Reflective reflectiveness...reflection!!!

Whew!!! Well it's been busy. The wedding was good. The reception was more like a party than a reception, but the only person that really didn't dig it was my grandma probably :) Came home for school for two days (bleh...seems like everybody else had off) then back to Waco for Thanksgiving.

Matthew wasn't there this year, his first Thanksgiving not at Grandma's house. Him and Sarah were on the Honeymoon. I guess it won't be the last. They're going to start having to split holidays and such...poopies! My grandmother wasn't physically up to the car trip up to Waco so her and my daddy stayed here in Austin. It was my first Thanksgiving without my daddy. I'm hoping that she gets her strength up for Christmas time. I'd really want to say that I'm refuse to have Christmas without my daddy, but I kinda realized that that was being a little selfish. I'm just praying that's something I don't even have to worry about.

We heard the fireworks go off at the Domain around eight tonight. It's almost Christmas time people!!! Well as of today it's not even December, but I want to stretch out the Christmas season as long as possible. It has to be one of my favorite times of year. There's just something so magical about it. There's just magic in the air.

And yes there is Christmas music being played in my house as I type this. We'll have driven my daddy crazy soon. I keep bugging him about getting down the Christmas decorations, but he keeps saying not until you finish your homework (but we now that will never happen...so maybe that's why he's saying it). But besides Santa and all that jazz which is really just jazz anyway, I musn't forget Jesus is the why we celebrate.

Darfur

I had no clue what the Darfur genocide was. I was curious about what it was, but I didn't do anything to learn about it. And even though we're in Darfur's sixth year of conflict I still hadn't known about it until I had to do this blog. And six years of conflict means six years of information I've missed. I've researched it and pieced together the information.

Darfur is a region of Sudan about the size of Texas. Two groups rebelling against the Sudanese government caused the creation of the Jangaweed. This militant who has taken up position against the innocent citizens of Darfur. 400,000 civilians have been killed. 2.5 million have been displaced from their homes. Many have been raped, abducted, and abused.

There are so many groups involved in this conflict; the Chinese Government, the Rwanda Government, the Militant, and the people who didn't resist. So which party is the worst?

The militant is a group called the Jangaweed. This group is organized, supported, and funded by the Sudanese government. The government hires people to be in this group. It works for the extermination of African tribes Darfur. They are the ones carrying out this genocide. They are the obvious answer to this question. However there is more to the answer. They are still my answer to the question, but there are other parties who all that much better.

The Chinese government is involved in this genocide, but its not as obvious. The Chinese government has forgiven Sudan of 1.2 billion dollars of debt, pledged to build a palace for the Sudanese President, and pledged to rehabilitate its railway system. The Chinese are very involved and have so much invested in Sudan. One of Sudan's major exports is oil and China is Sudan's biggest buyer. The money that Sudan gets from China is is used to purchase guns and weapons. These are used to kill the people in Darfur. So in a sense, China is funding or bankrolling the genocide in Darfur

(The Rwanda government has had a positive influence in Darfur rather than a negative one like the above two. The Rwanda government, having gone through a similar circumstance with the genocide of the Tutsi people empathize with Darfur and has sent many troops into Darfur to act as peacekeepers)

Then there are the people who saw what was happening, but didn't resist. This can be seen different ways. It doesn't seem like they would have anything to do with the conflict, but isn't it believed that someone witnesses a wrong doing they have the responsibility to do something about it and that when they don't it is considered an injustice? I can understand the take that these people are "in the wrong" because of what they didn't do. I think of the saying that questions what hurts more; an enemy doing something to hurt you or a friend seeing this and doing nothing to stand up for you. You expect your enemy to hurt you, but you don't expect your friend to be unloyal so when they forsake you it hurts even more it may not be a physical pain, but emotionally it hurts worse. In a sense, this is a similar situation. You can expect the militant to keep doing what they are doing, but when the people around you see what is happening, but do nothing about it and don't resist it hurts as well and they are in the wrong too.

However, I do not think that the people who did not resist are worse than the people who are doing the initial wrongdoing. The initial injustice (that done by the Jangaweed) is the worst. Therefore to answer the prompt I think that the militant is the worst.

"By studying these tragic lessons from history... it will raise [their] awareness and help [them] understand what can happen when you judge people by their race, their homeland or their beliefs."

—Illinois State Sen. Jacqueline Collins

Even just by educating ourselves about the subject is better than doing nothing.

