Poem

The Croc Hunter- Steve Irwin

By: Regan Bloss

A croc hunter there was, one of the best

Who tackled crocs all day; that was his quest

He wore khaki shirts and shorts all the same

But never got lost in all of the fame

What’s more he was a merry hearted man

And like Jersey Shore’s Snooki, always was tan

He was like Hephaestus; god of the fire

Caring and loving; always admired

But he met his demise with a stingray

Beowulf in the Business World

Regan Bloss

October 5, 2011

Hon English IV

Ms. Morrell

An Environmentally Informative… Yet Creative Essay/Story

About Beowulf Trump in the Business World

Shield Sheafson was once an affluent and powerful captain of industry. He ruled the oil industry using a combination of vertical and horizontal integration systems, or systems which sought to sell a type of product in a number of different markets. This market strategy gave him an almost complete monopoly over his competitors; and being that he could shift supply and demand, as well as the global economy’s productivity level, Sheafson became one of the most influential men of his time. He built a massive oil empire, which consisted of domestic and foreign properties and assets of exorbitant worth. In fact, he was the recipient of Time Magazines “Most Influential Person in the World,” award.

However, Sheafson was disliked for his planetary management worldview that he held. He said that “we are separate from and in charge of nature, and thus through technology we should manage earth’s life support systems to yield the greatest benefit to us.” In essence, Sheafson was a greedy, selfish, and uncompassionate human being, and to say that he had a few opponents would be an understatement.

With the global stewardship environmental movement well underway, Sheafson became the epitome of evil, and the direct cause for global warming and climate change. The global stewardship movement held that we can and should manage the earth for our benefit, but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers of the Earth. Some call it the “tree-hugger movement,” while others call it “ethical environmental responsibility.”

Either way, Grendel Corporations was at the forefront of the stewardhip movement and led the way in environmental responsibility policies. Gredel Corporations was a facilitator of eco-cities, and eco-villages. It developed alternative energy sources, and proposed that Sheafson, with his oil empire, was directly killing the environment and contributing to the earth’s over ecological footprint through carbon dioxide emissions. Grendel Corporations did everything in their power to bring Sheafson’s empire down. They sued Sheafson for environmental irresponsibility, campaigned against him, and even published articles directly blaming Sheafson for global warming. For twelve years, Grendel Corporations targeted Sheafson as a mass murderer, and environmental eradicator.

Grendel Corporations made a few key attacks against Sheafson; but perhaps the biggest attack blamed Sheafson himself for oil salves and their contribution to global warming. Grendel, the president of Grendel Corporations explained global warming himself in a seminar to attack Sheafson’s oil product promotion. Grendel explains- “as the sun’s energy enters the atmosphere in the form of light waves, some of that energy warms the Earth and then is re-radiated back into space in the form of infrared waves. Under normal conditions, the atmosphere naturally traps a portion of the outgoing infrared radiation; however, a thin layer of atmosphere is being thickened by huge quantities of human-caused green house gases, which in turn do not allow the infrared waves to escape. These green house gases include Sheafson’s oil by products such as carbon dioxide.”

The second major attack that Grendel corporations made against Sheafson was one that called Sheafson out as a mass murderer. At Grendel’s end-of-the-year banquet, he claimed, “Sheafson has killed people all over the world as a direct cause to his exorbitant carbon dioxide emissions. These deaths come in two forms; one in the form of rising sea tides across the pacific, which were attributed to higher global temperatures; and the second attributed to extreme change in weather patterns which killed thousands, and was caused by a temperature fluctuation due to green house gas emissions.”

Grendel would give speeches like these explaining global warming, as well as global warming’s causes and affects, all over the world to raise awareness of the inclusive issue and Sheafsons wrong doings. Grendel claimed, “Sheafson was environmentally irresponsible and danger to the global society.”

After twelve years, Grendel Corporations was finally making difference. The global stewardship movement grew exponentially, and oil demand dropped because of the increased used of alternative energy. Grendel thought his mission was well on his way to success; but he was wrong.

