Hey, while you're on the internet, check out this site. It's a great motivator :)
http://www.wwwdotcom.com/

Encore!

My first design, "Traditional Leather"

Once again I write about internet distractions. The first time, I wrote about funny viral videos on YouTube. This time, it’s about fashion.



"Playing up the Pink"



Recently upon compiling a faux fashion magazine sample for a school project, my group mates and I stumbled upon a very intriguing website. This website is called www.polyvore.com. There, you can make your dream outfits and “publish” them to see how other people like them. It’s basically a fashion blog, just minus the written stuff. Already I have three or four outfits.

A bonus to this site is the part that you can design your own magazine template. We used both the outfit design and template designs for our magazine. Yet, now that I have completed my portion of the project, I can’t get myself off the website.

If you get a chance, I'd advise you to check it out. ;)

My latest so far... titled "Birds of a Feather"



Mark My Words!

Marks are what have motivated me throughout high school. The desire to receive anything above an 80, preferably the numbers above the 90 level.  To achieve this, I had pushed myself to a point that I no longer recognized I was pushing myself.

In grade eight, I can distinctly remember my teacher telling the entire class “if you’re getting 80’s now, expect a 20% drop once you’ve hit high school.”

 At that point in my life, I didn’t really care about grades. I got C’s and B’s mostly… and an occasional A. It worried me that I could end up drops into the 40’s or 50%’s in high school.

When the end of grade 9 came around, I found that I had made good study habits that allowed me to achieve straight A’s. I would never have dreamed of such a thing happening to me. I was ecstatic. The joy I felt in achieving these marks made me want to get them again and again, still motivating me. So it comes to my final year and I have an A average.

Now, with university looming over me, I’m losing the motivation. I’ve already been accepted. I’ve already accepted and offer. I’ve paid my deposits and I know for sure where I’m going to be in September. To be focusing on exams that I honestly no longer really care about, seems mundane. All I want to do is finish high school after four long years and move on with my life. Work, earn money, go to university, meet new people, learn more about things that interest me. Oh the variety! How I can’t wait!

Yet, there is still the little matter of exams. I need to do these last four. I need to do them well. I need the high marks to get more money to go to university and have less debt. It all boils down to marks.

Bet ya didn’t know, this blog is a result mark motivation. This blog is apart of one of my last four classes in high school. Although I do enjoy blogging, and I may keep it up when I’m in university, this blog was not started on my own accord. In fact, this post is not on my own accord. I’ve just posted this the day before our teacher gives a final evaluation for our blogs. I wanted to add just one more post to get the best mark.

The Technology Addiction

I even have to admit it, I am a technology addict. I say I can get by without my phone, iPod, internet and so on. But that's a lie.

When I lose my phone, I'm freaking out to the max until I find it. when I lose my iPod, I almost cry. When the internet is down at my house, I can't help but sneak peeks while at school. Technology has taken up a large part of my life. I was only ever really introduced to it when I was ten, getting my first msn account, when I was 12 getting my first facebook, when I was 13 getting my first iPod... and when I was 14 getting my first cell phone, when I was 15 and got my first laptop... The list goes on. And I have grown to live with these items as a necessity so when my laptop broke, I didn't know what to do with myself.

            I find it quite sad that I’m like this. But I know people who are worse. Who are even 10X worse than that. Why has this dependency been created? It was once a luxury- being able to stay connected with people at a faster and constant rate. Now it’s a must have. A need. People spend hours of their day on the internet or on the phone. And for what purpose? To tell everything you want to tell someone just before you see them the next day?
            This idea of technology addiction brings me to my thoughts on 2012. I don’t believe people are going to die (unless death is brought upon them by themselves). I think that life, AS WE KNOW IT, will change drastically. I’m thinking that all technology will die and we will be cast into a second Dark Age. How will people cope without their precious blackberries, or cell phones or computers or any such stuff. Some people may just keel over. Spontaneously combust. Just not exist without their technologic gadgets. And where will I be?
            I hope I’m not too addicted to technology. I like to say that I could live without it. Go find a nice, secluded cabin in the middle of the woods. No technology for 20km in either direction. But I guess we’ll have to see.

