Powderkeg

The most disturbing problem that has been raised by Ishmael Beah is one of the aftereffects of being a child soldier. Even though the war in Sierra Leone is over the country is primed and ready to re-explode into violence at any time. Many of those who were child soldiers have been missed by the rehabilitators and even those who took part in the programs are not truly part of society. Those former soldiers have nowhere to call home and no future to look forward to. They are wandering around just trying to eke out an existence with a populace who either ignores them because of their past or resents them because they received the help when the villagers received little or none. Ishmael pointed out in his talk that they are likely to join any kind of organized effort that develops regardless of that organization’s goals because they need to be part of something larger. They are especially susceptible to joining another armed effort because it is all they know and the army unit becomes a sort of family to them. As they are now, most of them have no one to rely upon and no one to take care of them even though some are still young boys.

So basically, almost any charismatic person with a bone to pick can gather an army rather readily. In a country with a fragile government anyway the situation is frightening.

Renchan (Calfelsha) Zara Tyfel

This is the character history for the D&D character I played with this summer. It is the best character I've had to date in terms of development, role-playing, and overall coolness, and this includes my 15th level gestalt Fighter-Cleric who sorta sucked because generating a high level character is soooo inferior to playing from 1st to 15th level. So, to begin......

Born as a Raptoran, Calfelsha Zara Tyfel left on the Walk of Four Winds as demanded by her culture at the age of 18. Offering her magical prowess (as a sorcerer for those who actually play) she joined up with a group of morally questionable adventurers who had earned a peaceful charter with the Nar Horsemen. Thus, most of her adventuring has been done in Narfel.

After hunting demons with a cleric of Mask and a disguised devil, among others, she finally grew strong enough to use her wings to fly. Having accomplished the goal demanded by the Walk of Four Winds, she returned home briefly to become a full adult in Raptoran Society and to take her adult name, Renchan, which replaced her child name, Calfelsha. Her parents gave her a wand of Arcane Eye as a naming gift.

Returning to Narfel, she found the cleric of Mask had received instruction from his god to construct a shrine, so she set out with several new partners to continue her demon hunt. After discovering a secret door in a dungeon, however, she was slain by four rutterkin along with most of her companions. One companion, a warlock, was able to escape. He returned to the cleric of Mask and they were able to pay the Druid Hensoi of Nighthawk Tower in the Rawlingswood to reincarnate Renchan from one of her previously molted feathers. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything to reincarnate the unfortunate cleric of Waukeen who had also been killed.

Reborn as a human, she returned to the spot of her death to revenge herself upon the rutterkin (and to retrieve her equipment). Confronted with the sight of her own dead body, she plucked a single blue-dyed primary from her wing to remind her of her past.

Renchan bid temporary farewell to the cleric of Mask and the warlock in order to travel alone and come to terms with her new existence. She now travels back toward her homeland, unsure of whether she will still be welcomed. Having only one goal in mind, to regain her lost power of flight, she will practice her magic until she can find a way to accomplish this task.

*Note, all of this history was actually roleplayed in game
** To learn more about Raptorans, and D&D in general with a little surfing, visit this site http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050204a or just google it.

A Diamond? Why?

Growing up I was never really attracted to gems in general or diamonds especially. For one, I don’t wear jewelry that much, and when I do I like intricate wire creations more than jewel studded stuff. I never really understood why diamonds are so attractive to people. I like color and so a clear diamond, while it sparkles, is nowhere near as attractive to me as a rich emerald, sapphire, ruby, garnet, topaz, opal; the list goes on of cheaper and more colorful stones that I would rather have. (admittedly not much cheaper)

However, saying this only dodges the question of whether the information on blood diamonds changes my opinion of them because if the issue was blood sapphires, for example, it would be the same. So, instead of answering about blood diamonds, I am going to say blood gems, because the concept is the same and I’m sure that there are countries that use proceeds from other gem sales for less than worthy endeavors.

So, has information about conflict gems changed my opinions of whether or not to buy gems? Not really. It has merely strengthened my opinion that natural gems aren’t worth the expense. There are many synthetic alternatives to almost every gem if you want to have a pretty rock on your earrings/necklace/bracelet. Depending on the quality of the lab grown gem, it may have the exact same properties as natural gems or it may have different properties. Irregardless, they are cheaper and just as pretty so why not use them? In regards to diamonds, since we know how to synthesize tool-quality gems I have no real problem with people wearing them in general, though I believe they are put to better use in precision tools. Until countries in Africa and other places stop fighting, I think we should just boycott natural diamonds/gems and use the synthetic ones.

