The Living City § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

The Living City § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

This is an interesting article that uses physics and biology to describe the life of a city.

I Know That I Know Nothing

The beginning of knowledge is the understanding of ignorance.  Upon reflection, I believe a primary purpose of a journal, diary, or any other personal memoir is to allow the writer to look back in time and discover his arrogance and also remind him of his ignorance.  The link jumps to a collection of writings I jotted down during my sophomore year at Brigham Young University.  For the inquiring mind, enjoy.  For the indifferent, I at least recommend sporadic journaling.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vIoTy4BdwMEJy_-wON4zsWA6_IcYvyQj7315axfzRMc/edit?hl=en_US#

High on the Mountaintop

       Ernest Hemingway said, "There are only three sports:  Bull fighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; the rest are merely games."  While I have always climbed rocks, I rarely would ever summit mountains, and this was mainly for two reasons.  First, the routes I climbed generally stop well below the summit, and second, summiting mountains is something I can do when I am older, as in, "He summits mountains because he is too old to climb them."  Having hiked my first mountain that is over 14,000 feet in elevation, I learned that either a) I am not stallion athlete that I pictured in my mind (think young Arnold Schwarzenegger only with better endurance and English), b) I am delusional, or c) thirty is sufficiently old.
       Yesterday I hiked Long's Peak via the Keyhole route.  I along with my brother-in-law Doug, and my now friend and Facebook friend Pie, started the hike around four in the morning and spent the next eleven and a half hours wandering through the wilderness.  The route itself was a total of fourteen miles, with a 5,100 feet elevation change to top out at 14, 255 feet.  I have hiked Half Dome in Yosemite that tops out around 8,800 feet, but nothing prepared me for the altitude.  At times I staggered through the hike like a drunk man trying to play hopscotch if hopscotch consisted of giant boulders and the risk of being blown off a mountain.  Nonetheless, it was either Alexander the Great or Captain Witwicky that said, "No sacrifice, no victory!" and I pressed on to the top.  Summiting was awesome and I caught the fourteener bug.  

       I will leave the two people that read my blog a couple of lessons that I picked up along the way.  One, you can have too much water...and food.  Fearful of dehydration, I packed a lot of water as well as food.  My pack was heavy, and I eventually felt every extra Teddy Graham cracker that journeyed with me.  Two, capitalism is on the brink of annihilation.  I only say this because the night prior to the hike I stopped at the supermarket, and it only carried mini Honey Teddy Grahams.  For starters, Teddy Grahams are already miniature so having mini Teddy Grahams is an idiotic concept (unless Nabisco is marketing to the Daniel Neil Rodgers crowd).  Moreover, of all the Teddy Grahams, why only carry honey flavor.  Lastly, with only one size and flavor to choose from, I had to buy them.  Thus my conclusion that the Spirit of 1776  is dying which is really sad considering most ghosts are already dead (if anyone can explain whether spirits/ghosts become ghosts after they die, I would appreciate that).  On to three.  It is not enough to not pee in the wind.  Winds change.  Find shelter, a crevasse, or anything else to block the wind.  Four, while carrying out three, check those windstoppers before committing.  And lastly, either Jack Dawson or John A. Shedd stated, "A ship in harbor is safe--but that is not what ships are built for."  So go hike something.

On or around the date 8/5/90 and 5/10/99

8/5/90
My mom is going to have another baby and it's going to be a boy. My mom's baby is dew in December fifth. We call him jouner (that was suppose to be "junior"). And when Megan is 8 I'll be 16 and when junior (it appears by the change in handwriting that Christy spelled this word correctly for me) is 8 I'll be 17. I love my Grandma and Grandpa very much. One of my great great grandfather's was a Genral (general) (this has not been verified by me). P.S. -Chill

5/10/99
It has been a full year since I've last written. I still need to work on learning from my mistakes. I ended my cross country season prematurely because of bad knees. I ran my worse times ever. Wrestling was a bomb of a year. I cut a good 15 lbs. to wrestle 119 and didn't finish the season due to a coaching dispute. [But] I have discovered the joys of dating... As of now I am dating a young lady by the name R.T. She is very attractive and has a lot of personality. On our first date, R. and I went to see Ten Things I Hate About You... I'll be attending my first prom this Saturday. I'm going with S. A. She's a very cute girl who I know pretty well. About two weeks ago, my brakes went out on the Blazer and I hit a telephone pole. I have to serve 20 hours community service, but I got off lightly with Mayor Bender. Good night.

6/8/10
While it is a cardinal rule never to use the word 'nice' and 'cute' while describing an individual because those words really translate into 'nice'- an adjective describing an individual that you can put up with after knowing them for over a month- and 'cute'- an adjective describing a person that is really not cute, but due to pressure and a deficiency in vocabulary, means the person anyone other than you should date. Now that being said, 'cute' as being used in my journal simply refers to someone attractive and beautiful, but perhaps a wee shy. I can claim this, as it relates to my journal, because if the girl was not cute, in my journal I would just write she was ugly. And besides, I would not be going to prom with a non-cute girl.

The musings of a young Andrew McAdams

So I found the first journal I ever wrote. I figured since no one ever reads this blog, I would post some random things so when someone does come across it, they think, "Huh, at least it was original," or, "Huh, I'll never get that time back in my life."

January 22, 1989 (or there abouts)
I competed in my first meet. On floor I got a 5.4 Vault I got a 5.3...(something eligible). Today I got ready for school. I feel sad in a way but I'm going to fix that. In reading group we're reading Mushroom Magic. I just got in truble. In school I was mad at my class because they made me loose seven minute off of recess. We did spelling at eleven thirty. And them we did handwriting in cursive. We had gym on thuesday. today I have art at one twenty. right now it is 9:15. State meet is coming up. I placed first at (eligible, but the picture drawn underneath the entry shows me on a podium in first with a sign that says, "Junire Olmpis)). Are team would have placed first but we didn't have team score.