Fan Fiction

Reading is one of the things I most enjoy in this world. It’s a secret escape from reality. You picture yourself as the main character- you experience what they do and say. You experience the ups and downs, the confusion and the clarity. In a way, YOU become the character.

 But what happens when you reach the end and you’re not ready? What do you do then? The author clearly isn’t going to write more, yet, you just want the story to continue on forever.  Well, the solution is as easy as two words: fan fiction.

With fan fiction, you, yourself, take the characters from the story and place them in your own plot and setting. Credits go to the author who originally created the basics like the characters and setting, but you get to manipulate them into your own version.

I was once an avid member of web sites like fic wad, fiction central – sites where you can both write your own stories and write fan fiction. My favourite part of those sites was reading other peoples fan fiction of my favourite books. Some of the alternate endings people have come up are better than the ending the original author had thought of. It amazes me what a different perspective can come up with.

So, if you're one to follow a book series to the end and beyond, fan fiction may be just right for you. You can test the waters and see what others have come up with or you can dive right in and write your own. It doesn't matter what you do with it, it's just good to know that when it all seems to come to an end, it actually isn't.

Blog Fat

This topic is one that had really opened my eyes. My sister and I had been discussing ways to be healthy, but cost became a defining factor. I asked "How will I be able to afford being healthy in university? I won't have any money to buy all these expensive organic foods." and it's true. Unhealthy foods like Kraft Dinner and Mr. Noodles are sold for less than a dollar and can even been bought in bulk. So what would a poor university student do? We'd go for the cheap stuff. The stuff that comes with more. The only stuff we have available to us on our budget.

            Okay, so we do buy our health from paying for expensive healthy foods. But what about what keeps our body in shape? There are gyms but they cost money too. We could run outside, but we can’t forget the proper running equipment. Shoes alone could break anyone’s wallet, let alone the spandex shorts and running sweater.
            So why do we pay so much to be healthy? In my eyes, we are given two choices. The one, be cheap, save money but risk bad health. The second, to spend money and have less of it and be in your prime. It shouldn’t be this way. My sister and I agree. Perhaps the government should step in. If they want less people using health care from having heart attacks, maybe they should think about forking over some money for those who do desire to be in shape but lack the means.

The Need for Speed, or Stupidity?

Really? Do we really need to get to work that fast?

This is more like it. Smart, sensible, can't go over 50km.

I think it is stupidity. My question for all the major car manufacturersin the world is "why do you build your cars to go so fast?" If you've ever been in a car (which, I'm sure, almost everyone has), you notice the speedometer which tells you how fast you're driving. What I find to be interesting, is the fact that here in Canada, I have yet to hear of a highway that goes above 100 km/h.

So why do we make cars to go up to 200 km/h? Or even 220 km/h? It makes no sense! You’re just asking for drivers to speed. The least that could be done is to have some sort of electronic device that transmits signals to the car not to go over the immediate speed limit. This could easily solve the problems of people racing or even speeding ridiculously. And what about the speed in police chases? This may prove to solve the high speed police chases like the one that killed two people not too long ago, around where I live. Without the ability to go over a certain speed, the police would have a better chance on apprehending criminals (by criminals I mean people who need to be arrested, like drunk drivers, robbers and the like) who try to get away.

Overall, we don't need our cars to go so fast. It's all about want, a want that is insensible and ridiculous. So, can someone tell me the name of the genius who decided it would be alright for commercial cars to go above and beyond any known speed limit in this country? I’d like to have a few words with him/her.

An Animated Life

Once upon a time, in a land not too far away, there was a girl who looked up "animated movies" on the internet. When she pressed search, she would come up with movies like:

The Lion King,

The Land Before Time, The Jungle Book and other animated movies. Her childhood was great.

However, as the little girl grew up, the word animation seemed to change, and so did the actual art. Movies were now computer animated and included Shrek, Horton Hears a Who, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the sort. Her heart grew sad with the loss of the movies style that raised her.

