How a Different America Responded to the Great Depression

At the end of this article titled How a Different America Responded to the Great Depression the author, Jodi T Allen, explains the 2 things she wants the reader to take away from this article is that Americans need to remember the success of the programs installed during the new era. The other thing she concludes is a reminder to Americans implying for them to be more optimistic.

I think both of these are valid points, but comparing the statistics between such long time periods is not like comparing apples and oranges. Life back in the 1930’s compared to life today are 2 completely different worlds. Everything from our means of communication to our means of transportation is completely different. I think one of the reasons people were more optimistic back in the 1930’s is because there was not media like there is today back then. In today’s society there is so much publicity all over the TV, the internet, even billboards on the way to work.  When something goes bad happens, or a public official makes a mistake, it’s all over the TV in an instant for the whole country to see. From my point of view, as someone who was born in 1992, the country seems like it has been in recession and unsatisfied since 9/11.

I think that as Americans we are coming into a more modernized method of thinking, trying to create new change that the old way of how things worked is being forgotten. The ridiculous increasing debt casting a shadow over America, followed by the war in the Middle East, with the transition of the Bush administration to the Obama administration has Americans wanting some problems to get fixed. Problems seem to be the same thing different day, and with little progression shown, Americans are getting relentless and are not seeing anything to inspire change.

People thought that it was going to come with Obama. “Yes We Can”, people chanted in the trees of Washington when Obama was elected as the first black president. He brought his message of hope and change but after 3 years in office there hasn’t been much change. We are still at was overseas, still in a recession, and still unhappy. As a college student that is going to be entering the real world and the work force in the near future I am optimistic. I’m also excited to see where America will end up in the future and looking forward to the day gas is under $3 a gallon again.

Class Reflection

Coming into this class I was nervous. When you hear someone talking about composition usually you think of a lot of hard, boring writing with some old English teacher. I was relieved to find out that the class wasn’t a grammar lecture everyday with and old monotone man who sees black and white. One of the cooler things that I liked about this class was the blog entries, I would never had thought I would be writing a blog and posting all of my writing for this course for everyone to see. It allows for a easy way to hand in my papers and to get insight back from my teacher. Another aspect of the course that I liked was how we had options of what we wanted to write about, I was exposed to things and issues that I was not previously aware of, for example how truly messed up North Korea was. The documentary about North Korea was great, but I really enjoyed watching collapse. I think I liked this specific documentary so much because I’m so intrigued with views that oppose of our government. Throughout the documentary, Michael Ruppert questions and challenges statements and actions taken by the government.

                Every week we had the choice to write about either a podcast or an assigned reading posted on moodle. The readings were great guidelines to follow from what we were learning in class, specifically, show don’t tell. Show don’t tell is the number one thing I’m going to take and use to improve my writing. Joan Didion is an author who greatly exemplifies show don’t tell and has an interesting style of writing. She does it in a way that is very extreme with so much detail I sometimes forgot what I was reading about with her pieces. The thing I disliked about the class the most was the fact that it was an 8am class. This made it tough to get to class on time and I feel like you could definitely tell the class was tiered. I think that there would have been better class participation and better discussions if it were a later class. I think the hardest assignment was the research paper. I am not great at writing research papers, and I hate doing work cited and bibliographies. I picked a subject that was tough to research as well because getting opinions and statements from president Obama that pertained to my research topic wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Overall I would recommend this class with this teacher to someone who had to take composition next year.

Presentation

It was tough t to figure out what I wanted to present for my final project. Originally I thought I would present my research, because that would be the easiest way to go about it in my eyes. Then I really wanted to do a speech, after the discussion in class about speeches and how powerful they can be I was inspired to do a speech. The problem was I could not think of a topic that I was truly passionate about that I could give a compelling speech to the class. Once I decided there was nothing that I wanted to make a speech about I began racing through my memory thinking of stories that I could tell. I knew I wanted it to be a god story, and I wanted to entertain the class. While choosing which story I was going to tell I ran into a dilemma, it as the opposite of my speech dilemma. Instead of not having anything to present about I was overwhelmed with stories and things that I have been through and seen in my life.

Originally I was going to tell a story about a hold up that happened t a gas station in Florida. While I was vacationing with my mom and my brother, we landed in Florida pretty late. By the time we picked up our luggage and went through the process of getting our rental car it was 10:00 or 11:00 at night.  We had about an hour and a half drive to get from the airport to where we were going. It was a hot humid night and the streets were light by streetlight in an urban area unfamiliar to all of us. After driving around for about 45 minutes we realized that we were lost, my mom decided to stop at a gas station to ask for directions. Me and my brother decided we would wait in the car. The next thing I knew my mom was sprinting out of the gas station and jumped in the car screaming. She kept saying “there’s a man with a gun in there, a man with a gun!” the next thing I knew we were driving over the curb back onto the street.

