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Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button. It's been a while
(Dec 2, 2002)
I don't get onto H2G2 much anymore, and I see it's been well over a year since my last journal entry. A brief recap:
On October 9th at 2am in the morning of 2001 I started dating my then debate partner, Anika. She and I won the first tournament we went to that same weekend (it was novice division, but hey, it was our first tournament). We also kicked much rear at NPDA, the national tournament, that spring. We were one of only 3 first year teams to break to out rounds (elemination rounds).
On April 27th of 2002, at 10:30pm Anika broke up with me. The clock struck midnight and I turned 21.
Since then I have had an on and off again relationship with Anika, who I am still madly in love with. We remain good friends at all times, but not debate partners.
Over the summer I worked to build the environmental movement in Arizona with the Arizona League of Conservation Voters, arranging the first ever summit of the Arizona Conservation Alliance (originally named "Conservation Roundtable"), a coallition of various conservation groups from around the state. I also attended a Sierra Club training academy at Tanque Verde ranch in Tucson, so if you need someone to help start up a grassroots movement of some sort for you, I have the basic training if not the experience.
My current debate partner is Ryan, and we are progressing very well concidering his ability level at the start of this year.
On September 13th (I think that was a Friday) I began dating Martha, who I had to break up with on November 19th. She's still upset with me, but I hope she and I can hang out as friends like we once did (I know, that sounds lame, but Anika and I are still best friends, so you never know).
That brings us up to now, more or less. I am no longer the tee-totaler that I once was, but I do not drink nearly as heavily as most of my friends, I don't drink to help me have a good time, I don't smoke, and I don't do any illicit substances.
I will be announcing my candidacy for President of the United States of America about as soon as I am old enough. I will run on the Democratic ticket and seek my party's nomination by running on a platform of honestly telling the public what I believe in, what my past has been like, and what I would like to see happen in America. I think I will loose in a landslide, but I may force other Democrats to actually take a stand on an issue once in a while and differentiate themselves from Republicans. Which can only be a good thing, right?
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Real Life
(Oct 10, 2001)
Real Life, often refered to as RL, is a phenomenon that occurs when one is not sitting in front of his, her, or its computer and reading or creating backlog on H2G2. Who'd a thunk I'd eventually get involoved in something so frivoulous?
Truth to tell, this week has not only been heavy homeoworkwise, but I go to a debat tournament this weekend, and I'm trying to prepare. So I will be more or less incommunicado until (I'll say) monday (but I'm not making any promises to be back right then).
A quick note to soeasilyamused: I was the jungle cat. It was a good thing.  I'll try to keep you posted about this weekend, but it sounds like the schedual is pretty uptight  Not sure where or when would be an appropriate time to meet...
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(55 replies,
Latest reply: Dec 20, 2002)
People
(Sep 4, 2001)
Something I've never quite got the knack of is how to make friends IRL. IVR it seems fairly easy, because people judge you on what you type alone. Conversations are easy to get into because you can /always/ get a word in, even if you aren't the assertive type. You just post what you want to post. You don't have to interupt, interject, ect. And no one interupts you.
People tell me to go out and make friends. However, in my experience making friends always happens by either a) an act of God, b) a consequence of fate, or c) a complete, random, happy accident. I'd be willing to accept any of those explainations for why I've made the few RL friends I have. What I won't accept is that it's been a process I brought about myself. The reason I won't accept this is I've thought about how I made the friends I have made, and I've tried doing the same things I did with them, and no friendships result. If an experiment has an irreproduceable result, then it doesn't work. Therefore I point to God, fate, and chaos.
If anyone can tell me otherwise please do. As always my journal is open for comment.
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(33 replies,
Latest reply: Sep 27, 2001)
Cliff Dwellers
(Aug 16, 2001)
Scattered through the American Southwest there are ruins of ancient cities built in natural caves, high up on the sides of cliffs. Most were built by the Anasazi, some by the Mogollon, and probably more by other tribes, whom I believe are collectively called Pueblo, but I'm not sure on that.
These tribes left behind more than just monuments of architecture (over fourty rooms at the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument are very well preserved, concidering they are 700 years old), they left behind a mystery: All the tribes who built these cliff dwellings eventually, and apparently spontaneously, vanished, probably being absorbed into other cultures but not giving any clues to why they disappeared, why they left these amazing homes.
Whenever one visits such a national monument (two more well known ones are Montezuma's Castle, which has nothing to do with Montezuma and isn't a Castle, and Mesa Verde) the tour guide/ tour book/ what-have-you gives various possible reasons for the flight of these architecturaly gifted tribes. The usual list includes famine, drought, disease, and war. The other night, after visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings and taking a warm shower I came up with a reason that I've never heard on any list, one that would explain why they moved, AND explain why the Mogollons at the Gila site only occupied their dwellings for 20 years: Population Growth.
I have not studied Anthropology, but I have taken a few courses in Environmental Science, and I know that Pop Growth happens quickly and effects how a society exists. I had wondered how 40-60 people could co-exist in only 40 some odd rooms, when several of those rooms were used for storage and various ceremonial functions. Thinking about it further, I remembered that human history shows that when a culture stops being nomadic and begins agriculture in earnest (they usually go together) as the Mogollons had when they built their dwellings, death rates fall. Usually when death rates fall birth rates take a while to decline to the point where the population is once again stable, and you have a HUGE population growth.
So picture this: you and 39 of your closest friends and relatives arrive in a picturesque canyon with plenty of water and some good fields nearby for growing crops. You decide to settle down and, for protection, build your homes in the side of a cliff where your enemies cannot readily reach you. You have a limited number of caves that are lare enough and accesible enough to support the structures that you build. You stay there for a while, your parents are living longer, and you and your generation produce babies at the same rate as before. Suddenly your population jumps from 40 to 50 or 60 in just a few years. You can't simply build additions onto houses that are in caves halfway up the side of a canyon. You've run out of acceptable caves. What do you do? You move away.
I don't know enough about the lore on this to know whether pop growth is a common reason cited among archeologists when wondering why these tribes disappeared. I do know it's not a reason that is usually listed in tour information. I doubt I'm the first person to theorize this, but if anyone knows whether my theory is common, groundbreaking, or ridiculously wrong, please tell me so. I'd like to know more about this subject.
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(10 replies,
Latest reply: Sep 8, 2001)
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