If you hadn’t guessed, the little girl is me. I’m an old school Disney girl. I like the cartoon musical feel of the 1990’s children’s movies. The movies now-a-days lack the authentic feel of a cartoonist’s hard work and the songs that the little ones would continue to sing a long time after the movie was done. I miss this. Although no longer young, I still enjoy the movies of my past and a few of the present. I like watching them with my two year old nephew, yet it also saddens me. The only cartoon animated movies he will see are the ones I own from my childhood. Growing up with his future friends, he will only see the product of computers.

One thing that present day kid movies lack is the true sense of animation. Technology advances have forced the animated movies to move forward with the future as well. The animation being produced now is a product of computer generation. I find when I watch movies with computer generation, the characters lack the sense of lively hood and spirit that I found with the hand drawn animation. When an artist dedicated him/herself to a movie, they put so much effort and work into it, you can feel their very lives go into the characters to bring them to life. This is something that remains missing in today’s movies.

Secondly, the lack of musical numbers in the new animated movies makes me miss the old ones like never before. In the 90’s, no one would dream of an animated movies without at least three songs in it. Songs like Hakuna Matata!, or Bare Necessities are the very essense of my childhood. After 10 years, I can still sing along with these songs. These opportunities to sing with the characters hooked the children into sitting and watching. Now, there are no longer any original songs to be sung along to in the computer animated movies.

I can’t help but feel sad for the future generations once all these animated films wear out on VHS, and all the DVD copies are no longer available. My nephew is fortunate that my mother never threw away my precious Disney movies so now he has a chance to see what I grew up with. The true sense of animation is embodied by the 1990s movies.

Wretched Writers Welcome!

In my class recently, we have stared flash fiction. This is where my teacher had introduced us to this contest.

You know the line “It was a dark and stormy night”? Have you ever read the entire line?

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

 --Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

 It goes on, and on, then goes back in time, then comes forward again with a lengthy explanation. It is over all, probably one of the worst lines in life. There is a contest to try to make one of equal of greater worseness. This is my attempt at it:

Katharine felt horribly betrayed by her mother who had meant well when she made Katharine super (she knew how much her daughter loved potatoes and in Katharine’s ravenous state of hunger and felt that home fries would help ease the hunger away, but not the store bought kind, but the homemade home fries with the special seasoning she had made especially for Katharine) but she had unknowingly sliced, diced and deep fried her daughters best friend, Spud.

Now, at this L3 Writers Conference I had gone to a flash fiction workshop. Some of the things she really emphasized were:

A)    Character

B)     Conflict

C)    Action

Once this was done, if you wanted to expand the story, raise the stakes. I think I followed these guidelines, don’t ya think?

For more info, click The BLFC !

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Previously, I have had some pretty serious posts. The origin of mythical beats and even dolphin slaughter… but how about something a little more… happy? Perhaps even funny? Maybe I’ll just tell you some of my favourite movies and YouTube clips!

My absolute favourite comedy movie would have to be.. Monty Pythons: Holy Grail. For some reason, I find their humour quite amusing.

Take this clip of my favourite seen for an idea of why it is so great.

Their jokes are completely stupid and absurd, but I cannot resist them! This troupe of extraordinary British comedians have given me more laughs than I can count.

Now, only a few months ago did I find out about this Youtuber, but since then, I cannot stop laughing at his videos. Videos like Hot Kool-Aid, Waffles and Jellyfish have made me cry in laughter.

Here's my favourite, Hot Kool-Aid:

Lastly, the Youtube duo I watch, like to create humourus songs. Rhett and Link have created some of the most imaginative lyrics and stunts I have ever seen. from epic rap battles to fast-food drive-thru folk, they are so diverse, they keep you guessing!

If you ever need some cheering up or just a good laugh, I say check these guys out. You can tell they enjoy what they do greatly. It travels from the screen to you. The joy these guys have brought me over the last few years cannot be measured.