I like this story a lot and think it’s one of the more entertaining ones I have on my resume. But I decided to tell the story of the party that got out of control because it is the end of the year, and summer is coming up. I just wanted to warn everybody about what could happen to them when a party goes badly, and it’s really not worth it if you are throwing the party. I knew this would be a good story to tell because most of the kids in the class could probably relate to it in some way shape of form, and it is very entertaining.

Alternitive Energy Implications

Derek Gookin

Alternative Energy Implications

 As the population increases, natural resources decrease. Eventually, we will not have enough to fit the needs of everyone on this planet. The only solution is alternative energy here in the U.S. In 2009, we used 12% coal, 25% natural gas, 37% petroleum, 9% nuclear, and 8% renewable energy. When I look at those numbers I see a country that depends on natural resources for energy. The problem is that energy is not renewable. As a country we need to stand back and take a look at this issue. Whether you like it or not we are going to eventually run out of our natural resources such as fossil fuels. The issue can either be faced now, or pushed to the side until it hits us like a wall. Our country is one of 3 who have not ratified the Kyoto protocol, what reasons do we have to not comply with the rest of the world? Do Obama’s alternative energy plans correspond with actions that are being taken? How can wind and solar energy be implemented into society, and why should they?

            The Kyoto Protocol is a treaty that proposes countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It was organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is intended to help fight climate change by reducing green house gas emissions to the atmosphere. As land is being cleared and fossil fuels are releasing CO2, the earth heats up. This is because CO2 absorbs the earth’s heat energy and there are not enough plants to absorb the CO2 and maintain equilibrium. The population increasing directly effects the amount of energy needed, by regulating alternative energy usage, it can be more expensive it you look from a short term perspective. In the long term, you would save energy, money, and the environment.   

There are 194 countries that exist in the world. Out of these 194, 191 have ratified the Kyoto protocol. That leaves the U.S, Afghanistan, Western Sahara, and Somalia. These are the remaining countries who have not ratified. Why has our government not ratified this treaty? The simple answer is the priority of America, money right now is more important than the future environment. Like I said before, it is cheaper to use fossil fuels considering short term finances. If the U.S were to ratify the Kyoto protocol it would force new restrictions on our emissions released which would cost big corporations, and the government money. In 2007 the list for the carbon emissions by country showed China in first with 22.20% closely followed by the USA at 19.91%. This is outrageous considering china has a population of 1.13 billion people while the U.S has fewer than 312 million people. By ratifying the Kyoto Protocol it would motivate us to initiate the process of using alternative energy sources and better contribute to saving the planet. President Obama seems to be clear of the fact that he supports alternative energy and would like to see more action taken. In 2009 According to a “2011 USA Today Survey”, 83% of Americans would like to see a bill passed that provides incentives for using solar and other alternative energy sources. USA Today also states that 93% of democrats and 75% of republicans support the action to pass an alternative energy bill. An alternative energy bill is not going to solve the problem but it would be a nice start to hopefully start a revolution here in America. While Obama was talking about the American Recovery and Reinforcement act of 2009 he said, "It is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been, “Barrack Obama.” Obama plans to grant more money to expand scientific and technological research. The President said that the funding would surpass 1964 when the space race was in full gear. The U.S spent 2.88% of our GDP on science and technology research development. As of 2007 we were spending 2.66% of our GDP. Unfortunately the U.S is only projected to spend 2.4% of their Gross Domestic Product in 2011. That is a decrease from Obama’s original 2009 plans of what the GDP expenditure would be in 2011. His plans are not successful because it’s hard to spend money when you are trillions of dollars in debt, and your country is in a recession. That is the reason many Americans are not proactive on this issue, they need to take care of themselves and make sure they can afford to pay the bills and put food on the table. (http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/)

            The fastest growing energy source in the country is wind energy. Just in 2008 Rockport Montana was the town to obtain all of its power from wind energy. Farmers with wind fields are pleased in the fact that they can make more money that they do with growing crops, and also don’t have to do anything, the wind does all the work. The farmer’s liabilities are also decreased with the fact they don’t have to depend on their growing crops for income, after all one bad bug infestation can ruin an entire crop which can make or break a farmer financially. Rockport has an excess amount of energy that they can sell to neighboring towns and make a profit off of. If the government could fund more of these wind fields that would be a great step to implementing alternative energy. Because it is so hard to convert a country who thinks money first, to spend on things that do not directly benefit them financially, it is going to have to start with the individual states government. If the people in Washington can’t get the job done than it is up to the states to bear down and create some change.

