Soon

New post soon, i need to build up my stone age magic before I reveal my next savage creation.

Shelter

So today was a good day, went down to the bowl and pitcher in between math and stone age, decided to go for a climb and to take some pictures and journal. The first picture is what I hiked up onto to look around and take pictures and journal. Pretty cool rock, theres a neat clearing on the top. Anyways, I ended up looking up above the river and seeing some massive houses on the ridge overlooking the river and it directed my thoughts during my journaling time. So of it related to Thoreau and his thoughts on shelter, most of it actually, and then branching off of that and pondering some of my own ?'s on it. After reading Walden;Or, Life In The Woods, I was able to learn a little bit about shelters of old. Typically shelters were unnecessary for about 2/3 of the year, and the other 1/3 was only used as a covering at night. People used to make wigwams out of only the materials around them that functioned just as well as any house nowadays in terms of keeping out wind, holding heat, and they even made modifications to their roofs sometimes to act like an air conditioner. They were intelligent enough though to build their wigwams to be transportable, they took a couple days to build and only hours to set up or take down meaning they kid stay on the move, which was important before they had more conveniences that led to a sedentary lifestyle.

So, the purpose of a house used to be, and still is, at its core, simply to protect us from the elements when necessary. Looking at those massive houses by the river made a lot of things run through my head. Why do they get such huge nice houses, why do i get such a big nice house? What have they or I done to earn it except be born into the right circumstances. Why do we get to live in a luxurious house like that while others live in huts in a savage way just as those who used wigwams. We are no better or any more deserving of this house then they, in some instances we are less deserving. Thoreau said "While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it is not easy to create noblemen and kings." He goes on to say "If the civilized mans pursuits are no worthier than the savages, if he is employed the greater part of his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely, why should he have a better dwelling than the former?" Seriously, this guy hit it right on the head. We have created palaces, and the majority of those who inhabit them are not noble, just, good, or deserving of what they have. So why should we live better then the other? Things nowadays are so unnecessary, everything has got to be bigger, fancier, flashier...but why? If the functionality is just the same as the last, what does it matter? Just because its bigger fancier and flashier does not necessarily make it better.

Today all day I felt that I am blessed beyond what I deserve, and convicted that part of the reason why is so I can learn to take what is above and beyond what is necessary and learn to pour it out as blessings to others. Those who are less fortunate than I are just as deserving of the things I have. There is no greater feeling than helping to provide for those who have less than myself.

So hard a caveman can do it, yet we cant...

Ok, so this class im in is kind of like a gateway to a lot of good thinking and what not. So far its been great, but just slipping out into nature and into the wild isnt always enough sometimes. Sometimes you yourself have to be wild, for instance learning to flint knap, and then from there use your stone tools to create weapons and new tools out of raw materials just from the Earth. Its really quite cool, and also makes you realize that in a sense, we are less intelligent than Neanderthals. Today we learned what our next project/thing to to create is, an atlatl. Essentially, the atlatl(pronounced attle attle) is the exact same thing as a bow.

The Bow and Arrow is not the novel invention people today believeit to be, but rather a progression of existing technology. Theexisting technology, for thousands of years, was that of the Atlatland Dart. Like the Bow, the Atlatl accelerates a flexible shaft from the rear. For the Bow the flexible shaft is called an Arrow. For theAtlatl the flexible shaft is called a Dart. Research by BPSEngineering has proven that the only difference between these twoweapons - and a minor one at that - is the type of accelerationimparted to the rear of the flexible shaft. The Bow is a linearaccelerator, accelerating the Arrow from the rear in a straightline. The Atlatl is an angular accelerator, accelerating the Dart fromthe rear in an arc. But, appearances aside, both physically andmathematically the Bow and the Atlatl are exactly the same type ofweapon.

So, we played around with the atlatls and discussed what all goes into making one. This is probably going to take roughly two weeks or so to get done. While we were discussing this though it really came to light how illogical we can be. Our teacher asked us as a clan(he calls our class a clan) what are the important things to first consider when trying to create an atlatl. To no surprise there were many stupid answers, people saying they would worry about how straight the stick is, how they will make a handle and all that junk. WRONG. Those are important details, but when you stop and think and look at the atl atls you realize its more then that. The most important thing you want to consider for instance is length, there is an length, you dont want some tiny little atlatl, yet you dont want one thats as long as your dart. Which raises the question, how long should my dart be? Theres an optimal length for those also, which happens to be 7-9 feet. Other things to consider such as the angle of the spur on your atlatl at the end, which is where you holster the dart into the atlatl, what kind of wood will you use, does it have flex? If not, do you need to haft a rock onto it to add weight? What kind of feathers will you haft to your dart to get it to fly straight? How many? Its a little known fact that no stick will fly a straight trajectory without having feathers, or some sort of thing like them on the back of your dart or arrow. Its also a little known fact that this idea that there are perfectly straight sticks out there, yea thats a lie, its a miracle to find one. Most of the time they used to warp and bend sticks while sitting around fires. All that said, I think it illustrates quite well how incredibly technical this task would be, yet we look at it and immediately think of a way how to do it, guess what, your ways wrong, and it takes a lot of work to get it right. These things are crazy hard to make. Not only that, even harder to use, its awkward, the motion is easy but its hard to get used to, but when you do, you can wing these things. Neanderthals were able to pick of elk and all sorts of animals consistently from like 50 yards away with these things, its incredible. Its not just atlatls either, every tool they make is intricate like this, it wasnt easy to be a caveman. Its stuff like this that really makes me feel like a savage, learning it, and doing it, how cool. It also feels as though it puts you in touch with life just a little bit more, i dont know how to explain it, it just does. To check out a video of a dude throwing a dart, go here, his name is Atlatl Bob. http://www.atlatl.com/dartslomo2.html

Blogged with Flock

Into The Wild

It took a bit to get me to convince myself to do one of these. Over the last couple weeks my prof for Stone Age Survival has been having us keep a journal and read some books. Hes been telling us to examine the basics of life, like Thoreua asks in Walden. Questions such as, what does it mean to lead a good life, what do you need in life, who am I? Things of that nature. At first I had a tough time getting going on my journal, but eventually I got into it. Ive been taking a bit of time during that class every day to go hike around Riverside State Park, just kinda soak in nature. This has really helped me to think and philosiphize(I think I made that word up) about those questions, and life in general. So the idea here is that Ill post some of the cool things from my journal, thoughts I come up with and what not, and also hopefully some cool pictures of things I see and experience in nature. The wilderness really opens me up to all of this, and I really want to do it all, experience nature and learn from it, learn about life through it, etc. etc. So that is where I will go, into the wild.