there are doing great work.

Do you ever hear though little thoughts in your brain conversing with each other saying things like. "I wonder how many feet of duct tape it would take to stick your sibling to your ceiling?" Or "How many licks would it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center?" in that video on youtube. Or what about "What can I do with his massive bag of zip ties and jell-o?" If not, then I say you aren't a prankster. Live a little! Within reason of course. Come on. Surely you've pranked someone at a camp, club, at school (if you go to one), or some other gathering of people. If not, perhaps you've been on the other end of the pranking. If so I'm sorry. We do it in good cheer, the one's who are good spirited jokers. 

But it seems as though avenging can go... shall we say too far. I mean people end up dead. I'm reading Romeo and Juliet and there's lots of avenging going on. I think that pranking back, so long as lives aren't in danger, is perfectly fine. You also can't cause permanent damage either. The prank has to be looked back at with a laugh later on in life. People get stomped on all the time but they don't ever prank back. Stand up! You can do it. But I warn you. Once you're into this pranking thing step carefully.  There are people like my friend Matthew who will take your prank, laugh, look carefully at the design, and then prank you back worse than you could ever imagine. Go and live! So:

"do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards."                  --- Edward Abbey

Das Blinkenlights 1-26-13

Every now an then I take a look back at what I've written and I noticed that I never gave an explanation to this post. I, as you know, have been living at Georgia Tech. There is a sign that shows this message posed on  one of the main bulletin boards. It's perfect for all of us to do live around das blinkenlights.

This term derives from the last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic sign in mangled mock German that once graced about half the computer rooms in the English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety as follows.

ACHTUNG!

ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS!

DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN.

IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.

ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

This "silliness" dates back to least as far as 1955 at IBM and had already gone international by the early 1960s, when it was reported at the University of London's ATLAS computing site. There are several variants of it in circulation, some of which actually do end with the word blinkenlights.

"Oh my god you could go to the bathroom while on google+ chat!" - Maeve

"Oh look I've gotta show you the sheep head my mom got." - Maeve

"Why would you say be quiet Dexter when you could say shut up Dexter?" - Mattie

"You cannot rob my of my love of cleavage (starfish that is)." - Maeve

The quote of the day while talking to to Maeve, Dexter, Zeki, Aaron, and Mattie.

What were you thinking? 1-23-13

This a a VERY good example of the conversation that I've been having during the robotics season:


Casey: "Come on man... import those churros! We gotta get this stuff CAD'ed up. You're makin' me look bad."

Mei-Jing: "Churros? Oh you mean the 500 Cross hex tubes?"

Casey: "Yeah whatever man... *derp grin*

Wheels turnin'... keep on burning 1-22-13

It's been a crazy ride full of mechanical wheels, constant loud noises, and lots and lots of sawdust. For some reason I have been able to put everything, meaning the noise, into a little corner of my brain, and I haven't been too upset by it. I think it's because I know I can walk out of the building any time that I want. But the people I am with make me so happy it's hard to leave every night, even though I know I'll be spending the never evening and the next one with them too. Among my team members are Jasmine an Tymirra who are the two newest girl additions to the team! Even though I love all the members of my team to death it was time to get some girls on the team. Recent guy additions would be Jay, Myles, Collin, and Josh (yes another one). Of the mentor we have good old Corey who is currently incredibly stressed out yet makes everything sound like he's the most relaxed person you've ever met, Ben who as always keeps the humor alive in the room, Alex our programmer who is always on the computer and lastly Casey who is a freshman at Ga Tech and is well let's face it an incredibly awesome geeky nerd. We have currently been having some internal issues with agreeing on designs, leadership, and authority in general but through some talking, a games of pingpong, and stories of failed adventures brought us closer.

 I don't know where we'd be without the mentors. I wouldn't have been able to sit for 1 straight hour fixing a bunch of mistakes and errors in one of the models that we made had it not been for Casey's humor, his bad song references, and overall geekiness in general the hour might not have been quite as fun and productive as it was. If someone doesn't finish a phrase Casey will, without fail, start singing a song that has the begun phrase in it.

