Pure Genius

So today I continued the pig picking tradition that Sammer and I have going. Another happy family in Uganda should have a pig by next week. A pig that should feed their family for the next twenty years, or two weeks, I don't really know all the details.

So the genius part isn't about the pig but a flightless bird. A few years back it was my good friend Aaron Hasten's birthday and his wife was throwing a huge party. So I figured I should bring a present, but I didn' want to spend money. So I looked through the I-Wanta for anything free. I found exactly what I was looking for, three free emu's. Now I've had some experience with the birds before. In fact I had been stepped on by one before. Now that's another moron story for another time. So I decided I could use my emu wrangling skills to get one in a pickup then into Aaron's back yard. Great Idea.

So Josh and I get to the emu place around 8pm with a horrible plan; hogtie the bird and throw it in the back of the truck. Well about an hour later and me doing three Steve Irwin impersanations to a half-strangled bird it had become a dissaster. See, my idea was to snare the an emu. Josh got bored of the idea and worked on his own "rope and ride" theory. His went faster than mine and while I was staring at emu feet I saw a perfectly thrown lasso going toward an emu. Great shot! But then the emu freaked an took off. Josh freaked to and stood still. It was almost cartoonish watching the emu come to the end of its rope and getting "closelined." Anyway about an hour and a half later we gave up after loosing a pillow case to the bird. It was the second time in my life that I really had my heart set on something that my mom did not. The other was playing football in middleschool. I think she and God worked out some deals there.

Aaron never got a birthday present, and is probably thankful. But the next day I did get to meet his sister, but I don't think the pizza was the only part of the plan she didn't like.

Paul "I don't like pizza either" Murphy

My sandles, another story of a moron

So I came to the island with two pairs of sandles. One sandal got jacked by some dog and I never found it. So I'm down to one pair.

So today we went snorkeling. It was probably the best snorkeling ever. My first with sharks. It was good and I started perfecting my snorkeling technique from speed and suprise to quiet and still. Fish are like girls; if you chase after them they run away and hide. If you sit still for a while they'll come and check you out.

While we were walking back we stared at the "blowholes" for a while. Its not a bad thing. When the water errodes the rock it sometimes goes under the rock forming little caves. The caves then crumble and form openings a few yards from the edge of the cliffs. Anyways I was climbing back out of one of these and my flipflop fell off. It then tumbled down the rock into the ocean. Now common sense and Stephen Hawking both said not to jump into the ocean and retrieve my sandal. The waves were pretty big and crashing into the cliffs below. But I didn't want to walk back without a sandal on the lava rock. Also the sandals were a gift from Dad. Then somebody decided that throwing my other sandal into the ocean would prevent me from risking life or limb on retreving it. But then I had to go in b/c I no longer had a matching or unmatching set of sandals.

So I jumped in after my shoes. I got them back but have a few scratches to show for it.

Paul Murphy

Confused

I always thought I'd have more spending money than this. Growing up there were some key figures in my life as far as money went. First of all I looked up to my brother Philip because he purchased a 1978 Fiat Spider. Now that was a sweet car. It was a convertible. He then moved on to a 1987 Camaro, another sweet car. He always had CD's and other things he bought. I also had my cousins Shay and Justin. Shay and Justin always had cools stuff. Justin still has his 1957 Chevy Corvair he completely remodeled. It looks sweet. Shay Had nice toys too, like a ski boat and a Jeep for offroading. I say all of this to say growing up I thought I'd have a little more spending money than this. I've been looking at purchasing about $250 in climbing equipment but haven't been able to do so. I still haven't bought flowers for the nice ladies in Hardings Graduate office.
I remember my freshman year of college having everything planned out. I was going to get a cool degree and a cool job ( which I won't mention). Then I was going to buy, in order, a house, a 1968 Corvette, and a dog. I've graduated and gotten a job. I don't have a house, a dog, and definitely not the vett. I'm just afraid that the one day I will be able to afford my vett and skiboat I'll be to old to want to drive over 55mph and my knees will be busted. I guess I could still cruise around for ladies though.