Below is a link to a video and websites with so much more information on the topic. If you only have time to look at one, watch the video. It is from darfurscores.org, but it was produced by Genocide Intervention Network who encourages people who watch it to share it...so that's what I'm doing.

"Never Again: The Permanent Anti-Genocide Movement"
Bringing Attention To Darfur on Facebook
darfurscores.org
Sudan Tribune articles

Summing UP the last 2 Weeks!

In one word....

CrAzInEsS!!!

But it's been good. Semi big news is I've decided to change my Blog's title. (whoooOoOOoooOOOooo!!!) It's getting crazy! But even bigger news, my cousin is getting married this weekend! We're driving up to Waco on Friday afternoon then sometime in their picking up my grandma, driving up to Dallas, going to the Brunch, rehearsal dinner, and of course the wedding. I'm so excited, but kept very busy right now getting ahead on homework and such because my whole weekend is pretty much gone. For example I am doing my blog Monday night versus Sunday night. It is an evening wedding Sunday afternoon so we probably won't make it home til about two Monday morning... it'll be a long day at school after the drive home. But thankfully I get to snooze out in the back seat between different homework assignments. I've just got the finishing touches on my outfit. A beautiful dress from Dillards I would describe as "Grape Ice" and a gorgeous matcing necklace and high heeled shoes... lets just say I will look snazzy! But most of all I'm looking forward to seeing family that I miss so much. That's my life as it is in a nutshell. :)

Rock Climbing

People always ask "Do you play any sports?" And yes I do, but people don't like my answer. I rock climb... and yes it is a sport. It frustrates me to death that nobody gets that. My daddy taught me everything I know and climbing is something that we enjoy doing together. So many of our vacations are centered around "Yea! that place has awesome bouldering! Let's go there!"

I talked to my daddy after getting so tired of "oh. You climb. That doesn't seem like a really competitive sport." or "Oh my goodness I love climbing too! Main Event Rocks!" While I agree Main Event has an outstanding climbing area for being...well Main Event, it bugs me that climbing doesn't get its props. And in truth it never really has. Just because I throw sometimes throw the football around the backyard with with my daddy, doesn't make me a football player. Anybody can climb...and that's what makes it such an awesome sport... anyone can do it... but you have work at it, and work hard, and be dedicated, to get good... to get really good. People don't understand that there is more to it than the easy stuff that everybody can do. When people say its not a sport I think "well then why are there rock climbing teams? Why are there national rock climbing competitions? climbing festivals? Stores that sell climbing equipment and gear? Climbing magazines? And professionals who make a living from the SPORT?!?

Climbing is amazing....and probably one of my

favorite things to do.

You can break climbing down to two things: top ropes and bouldering. Top ropes is climbing in a harness, clipped into a rope attached to an anchor at the top of the route. A person at the ground called the belayer takes up the slack as the person climbs up the rock. Bouldering is when you work problems without a rope. These climbs are shorter and you have people spotting you from the ground. You're just free climbing and if you fall you fall, but you're spotter directs your fall towards the crash pads. You can climb indoors in a gym or you can climb outdoors. Outdoors is way harder, but way funner!

Climbers climb routes. In a gym routes are marked with tape and you can only use the holds that are marked to get to the top. Outdoors, climbing a route is like a section of the rock that you climb and you can see a route, sequence of holds that will get you to the top. Each route, whether a bouldering route or a ropes route is given a level of difficulty (but they both have different scales). You pick a route to work and you try it and you'll fall, or slip, or your arms will get tired, but you go back and try it again and again and again until you finally finish it. It could take you mulitple trys or even trips to succeed. Some climbers will travel to a country, find a route that they fall in love with, and not get to the top until a couple summers later. Climbing takes persistance, but once you succeed... WOW, does it feel good!

My mommy says I have the build of a climber. It truly is something I enjoy. However I honestly do not have that much upper body strength. What I make up for my lack of strength with is my technique. Both me and my daddy are working on getting stronger because we could be really good if we did. One of my dreams is to be on a collegiate rock climbing team and get a scholarship for rockclimbing...yes they do give those out! Like I said rock climbing is gaining popularity! If I were in Colorado and I said "yeah I rock climb" not a single person would look at me funny because that is a very common sport there as well as in places like Whistler etc. I want to work to get really good. I want to travel with my daddy to places like Las Vegas and New Zealand and Whistler to climb. It's a passion and it will be for life.