Butterfly

Friday, as I was making my way toward our English 108 class, a splash of red in the carpet of green grass caught my eye. I had some time so I made my way over to it. It turned out to be a monarch butterfly. I was quite puzzled because the butterfly didn't fly away when I approached. It even let me put my finger under it to make it crawl up onto my hand. I believe that it was just far too windy for it to fly that day. It desperately clung to my finger as I walked along and I tried to shield it from the gusts. I reached a ginkgo tree and decided to leave the butterfly on it so that no one would step on it. I wanted to take it with me but I was afraid that it would try to fly away once we were inside and out of the wind. Before I put it on the tree I took a close look at it. The sheer complexity of this small life form was awe inspiring. This is the reason I started with entomology in the first place. Something that is so seemingly delicate can fly so far. The Monarch butterfly is known to fly over 2000 miles in its migration between Canada and Mexico. Some have been know to fly even to Hawaii and Eastern Australia. As I looked at the tiny creature, perfectly designed for what it had to do, I could see the hand of God in its creation.

Soda, it doesn't do a body good

A little over a year ago I gave up drinking soda. At the time I didn’t really have a reason to give it up, I was just copying my older brother because I admire him and want to be like him. When the summer ended, however, I had to decide what it was that I didn’t like about soda, because if I gave up all soda and soda-like products I would be able to drink milk, water, kool-aid, and coffee. Now only one of those choices contains caffeine so I sat down and thought about what it was in soda that made it unhealthy. I came to the conclusion that the main ingredients in soda that I object to are caramel coloring and high fructose corn syrup. Caramel coloring has been known to cause kidney stones because it builds up in your kidneys and it takes a lot of water to wash it away. High fructose corn syrup has more serious side effects.
I researched it on the internet (not terribly reliable, I know) and found a study done with rats. In the study, the rats were fed a diet high in sucrose and low in copper. This caused the rats to have internal organ failure. Now as all chemistry students know (or will learn) sucrose is made of glucose and fructose. So the scientists did a second study where 1 group of rats had a diet high in fructose and low in copper, 1 group had a diet high in glucose and low in copper, 1 group had a diet with average sugars and low copper, and 1 group was fed a balanced diet, for control. Only the group high in fructose suffered the same internal organ problems as the first test. Now you may have noticed that all of these tests were conducted with diets low in copper. This is still comparable to human diets because most Americans have diets low in copper.
Now, high fructose corn syrup would not be so much of a problem if it wasn’t in just about every commercial drink and a lot of commercial foods. It is cheap to make and so it is used as a sweetener in many processes. Take a look sometime and see how much of your food has this ingredient. It may surprise you.
In case you are wondering, I did find an acceptable caffeinated drink for myself. Monster energy drink. It tastes good because citric acid is like the 3^rd ingredient on the list and it is sweetened with glucose. I keep my consumption to 1 a day (or less) though, because it is an energy drink and you never really know what too much of that stuff will do to you.

A post-New Year's Resolution

This blogging assignment has made me realize that writing down my thoughts and feelings really helps me to organize them and understand them. However, many of those thoughts and feelings aren’t meant for any eyes but my own, which is my original objection to keeping a journal/diary. No matter how well you protect it there is always the chance that someone will find it and read it. If you try warning people away, it will make them curious. If you try making it look innocuous then someone might read it by mistake. The thought of someone reading my innermost thoughts scares the hell out of me, especially if I have written about them. But I have decided that the benefit outweighs the potential consequences, so I am going to keep an electronic journal on my computer. I will try to make it a goal to write something every day, because if I don’t make it a habit I won’t do it at all. Hopefully, some of the posts I will be able to post on here so that I don’t have as much to do. I hope that it will help to keep me sane as I embark on the crazy and stressful journey known as freshman year.

How big is your wingspan: a commentary

How big is your wingspan? Originally I took this picture because I liked the effect of giving wings to myself, but lately I have thought about the question above. Originally it is intended to measure your arms, but philosophically it could be used to measure your ambition. For the most part, the bigger the wingspan on a bird, the farther and higher it can fly. So the question asks, how far are you going to fly? What are your dreams and how far are you willing to go to achieve them? Every time I see this picture, I am reminded that I cannot just drift through life, I have to put forth the effort to make my dreams happen. One has to strike a balance though, between working toward your goals and doing things that you enjoy now. One of the hardest things for me to do is not to let life pass me by. Take action. Join a club. Hang out with friends. Share the things you enjoy. Laugh out loud. Smell the flowers. Enjoy the good weather while it is here. After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Now I'm going to go take a walk.