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." -Herm Albright

The quote for my students today

Paul "Reality bites" Murphy

Cursed

So I think my area of the house hates me. I still have massive blisters on the backs of my heels b/c of the hiking last week in the wetness. Anyways I cranked the steps next to my room with my scabby heels twice yesterday. Then I cranked the doorjam with my pinky toe and sliced a slab of skin off. Then, last night something was crawling on my back. So I mumbled and swatted at it with my arm. Then I rolled over to get it off. Unfortunately it was something that could fight back and it bit me. It hurt and I turned the light on and noticed a large red mark on my stinging back. Well that stinks.

Paul Murphy

A solid MLK post

I think between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the upcoming Black History Month it is a good time not to just reflect on the previous injustices done to everybody from the Jews to people who were 1/8th African-American (Reference to Plessy of Plessy vs. Ferguson. "Seprate but equal"). Anyways I think I'll take some time and look at some peoples currently being treated unfairly.

1st common to popular belief, whity is not being discriminated against. He seems to be doing fine and should be playing a tournament this weekend. That's what I'll call a "run-in joke."

2nd Palestinians. O.K. so some stuck-up Islamic countries tried invading Israel over forty years ago. I don't see the U.S. being angry at the Japanese during the 80's. They gave us some great cars and cheap electronics. But not Israel. Still bitter. Occupying foriegn territory. Israelis have even started moving into Palestinian territory just so the government won't give it back. These people are what Dane Cook would call "Karens." They can't get along with anybody in the area. They have even openly discussed plans to drop nuclear weapons on Iran. Who the freak gave these guys nuclear weapons!? Anyways, Isreal is doing to the Palestinians what they got they got angry at other countries for doing to them. Its an injustice.

3rd I think the black Africans in Darfur should go here. If you haven't heard the Islamic nomads decided they needed more land so they started attacking their own countrymen that were not Islamic. Now under Islamic law this is O.K. The Islamic government of Sudan turned a blind eye. Now alot of people have had to move away from home because they're afraid for their lives and their government won't do anything about it.

4th People under the age of 18 in suburban US. Apparently since the 1980's white people in the US have been looking for someone else to discriminate against. They found it in the under 18 population. Juvenile restrictions have been running across the US. Most popular are curfew laws wich ban people under the age of 18 from even being out of there house after a certain time. The idea was that it would reduce juvenile related crime. Hmmm this seems like something that was done before. What did they use to call these sort of laws that were exclusionary to a certain group. I think it was James Eagle. No no thats not right. Jimmy Buffer. No no Jim Crow; that's it. Now I can see some of the reasoning that people would think that Curfew laws would work. According to a 2002 Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice study by Daniel Macallair found that curfew laws had no effect on reducing juvenile related crime. Apparently if teenagers are going to go vandelize a bridge then breaking one more law isn't going to matter all that much. All they've done is manage to punish the good kids for the bad ones, and the bad ones are still doing whatever they want. In St. Louis last year I was told that my buddies and I couldn't play wall ball outside a church we were staying at by a police officer. We were all over 21. But cops don't care about the law, just power. Good job Curfew Laws, you suck.

OK a little personal anger there.

Well that's about all I can think of tonight. I need to buy my pig tommorow to keep the pig challenge up.

Paul Murphy

Hiking and another stupid story (worth the time and effort)

Stupid story first

So I have some interesting family members. One of my favorites is my cousin B.J. He's a big ole boy about 6'5" and built. B.J. is a classic country boy and still believe in the code of chivalry. He also dumped his last gf b/c she mentioined the "m" word after they had been dating for four months. Anyways B.J. use to drive an old 1984 Chevy Blazer, V8, and 8miles/gallon. One day Josh and I hopped in the Blue Blazer and B.J. asked us for our music preference. We really didn't care; we were about to go shoot stuff. So B.J. asked us if we wanted to listen to "Beet Hoven." Josh nor I had ever hear of the country star but we thought it'd be aight. B.J. reaches back and pulls out the 8-track cartridge and stuck it in the player. To Josh and I's amazment it wasn't country... or rap... or anything else we would have ever expected. "Beathoven" syphony began blarring over the "Blue Ox's" 8-track stereo. Where did B.J. get a Beathoven 8-track? Where did he get an 8-track at all? It was kind of relaxing to listen to a syphony before we killed rodents.

