No, I did not take a trip out to somewhere, though it may look like I have not been updating much lately. This is not the case. Although my previous two posts, "Germ Factories" and "Thick as Thieves", are supposedly posted on Monday and Wednesday, I actually posted them on Wednesday and Saturday. (I wrote the posts, but posted them later, so what shows up as my posting time is actually the time I started writing them. Sorry if that sounds confusing.) I kept on forgetting to post them until I had already turned off the computer.

Recently, at my house, we had a leak in a pipe. Although I was unperturbed, my parents were not happy because leaks waste water. They've been discussing and worrying for a while, and then finally they had to go out and buy a new part for the pipe. While my dad was out buying the new piece, the water was turned off at my house. When I got up in the morning, I tried to turn on the water to brush my teeth, but nothing came out. I asked my mom, "Where is the water?" She said that it was turned off and that if I wanted to brush my teeth, she could give me some water to gurgle with (probably from a water bottle or something D: ). I declined, figuring that my dad would be back soon.

Then I thought of another dilemma. If the problem could not be fixed, I would not be able to wash my hands after I used the bathroom! I began to panic, thinking that I would also be unable to shower and so I would have to get a YMCA membership again just to use their showers and toilets. I used to have a YMCA membership, back in the day when I was still doing swimming, but no longer...It's kind of sad. I hope I still know how to swim sufficiently. I heard we have to pass a swimming test when I get to high school (treading for 15 minutes or something like that).

Luckily, my dad soon returned and I was able to brush my teeth. It was then that I realized how reliant us humans have become on our modern amenities, like electricity and running water and cars. I once read a book called A Time Apart written by Diane Stanley. In this book, the main character, Ginny, goes to a farm designed to be like one from the Iron Age, where she lives and works with other people who are participating in this project. They are going to live like people used to, using the tools and raising the animals of the people who lived back then. It was rough, not getting to wash much and all, but then when there were power outages in other parts of England, the people at the Iron Age farm were totally unaffected. I think that's pretty cool, that living without the complex things we've invented can actually be better than our modern 21st century lives.

This reminds me of something else I read about. There was an article about the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), which used to be part of the main Mormon church but split from it because they still practice polygamy (having multiple wives). The LDS, the main Mormon church, decided to abolish the old tradition of polygamy because they wanted to be more accepted in the world, since polygamy was not looked upon fondly. The FLDS still sticks to the original tradition of having several wives, however.

At first I held a rather critical view towards them, because really, I don't like the idea of polygamy. One man having multiple wives means he will have many children, and I want to prevent overpopulation if it is at all possible. That also means some men won't have wives, which reminds me of what China might turn out to be like (some folks would rather have sons than daughters, so there ends up being more boys, and thus some men will not be able to have girlfriends or wives). However, women in FLDS seem to be more valued since they can bear children, which is interesting, because in some societies women are LESS valuable even though the purpose of women is believed to be bearing children. This means that although the society of FLDS might appear to be a patriarchy, it actually is sort of like a matriarchy. I approve of having a high opinion of women because I am rather discriminatory towards males (Sorry if you are male, but it is true in some aspects).

If your husband had other wives, you'd think that it would create jealousy. One woman said, however, that "I came to realize that this is another test that God places before you - the sin of jealousy, of pride - and that to be a godly woman, I needed to overcome it." I think that's a good way to think of it. I believe you should learn to overcome your weaknesses, and it will make you a stronger and better person. And a few people don't mind, but actually help add a wife to their family. One woman was very happy to have another wife in her family. The new wife is actually her biological sister. She had an unhappy marriage, and so her sister had been thinking, "I knew my husband was a good man. I wanted my sister to have a chance at the same kind of happiness I had." That's really nice of her. I don't know if I could do such a thing, because I am not necessarily the most compassionate person, and I have never had any siblings...

I still personally would not want to have to share my husband with someone, but I think the way of life of the members of the FLDS should be respected too. The children grow up without TV or social pressure, which could be better for their growth, although they may be unprepared for the real world if they ever go out there. I think it would be nice to sing and to worship twice a day. I am an atheist myself, and I've always wondered what it would be like if I had a religion. My parents don't seem all that interested, but I am.

Labels: a time apart, children, electricity, flds, gender, hygiene, iron age, jealousy, modern, mormon, plumbing, polygamy, post, religion, survival, swimming, water, wife, women, YMCA

I'm not actually going around hollering outside, nor have I read the book by the same title. But I thought it was pretty fitting.

The weather is just crazy these days. It rains on and off and huge gusts of wind blow. I keep worrying that it'll knock over something. Quite a few years ago, there was a windy day and a vase we left outside hit the ground and broke. I am also concerned that it might get my wind chimes tangled up. This is always happening because one of my wind chimes (I have two different ones) has a lot of thin strings which tend to get caught together.

It seemed like the weather was clearing up, because the blue sky was showing again and the rain had pretty much stopped, but then I was driven home by my dad and it started to rain again. In fact, when I stepped out of the car, I heard a rumbling noise, and looked around for the source. I realized that it was thunder when I saw that grey clouds had returned again.

The weather was so bad that my street was out of electricity. The post office lost power too (I saw that it was dark and there was a vehicle outside, probably someone who was trying to fix the power or whatever). And I heard from a friend of mine who lives in the street "across" from mine that she suffered from the blackout as well. But not that far from our streets, the traffic lights were working just fine. It is really annoying, and ironic as well. My dad says the houses in my area cost more because they are closer to the mountains (and houses on the mountain are considered to be very expensive and nice) but the houses closer to the mountains tend to lose power first...And it's hard to get it fixed. It's not like everyone has power generators or backup power at their homes (though businesses, like my parents' offices, do) and no one is going to trek up the mountain just to fix a few mansions' power. (Well, we don't live on the mountain, so at least we get it fixed within a reasonable time. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to shower or do homework tonight, but it turned out that it got fixed while I was at school.)