Check out this video lint...THIS is climbing!!!

Chris Sharma

The last 2 weeks summed up...

Life's been good, probably shouldn't be complaining. I went to the otorinolaryngologist and found out I have a tonsil infection because of allergies....lovely. I've been loving this three day weekend, just not the homework. There are some teachers that really need to give less. I started thinking about it and we "work" 35 hours a week going to school and then come home and work 2 plus hours each night on homework so in actuality that's a 50 plus hour work week ...next on my agenda is geometry, and after that spanish, and after that choir, and after that science, and after that social studies...full afternoon...yep. But I'm holding on to the fact that I get to talk to my friend Molly this afternoon (I get to see her next weekend!!!) and on monday...there... is ....NO...SCHOOL!!! (so ready if you couldn't tell!).

Rodolfo Escalera

The above picture is of

Rodolfo Escalera

Rodolfo Escalera was born in Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico in 1929. He fell in love with drawing at a young age. But his father discouraged his creativity and forbade him from becoming a professional artist. Instead Escalera became an architect. This allowed himself to express his creative ability, but still please his father.

After his father's death Escalera moved with his family to California. He worked cutting stencils in Los Angeles for Galindo and Burroughs, he was an artist for Hollywood Production Art, he opened his own art agency, Escalera Production Art Inc. In 1981 he began creating designs for collectible porcelain plates including a set of 9 plates depicting Olympic events which were declared "The Official Gift of the 1984 Olympics". He also designed a painting that was converted into a limited edition collectible plate for the 1985 World Cup Soccer Championship that was held in Mexico City. Upon retirement, he moved back to his hometown in Durango mexico, built a beautiful hacienda, and pursued his passion - oil painting.

This will link you to Rodolfo Escalera's painting titled Rio Suchiate (click on the image to enlarge it):

Rio Suchiate, Impression Giclée sur Papier Photo par Rodolfo Escalera

I choose this piece of art because I think it wonderfully represents Latin America. I think it represents Latin America because it truly captures the region's beauty. I think it shows the beauty of the land and it's people. The waterfall and greenery in the background are simply breathtaking. I love the bright colors and patterns of the clothing of the Native people. This demonstrates the beauty of the culture of the indigenous people. The painting is of native people crossing the river. One woman is carrying a child and another is balancing a basket of flowers on her head. The painting takes an action so normal and routine to these people as well as their culture and who they are as a people and uses these elements to reveal to the viewer the beauty of this region that people overlook.

Rodolfo Escalera's goal was to leave behind as many beautiful works of art as he could and to be remembered in Mexico after he passed away. He described each of his works of art as "a labor of love". All of his heart went into the making of each of his pieces and a part of him was left wrapped around each one. He loved his country and wanted everybody to see the beauty of it just like he did. I think that this piece of artwork does exactly that!

Reflection:

It's been an only okay week, but so far my weekend's been good. Went to the game last night with a friend and had so much fun bundled up in my heavy coat, sipping hot chocolate. I am loving this cooler weather. I even slept in sweats and socks last night....it's finally starting to feel like Winter! : )

There is a Native American Proverb that says:

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children"

At first I didn't understand the meaning of this proverb, but after letting it sink in the meaning hit me. I took from it the idea that the earth temperarily might be ours, but our life is so small in comparison to what comes after us. I think by children they mean the following generations not just the immediate one. I agree with this proverb because we need to take care of our fragile planet because really soon it's not going to be ours anymore, once we're gone it's our childrens' forever.

I made the connection of this proverb to the issue of global warming. It's not my generation that started it, but the ones that came before us, but now we're the ones who have to deal with it. Below is a link to this commercial that really makes you stop and think. It really emphasizes the idea of how we're "borrowing this world from our children" so we need to take care of it. And when you think about it, if you borrow someone's sweater your not going to return all dirty and torn up....so why are we doing it to our planet if it's not going to be ours in a couple years?

Reflecting time!!!

Not a lot of time to reflect...so much homework to do. I have to get ahead on homework because this weekend I'm going with my youth group on our Fall Retreat to Highland Lakes. I'm so stinkin excited because we will learn so much and grow so much closer to each other. Also a little bummed because I'm missing the game tonight... heard it was gonna be good...

GO TROJANS!!!

Illegal Immigrants

Undocumented alien, illegal alien, migrant, undocumented worker...

...what do all these terms have in common? They are used to describe an individual who is living in a country illegally.