I knew Collin and Myles before they arrived on the team. They are both homeschooled and used to/still go to LEAD (Learners and educators of Atlanta and Decatur [it's a homeschool group/co-op thingy]). I remember Myles as the weird kid that always wore his pajamas to class and had an amazing amount of curly blonde hair. We were talking today and he said, and I quote, " God what I have now was a 1/4th of what I had. I swear I had things living in it back then!" Now Myles likes to frequent hackaday.com, likes the smell of certain plastics when they are cut, is quite the skilled electrician, and is a computer hack builder.

 Collin, unbeknownst to me is a backpacking enthusiast. He is full of crazy stories of failed camping trips, kayaking disasters, Leave No Trace failures, and karma biting you in the butt. He's a machine when it comes to building. I swear they guy can crank anything out in record timing. I find that I have more in common with him than I ever though. Collin was always the kid at lead with the hair as long as the girls and who was kind of quiet and melted into the background.

 Had you asked me years ago when I saw these people, but didn't really talk to them. If you were to ask me whether I saw them as my friends in the future I would have answered with a resounding no. But now I kind of wish that I had become friends with them before. They are really fantastic people who make me smile everyday I see them. Needless to say I am having a blast despite my ridiculous schedule. :)

PJ clad math students 1-17-13

I'm sure you're familiar with the stereotype of homeschoolers. well at least this one because there seems to be many. The one I'm talking about would be "do you do you're school work in pajamas?" Why is that? Do we just give of a "we do whatever we want to do" aura? Because it's kind of true...

The whole reason that kids are homeschooled is because they or their parents or both don't like the public/private school system for one reason or another. Whether it's the school environment or the the teachers or the curriculum or the kids at the school. I know a lot of people who are out of school because they are tired of being "taught the test." Filling in the bubble for a test is not the be all end all of life. A letter grade is not going to bring your entire future down. And you say "but what about college?" And here comes the irony and sad part. A) colleges and universities are still warming up to homeschoolers and thus admit homeschoolers through their SAT/ACT scores more. Funny how you spent your entire "school" life trying to beat the system and then when/ if you decide to go to college a lot of it's riding on a test, because there isn't that shiny stamp saying that you did this that and the other (that's the irony). B) your future doesn't depend on grades. There are a lot of schools out there who want to see what you have done not what test you've taken. Many people don't know that's out there and they break their backs filling up a sheet of paper with extra curricular activities that they may or may not like (that's the sad part). In this respect homeschoolers have the upper hand. They have the time and flexibility and daring to go out and try that crazy circus act or paint that landmark or build that machine. These are the people who are interesting. These are the people you want to meet and get to know. Now don't get me wrong, I know some fantastic people who are from a typical school. But I'll wrap this thing up before that certain sense of pride eeks into what I was trying to say. What's I'm trying to say is being in a cardboard limiting box is boring! Aren't you tired of the same old same old? I am. But by god I'm going to keep wearing my pajamas while I read about the history of money! Done...

Harmony through humor 1-17-13

I'm in my room waking up to NPR and I hear a report about a guy named Mark and his wife names Maria. They are described as the perfect couple. Smiling, happy, and holding hands. Picturesque I suppose. Their difference, which is why they had this report done on them, is because Maria is a Lutheran stand in pastor and Mark is an atheist. I find this rather astounding. Many people don't get married because of big differences such as this.  It's the giant life choices that either bring people together or tear them apart. Mark's kids don't go to church and Maria's do. It seems like such a great divide. If only the world could live in harmony with age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic status, and religion still setting us apart. If only these differences were celebrated by everyone.  The two parents and kids exist as one functional and mostly happy family by using humor and compassion to name a few. If society as a whole could give us their, "I'm superior to you in ____" I think perhaps we might, just might get along a bit better. But then you run into the question, where does this superiority come from? Pride? And then you think, is pride all bad? Perhaps it's good to be happy with what you have achieved  But then where do you stop this pride. What say you? Or is this not the solution?