The best thing that Sheafson ever did after that twelve years of attack was to hire the best lobbyist and his firm to aid his broken global image. Beowulf Trump was the most well-known and influential lobbyist in the United States. He had helped elect two presidents and convinced the public that smoking was not a health problem. Beowulf would convince people anything as long as the money was there.

At square one, Beowulf used “doubt,” as his biggest weapon against Grendel and all those who defied Sheafson’s policies. More specifically, Beowulf used the same tactics, namely creating doubt by asking unanswerable questions, to defend Sheafson’s environmental policy, the same way he lured people into smoking. Beowulf used this tactic because, as he put it, “creating doubt is the best mechanism to defend against fact.” Beowulf knew that there was strong evidence to suggest Sheafson was a major cause of global warming, however he would guard against the facts by instilling doubt in the minds of those who were not fully convinced but asking questions such as, “what is the real link between Sheafson and global warming?” And when that question was answered, Beowulf would just keep asking “how,” or “why,” or “by what means.” With all these questions being asked and the non-ability of Grendel Corporations and the other stewardship movement organizations and people unable to fully answer Beowulf’s questions, all credibility was eventually lost. And as soon as there was doubt in the minds of Americans, there was controversy in America, and then controversy world wide, and then doubt in the minds worldwide. Beowulf used this “snow-balling,” technique where one action causes a bigger chain reaction to cause psychological doubt. Beowulf’s mission was once again a success and he emerged triumphant in the battle of environmental views.

The only question now is what Grendel Corporation will do to gain environmental credibility. I can only guess that they will get some help from the person who taught Grendel everything about lobbying- his mother.

Stuck on an Island... but not Rarotonga

Regan Bloss

October 5, 2011

Hon English IV

Creative Writing- Stuck on an Island for a day

One Day in the Life of a Guy who is Now Stuck on an Island

            When I woke up, I saw nothing but blue skies and the occasional cloud here and there. I thought I was in heaven. Just floating in a never-ending continuum. Everything was so peaceful and serene. I lay down in what felt like heaven for an hour or so. I just lay there, doing nothing save looking up at the beautiful sky. I had nothing to worry about in the world- or so I thought.

But what felt like an hour in heaven, was in reality five minutes of unconsciousness. And when I really woke up, I didn’t see blue skies at all; but skies of black and gray. The sky above me looked like some scene out of an apocalyptical-end-of-the-world movie. At first the un-common scene intrigued me, but then panic filled my now conscious body. I felt an awful pain in my leg. It felt like a dog had been gnawing on my leg and just wouldn’t let go. I tried to get up, but it was harder than I thought. It took me a couple of tries to sit up, and when I eventually did- I could not believe my eyes.

My eyes adjusted to what seemed like a blinding light from the sun. Everything was white. But as my eyes readjusted, the only color I could see was red. Dead bodies lay everywhere- men, women, children, elderly. I seemed like no one’s life was speared. I quickly scan my surroundings for any survivors. And out of the corner of my eye, I see a hand move- someone else had survived!

Panic had now turned into adrenalin and my hurt leg, which I didn’t even bother looking at, was no longer hurting. I maneuvered my body to one side, and then flipped my self over. I was now lying on my stomach and trying to use my arms to prop myself up. I was a lot weaker than I remember last. I used every once of strength in me to get up, and half-crawling, half-limping, and half-hopping I make my way to the half-conscious man across the beach. I thought to myself- he can’t die!

I had never felt so determined in my life. Just knowing that this man might be the only other person to have survived, compelled me across the beach. I guess it was years of my mom telling me, “help others before you help yourself.” I don’t know. But what I did know was that this man might be my only chance of of survival. And I’ll admit it- I was scared of being the only one alive.