Illegal Immigrants- a very controversial topic, but one that is (obviously) illegal!

Who are they?

Illegal immigrants are people who either came into the U.S. illegally or entered legally, but stayed past their visa's expiration date. It is estimated that there are around 12,000,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. Even though illegal immigrants come from all over, Mexico is the largest contributer of illegal immigrants to our country. There are many ways to cross the border illegally. For example people in the Caribbean crossing the Atlantic in homemade boats or tubes, people from South America flying to Mexico and then cramming themselves into boxes to be shipped into the U.S., paying people to smuggle them in. No matter how they attempt in getting into the U.S. they are risking their lives by doing it.

A survey taken by a Pew Hispanic Center in 2005 shows the following break down of where illegal immigrants are from:

57% Mexico

24% Other Latin American countries

9% Asia

6%Europe & Canada

4% Other places in the World.

So why do they do it?

There are many motivations for people to do this. Many want better lives for themselves or for their children. Others leave because of reasons dealing with politics or the economy. Also many come because they are financial need and are desperate to get money to feed their families and put a roof over their heads. Texas, being a border state, gets many illegal immigrants, many people who come here for job oppurtunities to send money back to their families.

How does the U.S. deal with them?

Supposedly, if found out, they are held in immigration detention and then deported, or sent out of the country. One complication of this is when the illegal immigrant's child(ren) were born in the United States, making their children U.S. citizens

...detention, deportation...does this always happen?

Illegal immigration is a sticky and controversial subject, but one that is a huge problem to the United States.

Here's a link to how illegal immigrants fit into Obama's health care plan

My third reflection...

I realized today that somehow when messing with my settings I messed up my blog's title...it's supposed to be Blog Hog but instead it was Hog Blog...and my blog is SO not a blog about hogs...I'm not that out there!!!

But so much homework to do so gotta gooOOO!!!

~cd

Culture...MUSIC!!!

I have to say my all time favorite type of music is contemporary Christian music which encompasses every single genre of music thinkable...yes rap too. My favorite Christian artists would have to be Francesca Batistelli, Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, etc!

My all time favorite secular band is for sure The Beatles (no argument)!!! I like them because I like Old Rock and Roll. The songs are catchy and the harmonies are really tight. Last year when I was in 8th grade at Murchison Middle School Choir had two Cafe Nights to raise money for festival.

The audience was seated around tables and were waited on by Choir students and entertained by performances with choir students in them. At the first one in November my friends and I performed Hey Jude with the full band (bass, guitar, drums, and piano). At the second one in February we performed I Want To Hold Your Hand with harmonies in places.

My family and I caught a Beatles weekend on the tv and a four part Beatles anthology which is extremely interesting. I love interesting Beatles factoids like for example:

Did you know that Paul McCartney is lefthanded, so he has to restring his guitars backwards!?!?!

Reflection Numero Dos!

Urg! It's been a crazy week! All the homework catching up with me!!! It's been really hard not to stress out... Not to mention having to do thirty minutes of physical therapy for my knee doesn't help out getting to bed early. I official have black under my eyes, but looking on the bright side the choir retreat this weekend was AWESOMEly fun!!! I'm just plain exhausted now though. But I'm hurrying to get my homework done because later this afternoon I'm going to Playland with my friends from church and then even MORE stuff to do tomorrow... then ugh I don't want to even think about what will happen on Monday... don't even want to think about going back to school. I would be totally content with taking a month long break then maybe like a week of school then be out for christmas break...DOES ANYBODY SECOND MY IDEA!?!?! haha just kidding...in my dreams well...

Over and out : )

~Carly D.

Austin Geography 101

So there's five parts to describe Austin's geography:

LoCaTiOn! Austin is...

- (Besides awesome) in the Southern U.S

- in central Texas

-in Travis County

-on the Colorado River

-at 30 degrees N & 97 degrees W

-on I-35

-NE of San Antonio

-just under 200 miles away from Dallas

-etc.

There is relative location (the location of something in relation to something else) which is marked in RED & there is absolute location (the exact location of a place) which is marked in BLUE!

HuMaN-eNvIrOnMeNt InTeRaCtIoN!

-we have dammed up the Colorado River to control flooding and for other recreational purposes. It split the river up into Lake Austin and Lady Bird Lake.

-also we have created the pool from Barton Springs.

-also we've built roads to get people places buildings to live or work in.

