Life Under the Joshua Tree

So, since few of you know what the Mojave Desert looks like I had the brilliant idea of taking a walk in the area by my house and take some pictures of the desert, the animals, cool things I enjoy (owl pellets, finding smashed bongs, and old dilapidated Bibles and phone books). I also figured most of you don't know what a Joshua Tree is or have never seen one or haven't seen one except on the U2 album by the same name... So in any case, we'll start off with the basics and work our way down:







And now for the animals of the desert, most of these are either birds or owl pellets -- in fact, I don't think I have anything besides that. So, here are some of the birds, both native and invasive species:







Then I was fortunate enough to see (or rather "hear") a little hummingbird, I now know what they sound like, I'd never known before. So here is my little friend:




Here are some more birds. What I should also add about the owl pellets is that the owls sit in the Joshua Trees, eat the mice and other little creatures, and when finished digesting them they, essentially, throw up the pellets that are filled with things they can't digest (fur, feathers, bones):







And now, for the less attractive side of the desert: human impact. People often times use the undeveloped land as a dump. Its also the playground to teens that ride their moto-x bikes and throw their bottles and apparently bongs too:









And the ultimate destruction as we know it is the building of these disgusting McMansions:



So, I hope you al enjoyed my little photo-essay of the Mojave Desert that I call home (kind of).

I Voted!

Today I voted for the first time ever. I didn't get to vote last time, missing it by a mere eight months. But, in any case, there was little fanfare involved. And due to the fact that it was two in the afternoon it was also not crowded at all. One of my neighbors, that my mom has breakfast with, was working at the polls. I got to vote Democratic even though I'm a "Decline to State" voter. Which is weird since I thought I was under "Independent" oh well, no big deal. I voted for whom I thought would be best though I know he won't win. He's way too progressive for the majority of the American population (or: too intelligent for the stupid majority to comprehend because his ideals would upset their small thinking...).



I started classes at AVC (Antelope Valley College). I'm taking the following courses:
Deaf Studies 101 -- American Sign Language
Element Algebra -- :0( Apparently when you're not using the math you learned you lose it, I regressed back to Algebra 1...
Environmental Biology 104 -- yay!! It sounds like fun, I have my first class tonight at seven
Intro to Public Speaking 101 -- another CSU Gen. Ed. requirement, its going to be like Senior Project all over again

I'm the most excited about Deaf Studies and Environmental Biology but that is yet to be seen. My Deaf Studies teacher seems to be pretty cool. The first half of class was completely silent, he taught us the alphabet and how to say "practice" and "alphabet." Then after about an hour he said, "Okay," and the whole class was like, "What? This guys not deaf?? Outrageous, I want my money back!!" Or less like that and more like, "Ha ha, silly man, you fooled us all!" Or... kinda. Anyways, he seems like he's good at what he does. Desiring, rather, to pass us all and get us to understand it than to flunk us. More teachers should be like that. I feel like the majority of teachers are just sadistic creatures giddy over how many kids they can scare away or flunk. i.e.:



And here are my lovely plants, after being transplanted, as well as my beautiful potato plant:







And my cat Kiki licking her arm...:

A new bike and plants

Yesterday my mom went to one of her neighborhood women's breakfasts. All the ladies there are really nice, some of them are moms -- no, actually I think they're all moms. At any rate, she told them I was home and telling them my plans and that I wanted to get a bike and stuff and one of the neighbors, Ing (short for Ingrid) said she had a bike I could have. My mom said (to me) that it was probably a good brand because Ing tends to buy only brand name things and said that Ing had said it was something that started with a B. "Is it a Bianchi?" No, she didn't think so. Well, I certainly couldn't think of any other bicycle brands that started with B so I was just hoping.

Turned out it WAS a Bianchi. Its a Bianchi Ocelot from, what seems to be 2003 I think. Its a mountain bike which is probably the best thing to start on out here. Bikes out here also have an enemy that most places don't. They're called goats' heads. I think they're a seed pod for some plant out here. I'm going to put a picture up here of one and the puncture it left. The spike went all the way through to the tubes on both tires, and both are as flat as pancakes. I definitely need tubes but other than that the bike is in fantastic shape.






I'm also going to put up pictures of my plants that I'm growing in my bedroom. My potato plant is growing particularly well. Its just a little red potato its looking rather lovely. The other two plants I got at Ikea because they're the only store around that carries house plants (or any for the fact of winter) right now. I have no idea what they are other than that one is a succulent (a desert plant that retains water for long periods of time -- like aloe!) but the other one is beyond me. A bush, a tree, a grass -- I have NO idea.

Trip 3

Today my mom and I went down to Orange County again because I left my purse at the cafe we went to last night with my brother. That would make it trip #3 this week down to Chapman. And yes, I am that forgetful. It happens more times than I like to think about. This was, however, possibly the most costly time, considering it takes two hours to get down to Chapman. But I figured I would just use this as an excuse to bring my camera along. I got some fun shots and we happened upon a sheep herding lessons ranch too. Well worth the trip.

These first ones are of my home in the Antelope Valley:



We have a problem with flooding and this last week has been particularly stormy, here's what happens:




These are pictures from Bouquet Canyon, its a road that connects my valley with Valencia, Santa Clarita and Stevenson Ranch (home to Weeds, its the REAL Agrestic):







And these are the lambies that we saw, they were at the sheep herding lessons ranch. Notice the lamb jumping into the air, he looks so happy!:





And this is when we're cresting the hills over which you can see the Antelope Valley:




All in all it was a good day, the weather was absolutely gorgeous and I got along with my mom. We went to three grocery stores (weird!) and got some yummy cheeses, yoghurt, blood oranges and barley (for soups).

Visit to Chapman University

Today my family went down to drop my little brother, Isaac, off at school at Chapman University in Orange county. Yes, the OC. Yuck. Anyways, I'm going to add some pictures of their Interfaith Chapel on campus. It was a bit too sterile for my taste. But it definitely coincides with the rest of Orange, so if you're into that, its a good thing. But as for me, I'll take rats and cracked out homeless men over skinny blond girls with loads of make up on. But thats just me. I never thought I would miss the Dirty City. But I really do.




I also started writing a story. We'll see if it gets anywhere. Its a distopian anarcho-punk tale about wrongful imprisonment and governments that are afraid of their people. If I feel like its at all worth sharing I may post. I'm going to try to post more often on here. (Not that I post anywhere else...)

Tomorrow I'm going to go to Antelope Valley College to take some assessment tests for Math and English placement. AVC is my interim between MICA and Humboldt (or whomever accepts me). I'm not looking forward to it too terribly but I also need to get out of my parents house. So I'm also going to look for a job as well as take classes. I just need to get out of the house. Its so hard to go back to living under the parental realm after having lived in my own realm for the last two and a half years. Its going to have to get some getting use to and some compromise between my mom and I. Its really really hard.



This is Rat Bastard Root Beer, it "tastes like a son of a bitch." It says it on the label. Very yummy.