Failure is ALWAYS an option 1-16-12

As a continuation of what I was saying about Doogle and Joe. Joe was great. Lets start off by saying British accents are cool. And when you add it to giant red bus you get inspiration and smiles. Who wouldn't want that? Maeve's big dream is to jump into a blue station wagon and travel around. Perhaps attach a tiny little home to the vehicle? My dream is kind of like Maeve's but it involves water. Of course. Because I'm a freak when it comes to water. I love being in, on, and around. Any preposition that involves water and I'm there. I read a book call Dove which is a true story about a teenage guy who built and sailed around the world by himself. I want to live on a boat someday and travel. First along the coasts of the USA and then around the world. Perhaps sailing with friends and then alone too. Joe told me that one of the reasons he wanted to go on this trip is because of happiness. He was tired of working the 9 to 5. Tired of paying the bills and being weighed down by monotony. He was in essence.. BORED! He was burnt out. He was tired of seeing people dream about futures that they'd never have because they were too afraid to follow through. That brings me to the second message that he wanted to jam into my brain. Don't be afraid to throw yourself out there, fail, get back up, and be the happiest you've ever been in your life.

While I was at his bus, I helped Joe push all the water that had pooled on his roof off, and pointed out all the leaks. Joe drives in the cab what was originally meant to be open air. He told me when we was driving across Sweden in the winder he had duvet covers, a parka, and a balaclava on. all the other drivers were wondering why an abominable snowman was driving a bright red bus. He was sick for a week after this drive to the states. When he got here a piece of machinery broke and it cost him $2000 to replace. That was 1/4 of his budget. But did that stop him? No! The seal on the cab windows is now completely shot and his roof is leaking. "This bus is going to be held together with duct tape by the time I finish!" Joe said. I don't doubt it. No wonder all the bus experts he talked to advised him against this trip.

"Failure is always an option." says the Mythbusters. If only they knew how right they were when they made that trademark comment. And yet they push it to the furthest limit. That's the way to live life in my opinion. If you always live on the safe side everything will be just what it is. Dreams will stay dreams. The happy days will be put in the back of your mind for a rainy day. Enough talk. It's time to buy a boat!

Check out Zeki's new blog! :) It's in the works but here it is! He's got some great stuff on there including some fun pieces of his own poetry and spoken word.

http://zekislenz.weebly.com

Doogle and Joe Doin' it across America 1-15-13

Yesterday my dreams of living on a boat and sailing through the oceans with a couple of sidekicks has been rekindled. Why might you ask? Well because I met an absolutely fantastic guy yesterday named Joe who is currently living in what you would call a red double-decker bus, but what Joe calls Doogle. Here's their story:

Joe was an average working man living in an apartment. Owner of two motorbikes. He paid the bills by driving an ambulance and was therefore working for the NHS as those in the UK call it. To us it would be the National Health Service. Perhaps a scene of a giant dance sequence involving massive puppets of evil characters from classic books, J.K Rowling reading, lots of people wearing scrubs, and an upbeat swing dance? 2012 Opening Olympic ceremonies in London? Okay back to their story. Joe was tired of doing the same old same old. He didn't want to have to pay the mortgage on his place. It was time for a change. He had always had this dream... a dreams of running away and making people smile. On to the internet he went and started looking at buses! Not just any kind of bus mind you. A red double decker bus. He managed to find one that had been renovated by I believe a Swedish architect. Correct me if I'm wrong Doogle. See, these buses were originally made completely open. In addition, the bus had to fit under USA regulated bridges. Even with the shortened top it's a tight fit or so I hear from my friend Dana who rode around in it a couple for days ago. But I'm getting distracted again. So found a good one. One with a cover for the top so that Joe could put a bed in and not get rained on, but so he could uncover it, and you know, host a band complete with amps and speakers on the top! He got Doogle shipped over here and he started in Florida is now in Georgia. He intends to travel our entire country and making people smile. There's one with that I haven't mentioned. The name of the bus. Doogle... The name comes from an old TV show from the UK created in the 60s. The show is called The Magic Roundabout. In the 5 minute episodes there are a bunch of characters. The main one being Dougal a Maltese Terrier. Joe is convinced that the creators of this show were on acid when the show aired, but there you have it. The TV was originally meant for children but it has reached cult status. Another reason that the bus is named Doogle is because Joe had a good friend pass away a couple of years ago and her nickname was Dougal (or Doogle not sure of how they spelled it).