When I got over to the man, I was relieved to see him in no physical harm. How he wasn’t hurt, I have no idea. He just seemed unconscious. I lifted his head out of the water, and laid it on my lap. It was only at this point that I realized I was on a beach. I guess I was so distracted by the black sky and the dead bodies that I hadn’t fully comprehended where I was. Although, knowing that I was on a beach, didn’t mean I knew where I was. I still had no idea where I was. While I was holding the man’s head, I noticed all the dead bodies around me. It grossed me out. I thought I was going to be sick; but when you grow up with 3 older brothers, it’s hard to be grossed out. I can tell you that to see a dead body on television was nothing like seeing a dead body in real life. The two experiences are un-relatable, and nothing can prepare you for the sight of a dead person. I also noticed that there was a lot of luggage washed up on the beach. I guess that’s a given in a plane crash. As I was determining my next step for survival- the man woke up.  

“Hey. Hello. Hellooo. Are you ok man? Do you remember anything? Easy there, don’t get up too fast,” I say. The man was still unresponsive, but managed to sit up. As he came to his senses, I actually recognized him- he was the pilot.

The pilot’s first words were, “where are we?” I responded by saying, “I wish I knew.” Oddly enough, he smiled. I don’t know why. I guess he found my response amusing. But his smiling was contagious, and for the first time since being stranded on this unknown island after an awful plane crash, I actually smiled back. Not because of anything really, except life. It was at this point that I was just grateful for life. My life. The pilot smiled back at me, and after half an hour more sitting on the beach, the pilot and I got to know one another.

He was actually a really nice guy. He told me that he was once an air force pilot, and that he had been deployed in over-seas missions for over ten years. He told me that our plane crashed due to a dual-integral engine failure, and extreme pro-turbulence. Of course he explained the engine failure in some “smart person” way, which of course I didn’t understand. I just call it an engine failure. The pilot then said something that I will never forget, “we will survive you know.” His voice was full of determination and confidence. To be honest, I had lost all hope when I woke up on the beach, but his re-assuring words gave me the one tool I would not be able to find in the plane wreck- Faith!

The pilot and I gathered our strength and stumbled to our feet. I then looked down and saw the gash in my leg. It looked like a piece of metal had torn right down my shin. Wasting no time, the pilot ripped off his sleeve and used it like a bandage to rap my leg. The pressure of the bandage felt good, and the pilot said we have to cover it up to avoid infection. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. I guess I should have taken more care of myself. But I had to set my priorities. And my only goal before then was to save the pilot’s life. Now that my leg was rapped up, the pilot and I could scavenge the beach for survival items. But there was only one more problem- the tide was coming in, and fast!

Sitting around and wrapping my leg had given the ocean waves time to come in. The pilot and I both rummaged through the wreckage to find useful items. The pilot, who was in his mid fifties, was surprisingly fit, and was able to scavenge pretty fast. Me on the other hand… not so much. With my hurt leg, I was only able to gather a few items. I got a book, a couple of cell phones, and an ipod. Fortunately, the only book I picked up was one I had never read, which meant that I could at least enjoy a good book while stranded; but I was really not thinking about luxuries like reading, especially considering the excess of jobs the pilot and I had to do before sundown. We had to find or make a shelter, gather food, and make a fire-, which proved to be a challenging with very little light left.

Fortunately, the pilot and I were able to use some of the wreckage, like the external plane panels, for shelter. And food for the night was not that hard to get because we found a coconut tree nearby. I just hoped that we wouldn’t have to eat coconuts forever. Making fire proved to be the most difficult task. We had to use the old “rubbing two sticks together” technique, which meant I had blisters for what seemed like forever. One of the four phones I picked up actually worked. So I was able to use the light of the cell phone for some light. I also tried to call for help but it was no use- I was a long way from civilization.

I had survived the first day… somehow. I guess god was looking out for me, or something. I am definitely glad to have the pilot with me; he is so confident and strong. He is like my supplement strength.

That night the pilot and I just talked. Both of us knew that this unforeseen event would change our lives forever. But the one thing neither of us would ever know- is if we would ever escape.