            Solar energy is sunlight that is absorbed by solar panels, and can be converted into electricity or heat. Solar energy is a renewable energy, just like wind energy. This means that the solar panels provide a steady flow of energy to the source. This is beneficial in two ways, the solar panel helps save you money in the long term because you don’t have to buy gas and oil to energize your house. By using solar panels you’re also helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere. Chevron is a company that is one of the leaders in solar energy innovation and installation. In 2008 they installed solar panels at the Contra Costa Community College in California. The panels are spread out covering 34 roofs at 3 campuses. The new installation of the panels is expected to save the school district over 70 million dollars over the next 25 years. The means the district will save a minimum of 2.8 million dollars on energy each year. This is just one of many successful solar panel installations.

            Everything is connected and can help us understand how and why we should implement alternative resources in society. By signing the Kyoto protocol it would jumpstart our effort exercise the usage of alternative and renewable energy. Our government is in charge of ratifying the protocol and also helping to implement alternative energies into the country, the problem is investing in the production, and installation of things such as windmills, and solar panels is not cheap. It is tough for us to invest money when you are trillions of dollars in debt. With the bad economy it has been tough for President Obama to stay on track with his budgeting toward research and development. If the investments are made on installing more wind mills, and solar energy panels than it is a fact money will be saved in the long run and it is reducing climate change.   

Annotated Bibliography

Bishop, Rob. "Energy: The Conservative Alternative - HUMAN EVENTS." Conservative News, Views & Books - HUMAN EVENTS. 9 Aug. 2009. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. <http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33427>. This article discusses 2 ideas to help improve the energy policy in America. The first is a regressive national energy tax that intentionally increases energy prices to restrict economic growth, and aim to lead America. The other idea is “Cap and Tax” which would implement a massive carbon tax and is the only solution to create new energy jobs and reduce our carbon footprint.

Cooper, Helene. "Obama Says He’ll Push for Clean Energy Bill." Nytimes.com. 2 June 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/us/politics/03obama.html?_r=1>. This article talks about how Obama wants to aggressively accelerate the transition from oil to alternative sources of energy. The article also compares the democratic and republican views and ideas when it comes to alternative resources. The article fails to mention any spacifics of the bill Obama would like to see passed and what he wants changed that is not on our current policy.

"Kyoto Protocol." United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. <http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php>. this article talks about how the Kyoto protocol began and the rules of the protocol. The rules and regulations of the protocol are discussed along with the way it is monitored. The author fails to mention all of the countries involved in the Kyoto protocol.

Van Doren, Peter. "The Case against Government Support for Alternative Energy | Peter Van Doren and Jerry Taylor | Cato Institute: Commentary." The Cato Institute. 24 Oct. 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. <http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9767>. In the article government prices for alternative energy is discussed along with the current policies. The question of should conventional energy prices be raised to encourage the use of alternative energy resources is discussed showing both sides of the argument.  One thing this article is limited on is statistics and research to back up the pros and cons of the argument.

Solar | Energy Sources | Chevron." Chevron Corporation Home - Human Energy. Chevron, Apr. 2011. Web. Apr.

2011. <http://www.chevron.com/deliveringenergy/solar/>.

The story of Contra Costa Community College school district and how they utilized alternative energy resources, and implemented them in a effective way.

Cooper, M. (2001, January 26). Global warming treaty. CQ Researcher, 41-64. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

Hosansky, D. (2011, April 1). Wind power. CQ Researcher, 21, 289-312. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

Retrieved from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a 15 percent renewable-energy standard that would have taken effect in 2021. Neither proposal, however, reached Obama's desk before Congress adjourned

Kramer, David. "Obama proposes big increases for energy, climate change, and basic research." Physics Today 62.7 (2009): 29-34. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 May 2011.

"more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been," President Obama

His energy plan, Obama said, calls for a one-third reduction in imported oil and 80 percent of the country's electricity coming from renewables like wind and solar by 2035.

America Imperialistic?

Derek Gookin

                Imperialism is defined as the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/imperialism). So is America imperialistic? The first part of the definition would be if America has extended our rules or authority over other countries. Since 2001, after September 11^th we began the war on terror and moved into the Middle East. Since the war we have attempted to implement a democratic government, similar to the way we run ours. Technically we were not extending our authority because people in the Middle East supported a demographic government. The other part of the definition is extending our rule to another empire or nation, to me this is where it gets a little fuzzy. Yes, we did implement similar rules or ideas that exist in our government, like voting. On the other hand, we were not policing the rules and laws set, but we were involving our military with their government and homeland. According to the first part of the definition the U.S was being imperialistic in that sense.

