Attack of the Crab Monsters

This is a poem that I read for English while at Conserve School. When I talked to my friends afterwards they said it made no sense (which, I guess, is true) but I enjoyed it!

 Even from the beach I could sense it

lack of welcome, lack of abiding life,
like something in the air, a certain
lack of sound.  Yesterday
there was a mountain out there.
Now it's gone.  And look

at this radio, each tube neatly
sliced in half.  Blow the place up!
That was my advice.
But after the storm and the earthquake,
after the tactic of the exploding plane
and the strategy of the sinking boat, it looked

like fate and I wanted to say, "Don't you see?
So what if you're a famous biochemist!
Lost with all hands is an old story."
Sure, we're on the edge
of an important breakthrough, everyone
hearing voices, everyone falling

into caves, and you're out
wandering through the jungle
in the middle of the night in your negligée.
Yes, we're way out there
on the edge of science, while the rest
of the island continues to disappear until

nothing's left except this
cliff in the middle of the ocean,
and you, in your bathing suit,
crouched behind the scuba tanks.
I'd like to tell you
not to be afraid, but I've lost

my voice. I'm not used to all these
legs, these claws, these feelers.
It's the old story, predictable
as fallout---the re-arrangement of molecules.
And everyone is surprised
and no one understands

why each man tries to kill
the thing he loves, when the change
comes over him. So now you know
what I never found the time to say.
Sweetheart, put down your flamethrower.
You know I always loved you.

Snow!

I love it! Around 3 AM this morning it started floating down in little flurries and then developed into inch wide flakes that drifted silently down to land of the frozen ground...and it just kept coming! It snowed nonstop for about twelve hours! It's starting to slack off now that we have about a foot of snow on the ground.
I looked out my window and I saw the snow was like a blanket over the city, hiding all the litter and coating the grime in delicate, frozen,  snowflakes. The blanket also draped itself of the stereo system that blared the everyday city noise into my ears. For the first times since I've been home from Conserve there was a moment of absolute silence. :) It made me happy.
The one downside was that the library was closed. But that was made up for by the entertaining walk there and back; just watching all the people as they shoveled in front of their stores, all bundled up like marshmallows was hilarious! My favorite was a guy who was driving a mini-snowplow and plowing the sidewalks. He was a fairly large man to begin with, and the extra five-plus layers he was wearing gave the impression of a squishy, multicolored, grumpy looking, sphere riding a cute little John-Deer with a matching plow. It took me a bit to understand what I was looking at, then I was so amused that he almost ran me over! Ah, good times!
I wish you all a Happy New Year!

...And I Feel Fine (kind of)

Hey, we survived the end of the world! Great job everybody! Actually, I was surprised at how quietly it all blew over. I know that when the end of the world was mathematically "predicted" it was claimed that a mistake was made in the calculations. And so it faded out of the spotlight.
But this time, the end of the world passed with hardly a bump in the road, it might be just me, but I think that people are getting bored of The End. Ah well.

On a completely unrelated topic, why is it so loud?!? I can hardly get through the day without getting a headache, even when I do go for nature walks. With all the hectic preparations for Christmas I haven't been able to go for the past few days, so now I have this pit-bull of a headache that just won't let go of my head! Even after my plethora of siblings have gone to bed. They're all so excited for Christmas that they pretty much just run through the house playing with early Christmas presents and compulsively checking the Santa-Watch widget on Google Maps. I'm not saying that I'm not excited for Christmas, I am, but is all that really necessary? Don't mind me, I'm just groaning in pain as the pit bull inside my skull shakes my brain back and forth; splattering saliva on the inside of my cranium.

Ah, Ce la vi. Have a merry Christmas everybody! may you get lots of goodies in your stockings and may in hairs in your beard never fall out (for all you guys who love the LOTR and The Hobbit) Live long and Prosper (for all you trekkies) and I love you guys, and miss you a ton! (for all my fellow CS5 Alumni).

Cheers!

It's The End Of The World As We Know It...

Hey everybody! It's the end of the world! Pack up and sell all your worldly possessions, go crazy and eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!....Hahahahahaha!
For us, the end of the world was heralded by our first real snowfall of the year, about an inch or two of dry, granular snow that packs surprisingly well. (tested by my younger brother and I this morning as we pelted each other and our friend's car with snowballs after an early morning seminary class)
I find it infinitely amusing when I hear what people plan to do at the end of the world, the top three are (3.) Call the President and ask if there is room on Spaceship 1 (2.) Lay in a lawn chair on the roof listening to music and watching as the expanding sun gets closer and closer (if you're Kai!) (1.) Laugh at everyone, because everyone seems to forget that when the Spaniards took over the Mayans they messed up all their calendars, so the end of the world was really a really long time ago!

On a more serious note, the end of the world and the recent shootings have encouraged some students at the local high-school to start rumors of a school shooting at lunch today. No one knows if the threats are real or if someone is taking advantage of the situation to have a laugh, but I know the school can't afford not to take this seriously.
Some of my friends are leaving school before lunch today and are having their exams rescheduled for another day. I personally doubt that anything will happen, but at the same time I pray that it doesn't...sigh.
This kind of thing just makes me mad; why are people so stupid?!? 

why terror? 
why the hype?
why do people act like it's the last day of their life?
don't they know?
don't they care?
don't they know that what they do just isn't fair?

life is to be cherished.
life is to be loved.
life is to leave a legacy to those we love.
not to scar, nor to take.
not to be a curse
on the lips of those whose hearts we break.

Looking For Wilderness

Ever since coming home I have have been walking through all of the larger parks nearby, trying to find one place where I can't see a building or hear the endless drone of the freeway as he roar of engines and the whoosh of rushing air is punctuated by interminable honking as commuters swerve to avoid one another on the yellow and white striped blacktop.
The two largest parks that I have explored are McCarthy and Shwartzkopf. Each of these has a few places where one can not see any buildings but I'm beginning to doubt the existence of any place where you can't hear the freeway...
The woods here are very young, babies, really, when you compare them to the forests in northern Wisconsin. The ground is covered with underbrush and tall skinny trees that grow very close together, sort of like the the dense maple stands on the eastern side of Little Donahue.
I found a trail network behind McCarthy park while avoiding a group of junkies. I crossed a bridge that I never knew existed, hid my bike, and started exploring along the very eutrophic stream that runs through both McCarthy and Shwartzkopf park. I found a few peaceful places along the way, but mostly the trial was littered with garbage and other interesting (awkward) articles.
My goal is to find a new phenology spot, a place where I can go to think, reflect, meditate and to just enjoy the feeling of being separate from the rest of the world.
As I walk the trails I take time to reflect on my time at Conserve; the fun I had the things I learned, the good times and the bad and the friends who stuck with me through both, (Mattie, Mei-Jing, Aaron, Maeve, Garret, Zeki and Kai!) I love and miss you much! At the same times I am glad that I am where I can apply all the things that I learned about academically, about nature and, most importantly, about myself.
I have realized that in order to move forward I need to find Wilderness in myself, to find a place inside me that has been untrammeled by the world and to listen to it.
May we all find our Wilderness.

Hey! Just to start off, my name is Dexter, I am seventeen years old and have eleven brothers and sisters (yes I know; that's crazy!) I'm an alumni of Conserve School CS5 as of last week. One of the best experiences of my life to date!
Now I am trying to adjust to life back home; my plethora of siblings, figuring out how to satisfy a new urge to travel and departing the perfect bubble of Conserve School only to return to the "great metropolis" of home. Cheers!