Hello Xangans.

Sorry for being away.

I'll be back later...

TJ’s outdoor tips

Hello, mine friends. 

There existed a time when I was an outdoor aficionado.  I mastered all manner of survival techniques and neat little tricks.  One such trick, is producing a good predator call.  If you don't know, a predator call is used to...you guessed it...call a predator (e.g. fox, coyote, dingo, manbearpig, etc.).

Your basic predator call imitates the sound of a rabbit in distress.  Often, a youngling rabbit, when separated, will issue a shrill sounding bleat.  One can actually buy an electronic call system which plays a recording of said bleat, and go that route...but let us suppose one is out in the woods and hungry and in need of some sustenance. 

In this case, a very simple method can be employed to produce a surprisingly accurate rabbit distress call, and all it requires is your hand and your lips. 

what you do is curl your hand into a loose fist, and rest it against your pursed lips.  You're going to place your index and middle fingers flush against your mouth with the lips pressed between the first and second knuckle of each finger.  It helps to wet your lips slightly.

The next step is to make a kissing noise...that is, draw air past your lips.  The noise is substantially loud as it is, but with the fingers lightly pressed against the lips, it becomes amplified quite nicely.  Also, the added pressure from the fingers allows the naturally clipped sound produced by the lips to be drawn out. 

The idea is to draw the air in second long bursts, of varying intensity.  Go ahead and try it. 

Good job! 

It's that easy.

I only mention this particular outdoor gem, because I was standing outside the office early this morning, near the end of my shift, when a small fox crept out of the woods.  When I saw the animal, I produced my best predator call, and the fox stopped dead in its tracks.  Then, as I continued the noise, the fox began to creep across the street.  It was truly exhilarating to interact with the beast. 

I hope you enjoyed that little tidbit.

The warmest he ever felt...

I logged on to xanga today to clear out all my out dated stuff...

I was looking through the lists or subscriber/subscriptions and was stunned that the majority of the users on both lists hadn't updated in a very long time, some in over two years.  I looked at the once thriving blogrings, and noticed my name alone on a couple...It was strange to see the "Night Shift Red Shirts" blogring that used to have so many of us Creek Medics, was only populated by Daniel and me.  We were the only ones left, and he hadn't updated in more than two years.  I looked back to some of my old postings, and ran across one from Ashley, a girl I dated the summer 2004.  Her one and only post said, "OMG, I like him...a lot."  and that was the last post she wrote.  It's strange b/c that was over three years ago, and even though it's electronic, it's like it was etched in stone.  You can even read my two comments.  One, when she and I first started talking, and one after it was over (which wasn't a long time, btw).  No offense to those who regularly update and read, but for me...it's like a ghost town, full mostly, of unhappy memories.  I think it was an overwhelming desire a couple weeks ago, that induced me to start from the beginning and go through my old posts...from late 2003 to now.  I came across some that I forgotten I had written, and some I wish I wouldn't have revisited in retrospect.  I saw chronicled, basically, my entire relationship with the girl I was engaged to.  From the very first comment she made on one of my posts, to her post (on her old xanga profile) announcing the end of our engagement.  It's like these old xanga profiles are aging diaries, locked away for years and years.  We think they have been forgotten, and then we stumble upon them.  You remember reading these things, and the memories that come rushing back sometimes are very hard to deal with, and it's almost as if you are sitting there reading them for the first time.  There were a large number of very emotional posts in my archives.  Some very great...some I thought hilarious...some pictures I thought I had lost forever from my old desktop days.  It makes me really miss the hunting.

I wonder what some of my xanga subscriptions are doing nowadays...I wonder if it's even worth it to try to contact them.  I look at one profile of a friend who was getting a business website off the ground, and was doing well...When I click the link today, however...it's just a white screen and an error message.

Who would have thought that the relationships formed by this webjournal would end up like this?

When I look at it, I see only a very small handful of subscriptions who are still active and with whom I still converse. 

It says I have been a member of Xanga for 1,378 days...almost 4 years.  Boggles my mind.  I had just started working at the Creek, and just started fighting fire with Spring.  I can't bring myself to walk away from xanga, even though it, for all intensive purposes, died for me in a couple years ago.  It will be nice to have a record of what I thought was important down the line.  I have met some pretty amazing people, and I am thankful for that.

I dunno...I just started typing.

I should be asleep, but can't fall.  Many many thoughts.

I should get out of the boat and start walking

Aim True.

gnothi seauton.