Red Water

“The Cove.” The name of it sounds like a horror movie. A movie where someone is trapped and has no escape from the killer that chases them. And it couldn’t be more accurate.

This film has to be one of the most moving and disturbing documentaries I have ever seen. If you haven't seen it, I'd advise that you go look it up. Watch YouTube clips, rent it from a video store- what ever!

The documentary features the rising level of mercury poisoning. There, the mercury poisoned dolphin meat is often sold at lower prices than other meat. this is probably due to the higher mercury levels that the meat contains. Also, for people to buy the meat, it is sometimes "mislabeled" as whale meat.

It escalates. The school systems in Japan were going to introduce dolphin into the lunch menu. There is no way to avoid the children from consuming this toxic food. Japanese children enrolled in schools are required to eat EVERY crumb of their lunches which are given to them by the school. There are no home made sandwiches packed at home.

            The main point about the documentary is not the mercury poisoning, but the way they are able to get hold of the meat. Dolphins would be corralled and trapped into a shallow cove. Mothers and babies are separated. There is even a moment in the documentary where the film makers were able to record the sounds of the dolphins as they called to their family members. The sound alone breaks your heart.

This is actually water... there is just too much blood for you to see the bottom...

 Then men in boats would travel across the cove, stabbing and attacking the poor dolphins. They have no way of escape. The cove is crammed, dolphin stacked upon dolphin. The water grows bloody as wounded and dead dolphins bleed out. There is a man in the movie that is in charge of the operation. He claims that when they kill the dolphins, it is in the most humane way possible. Clearly it is not the case.

I highly recommend this movie. It is horrifying and depressing. But the more people aware, the more likely it can be stopped.
To watch:

Mythical Beasts, Oh My!

            One thing I have always wondered about is mythological beasts. Could they have actually existed? Dinosaurs certainly did and they seem almost even more absurd that some of the creature’s mankind has come to fear, hunt or admire. Or are they simply something mankind has made up? To prove theories of gods, perhaps? To glorify one mans travels? There are many possibilities to where mythological beasts came from. Here, I hope to explain a few.

Unicorns

   Not many people today believe in this majestic creature. However, there is a possibly root the legend. There are animals all over the world who have a boney protrusion that may be mistaken as a horn. Animals like the rhinoceros have such protrusions but look very little like a unicorn.

  

   There is rumor to believe that the unicorn’s existence is due to exaggerations of travelers tales about animals like narwhales

   
   The Oryx, a desert antelope, is also a potential root to this fabled creature.

   No matter the origin, this creature was one pictured of beauty. It may have even just been a story for the world to revive hope for something beautiful to come out of war, death and the misery that human life often is.
(for more info: http://monsters.monstrous.com/unicorns.htm)
Dragons

A product of the human imagination? An answer formed to explain a fear of the unknown? Were they the dinosaurs? If they were, how did people from as late as the 1600s find out about the creatures buried far in the depths of the earth?

(For more info: http://www.allaboutcreation.org/dragon-history-4.htm)

A dragon is a serpents or reptile like creature that possessed magical or spiritual qualities. Some people are lead to believe that in Eastern Mythology, the physical appearance of the dragon was born spontaneously based loosely on the appearance of serpents.

(For more info : http://pictures.linkmesh.com/dragons/dragon_history.php)

         

    Perhaps humans created these monsters to protect land claims or hidden spaces filled with the “dragon’s” (or rather the persons) treasure. Certainly “ohh there’s a rabid opossum up there, I wouldn’t go there if I were you” wouldn’t be enough. Many people are nervous around, if not scared of snakes (an evil creature in most eyes), but a giant, flying, fire-breathing, mouth full of tons of sharp teeth? No thanks, I think I’ll go in the other direction.

Cyclops   

        

    A giant with one eye, bad teeth and a hunger for human flesh. These creatures were ones out of nightmares. But how could someone come up with something like this?

            Mayhap they just imagined their big, burly friend “One-Eye Bob” as a giant and threated people who made fun of them that he’d sick his friend on them?

