Blogging This Semester…

I've enjoyed it. Surprisingly. There were several times before starting college that I thought I should start a blog, so I did. Within a week I was tired of it and erased it completely. Blogging is no fun when you don't have any followers to read your stuff. On my first day, walking into Polly's …

The Big House on Goldmohr Terrace

I never even knew that the house existed before I started my dog walking job for the Harlans. I mean, I had seen the back of it when I would drive past on the highway, but I never really new what it looked like until I started walking that dog. The big house on Goldmohr …

Self Marketed and Published Books

The is changing so fast all around me that it's left me confused and disoriented in its wake. There are somethings that are great about the changing world such as new medicines, and new technology (sometimes, but rarely in my mind). But you mean to tell me that I can now market and publish my …

Delicate Ecosystems and Surprising Compassion

For the past three summers I've had the privilege of working for Lake County Resources Initiative  on a crew run by Clair Thomas, the smartest and most interesting man in the world. An average day on the job includes going out into the surrounding forests, climbing hills, and collecting data on different random"sites" in the …

Creative Collaboration

Getting ideas and sharing your own with other writers is nice and all, especially when you're stuck, but for some reason it just really made me uncomfortable in class the other day. I tend to be a rather quiet, reserved person, and I try not to talk unless I have something really important to say. …

The Vessel (My Stab at Fiction Writing)

Candlelight flickered in the center of the room as Rory and his father read together. It was tradition that when the sun sank low in the sky and light melted into a still darkness that they would read. Rory, having not yet learned to make sense of letters on pages and the special sounds each …

Hunting

One disadvantage to being in college and learning all kinds of new and exciting things is that I, at this very moment, am missing elk season. Hunting is something that is extremely misunderstood in the U.S. and all over because people think that we kill these innocent animals that had no way out for nothing …

Teaching Grammar

I believe that it is important to teach young writers how to use grammar correctly, but also making them aware of ways to manipulate it. Many English teachers in today's public schools teach grammar like it is the only thing that matters in the world of writing (at least to my level of experience). The …

Quiet

Never have I spent so much time in the city as I have at this point in my life here in college. Many of you that are from here that I've told that to scoffed, Newberg is not a big city in their minds, but seriously... yeah it is. My home town has a total of 300 …

Gender and Writing

I grew up in a man's world. Some say that like it's a bad thing, I say it with pride of where I come from. There was never enough time to cry, complain, or be incompetent to any ranching concept. If I ever did cry I was told to get over it until the work …