Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Morning time on the eastern side of Camanche Iowa one can be easily be awaken to the sound of a thousand honks that seem never ending. An outsider at first would be astonished at all the different variety's and immense sounds, and honks created by these elegant creatures. But on the otherside of the spectrum a native would be able to tell you the truth, that these sounds are actually a cruel, annoying way of nature making sure we have to get out of bed in the morning. I could describe these sounds to you as non stop mating of a couple creating the most annoying sound know to man. So next time you here the sound of geese tooting away, make sure and think of what harm they are actually causing to other people.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

O'Brien relates to his environment in many different aspects in life. Like a lot of the other authors read in class, O'Brien bases his lifestyle around nature and his heard of buffalo. This is how he makes his living and gets bye in life, and when there seems to be no hope and giving up on his dreams and land, is the best option, O'Brien manages to find a way to get another job and somehow keep his land and heard alive. O'Brien could use his land more efficiently to try and replenish the land that is knocked over and killed by the herd. He does the best he can it said but there has to be other options like trying to plant crops that don't need sufficient nutrients to grow.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Over spring break I traveled to Galveston Texas. Most of my time was spent on the beach hanging out with old friends and drinking beer. The weather was warm and it felt good to dig my toes into the fine grain sand. Gulf waves would come crashing in creating a whooshing sound which gave me a sense of comfort, pelicans would then fly overhead making unison turns starting with the leader all the way back to the last pelican. This movement of the pelicans reminded me of a slinky and it seemed like the pelicans were having a lot of fun showing off there magical movements.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Abbey
Abbey grabbed my attention right away as a reader. He uses a weird dry sense of humor such as I like my job, and I might even say munificent pay at 1.95 per hour. Abbey then goes on to say that the joy of nature is his incentive for what he does. I think the point that Edward was trying to make was that even though people create large National Parks and think of these places and natural untouched preserves, there is still a touch of grey to every park brought by tourism and industrialism. Edward wants to bring attention to the public that there not yet ruining nature at any means to this extent, but to bring awareness to the point that near future destruction could happen.
In Theodore Roosevelt's speech at Grand Canyon I think the intended audience is people who have a feeling and touch with nature but who just needed a little more inspiration to get out there and do something. His intention of the speech was to draw attention to the way of the Indians way of life and how they used every resource they could. We tend to waste a lot of garbage and don't give a shit what we throw away or recycle. Roosevelt saw this a long time ago and felt it needed to be brought to everyones attention.
In Scott Momaday's writing "A First Views of His Land the message he is trying to give to the audience is the one of respect for the beauty of nature. He says "The earth is our mother. The sky is our father." Momaday believes strongly in Indians way of life. They used nature to its fullest and didn't waste resources. Momaday then goes on to write that in our society as a whole we conceive of the land in terms of ownership and use. This sense of belief is no different then our views on our cars and appliances. Momaday wishes people would learn to respect the land and nature and preserve the earth and life upon it.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

After this reading Walden I found the views of both Thoreau and McCandless to be very similar in many ways. Both are individuals that feel something is wrong with the way people live their lives today and seek freedom by reverting to nature. Thoreau states on pg. 19 "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately , to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." McCandell's and Thoreau both wanted to live with nature and what it offered to them. Another thing that struck me was the fact that both knew that they still had human needs such as shelter. Thoreau built his shelter out of trees and constructed a house, while McCandless found a bus that hes used for shelter. I feel McCandless was more of a visual and comprehensive learner than Thoreau and found his knowledge by reading materials and information given to him by others. While on the other hand Thoreau learned through experience and was a doer and learned by mistake.