The Best One-Credit Class EVER!

Notes from the GAIN (Geographic Alliance In Nevada) trip to GCW, which might help us in the apocalypse.
1. Handouts are good.
2. On a long ride down a bumpy dirt road, taking pictures of Joshua Trees is a nice way to pass the time.
3. There is no outgoing mail service from the Hualapai Nation.
4. No cameras or phones are allowed on the skywalk. Also, there are booties to wear over your shoes.
5. Photos of random strangers may be more "authentic" than just scenery, proving that I actually went to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon, instead of photoshopping myself in.
6. Guano=bat poop. High levels of nitrates mean it can be used to make gunpowder.
7. Climbing the rocks is easier than descending them.
8. The cowboy on the cheesy Old West-themed ranch may turn out to be your Bows&Arrows instructor.
9. Then, the cowboy might point a gun in your direction.
10. Finally, the same cowboy might be your instructor again for the Hatchet Throw.

What were two of those last ones? That's right: in addition to hiking to 360-degree views of the West Rim, I also hit the target with all four of my arrows thanks to the cowboy's patient teaching methods. AND, although all four of my hatchet throws also hit the target, only the final throw stuck.

Bring on the IcyHot, and then Bring on the Zombies!

Blogger's Block

Here at the end of my year, which has been an academic instead of a calendar year ever since I was five years old, I am in full ADD mode, and I do not know if this is due to a lack of blog fodder or an overload. I specifically try to post on Tuesdays, Thursdays and sometimes Saturdays, because my friend Krista and I started our themed blogs at about the same time. You will know this is not shocking because if you read both of our blogs, you know we have some of the same good ideas, and you know what they say about great minds.  Krista posts the Wannabe on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays each week. Therefore, in my quest to fulfill my New Year's Resolution of usefulness, I like to give you something to read every other day so that you can dedicate the off days to the wannabe. This week I am hideously late. Why?

1. I have a magazine problem. At a recent professional development, I picked up an old copy of Archaeology magazine and learned that Europeans were using guns as early as the 15th century. I decided to dedicate a post to the fact that guns in the 15th century were likely to blow up in the user's face, since they were such new technology, and they were more of a fashion statement than a useful weapon. I wonder if the same might not be said today? The author interviews a scholar who compares the 15th century gun (the article was about the Battle of Towton) to driving onto a contemporary battlefield in a Ferrari.

2. I was going to link my comments about this article that I read to my comments on another article from the current issue of Discover magazine about the history of human warfare. Problem: I didn't read the article due to becoming distracted by the fact that Barack Obama is on the cover of the current Rolling Stone, of which I read half (distracted again by the need to choose multichoice questions for my departmental common assesment) whilst dancing around singing the old Dr. Hook song. So, there went yesterday's post, and I still haven't read the article.

3. Not finishing the 2nd half of my blog homework means that I will fail in my ambition to move Global Thermonuclear Warfare to the top of the Doomsday Dashboard.

4. Next, the discovery of some Maya glyphics that were older than the oldest discovered Maya glyphics prompted two of my friends on facebook to post links to articles stating that the world will not end at the end of the year. Problem thus solved, I decided to try again to move Mario into another world.

There is a fine line between a reason and an excuse. In the words of a French proverb, "He who makes excuses accuses himself." Hopefully I will be back on track again next week to update you on Discover magazine and any new developments. In the meantime, look forward to a special Sunday post dedicated to the West Rim. Until then, my loyal readers...

For Tonight's Skill...

...a day late and not helpful in the apocalypse, but nonetheless...

I'm going to try to learn how to imbed a video.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/41781867?byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

Hmm that totally didn't work, AND I spelled embed wrong...



Let's see if my 2nd attempt worked!
Ooh it looks like it totally did.
If so, two things...
1) This video is from the previously-mentioned, now-over-for-2011 Globe at Night campaign.
2) Here are the instructions for embedding videos in case the rest of you are SLOW like Yours Truly (YT).

Embedding is fun! I'll try it again, to at least make this blog post relevant by including an apocalypse joke, which I found on Pinterest thanks to the mad pinning skills of one Amanda Musgrove. Hmm, I'm going to have to work on adjusting the size. Ha! Enjoy.

Source: zazzle.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

Apocalypse Birthday!

My friend Krista and I have an annual tradition to meet (or try to - one year we failed and ended at Red Robin) at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Bonito Michoacan, for 5 de Mayo, where we also celebrate our nearly-mutual birthdays. Imagine my delight when I pulled the tissue paper from my gift bag and found an Emergency Zone kit!  I am now officially fabulous. The kit contains enough stuff to keep me alive for nearly three days. I will add it to my growing stockpile of portable get-out-of-town supplies!

In addition, I'd like to offer my preliminary review of the ReVIVE series solar charger for my phone, iPod and Kindle. I stuck it in the window as soon as it came out of the box (thanks Mom and Dad!) and used it to plug in my phone. Works like a charm! Even the instruction manual warns, however, that it will only charge up to 50% from the sun. It works best when plugged into the wall, so solar charging is only good for a "boost," but whatever, it's still the coolest gadget in the universe, and it is only my second attempt at harnessing the power of the sun. (The first being my banana chip adventure, and there I go hyperlinking to myself again!)

For my more POST-apocalyptic fans, I offer the note that came with my mockingjay pin. (Weirdest hyperlink ever!)