The second part of the definition says that holding or acquiring colonies and dependencies in other nations or foreign countries is considered imperialism. After the cold war we had many U.S military bases set up around the world. Depending on the country some stayed occupied and some were abandoned. One country that is a good example is Australia. Australia was interested in letting the U.S stay and maintain their military base in Australia. They saw it in their best interest to keep a strong relationship with the U.S and remain allies. Some other countries were not so find of the idea of a permanent U.S military base located in their country. One example of the is in 2006 Iceland’s air force base which hosted thousand of U.S troops and fighter aircrafts being removed from the country, resulting in zero air defenses for Iceland. The point I am making is that the U.S does have colonies and dependencies in other countries, but only countries that support their presence, right? Wrong, Guantanamo Bay is a great example of the U.S’s presence in a country that does not want us there. Basically Cuba does not want us there, but we completely ignore their requests to leave and go on with business. This fits the second part of the imperialism definition, acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies. I’m not saying I think that the U.S should pull out of their basis and discontinue Guantanamo bay. I am saying that according to the definition of imperialism that the U.S seems to have a government that is imperialistic.

Joan Didion, Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream

In Joan Didion’s piece entitled Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream, she talks about the story of Lucille Miller. Lucille allegedly murdered her husband by burning him alive in a car on the side of a ghostly road in California. In the end Lucille was convicted and sent to jail for the murder, the piece makes me question whether she was actually innocent or guilty. Didion has an interesting writing style, she is very descriptive, and likes to build things up to present the ultimate climax in her writing.  She takes a case that was probably presented in the media as Lucille being 100 percent guilty, to making you question the validity of the verdict. Didion sets the tone describing the beautiful serene California landscape, just how someone may picture it. California is a place where anything can happen and where dreams come true. Joan Didion shows the other side of the golden land of California, with violence and murders. She seems to bring out the truth beneath the dream, after all Lucille’s dream wasn’t different from anyone else in California, she just wanted to rise up a few rings on the social ladder.

As an outsider I picture California as a perfect place to be with palm trees, hot girls in bikinis, people that are rich and of high status, and the possibility to achieve anything. That is only how I picture California, I’m sure most people who have not been there do not have too much of a different image in their head either. 99 percent of the stories that you hear about of rags to riches celebrities includes a part where someone moves to California and gets discovered. It is not often you hear someone say

“Don’t go to California, it’s a bad place to live, sure it may be beautiful but I would not recommend it.”

To me, I see Didion’s style as just reassuring that wherever you go nothing will ever be perfect. Even the place where the golden dream can come true, it can diminish just as easily. I take that and apply it to anywhere I picture myself living in a dream world, weather its Miami, Aspen, or Banyan Street, shit happens. You can be in the most beautiful setting and witness your worst nightmare. I have never heard of the story of Lucille Millar before reading this piece and after reading it, I felt that Lucille Millar was innocent and should not have been sent to jail. This just shows the power of Didion’s writing style and how it can influence a reader like me to go against the justice system and believe the opposite of what they believe. I’m not even sure she intended to make her readers believe that Lucille was innocent but that is how I interpreted the piece. Everyone interoperates things differently, that’s what makes all humans unique.

Michael Ruppert Argumentative Analysis

Michael Ruppert has been around the block. In the documentary Collapse, he talks about his personal experiences and explains how they have formed his beliefs of today’s society. He uses a combination of pathos and logos argumentative appeals. The way he mixed them together made a very compelling argument. He begins the documentary by stating his accomplishments and credentials to convince the audience that he was a man who was intelligent, and could be trusted because he knew what he was talking about. The pathos part was set up by this whole introduction of announcing his qualifications to theorize about the collapse of our society, that Ruppert talks about in the documentary.  His logic consists of actual facts and referring to the past. The most powerful argumentative appeal was definitely ethos. In the documentary Michael Ruppert talks about “what if” scenarios. These are all just accusations but he puts it into a reference where you can imagine your life being affected by these issues.

 One example is Ruppert talks about a world where everything is going to be local. Everything from the food you eat to the people you will communicate with, he says there will be no cell phones and other necessities, things we cannot picture our lives without today. When I was watching the film I truly believed at the time that all of this was true. I began to picture a garden behind my condo in Bedford, and thinking, damn I don’t want to live local. I didn’t spend time to think about the other sides of this argument, automatically I thought that everything Ruppert said was true. The fact is he is right about our diminishing natural resources but we are in the great technology era, no one can predict the future. If someone told me you could watch television on your phone and use it as a GPS when I was in middle school I would have never thought I could have that in college.

