"The cambium of a redwood, its ever-changing self beneath the bark, may be as thin as a single layer of living cells, invisible to the naked eye, identifiable only in a microscope. If the cambium of a giant redwood were spread out in a flat sheet, it would cover more than a soccer field, perhaps. A giant redwood that is adding one or two millimeters of thickness to its wood layer in a year is adding huge amounts of material to itself, and is one of the fastest-growing organisms in nature. That a redwood seems to be growing slowly is merely an illusion of human time." -Richard Preston, from his book The Wild Trees
I studied trees in school because I find them fascinating. I am dumbfounded whenever I find someone who isn't as infinitely intrigued with these spectacular manifestations of life as I am.
I'm not trying to be snooty about the area of academia that I dabbled in... I truly just don't understand the idea of not being totally enamored with these organisms. They manage to be quiet yet thrilling, serene yet commanding, and humble yet majestic. They are truly one of the universe's finest creations.
They give us everything. Everything. Clean water, clean air, desks, doors, books, bookshelves, fruit, shade, and splashes of spectacular seasonal color. Vibrant, new bursts of chartreuse green in the springtime, mature palettes of deep greens in the summer, an unending rainbow of colors in the autumn, and sculpture-esque art forms in shades of gray to grace our front yards in the winter.
"What is left of the virgin redwood forest is like a few fragments of stained glass from a rose window in a cathedral after the rest of the window has been smashed and swept away. A redwood is a tough tree, however, and when the tree is burned or sheared off at its base it has the ability to send up new sprouts around the stump. In the fullness of time, the root sprouts can become a circle of redwood trees, which is called a faerie ring. If all the trees in the ring sprouted from one stump, the ring is essentially a single organism. The DNA of all the redwoods in such a fairy ring is the same -- in other words, the trees in the ring are clones, joined through their roots. A redwood fairy ring that has grown old and vast, and has fallen partly into ruins, is known as a cathedral..."
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Eff that.
School loans are balls. Balls! This system is so ridiculous.
When I first graduated high school, I moved from Birmingham to Tampa to attend Florida College, a tiny little school in Temple Terrace, run primarily by kooky conservatives and religious nutbags affiliated with the Church of Christ denomination. I went for two reasons: one, that's where all the Church of Christ kids go to school. And two, I really just had no clue where else I wanted to go to college, so I just shrugged my shoulders, followed the flock, and enrolled at FC (Strike One).
I took out an asinine amount of money to attend school there. The school, the classes, the students, the faculty and staff -- almost all of them turned out to be a total joke and waste of my money and time. I threw them the bird after my second semester there, dropped out, got a job, and got married. (Strike Two! Fuck).
After I'd had my fill of retail management, I decided to go back to school. At which point I took out even more money because I wasn't born in Florida and am therefore ineligible to receive Florida Bright Futures.
And now I'm all grown up and gradumatated, and I get to spend half my paycheck paying back a stupid amount of schools loans from FC, HCC, and UF. I'm paying these back, when I should be able to simply spend the money I earn on becoming a better person or helping out other people in the community.
All I'm saying is that it would make sense to implement a better and more socialized higher education system in this country. Our economy already sucks ass because of our debt problems and debt mismanagement. Newly graduated students shouldn't have to be thrown into an already-broken economic system, trying to juggle thousands of dollars of school debt, struggling to find work, and spending a big chunk of their paycheck on loan repayments once they actually do find work.
A free school for all people!!! Other countries have free higher education, why can't we get our shit together and have it here, too?? It makes our economies stronger, and our people more educated (and therefore more efficient, compassionate, progressive, and productive).
Look. I'm just trying to avoid Strike Three. I got a bachelor's degree and I got a marriage certificate. I got rid of one of those -- now it's the bachelor's degree that I'm stuck with. No one takes you seriously with a Bachelor's degree; you have to get a Master's. Well -- Fuck getting a Master's degree. If I do that, then I'll just have to go get a PhD. I am 28 and way too old to sit around filling out school applications, loan applications, and living on Ramen noodles while I take b.s. classes in order to get yet another piece of paper with fancy font and a couple of important signatures.
If I strike out a third time, I want it to be for something good. A failed beer brewery, maybe.
Excuse me, I have to go clean my carboy.
When I first graduated high school, I moved from Birmingham to Tampa to attend Florida College, a tiny little school in Temple Terrace, run primarily by kooky conservatives and religious nutbags affiliated with the Church of Christ denomination. I went for two reasons: one, that's where all the Church of Christ kids go to school. And two, I really just had no clue where else I wanted to go to college, so I just shrugged my shoulders, followed the flock, and enrolled at FC (Strike One).
I took out an asinine amount of money to attend school there. The school, the classes, the students, the faculty and staff -- almost all of them turned out to be a total joke and waste of my money and time. I threw them the bird after my second semester there, dropped out, got a job, and got married. (Strike Two! Fuck).
After I'd had my fill of retail management, I decided to go back to school. At which point I took out even more money because I wasn't born in Florida and am therefore ineligible to receive Florida Bright Futures.
And now I'm all grown up and gradumatated, and I get to spend half my paycheck paying back a stupid amount of schools loans from FC, HCC, and UF. I'm paying these back, when I should be able to simply spend the money I earn on becoming a better person or helping out other people in the community.
All I'm saying is that it would make sense to implement a better and more socialized higher education system in this country. Our economy already sucks ass because of our debt problems and debt mismanagement. Newly graduated students shouldn't have to be thrown into an already-broken economic system, trying to juggle thousands of dollars of school debt, struggling to find work, and spending a big chunk of their paycheck on loan repayments once they actually do find work.
A free school for all people!!! Other countries have free higher education, why can't we get our shit together and have it here, too?? It makes our economies stronger, and our people more educated (and therefore more efficient, compassionate, progressive, and productive).
Look. I'm just trying to avoid Strike Three. I got a bachelor's degree and I got a marriage certificate. I got rid of one of those -- now it's the bachelor's degree that I'm stuck with. No one takes you seriously with a Bachelor's degree; you have to get a Master's. Well -- Fuck getting a Master's degree. If I do that, then I'll just have to go get a PhD. I am 28 and way too old to sit around filling out school applications, loan applications, and living on Ramen noodles while I take b.s. classes in order to get yet another piece of paper with fancy font and a couple of important signatures.
 |
| Everything sucks, M |
If I strike out a third time, I want it to be for something good. A failed beer brewery, maybe.
Excuse me, I have to go clean my carboy.
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