-and I'm surprised I didn't think of this one but how could we cope with the Texas heat without airconditioners!!!

MoVeMeNt!

-people travel to work, school, or to places just to have fun such as the mall, friends houses, or the restaurants.

-on a larger scale, like I said above, Austin is a melting pot of people who have come from all over the country or the world... major movement!

-products that people need come to Austin from other places to be sold. Also, things are made in Austin that are brought to people in other places.

-this also deals with communication. In Austin, people communicate by phone, texting, email, and even facebook or twitter.

-means of transportation in Austin are cars, city buses, trains, bicycles, pedicabs, the dillo, light rail, motorcycles, segways, and walking, and scooters

pLaCe!

-Austin is on the Colorado River. It runs through downtown Austin where there is a hike and bike trail. Also there is canoeing, kayaking, and skulling on it.

-The Balcones fault line runs through Western Austin. This begins the hill country. The rest of Austin is plains.

-West Austin is above the Edward's Aquifer. This aquifer comes out partly at Barton Springs. These places are home to the Barton Springs Salamander which are endangered.

-Other animal life includes, owls, possoms, racoons, deer, golden cheeked warberlers, geckos, black capped vireo (both endangered), and many other birds and animals.

-Austin arcitecture includes the state capital, the frost bank, the UT tower, the city hall, etc.

-Land use in Austin includes commercial (downtown), high-rise residential (downtown), residential, parks.

-There are so many different types of food because Austin is a melting pot of people. There is barbeque, chinese, vietnamese, mexican, thai, ethiopian, indian, greek, italian, french, vegetarian, etc.

Physical Characteristics are in orange and human characterics are in green.

ReGiOn!

-downtown area

-South Austin

-UT

-Lake Travis Area

-etc.

So that is Austin's geography in a nutshell!!!

Checking in...

Hey! Just checking in (reflecting I guess) and ya it's after 11 on satuday night...i'm swamped with homework already. Yeah it's pretty stupid. Pre-ap is hard, but I really think I can make it work. I was talking with my Daddy like 5 minutes ago, but we agree that I can't stand anything less than my best. And that's good, but when I have a million things to do it doesn't work too hot. So tomorrow and this next week I'm really going to try to move faster. I'm going to use the timer on my phone and tell myself, "okay so get this done in twenty minutes...go!!!" So I'm really stressed right now....just really tired (seriously gonna die from sleep depravation haha...let's hope not!) so all start on the getting my work done faster by shutting up now!

LATER,

CARLY BARLY

A little about me...

So this is my blog...Carly obviously! Just got back home from a friends house after baking a cake for her little sister's birthday. She's a sweetheart! Friends are really important to me. Friends and family. I'm very family oriented. Mommy and Daddy are the two most important people to me (after God...the most important part of my life).

I have such amazing friends at my church and in my youth group. We started going to the church we are currently at about three years ago and now the people there are family. The youth there are so tight...we know we have each other's backs and that they have ours.

I love to sing. In school I sing in the choir. It has to be my favorite class. Not that I dislike core classes because I absolutely love to learn! It is fun to me (and no that does NOT! include homework or tests or quizzes...just learning new things). Also, at church I sing in the youth praise band. Contemporary Christian music (which encompases pretty much every genre of music in existence) is pretty much all I listen to! That and the Beatles or music soundtracks. I would pretty much die with out music and singing. It gives me such joy and no matter how awful or cruddy I feel singing a song to God will cheer me up no matter what...no matter what. It's my passion!!!

So besides singing I love to rock climb. Not big on sports. Don't get me wrong, I love to play them like with my daddy or with my friends... goofing off and having fun, but nothing serious or any organized team sports. However rock climbing is my thing. My Daddy got me started and taught me all I know about the sport. It's one of the many thins we can do together. Besides not having a lot of strength (which I'm working on along with becoming healthier...never been big on the veggies or exercising) I make up with my technique when I climb.

I also enjoy biking and doing gymnastics which I have been doing since third grade. I collect rocks, seashells, books, maps, and stuffed animals...I must have at least a hundred of those. I absolutely love reading, art, baking, and the ocean. The ocean is incredibly fascinating to me. I love tropical fish and any ocean animal. My family and I love going to the beach... traveling in general. Whenever we have a break, spring break, winter break, summer break, whatever it is we're going somewhere.

I guess I would call myself a "home body". I am totally content just staying home and hanging...just being. But being with my friends and family has to be one of my favorite things ever.