I can’t wait to live to see what the future holds, hopefully everything doesn’t crash and we will not be living in an old fashion America like Ruppert says.  Using words like human survival strikes a chord and makes you want to survive. Another argumentative method he uses is empathy. The way the document is presented is displaying Ruppert as an underdog. He is someone that no one listens to, but has great ideas. Everyone has heard the story of the boy who cried wolf, and that what Ruppert is in a sense. He keeps warning people that things need to change in order to have success as humans in the future. As a whole, people are not listening. Maybe he is right, is the government really after him? It makes me question, can I trust the government, the media, and the news, who knows?

South Park and Society

South Park is a show that has been around as long as I can remember. When someone thinks of South Park it’s either love or hate feeling. The one thing that is cool about the show is that it is based on real current events, and exposes what some may call the harsh reality of the world we live in today. The way they present there material is from an over the top, vulgar, and debatable standpoints. I think that is what makes this show good. The fact that so many people hate it and the creators are always pushing the limits makes for some good television. It is essentially a satire in which the topic is exaggerated in a way to where it is exactly big time celebrities, current news, and social trends, can disagree with the content.

            A show like South Park is important because it shows alternative views. Only a few corporations, like time warner, today control the media today. South Park is one of the only cartoons that’s episodes are about current issues, for example just the other month they came out with a jersey shore episode. The episode makes all of the Jersey Shore characters look like idiots. I think it is making fun of the fact that those same characters became overnight celebrities in America. As sad as it is jersey shore is one of the biggest hit shows in our country. Many people would rather watch jersey shore on Thursday nights then watch tsunami coverage in japan. Here we have thousands of people trapped, suffering, and dying and people are watching Jersey Shore and Charlie Sheen.

            South Park is a rarity, not only because of its originality but it reminds me of the way media was presented back in the day. Back when people did not have television and Internet they would read the newspaper. Inside there would be cartoons, political cartoons would display a hidden message just like South Park. I would call South Park an evolved political cartoon in today’s society, though not all episodes are political they have to deal with big time celebrity’s, current news, and social trends. In a way South Park is a modern day political cartoon, to an extent, it’s an entertaining way to catch up on the news. South Park is a show that can last as long as television exists. It has a faithful following and a plot that goes with the wind. The only way I can ever see the show being cancelled is if there are issues with the network, producers, or creators.

MONEY MONEY MONEY

Money doesn’t grow on trees, it grows in a factory. The global pool of money seems to be growing at a pace I can’t even fathom. With the population growing, the amount of money circulating increases. When I take into consideration all the different factors, like the trillions of dollars in savings right now, that is trillions of dollars that is not being used. It seems rational to me that, that number is only to increase with this recession, and that’s not even the worst part. The way to get out of the recession is for people to start spending money, not saving. If people begin spending all of the money then everyone will generate more revenue and create more jobs. The problem is, recession causes people to save, and the more people save the deeper into recession we fall into.

The world of banks and investors is more twisted up internally than when you look at it from the outside. It’s like when you see a gorgeous girl walking down the street you think

“Damn that girl is gorgeous”

Never do you take the time to think

“Wow she is gorgeous, but I wonder what she is like on the inside”

For all you know she could be a straight up murderer, in a sense that’s how the investing world is in a way. Here you see all of these people getting approved for loans, then if you stop and take the time to think about it you think

“How did tom get a loan, he moves furniture, and now he is approved to take out a loan for $400,000?”

It’s because the people handing out these loans like candy do not care if they get paid off or not, they just want to sell them to someone else to make fast cash. Who can blame them, I would do the same thing if I was pulling in over a million a year. It seems to be the regulations and requirements that are set that is the root of the problem.

                 Money isn’t everything, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that one before. I think the quote should be

“money is 90% of everything”

For those people that are in jail for the rest of their life, it’s easy to say money isn’t everything, but for us living in the real world, cash is king. I can’t say there has ever been a time in my life where I have truly needed something and didn’t have the money for it. I’m not talking about a video game or some toy, I mean food, or a necessity needed to maintain well being. The point is that those times where you really do want something and can’t have it, it really sucks. Imagine the feeling of not being able to afford food, I can’t. The fact of the matter is when you have money, life is easier, there is still that other 10 percent that is important which is family, and friends. You may be asking me,

“Derek isn’t there more things to life, it can’t just be family, friends and money?”

