The Expedition of Caroline Neelon

Sunday, November 24^th, 2013 (said in a British Accent)

“On the 24^th day of the 11^th month, of the 2013^th year, a glorious expedition was made. I, a british explorer, Caroline Neelon, went on a fascinating expedition with her proud and powerful husky, Blizzard. I will tell you my story. The wind was howling like no other day. The world seems to be spinning in its own realm. The grass is barely alive and the trees look like they are about to fall any moment. The British Flag placed for expedition was about to unlatch from the stick that was dug under the frozen ground. The wind was pushing us eastward and we stumbled across the ground. Blizzard first tried the lake but it was frozen. I told him to leave it alone because it was set aside for environmental purposes. He obeyed and we finally made it to our destination after trekking the endless grounds with winds pushing us. The woods. The forest. Its called the dead forest because no source of vegetation grows there. There was only one animal that survived and we needed a sample of its DNA. The animal is called the death deer for it lives in the death forest and closely resembles a deer. No human source has been able to recognize the death deer. The researchers believe it has very visible differences of a deer but we could be incorrect. We hiked the woods. It was incredibly difficult because of its wood that sticks up in so many placed. Finally, we reached our sample. We had accomplished the mission and I told Blizzard we must reach base before the wind comes at its highest speed. When the wind does, we wouldn't be able to walk much. I had trained for that occurrence and so had Blizzard but we did not do it in the harshest conditions. It was hard to run because we were traveling westward, AGAINST the wind. It was almost tipping us backwards. I pushed myself as much as I could, and Blizzard has his own techniques that helped him travel. He wasn't cold though, because of his thick thick fur. With all my might, I used the most of my power to bolt to the door. Blizzard was just a big grey mess. The door. The door to the base wasn't locked but it took a lot of strength to open it, due to the wind. I yanked it open and both (wo)man and dog crashed inside. And now I sit in a comfortable chair, telling my story with a cup of warm cocoa in my hand. Thank you.” -Caroline Neelon

Caroline Neelon is a fictitious character. Well... Its actually me! And Blizzard is not a husky, he is a small Bichon/Shih Tzu. It was in our backyard. The woods. And yes, it was very very windy. Since both my mom and dad weren't up to taking Blizzard to go do his business (number 2), my dad challenged me. I do believe, I told you about my trip to Antarctica when I am 21/22. I have been preparing since October. And I will for the next 11 years. My dad challenged me to go outside with Blizzard into the very coldness, and he has to “go” before I can come back in. He said that, I can prepare Antarctica while doing a great help for them. True. I dressed up in warm clothes and then.... THIS... When my expedition started, my accent changed to a British accent because it sounded cooler. Anyways, it was my imagination and a challenge that formed this story!

Typhoon Haiyan

A tragedy. I quite agree. Recently, a record breaking typhoon hit the Philippines with a disastrous effect. When the search, rescue, and relief began, an estimate of 2,000 people died. That amount seemed quite unreasonable, because of the high population density in the Philippines. That number obviously changed soon, but not only did the number go up, but drastically went up. As soon as the news let out that possibly 10,000 people died, articles were thrown out into the internet as if they were scraps of leftover junk that were thrown into the trashcan. So many websites were writing about this happening, the experiences, stories, conflicts, ups and downs and so much more about this disaster. An article that caught my eye was :"Is This the Best Humanity Can Do for the Philippines?" By Conor Friedersdorf from The Atlantic. It had a philosophical twist in it and a moral flavor. You might want to read the article before actually reading the rest. So go to: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/11/is-this-the-best-humanity-can-do-for-the-philippines/281332/

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ALERT!!!!


SPOILER: The article asks an important question: Is this all that we, humans, can do to prepare for these treacherous occurrences? For every disaster, relief comes, but after it happens. We already know it's going to happen again: So why aren't we preparing? Another major concept in the article states that:

"And while it may seem wide-eyed, in the near term, to suggest that countries ought to spend less figuring out how to kill one another and more trying to stop nature from prematurely killing us, that may be the only chance we've got in the long run."

I think this is a very valid point because it is very true. War, war, war... That's what armies are for. And its true. Reality cannot be defined without war. But even if we know that armies are essential, don't you think the values of maybe tons of people's lives are essential too? Thats a big question asked. But many of us just can't help but stare at the problem and do nothing about it. Of course we help, but in the long run its just the same every time. Like it's said: "History repeats itself." And its true. But everytime it just gets worse. And maybe not physically worse, but mentally we are all saying to ourselves: "This has happened before!" And that's not good in most cases. I believe that even if slowly this change occurs, we should work as a team to prepare for saving the lives of so many people.