Oops! It's sideways. And blurry. But it reports that my pin is an authentic prop replica. XD
And I don't have Jodi's permission to post it. So...it may have to come down. But not right away.

The reason it's blurry is that I'm rushing to go for a walk with Miss Gokey to see the supermoon. I was alerted to the Supermoon by my Sigma Kappa big, Michelle Gessler Terchila.

As a final note, if you'd like to wish me a happy apocalypse birthday IN PERSON, Southwest Airlines is offering a pretty cool contest to win a trip. But if you win thanks to my alerting you, you have to at least call me, unlike half of my cousins when they come to Vegas.

On that happy (birthday) note, I bid my readers adieu and go out to look at the sky.

A Few Media Footnotes

1. I am currently watching Supernatural, and the apocalypse has finally come into the show. I'm waiting with bated breath to find out what happens!

2. I am satisfied that my fellow graduate of Indiana University, Suzanne Collins, did NOT plagiarize The Hunger Games from the "original survival game" Japanese novel called Battle Royale. Granted, I am only about halfway through Battle Royale. The concept is similar, but there are points that make it different enough to not be plagiarized. I will update my loyal readers on this book as I make my way through it.

3. DETENTION OF THE DEAD, starring one of my favorite young actors, Jacob Zachar, is premiering this weekend at the Newport Beach film festival. Sadly I will be unable to attend. But I look forward to the film coming to Las Vegas where I can thoroughly enjoy it.

4. Finally, it's been a long time since we've checked in with the Doomsday Dashboard. Trending tonight:  nuclear war is winning at 27%, followed closely by pandemic at 26% and economic collapse at 21.

Call for Submissions

Who knows from whence on the internet I ripped off the image above, but this short post is a nod to the naysayers.

After all, we have 50/50 odds that absolutely nothing will happen on 12/21/12. If that is the case, what skills and dispositions will we need to carry us into...more of the same?

I predict that the same activities I have been reading about, watching and (in some rare cases) trying will continue to be especially helpful in the event of an S.Q. (status quo)-type Apocalypse.

In addition, the scroll below, which I ripped off from a site that sells it, is a Japanese proverb that says, "Fall down seven times, get up eight."

I was just texting this back and forth with Miss Jodi this week, since I figure what are the people in our lives except our cheerleaders as well as our team to cheer for? Whether the world ends or whether it doesn't, I believe resilience will be humanity's most important characteristic for survival.



However, I am open to suggestions from my few loyal readers. What will we need eight months from now when the world doesn't come to an end?

Skills to Pay the Bills: Works in Progress

For Earth Day, instead of going to the one party in town at the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef, I decided to save my money and try something new.

1. I had some bananas.

2. The temperature broke 95 (high was 98) according to weather.com. It was close enough to 100 that I felt fairly confident I wouldn't die from bacteria creeping into my too-cold first experimental batch of potentially-awesome banana chips. (You see, a while ago, like back in January, I read that in order to solar-dehydrate stuff, it has to be a certain temperature or else...risk of death. I e-mailed a woman in town who runs dehydration classes, but she could give me no advice. As a former victim of Guatemalan amoebas [2007], I decided that my iron gut could handle the risks.) Therefore, I followed some instructions that I found online and sliced up two bananas into a lemon-water bath. Not pictured: two bananas. Pictured: part of one banana in a lemon-water bath after I figured out that I should take photos and TOTALLY blog my Adventures in Banana-Chip-Making!

3. I set up my solar dehydrator in a sunny corner on the patio, removed a tray, and arranged the banana slices fairly neatly. 

4. Then I popped the tray into the non-mechanical machine and zipped it up. 

Then I waited for hours (3) and flipped the "chips". Then I waited more hours (3 more) and here's what I found:

The lemony chips are quite delicious. They are NOT perfect. Read: I can't put them in a jar and sell them and/or barter them after the apocalypse comes and the schools shut down. 

Here's why they're not perfect, a.k.a. "What I Learned."

1. I think the bananas were just an inch past their prime. The articles I read on the internet to prepare for my experiment said that the bananas should be ripe but NOT overripe. 

2. My internet searches of the past have yielded recipes for how to make banana chips in a deep-fryer, in the oven, and in an electric dehydrator. My final source said to slice the bananas coin-thin. Since this source appears to be Australian, I assumed that meant "if you live in the desert," which I do. Perhaps coins in the outback are thicker than ours. Next time, I will cut a thicker chip and begin the process earlier in the day. As you can see, at the time of the photograph, the SUN is actually not shining down on the solar dehydrator. 

3. I put the banana slices on nothing, since my dehydrator shelf is well-ventilated. You're supposed to put them on parchment paper, but I was well into the process before discovering that I was out of parchment paper. 

4. Solar-dehydrated banana chips are not like store-bought. I was prepared thanks to my aforementioned source for more of a "leathery" consistency. If you're trying this at home, you should be prepared, too. 

Really, folks, there's not a lot of information out there about how to use the solar dehydrator without dying.

Hopefully my experiment can contribute to the extant bank of knowledge. As the summer continues to only get hotter in the coming weeks, I will try banana chips again. I will ALSO try making fruit leather, which I like to call "homemade fruit roll-up."

Satisfied that I had tried something new, I then proceeded to unceremoniously break one of my pre-form arrowheads during flintknapping practice. I'm going to keep trying on that front, as well. After all, in the immortal words of Wayne Gretzky, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."