So far Joe has been through Florida visiting: Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota, Miami, Jacksonville, Hollywood, and a couple others that I have forgotten. He's been to the Forest Hostel in Brunswick, Georgia and is now in Atlanta. Wish him luck!

Kaia's In Denmark!

My good friend Kaia went from a semester in the Northwoods of Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin at Conserve with me to a semester abroad in Denmark!

Check out her blog here: http://semesterindenmark.blogspot.com/

And if you haven't had enough she has some spoken word too!
http://amateurspokenword.blogspot.com/

The gift of old 1-12-13

The majority of society has been swept up into the bright and shining flood of new technology. It seems however that I have been dawn back in time. I've always had a different generation's music taste, but I have recently been sent back in time for letters by post and film cameras. I think Maeve has greatly influenced my liking both of these things. There's a certain sense of excitement when you open your mailbox or sort though a pile of adds and see a letter from a friend that lives hundreds of miles away from you. Yes the words of the sender can be delayed, but it's still fun. The letters come in all difference shapes and sizes and the envelopes have a certain special-ness to them too. I have a box that I am keeping all of the letters I receive so that I can maybe, years later, read them and laugh about what I was writing about "back in the day." As for photography, I guess it all started when Maeve got her Diana F+. There's something incredibly satisfying about hearing the sharp click of the shutter. It's nice to have to wait for the picture result ans not have instant gratification. I think that society doesn't have patience anymore. It's all faster data speeds, better shipping time, faster, faster and now now NOW! Chill out people! It'll happen when it happens. Isn't enough that you are carrying a worldwide data base, phone, and entertainment system the size and sometimes weight of a chunk of chocolate in your hand without any cords?? Of course it's not. there's always something just around the corner. Another generation. Anyways back to what I was saying. Film cameras. I have two Minoltas as I probably mentioned before and I just used up an entire disposable camera. The catch is that the disposable had a corroded battery that had leaked and was 7 years expired and the cost to develop is about $10.99! What is the world coming to? The other reason I's more interested in film is because Maeve gave me a book of toy cameras full of awesome pictures. I'm incredibly inspired to go take pictures that I have no control over and see what happens! And no I'm not being sarcastic. Time to get some shots.

So you people out there always looking for the newest new... maybe you should try making the old a new thing! Aint nothing wrong with something that has a little age to it. ;)

Whirl wind 1-12-13

Goodness gracious it's been a long week. Talk about adjustments. Going from a very structured school day to absolutely no structure sounds nice, but I found that it is way harder to accomplish fewer tasks when you have absolutely no schedule. My reasoning for this is because you spend all of your time on one thing and realize you didn't even start the other two. I kind of miss the schedule from Conserve, which sounds really funny because I don't like to be limited. My first couple of days were tough. It was hard to "get back into the swing of things." The first couple of days felt a bit like I was spiraling into a black hole of nothingness. Every time I put thought towards thinking about what "needed to be done" I felt incredibly overwhelmed and had the urge to sleep. I was zombie-ing my way through the day with just a slight touch of depression. After some thinking and organization and a good chat with Maeve, Mattie, and Aaron Tuesday night (all at the same time) I felt much better. One step at a time.. yeah yeah. Overall life's been rather a whirl wind of craziness.