This morning, I went to school early, because I heard the school had power and I figured it'd be better to at least have lights. Also, I hope that my teacher would have gotten there early and perhaps opened the classroom, but alas, that was not to be. My teacher was sick and couldn't come, so we had a substitute. I was disappointed since I was ready to take the Chemical Symbol Quiz (we were memorized the letters for thirty common elements, like O for Oxygen) and now that it's been moved back I have to take both a history and a science test on Thursday. I was hoping I could just concentrate on the history test.

Anyways, I saw a bunch of seagulls this morning. It was really scary. There must've been all of the seagulls in the neighboring towns and our town put together in the grass field. There were more gulls than I've ever seen together in one place in my lifetime.

It's not a good sign that all these seagulls are here. It means that there must be food and so the seagulls are getting lazy. Why live by the ocean and have to actually fish when you can stay here and eat leftover trash? But it's really unhealthy for them. It's kind of like how raccoons eat people's trash instead of eating forest food.

My household used to be visited by raccoons. A couple of times, in the nighttime, the lights would go on. (We have lights outside which will suddenly shine on if they sense movement. But if we "turn off" the lights they'll stay off.) I looked outside and there seemed to be some moving shapes. They were awfully big, and animal-like by the looks of it. It turned out to be raccoons. They were so huge! I always expected them to be small and kind of cuddly. But I guess you can't really assume things about animals you've never seen. (Really, I haven't seen raccoons much. Only pictures, and it's hard to tell from that.)

Labels: blackout, electricity, elements, food, hear my cry, power outage, raccoon, roll of thunder, school, seagull, size, storm, test, thunder, trash, vase, weather, wild animals, wind chimes, windy

I can tell, because the poor little guy had keeled over in front of the local high school. I am not sure how he died, but I have a few guesses... 1) He was run over by a car, but someone picked him up and moved him to the side. This might not be true because picking up a squirrel with your bare hands could result in you catching diseases from it. (Animals may not look sick, but that doesn't mean they don't carry bacteria or viruses) 2) Some mean gangsters from the high school somehow managed to catch the squirrel and torture it. 3) The squirrel was in some way electrocuted while running along the sky highways. (My nickname for electrical lines. Squirrels and birds may be seen using them for travel or rest.) Don't ask me the specifics since I am not an eyewitness, and besides I don't remember anything from fourth grade, the year when we learned about electricity. XD

Recently I have been reading a book called Alanna: The First Adventure. It is the first book in the Song of the Lioness Quartet, written by Tamora Pierce, who tends to write books that are "medieval fantasies" (or so I call them, as they have things like knights and fiefs and pirates, but they also have magic and creatures) I already read a bunch of Tamora Pierce's other books, like her The Immortals Quartet, Circle of Magic Quartet, The Circle Opens Quartet, and Protector of the Small Quartet. Notice she is a big fan of writing quartets. Also, the books tend to have more heroines than heroes, if you ask me. The lead character in three of her series is female. The other two series, three of the four main characters are female. :o I wonder if it is a coincidence or not.

I felt rather foolish in my history class yesterday. My teacher, Mr. Blair, handed us out an 11 point quiz, which I was very surprised by, and began to panic because I had not studied the paper he handed us yesterday well enough to actually take a quiz. I couldn't remember what the names of the popes who fathered children were, nor could I remember if all indulgences were signed by the pope... So I landed myself a beautiful score of 5 out of 11. Mr. Blair said he would offer us a special deal. Since his candy supply was running low (Apparently, the "card club" kept using it up) he said we could buy points to apply to our grade, if we payed him 25 cents per point. So of course, we all bought some except for a few kids who didn't buy any at all (maybe they figured it out, or they just didn't want to spend money). I bought 6 of them, myself, to fix my most recent grade, but some students bought so many...One bought 20, another bought 47, then one bought 48, and a boy actually bought 88 of them.

What happened at the end of the class was that Mr. Blair yelled at us, "You don't owe any money! You're not getting any points for your grade! If you did the quiz, you get 5 points automatically, it won't hurt you! The point of this activity was to show you that you can't buy your salvation. What I did is just like indulgences sold by the Catholic Church." Then all the realization hit me...I'd seriously thought Mr. Blair was really going to let us boost our grades. D: But then again, one of my friends say he might be fired if he was caught doing that, so I suppose not.

My school has a place called the Nature Center. It is kind of like a garden in a way, except it's more like you're in the wild seeing as the paths sometimes have plants blocking the way. Even though one of the ponds is broken and doesn't have any water, I still think it's a pretty cool place. Why, my science teacher even said one of the reasons he works at my school is because of the nature center! There's many trees, so we got to identify conifers, firs, Douglas firs, ginkgo trees, and various oaks. I had no idea what those wormlike, hard things were before. Now I know those are the so-called "male cones". o_O;; Also, Mr. Brown says that due to a mutation, we not only have purple irises (Iris is a flower) but also white ones. Both are quite pretty even if the white ones may look rather plain in comparison. There's a pair of ducks in the nature center right now, and the teachers are hoping that they'll stay and have ducklings here. If I were them, I would find some other place. Schools are filled with rowdy people, and this is no exception. XD

Labels: books, candy, coincidence, death, ducks, electricity, flowers, indulgence, money, nature center, points, quiz, squirrels, tamora pierce, tree

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