Or, as recent scholars have stated that it could have been derived form the smiths who had possibly worn eye patches to protect their eyes from sparks. This is a strong possibility since all Cyclops from Greek mythology are associated with the smith trade.

(For more info: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/cyclopes.html)

This is my friend, Bob. Dobn't make me make him eat you...

But there may yet be another point. If you take a look at the skull of an elephant:

What would stop travellers from assuming a giant man with one eye? Especially if they hadn’t seen or gotten close enough a live elephant to compare the skull to. This has always been in the back of my mind since when I first read/heard this theory.

     So there you have it. The possible origins of some of the most fabled monsters known to man. Perhaps next week I may break out just all mythological creatures that are associated with horses? Or some who appear to be human but are truly not? Or maybe, I will just create a mythical creature’s blog? Comment below for the option you want



It's Over

Your heart is too cold and frigid for me to take. When it seems like you’re about to thaw, you just freeze back up again. Why, this morning you were leaving, but then you decided to stay.

You’re sporadic. Never coming at the same time and your visits vary. I find that I only like it when you're not here. I met some people, Spring and Summer. They seem to be really nice. They are really warm and friendly – pretty much the opposite from you. I tell them about “us” sometimes. They think you're too cold. And I've come to realize, they are right.

And yes. I know about your little affair. Global Warming and you seem to be having a nice time when you’re gone for a few months. She/he has changed you a lot. She/he is the reason you’re almost always late. I’ve had enough.

Well Winter, we've had a nice run… But I think we should go separate ways. Gather all your stuff (your snow is in the very place I don't want it and your ice is where it's most convenient for me to slip on) and move on out.

Maybe if i got one of these I'd feel better about it...





I highly doubt it.

My Present I Wish Was The Past

I often wonder these days, would it have not been better if we still lived in the past. An age without technology with plentiful standards. What if we still lived as those did in the time of Knights in Europe? Or when the Native Americans did, before Columbus? Certainly life would be harder. More work done the hard way. But what if life would be simpler? Would life be better?

In all honesty, I don't like the present. I do not like it now and I do not like it even back to even the last hundred years of the 1900's. Sure, the technological and social advances are great, but to what cost? Now everyone has a cell phone glued to their hand, with fingers always texting and attention always on the little insignificant screen. A family either has one car or two. Our goal as adolescents is to get the license to drive this Eco-hazardous vehicle around for kicks! We're provocative, using our bodies to get what we want. I think that living in the past is better.

For one, there would be less technology. There would definitely be no electricity (so that means no cell phones, TV, computers, ipod, game stations...). There would be no planes, trains or automobiles. But is that all so bad? What was so bad about riding horses or being pulled by oxen? What was wrong about walking somewhere on your own two feet? Being outdoors, finding your own entertainment? At the very least you may become inventive at games to keep you occupied. You may even read more literature. My gosh, you may even turn out smarterer. Oops, I forgot to have my “idiot spellchecker” on. (Not saying I don’t like the tool, which I find handy quite often).

Another point is there were standards. This is a time where any body type did not have to be so self conscious. A plump body was welcome! Bigger was truly better. Whereas, in this society, there are images of intensely skinny models being thrown at insecure women. Not to mention, I don't like seeing peoples butt cracks peering out from low rise jeans or anything else that may hang out of loose fitting or absent clothes. Things that are meant to be covered were covered. No short shorts, tank tops or bikinis. It was all modesty.

          All standards are now dwindle down to “don’t get pregnant in high school” or “don’t knock someone up.” What!?!?!? Where did this come from? Another form of modesty down the toilet. Why does sleeping around have to be socially accepted? Why can’t we just realize that in a time of STD's, studying and growing, we shouldn’t hook up?

In the past, there was no technology to stimulate up. In the past there were restrictions. But this was not negative. If anything, it was positive. The lack of technology resulted in innovations and inventions. People had been smarter due to more time to spend learning, rather than dumbing (yes, I created a word for the opposite of learning). The standards gave people dignity and a sense of self. There weren’t any thoughts of travelling STD’s or the possibility of accidental pregnancy.