The answer is no, yes there is more to life than family, friends, and money, but it’s nothing that money can’t buy. For example, yes it is important to spend time with your family and have fun with them, here is a simple solution. You purchase some plane tickets to Orlando for your whole family, fly down there, and go enjoy a nice vacation to Disney world. Lastly, I would like to end this

“A penny saved is a penny earned”-Benjamin Franklin

The Run

The gondola doors opened and it was time to shred again. It was a really busy day so me and my friends were riding the singles line. I let the man and his son go out first, then I grabbed my skies and waited for the rest of my friends to get off their gondolas.

“Where are we going, the front or back?” I said

“I don’t care, one of my friends shouted” it was really windy and cold at the top.

“Front”

someone yelled, I walked up the little hill and clipped into my skies. As I’m waiting for my friends to put there snowboards on I admired the view. You can see mountains as far as you look with frosty white tips, mountains behind mountains with the sky scattered with nimbus clouds and the sun beating on the snow.

Now my friends are all strapped up and it’s time to ride, were like a pack of wolves running through the woods. I’m in the back, still putting my hands through the loops on my poles just to make sure they don’t fall off. At the first intersection we go right as usual this is where I pull ahead, we fly down weaving in and out of people. This trail is a straight away till the end, I turn back and forth staying on my edges do I don’t looses and speed. There are a few knolls on the trail I get some air off of because I’m flying, there’s no radar gun but it feels like I at least hit 45 or 50. I get toward the bottom and zoom around a right hand turn, feeling like Boddy Miller in the Olympic medal round. There’s a real steep right turn going down toward the first park, I put on my breaks and slide to a stop spraying snow so high I can’t see in front of me. I look back to wait for my friends to catch up. I see two of them fly around the turn, make my way down the steep right and wait at the top of the first mini park. My friends come down one by one, we wait for a few riders to go then one by one drop down I go second.

The first jump is a little one, about a 10 footer, I throw a mute grab and land it smooth. The second jump is almost identical except for the fact you need a little more speed, I come into the second jump and do a blunt, which is where you cross your skies and grab the tail of you ski with the opposite hand. BOOM, I land a little too far down the landing, I can feel the pressure on my knees but I still land it alright. I stop to wait for the rest of my friends, just to make sure were all together and no one fell. I can see the park from here, I start down a small hill to flat and skate to get more speed. I jump off the lip of the hip and tweak a mute grab. I come down and land on the side of the hip perfectly, now I can see the park its right across the trail in front of me. I ride through to the entrance with my friends trailing, we stop at the top just to eye out what we want to do. My friend bob had been talking shit all day telling me how he’s better, even though I ski and he snowboards my competitive nature kicks in.

“let’s have a contest and settle this once and for all  bob” I say

“bring it on Gookin” he replied.

One of my friends Trent was riding with us.,

“Trent you judge who does better” it was on now I had to beat bob.

 I drop into the park, the first feature is a flat rail, I jump up and land perfectly then come out and land it switch. I’m in the zone and I was ahead of bob so I didn’t know how he was doing behind me. The next feature was a down rail, I carve over to the right and hop on, my skies slide in front of me and I slide off early landing switch again. I ski down to this perfect jump, I had been nailing 3’s on it all day, this is where I was going to beat bob. Bob cant 3 this step down, it’s about a 20 foot gap and a straight shot from the top of the knoll were on is perfect speed to hit the jump. I’m up first, my plan is to throw a 360 and tweak it out with a huge mute grab, didn’t happen that way.

I skate off and go into a tuck to get as much speed as possible, my head lifts and I can start to go up the jump, my body twists right and I throw my right shoulder around and the tail of my ski hits the lip of the jump. Now I am in the air, helpless, falling backwards and looking up at the sky.

 “Please don’t land on my head, please don’t get hurt”

 all of the thoughts are racing through my mind then boom I hit. Everything turns North Carolina blue but it’s a shiny shade. I’m sliding down the landing and open my eyes, I can’t see anything but blue, close them again and the same thing happens. After about 8 seconds the picture of the landing and the box to the right slowly fade the blue out. I lay there for a few seconds to take in what just happened then muster up the strength to climb up the landing and get my ski. The rest of the day is tough to remember as I go into the lodge I say

“Trent, I know this is going to sound stupid but what day is it”

“Gookin, its Wednesday this is the third time you have asked me that.”

                The rest of the day was tough to remember. I have that feeling of waking up from a dream, I get the main point, but I only remember certain random details that don’t seem to matter. Once I chilled out for a little bit and could remember what day it was I asked my friends

“Where is Chris?”

“Chris didn’t come to the mountain with us today”

They kept convincing me he was never with us, now I was really worried. I could have sworn we were riding with him all morning, but I believed them. After all I couldn’t even remember what day it was, the next morning Trent said.

