Stars :: Camp Lawroweld 2013

     My favorite place on earth? Sitting on the docks at Camp Lawroweld gazing at the billions of stars above Webb Lake. It's 9:45pm and I'm taking pictures of the Milky Way. When I gaze at the stars, me and my problems seem so small. I feel humbled, tiny and pathetic, compared to my God who created this all.
   
     As I sit on the dock, I look to my left to the spot by the shore where I was baptized a year ago. Before Pastor Ron baptized me, he said that all of heaven was stopping to watch. All of heaven. For me. Wow. Whenever I feel as if I'm alone in this life, I think of that and remember I'm important to God.
   
     After a few pictures of the docks and Mt. Blue, I move over to the canoes and kayaks. I play with the focus a little, then sit back and wait for the camera to capture the scene. I glance up at the starts shining through the trees, then back to my camera. I'm surprised to see that two minutes have passed. I might have fallen asleep.
   
     This is my second week of volunteering at Camp Lawroweld. When I arrived 9 days earlier, for Family Camp 1, I found that there were quite a few staff members sick with a 3 day virus. So I started helping out down at the Horse Barn, around Camp with Maintenance, and in the Bakery. By the end of the week, my parents decided I could volunteer for the second (and last) week.

     Four days ago, I discovered I had only taken 3 pictures throughout the week... wait, WHAT?! Three pictures? So I decided to fix that problem... I brought my camera to Smalls Falls on Sabbath afternoon and captured my friends cliff jumping and I documented the baptism of 5 youth later that evening, Now I'm sitting here on the Small Boats dock watching the stars.

     That was written on Monday. Despite some rain at the end of the week, FC2 was a great week. From the rodeo on Tuesday, to moose hunting from the back of a pickup truck Friday night, I had a wonderful time.
   
     Being out in the middle of nowhere, with limited wifi (you have to be within 30 feet of the camp store) and no cell coverage (sometimes you get lucky standing at the end of the diving board) you end up having plenty of time to think and pray. I worship at night. I feel God best in the dark and quiet. Also, when the alarm goes off at 7:30am, it's all I can do to stumble down to staff worship. But when night comes, I'm usually wide awake, so after reading a chapter or two of what I'm currently reading, I pull out my Bible and switch my iPod to Jamie Grace and Britt Nicole. Or, on a clear night, I grab my camera and tripod and head outside.

-Autumn Story Mott

THIS IS WATER :: Real Life

"In 2005, author David Foster Wallace was asked to give the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. However, the resulting speech didn't become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death. It is, without a doubt, some of the best life advice we've ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.

We made this video, built around an abridged version of the original audio recording, with the hopes that the core message of the speech could reach a wider audience who might not have otherwise been interested. However, we encourage everyone to seek out the full speech (because, in this case, the book is definitely better than the movie)."

-The Glossary

Achoo!

**Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!**

     I have photic sneeze reflex, which means I sneeze when exposed to bright lights... like the sun. So, whenever I walk outside, our step out of the car, I sneeze, usually 5-7 times.
     Ever since I was 3 or so, Mom noticed I'd sneeze when she's help me out of the car. Around the age of 10, I joked to someone that I was allergic to the sun. That person was Marcel. Wrong choice. I ended up with a 15 minute lecture about how you couldn't be allergic to the sun, blah, blah, blah... I decided I'd prove to him that I actually had something different from most people.
     A year later, I received a kid's science magazine about the topic of Light. On the front it said, "Does Light Make You Sneeze?" After searching through, I found this short article:

"Does light make you sneeze? If so, you have a condition called photic sneeze reflex. (Photo means "light".) This reflex makes some humans 'achoo' when they go from a dark room into bright light. Scientists aren't sure why." 

     That helped. Well, at least I now knew that my condition has a name.

     Some time after, Hannah and I were on YouTube watching VeggieTales silly songs. The song, Sneeze If You Need To, started out all funny; Bob needed to sneeze, so he goes the The Sneeze Dr. Mr. Lunt, the nurse, pops up part way through to give you an Interesting Fact; "the average sneeze travels at 100mph..." 2nd "Interesting Fact"? Photic sneeze reflex. Totally made my day.

     Anyhow, this all makes for a good laugh for those around me when I start sneezing...once, twice, a third time.. and so on. Oh, and I'm special; photic sneeze reflex affects only 25% of the population. Great.