Oh my goodness, I can see her shoulder! That's not right...

Thank goodness that she at least covered her feet...

Dear New Zealand

Dear New Zealand,
          I don't want to go into details. (What are the details anyway? Why do they matter? Whats the difference between one person missing or fifty people missing? or dead?) I'd still feel the sorrow and grief for those suffering. All that matters is that some part of our global community is hurting and so the rest of the world should feel something. Certainly I do. And I think details are too close to home right now. Personally, if I could afford the trip, I would go to help myself. But I believe you can come back from this. Keep up the efforts and don't give up. Express the emotions that need to be expressed. There should be no one judging you. New Zealand, I hope this will get better. But there is not much more to say but that I send encouragement, love and hope to you and those who have been touched by this natural disaster.


For those looking for more information...
Scenes of the New Zealand Earthquake 2011

Lyrics for the Soul

Mumford & Sons

Winter Winds

“In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life”

“In these bodies we will live”.

 In this lyric, I think there lies something deeper than just the subject of living. Perhaps it’s the fact that they do not say “we will live”, but rather “in these bodies we will live.” "In these bodies". What does it mean, "In these bodies"? Sure our bodies live. How else am I here typing and talking like every other living person? I think it’s because the point is we are not our bodies. Rather vague I know, but what I mean is that there is more to a person than just their flesh and bone. There's another part: the soul. It’s an inhabitant of this suit of biodegradable matter. The thing that is actually us is INSIDE our bodies, no the body itself.

“In these bodies we will die”.

No matter what, dying is a part of life. It’s only a name for the end chapter. Just like the beginning is called birth. It makes sense that when you live your like in a body that you will die in a body. This lyric conveys a sense of ending. It will happen. It could be later today, or tomorrow, or in a couple of weeks, in a few months or even in ten years. It’s a fact that will come to be and there’s no way to avoid it. Someday, the bodies that hold our souls will no longer be able to contain them.

“Where you invest you love, you invest your life”.

It’s true. Love is life. It is the euphoria that makes us want to move on even through the hard times in life. It’ would be no wonder that you want to have what you love and makes you feel good around you. Your love directs where you want to be or what you want to do. A love for a specific subject like history will lead you into a job surrounded by history if you really work towards it. You wouldn’t go into a math field. Love is truly the force that drives us through life. Investing it into something means you dedicate your life to it.

Stupid Sidewalk Snowplows

It’s like any winter morning. There’s snow. It just so happened that there was quite a few more inches of snow that had yet to be attended. Still the buses were on. I could almost hear the groans of thousands of students who had expected a snow day. I’m a walker and so are the two friends that I walk with everyday to school. Being a walker, I have to go into the cold weather anyway. A few more inches surely wouldn’t bother me more than snow usually does. So I set out at my usual time, 7:55am.

            There was a problem though. When we crossed to road to walk on the sidewalk, we discovered that the sidewalk plow hadn’t done its job yet. So now, there was easily three or four inches of snow layering the sidewalk and a foot and a half border created by the road plows. It wasn’t going to be easy to walk on the sidewalk today. The road however, had already been plowed earlier that morning. We then decided that we would walk on the road.

A stupid idea really, since we were walking on the only available side; the wrong side. And it didn’t help that we had to walk up a hill. On the wrong side. Any car that came over that hill fast would most likely hit us or cause a horrific accident. Luckily, we made it over the hill without any fatalities.

There was another delay when we hit the corner gate that leads you through the field. No one has walked it yet and there is a little bit of the path that was there before. It was either face the snow or walk around. If the sidewalks were plowed, we could have easily just gone around and still be on time. Walking on the road had caused us to lose time. Walking around would most likely make me late and keep me out in the cold longer. Walking through would get me there faster, but there is no knowing where the path is exactly and there was a risk of hitting deep snow. Being on time won in the end.