“You know we were just kidding, Chris was with us yesterday.”

Dance With The Devil

The one sure thing about religion is that it is not sure thing. The basic religious understanding is that there is Heaven and Hell, good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell, to burn with the Devil. I personally do not know what to believe, I guess my opinion is always changing, and contradicting where I previously stood in my own personal debate. After hearing a story like the guy who all of a sudden, decided to confess a murder that had happened when he was a teenage makes me think, why? Why does he not remember confessing his murder to the police, he either is a huge mental case or there is something else to it. The devil could be behind it, or it could have nothing to do with the devil at all.

I think that there are good and bad people in the world, it has been, and will always be this way. You need to have many different types of people in the world to keep a steady equilibrium of good and bad people. Some may argue that this guy Randy is not necessarily a bad person because he is a murderer. I would have to disagree with that. I believe that if you a murderer than you are a bad person, once you take someone’s life, rape someone, or attempt to kill someone then BOOM, you’re a bad person. I do believe that there are people who do bad things but murder is just not one of them.

The reason I’m undecided on whether the devil is real or not may be because I never went to church, or maybe because I have never had an experience like one of those stories in the podcast. I’m talking about the stories where people were overcome by the Devil, and somehow saw some sort of illogical thinking as logical. How can a sane person just all of a sudden think it would be a good idea to kneel in front of a car and wait to be hit? I think that this guy was not happy with his life, or maybe shit tanked off his ass.

Weather the devil is real or fake, I don’t think it matters. To me it’s not the question of where you go after you die I ask, or spend any time worrying about. I like to wonder where I will go when I am alive, I guess that’s probably why most old people are religious. Old people are on there on the final stretch of their lives, they have nowhere else to go but church. It doesn’t matter is Heaven and Hell are real or fake. The whole Idea in Heaven and Hell does play important roles in our society because it keeps a lot of people sane, and gives people a reason to do good in this world. As long as we live there will always be people doing good, and people doing bad, so therefore there will always be belief in God and the Devil.    

10 Years From Now

It’s a Sunday, 11:00 am, tee time, and my brother and I are paired up with another gentleman to make a 3 person group. I introduce myself “Hi my names Derek.” The man looks at me and in a deep raspy voice, he says “Mike nice to meet you.” It sounded like he was a smoker, I noticed he had R32 irons with a Scotty Cameron putter that looks like its straight from the factory. Mike didn’t say much at first, he walked over next to the putting green and started taking practice swings while we waited for the group in front of us to finish up the first hole. Now it was out turn to tee off, I turned to mike and said, “Go ahead man, show us how it’s done.” “alright, but I’m not very good” he said back. I’m thinking in the back of my head, yea right I’ve heard this one before, another modest pro. This guy is wearing some fresh ass Nikes with an Under Armour golf shirt, Dockers, and has his black hair slicked back, dude is about to murder this ball. I reply back to him “don’t worry me and Nick aren’t good either” just to make him feel more comfortable. Mike walked over to the tee box and stuck his tee into the ground, he put his driver straight out in front of him with his arms extended, lining it up with the flag. I turn to my brother, “What are the chances of this guy making the green?” he turns to me, shaking his head and says “come on Derek, its 310 out, not a chance.” Mike pulls his club back and swings, he topped it, and it’s a worm burner about 100 yards down the middle of the fairway. “God dammit” he slams his club against the ground, I go next and slice it left, Nick cranks it 275 down the middle of the fairway. We all get in the cart and my brother hands me a bud light, to my surprise mike pulls a rolling rock out of his bag. “Where are you from” I ask him “I live in L.A but I grew up in new Hampshire” “No shit” I say, “we did too, where in New Hampshire?”  Manchester, I went to Memorial High School.” “Damn I went to West, what a small world” Nick said. “What brought you out to Vegas?” I ask him, he told us he was here on business. Mike looked at me and took a big swig of his beer and finished his first brew of the day, he said “I’m an inventor, have you here’d of the Holocomputer” “You invented that!?” I was very impressed that was cutting edge technology, the Holocomputer is a computer that looks like a flash drive and projects a hologram of a keyboard and screen that are touch sensitive where your finger is the mouse. At this point I’m pretty excited to be drinking beers, golfing, and shooting the shit with the inventor of the Holocomputer. We finish all 18 at about 2:30 I shot a 95 my brother shot an 80 and Mike, well Mike stopped keeping score after the 4^th hole.  The man just loves to golf witch I respected, after all it is the hardest sport in the world. We walk over to the clubhouse, Mike says “give me a call if you boys are ever in L.A” he hands us his business card and gets in a Lincoln town car. Nick and I hop in a cab, we get in our room “Where are the girls?” nick said “I don’t know but who cares, we’re in Vegas bro, let’s go chill by the pool and enjoy the rest of the day.  We get down to the pool and to no surprise both of our wives were down there, they were with another lady who looked older probably about mid to late 30’s. “this is Star, we met her shopping today and were going to go out to dinner with her and her husband tonight” my wife said. I’m thinking oh great I wanted to hit the casino with nick tonight and the girls will want to go see Circus Ole or some shit. “I’m Derek, Jen’s wife, nice too meet you” I shake her hand. Star is wearing a black g string bottom with a white top, she definitely has implants and has bleach blonde hair. Her belly button is pierced and has a pretty good body for her age, she’s not one of those older people that shouldn’t be wearing a bikini, she could pull it off. After lying out by the pool we go back to our room, turns out Star and her husband are also staying at the Palms. Jen and I go back up to our room to get ready, she says, “dress nice baby wear that suit with the black and green tie, I put it out on the bed” “ok honey” I replied, “why don’t you wear that sexy little white dress u bought yesterday” she walks out of the bathroom and she already has I on. “you didn’t have to tell me I can read your mind” she says smiling at me as she runs her hand through her hair. “Its 7:00 Nick and Sarah should be here, were meeting Star and her husband at Nove Italliano at 7:15” “hang on ill call Ni….” I’m interrupted by a knock on the door. We all take the elevator down to the restaurant, were here first, I go to the bathroom with my brother to watch my hands. The restaurant was real nice with marble sinks, I walk out of the bathroom and am shocked to see Star and her husband. I take a seat and say “hey mike, long time no see.” 