-Autumn Story Mott

Mother's Day :: Photos

I love you, Mom!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I got you flowers!

Yep, it's all about her!

-Autumn Story Mott

I hate science... NOT :: YouTube

     Okay, so when I first started my new science curriculum in 8th grade, I immediately said I hated science. It wasn't the curriculum; I just didn't find science interesting. I continued to have that opinion until sometime last year when I clicked on a video on YouTube by Vsauce. Michael Stevens, the creator and host of the main channel (there are also Vsauce 2 and 3), was talking about Guns in Space. I found myself intrigued and, for the first time, actually interested in science. First he talked about how astronauts in orbit are experiencing about 90% of the gravitational pull we are, "but their angular velocity is so large that they're falling just as fast as earth curves away from them". So, if you shot a canon out in space, what would happen? Then another YouTuber (Henry Reich from MinutePhysics) explained Newton's Canon and relativity with animated drawings. So, the point was, if you shot a cannon in space (the moon to be exact) and then waited, it theoretically could hit you in the back of your head! After that question, Michael moved on to another interesting question. What if you had a water gun in space and shot it at the sun. How much water would it take to "put it out"?
   
     He and Henry went on to explain how the sun works, blah blah blah... but I was hooked. I clicked the link under the video which brought me over to MinutePhysics and the video: What if the Earth were Hollow? In it, Henry explained why you couldn't "dig a hole to China", or just from one side to the other. At times, he spoke of some of the same info that Vsauce had just covered, but at the end of the video, Michael pops in and invites you over to Vsauce and tells you to bring your gun. Anyhow, it turned out that both videos were uploaded on the same day and everything was linked. After checking out other videos on Vsause (What If Everyone JUMPED At Once, What Color Is A Mirror) I decided to subscribe.
   
     Soon, I found myself watching other science related videos on either Vsause or MinutePhysics. Then Henry started another channel, MinuteEarth. While this channel talks a lot about evolution, he does cover some interesting topics, such as Why Are Leaves Green? Parts I and II; How Tall Can Mountains Be? and Why Does Earth Have Deserts?
   
     Not long after, I found AsapSCIENCE (Which I don't recommend for younger children, as some of the topics aren't exactly "PG") and SciShow, hosted by Hank Green, which covers topics like Why Do Cats Purr? and The Mayan Calender & 2012 (which is more history than science, but who cares...)

     About a week ago, Vsause uploaded a new video: How Much Money is There on Earth? At the end, there was a link that read "pennies"; when I clicked on it, it brought me over to CGPGrey's video Death to Pennies. The video explained why pennies (and nickels, for that matter) are worthless in the US. If you've chosen not to watch any of the linked videos (I completely understand!) I highly suggest you at least watch a video or two from CGPGrey. He has a wide range of topics, including The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained and Coffee: The Greatest Addition Ever. As far as science videos go, he's made 8 Animal Misconceptions Rundown and Is Pluto a planet? along with others. Most of his channel is full of cool, interesting geographical and historical videos.  

     As far as the rest of the channels on my subscriptions list; TheFineBros, I watch their React shows (that's about all I can recommend from them); ThePianoGuys are, well, The Piano Guys;  Jamie Grace is just amazing; HarperStill is Jamie Grace's and her older sister, Morgan Harper Nichol's, shared channel (I totally recommend subscribing!) and BlimyCow has some awesome videos about everyday life. Jordan, the show's host (most of the time), is hilarious, sarcastic and ... well, it's easier to understand if you just go watch a video, or two.
   
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     So there you go, my YouTube life and how I fell in love with science... well, kinda.
     

Every Grammar Nazi's Worst Nightmare :: Mikey's Funnies

A "Technically Correct" Poem 

Eye halve a spelling chequer; it came with my pea sea.

It plainly marques four my revue miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word and weight four it two say

Weather eye am wrong oar write.  It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid, it nose bee fore two long

And eye can put the error rite. Its rarely ever wrong.

Eye ran this poem threw it, I'm shore your pleased two no;

Its letter perfect in it's weigh. My chequer tolled me sew.

Mikey's Funnies :: April 30th, 2013 

Garlic and Sapphires :: Ruth Reichl

A MUST READ :: Autumn Story Mott