FIRST robotics prototyping has been the main thing. It has involved many things, but the high light would probably be today which involved me almost getting hit in the face with 3 Frisbees and a 8 inch wheel that had been spinning at 4000 revolutions per minute nanoseconds before. Yay crappily made prototype! "And this is why you wear safety glasses kids!" Second to FIRST has been guitar. Man are the fingers on my left hand sore! But it's definitely worth it. I can't wait until I can actually play more than A,D, and E! My music teacher's first goal is to have me playing a very simple version of Wild Thing covered by The Troggs. After these two activities I have continued to take pictures, knit a hat, write numerous letters to my friends, read Romeo and Juliet, start Moon Over Manifest, and spin poi a bit. Over all a good way to start the 2013 in my mind.

"Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a small step." Lao Tzu

Floo network please 1-6-13

Yeah yeah yeah. Social media is great and all, but actually seeing and hearing a person that you miss a lot is way more, well, personal. It's one thing to chat with someone and see their monosylabic neaderthal-ish answers, and even though you know that person doesn't talk a lot on general, you can't see their face. You can read the words that are written on the page. You can see a status or a tweet (though I despise tweets with a burning passion). You can see a picture. But what if that person that you know so well avoids pictures? What if that person is the one taking the pictures? You can call a person. On Skype or on the phone, but what if the party on the other end feels awkward talking on the phone because they like to listen better? Or what is the person on the other end doesn't like holding the phone to their ear for as long as they want to talk to you? Skype's your answer then, but then there's always bad internet connection right when the person on the other end is holding their foot up to show you a newly darned sock! Then you have to request to see their lovely toes again. Do our last couple of options are: become Dr. Who and travel in a police box, apparate or travel by fireplace like Harry Potter, jet around via private aircraft like the millionaire that you are, drive like a normal person, fly like people from books, or be able to run at super sonic speed. Do tell me when you have discovered a way to make some of these possible because I have a laundry list of people I need to visit and hug.

Diversity 1-4-12

It's easy to forget how many people knew that you were gone for 4 months. I didn't realize that I would get so many views on my blog until about 2 months in! Even after 3 months I am still seeing people for the first time. Chinese dance just began and I got to see some of my friends that I have known for over 10 years. It was great to be back even though I felt so incredibly behind and out of place, but it was so good to see Chinese people and hear the language again. Ms. Lee (my teacher) was not back from China yet and Lacey (one of my friends) had her parent's car break down, so it will be another week until I see them. The time seems to stretch on and on. I wonder how long it will be until I have seen everyone.

There were two things that I got tired of while in Land O' Lakes and at Conserve. The first being the lack of any other race besides Caucasians. Don't get be wrong I'm not against that particular race, but I am used to seeing so many other races when I am at home. The second thing that I missed while I was away at school was the lack of truly ethnic food. I missed having my mouthburned out by spicy Indian, I missed the delicious tofu and stir fries and the Asian rice. I guess I always took the diversity of Atlanta for granted until I left.

1-4-12 A song for everything

So you know those people that say "there's a song for that!" I used to think that they were being either corny or obnoxious. Well now I think I'll have to go back on my thoughts and say they might just have something there. On the last night of Conserve School before the parents arrived Chris Cole had "Country Roads Take Me Home" by John Denver Playing. There's the Muppets song to make people smile. And there's American Pie that's full of meaning and really hard to learn in the correct order. When the phrase is spoken there's usually a heart break involved. Yeah sure there are millions of songs about love and sadness, but despite common understanding there are good songs that don't have ANYTHING to do with heartbreak. Maybe we should try and quote these more often. There are plenty of times that need singing, and plenty of new, old, and obscure songs that are waiting to fill the air!

"I can't see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That's terrible."  - Bob Dylan

1-4-12 I'm Going Back

Is there a name for old friends who have just met? When you think old friends you think of years spent together. When you think of just met I see awkward conversations of how school is going. Old friends talk about the obscure. They can communicate with the complete grammar and spelling with the twitch of an eyebrow or the raised corner of the mouth. Just met's stand awkwardly next to each other and talk about the weather. Old friends lay all over each other so you can't see who's legs and arms are who's. So the question is there a term a label, though I don't like either, that describes the friends who have just met but are already old friends? Perhaps the Muppets have something to say on the subject?