House on Loon Lake

When I first started listening to the story of the house on Loon Lake I was thinking these kids remind me alot of myself, throwing shit at cars and blowing up jack o lanterns. As I listened on I thought this was going to be some haunted house bullshit story, I don't believe in ghosts for one reason only, there not real! Once the podcast started talking about this abandoned house they broke into it reminded me of something very similar my two boys and me did this summer. As the summer was winding down and someone came up with the idea that we should all go camping before we go off to college. On a Friday night we drove up to lake winnipesaukee where this girl said she found a campground for all 16 of us teenagers. When we drove to the campground they said we had too many people and couldn't stay there. We ended up going to about 3 more till we found one that would let us stay, this was key because it was getting dark at this point and we would have been screwed if we couldn't find a place to stay. About 8 of us were there at this point, once the other half arrived the owner of the campground camp up with some bullshit excuse to make us leave saying there can only be 8 of us or something like that. I was fine with staying at the campsite, but all the girls were saying how we cant split up and it wont be the same blah blah. Eventually we took down our tents and hit the road again looking for somewhere to stay, personally I wanted to just park on the side of the road, go out in the woods, and do some real camping Bear Grill style, but it was dark and no one brought a flashlight. My friend was driving and my other friend was in the back seat with some chick he was with at the time. She said we might be able to stay at her cousins house on newfound lake like 15 minutes down the road, we were real desperate at this point so we agreed to go there. Her aunt said we can stay there, we showed up to this condo on a lake, at this point its me, my 2 best-friends, that girl, and her cousin. We are real bored at this point wanting to do something, anything, because we were ready to rage at a campsite with everyone from high school, the girls cousin tells us about an abandoned house down the road that is really sketchy and scary, I look at my boys and know there  down for whatever. We get a flashlight from her aunt, get in the car and drive 2 minutes down the road, bang a left and stop the car. This girl’s cousin tells us we need to park here and walk the rest of the way because the house across the street will call the cops if they see anyone in the house. We walk across the road and get into the yard of the abandoned house, it was real quiet and old both of my friends were being bitches so I had to walk in front but I couldn't use the flashlight incase the house across the street saw it and called the cops. As I walk around the side I am eyeing it out so see if I can see inside, but it’s too dark. Once we got to the back door it was game time I could hear the girls whispering how they didn't want to go in and thought I didn't come here to look around the yard. When I shined my light into the back door I could just see lots of old furniture covered in dust, I opened the door and walked in. No one was talking until the girls cousin said "OMG that door was closed last time I came here, someone must have opened it" that was all that needed to be said. Everyone booked shit out of the house. I left with them, having no interest chilling in there by myself.  After listening to the story of the house on Loon Lake it makes me wish I had stuck around to see if I could have found something in the house. Makes me want to go find another abandoned house and see what I can dig up who knows maybe I could make some dough.