Hiking
So Sunday afternoon I decided that I would finally climb the highest peak on the volcanic island. 1200 ft above sea level. So I packed my gear.

Thanks first of all to Kevin, Jesse, and Maddy for my cool sleeping bag and tent. Also thanks to Morgan Norris for offering me a chance to go through her "give-a-way" pile before it went to Good Will. I got some sweet Timberland hiking boots out of it. Lastly thanks to Mom and Dad for my cool new LED headlamp. Without any or all of these things my trip wouldn't have been possible.

I had heard of a trail enterance near the West end of the island so that's where I had Philip drop me off. Philip said I was crazy. It was about 6 p.m. when I started. I began hiking next to a cow pasture. The pasture soon ended and I was out in the Jungle. I crossed a stream and a really cool water fall. I got a picture but it's on a disposable camera with 21 pictures left. So I kept going through jungle hoping to find this so called "path." I later realized it was a path that went somewhere I didn't want to go. So eventually it got dark and I noticed a road up the way. I walked toward the road and found it to be the same road I came in on. So I walked that way until I found the ridge line again. It being really dark (new moon and cloud cover) the headlamp came in handy. Also my strict adhearence to the Hikers code of "leave no trace" meant I didn't have a machete. They also cost $10. So I was struggling to get through the jungle/rainforest at night. I was zig-zagging back and forth trying to stay on the ridgeline in the dark. Eventually I went too far one direction and had a slip down a cumbersome slope. Translation- I started falling down a dirt cliff before catching myself on a sappling struggling to grow out of the cliff. I continued on for another hour and a half. I realized that I had not packed enough water to complete my trip and the "Warning: don't drink the water; Lyprosis" sign meant I wasn't picking any up along the way. So I tried going on but ran into a really steep hill (cliff) that I was not willing to risk at night. I wound up walking down a creek downstream from a cowpasture. Ummm I love bacteria. I got home after mid-night some time. I decided those setbacks weren't stopping my camping trip so I set up my really cool one-man tent and hopped in. I would have slept like a baby except dogs kept barking at me and my cool tent.
Sae la vi.
For those of you that don't French that means "Oil for French Folks."

Paul "don't wear shorts hiking through the jungle" Murhy

Estelle

So the other day I had my students write down their favorite thing they did over the three week break. I was hoping someone made a find in their backyard or ran into a wild boar. But there were no groundings or tusk scars to my disappointment. Most of them complained that nothing happened and it was boring.

Boring is an interesting view-point. I say view-point because it is really more of a state of mind than anything else. Its not that life really is boring, its only that we're thinking of it that way. I remember as a kid telling my mom I was board. Now we didn't have a wide variety of toys and nintendo games, but we had alot more than we needed. There were literally tons of things to do if you include Josh and Me's love of digging holes. Even though we had a chest full of cars and a Folgers can full of legos we still complained about there being nothing on our four channels of TV. At the time we probably had the only mother that would let us see if we could find and capture a rattle snake. It's not that mom didn't care about our well being, she just knew we were not totally stupid. All that to say we never should have been bored.

One of my favorite quotes from my secondary curriculum class was "entertainment begats boredom." We can be entertained for a while but eventually we become bored and search for something to entertain us. Its a state of mind. I also remember a "Family Matters" episode (the show with Steve Urkel) where Grandma Winslow comes back from a music concert (Boyz to Men i think, Luke can correct me). Eddie had gone with her and is in disbleif describing how Grandma Winslow was pulled on stage by the band. Laura asks her how come amazing things always happen to her, to which she replies "They don't just happen, I make them happen." I like that. The idea that you're not just going to sit around and wait for something to happen. Even the great Leon Phelps did just sit around for something to randomly happen, he went out and did something (pointless).

In life you can't expect things to just happen. It makes life boring.

Paul "would you like a fish sandwich?" Murphy

Feej has some new songs out that rock. Go listen