I lead the trudge through the snow. We mostly were able to follow the old path of packed snow that hid under the new stuff. We didn’t always manage to stick to it. A few times we ended up in knee deep snow. But we made it. Or, at least almost did. When it came the gate that lead into the school, it happened. I placed my foot in the wrong spot and I went down. The fast and flurriest. I fell into a heap of snow that had looked like it was waiting for this moment. It seemed to throw confetti of snow into the air to celebrate my tumble.

I stood up and continue into the school. My hands were bright red and achy from being exposed to cold and my cheeks flushed. Now my legs were frozen too. I couldn’t help but feel eyes on me and my new white pants through out the walk to first class. My pants never thawed and dried off until easily third period. I can’t help but think that if the sidewalk plow had been doing its job, I could have avoided the discomfort. Stupid sidewalk snowplows.

White Ivory

They were following from the top of the canyon, an easy spot to view the entire herd without getting to close to frighten them off, or to have them attack. The crunch of their steel-toed boots was barely audible, even to the sensitive ears of the elephants, which was a another plus to being up so high. These people had been following for the past three days across the sizzling hot savannah of Africa. They had observed their actions, keeping close tabs on them, and the traveling patterns for future references, in case all didn’t go well.

The elephants were following a path that went into a deep canyon, most likely it was a path that was etched into the matriarchs mind, a possible a path to some elephant euphoria. They humans minds rejoiced at that thought. More to chose from.

The matriarch was probably one of the biggest females the owner of the boots had ever seen, and she was an older elephant and had some battle scars, lines of a lighter grey scratched across her face, and more noticeable, she had broken tusks. They were booth broken, one almost completely gone, and the other only half remained. Looking at them, you had to wonder what had caused such a violent fight so that tusks would snap off. Had it been an opposing herd that meant harm? A male elephant that was unwelcome? Or had it been that she just decided to tear down a tree? The stalkers crossed her off their mental list as a candidate.

 They needed an elephant in its prime. One who was healthy, with large tusks. They continued scanning along the line of elephants, evaluating each, deciding if they were healthy looking enough. They saw about six and maybe even seven good candidates out of the group of ten. Some were young ones, about maybe five to fifteen years of age, which was indicated by the size of their tusks, which were small or non-existent. The other four were either reaching their prime or like the matriarch, just leaving. That included one other female, who appeared to have grown no tusks at all.

 The eyes kept following along the herd, evaluating every elephant along the way, when sudden action and noise caught their attention. It sounded like an alarm. They quickly looked to the end of the marching line, hopping they hadn’t been spotted by the herd.

There was a calf, maybe not even a month old, stumbling over rocks that had fallen off the canyons walls. The baby was very small, its skin was still the new and dark grey of that of a newborn. The eyes watched at the baby struggled to get up and follow. It let out a high distress call again, calling for its mother. One of the elephants who was last in line stopped and started turning around to the baby. It was the mother. And she was exactly what they were looking for.

She was young, and healthy. As she turned, her long white tusks glinted in the sun, almost blinding the humans who were following. The mother continued to walk toward her young, and reached out with her trunk to assist the baby in getting up. It was a tear-jerking sight, the sight of a mother and baby bond. They entwined trunks and the mother lifted the baby up. The rest of the herd continued to move on, picking their way through the debris filled canyon, expecting the mother and baby to catch up. The baby quickly ran to the mothers side, giving off inaudible sounds, and the mother gave comforting ones back.

There was about twenty feet between the herd and the mother and calf, this was the moment they had waited for. The one human signaled to the others. One human lifted the hefty weapon they had brought along. He pulled the trigger, pushing out the bullet in return. It soared though the air hitting its target with a thud. The gunshot was followed by the slow fall and heavy thud of an elephant body.

The baby trumpeted, nudging the mother, curious to why she fell down. The herd raced back to the aid of the mother. They stroked and poked with their trunks, looking for signs of life. Some nudged with their tusks, trying to roll her and help her up to her feet. The baby was now trumpeting wildly. It sounded more like screeches instead of the regular elephant call. The herd joined in, and a chorus of grieving screeches echoed through the canyon for days. The stalkers smiled and congratulated themselves. They hit the jackpot, white ivory.