I'm Going Back There Someday


This looks familiar, vaguely familiar,
Almost unreal, yet, it's too soon to feel yet.
Close to my soul, yet so far away.
I'm going to go back there someday.

Sun rises, night falls, sometimes the sky calls.
Is that a song there, and do I belong there?
I've never been there, but I know the way.
I'm going to go back there someday.

Come and go with me, it's more fun to share,
We'll both be completely at home in midair.
We're flyin', not walkin', on featherless wings.
We can hold onto love like invisible strings.

There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met.
Part heaven, part space, or have I found my place?
You can just visit, but I plan to stay.
I'm going to go back there someday.
I'm going to go back there someday. 

1-1-13 Darn this growing up thing

Change can be good and bad. It can mean happiness and can mean sadness. It can mean the end of something but it can also be a bright beginning to something. It can mean a coming and going of friends and family. All of this seems to have happened at once. When kids returned from their Thanksgiving breaks I heard a nonstop stream of stories of the friends from home not being what Conserve kids had thought they were. Of not getting along with them. Of wanted to scream that they had their priorities wrong. Of saying that they really didn't care about what their friends cared about.

When I got to Conserve I felt the happiest I have ever felt in my life. I had no idea there were people like me waiting out there in the world. Well.. I probably knew it, but I hadn't met them, and then when I met them my life seemed (I know this sounds cheesy) complete. When I got home I still got along with my friends, but I saw what everyone meant. I don't care about what a lot of people care out. Some people say okay fine other people tease me and others think I've become an oddity. I don't mind it too much but it makes me feel very alone. I have a gaping hole where those people that completed my day are gone. I can still talk with them on facebook and write them letters and call them but it's not the same as seeing their smiling faces, yeah their shouting voices, or feel them lying next to me. It's all different. What a pesky thing this growing up is. Why can't we all live in happy bubbles. I know I know. This is not what the normal Mei-Jing who is "full of matter-o-fact-ness" as Maia would say. But just for one can time just give me a break? Thanks yours truly.

1-1-13 Happy new day!

Happy new year everyone! Or as I saw on facebook from Mattie's friend Ruth:

"Happy New Day, friends! Remember, you can make resolutions on any day of the year; each new day is the start of the rest of your life! Carpe Diem!"

And I agree. But happy new year to all you traditionalists out there. I spent a fantastic eve of 2013 with Courtney! It was so much fun filled with a pyromaniac sister with 8 sparklers, candles, fireworks, a shaking dog, lots of gluten free food, laughter, and or course a count down. This was perhaps the first time I have been away from my home at new years, but I liked the change. I had a blast hearing funny stories and tell some of my own. I also was happy to talk to Mattie and Zeki at midnight too. It was funny because Zeki wouldn't be part of 2013 until 1 am out time. What a weird concept! Being reminded of this made me feel even further away from Conserve in a way. Some of my friends wouldn't countdown for another 2 hours! 

While I was nearing the end of my year at Conserve I started thinking about my life when I got home. I wanted change. I wouldn't and now realize that I can't go back to how I was living before I left on this life changing journey. If I did revert back to a life of monotony doing typical school work I would be miserable, and I feel like I'm headed that way. Lets change it up. I want to try so many new things that the list seems endless. Fire poi, baking bread regularly, knitting lots of hats, working with the TWO Minolta camera's I've discovered, saving up for a new DSLR camera, taking pictures, getting into Ocean for Life and SCA, reading more, dancing more, looking at colleges, seeing friends, learning to play guitar, writing more poetry, working outside more, becoming a member of Concrete Jungle, helping teach an ecology class for little kids, and much much more. I was talking with some Conserve friends and the general consensus is to do what more of what we really love. I hope that 2013 will be a fresh start, but I will never forget what came from 2012. Go forth and be splendidly amazing. PEACE