Looking for yourself out there

Almost 23:23. Awesome. Uh. Honestly, I'm not too sure why I'm posting. It's... a gorgeous night out; snuck out of my tent again to sleep under the stars. Man. It's amazing out here.

You... have to wonder. Because of the way light travels, any other those stars could be dead at this very second, but they're alive to us, alive and shining and more... there than we can ever know. Stars! Constantly dying and being reborn and we don't even know it. We don't know... much of anything, do we?

In this context... it's scary. As people, we want to leave our impact. Somewhere, someone could be looking at something glowing and it's Earth, and it's shining despite being long, long gone. And nobody knows it's gone; it's just....

But isn't that testament enough? All the tragedy and awesomeness and heartbreak and joy and sadness. Everything. Because the world wouldn't be the way it is without it, right? I say don't worry about leaving your mark. Do something that matters today, because somehow, somewhere, someone will remember you.

Look at me, I sound like Walter or something XD. Aw well. I think I'll head back to camp before I encounter some kind of toothed carnivore, ahaha. Goodnight, everyone. I'll post again in the morning.

Happy Trails (And sleep well!),

Zachariah Lewis

Well I suppose that I should inform you

That this little twisted game is far from over.

Figured you lot should know.

. . . What, you want a real post?

Guess I can't be cryptic forever.

He showed up on time, as expected. 10:30, and not a second later.

How gentlemanly.

Christ on a bike, the entire camp (or what's left of us) was watching when he arrived. Some were glaring, Lyle was shaking with rage and Suze was just . . . cold. But when the branches split and a dark hoodie entered HQ, you can be damn well certain everybody stared.

You couldn't see his face through his mat of hair. I'm not sure if it's actually brown or if weeks of being stuck in the forest with us just turned it that colour.

It has for us.


"Where's Nick?" it's the same question on everybody's mind, Suze's just the one that says it. She's brave, you know. Brave but protective and that makes her reckless.

"The same place you are all in when the song of the leaves engulfs you whole~" He laughs. "Subject Susan, did you really expect a straight answer?"


You can practically see steam pouring from her ears.


"He will be returned. Unharmed."

She clenches and unclenches her fists. "Tell me when, you blonde basta -"

"Suze, that's enough." That's me. That's me telling Suze to back off. A fight here wouldn't do us any good, especially if they had Nick - especially if Suze was the one doing the fighting. 

She glares at me and I know I'm not going to hear the end of it. But the Collector? He sighs. It's... melodious? 

"Aha, good to see that even I have allies in this madhouse."


"Hardly." Still looking at Suze, I reply in a heartbeat. "But we're not here to fight. We discussed this. Or did you forget about our little arrangement, Mr. Collector?"

"It seems that you lot are all talk and no action~! A shame, a shame..."

He grins. you can't see his eyes.

"Lead the way."

Suze says something to me before I leave. I'm not sure, but it ended with '... you idiot,' and I was guessing I was going to get to hear it many times over when I got back.

I set foot in the forest, the Collector behind me. Every last pair of eyes followed us until we were too far out of view.

No, I couldn't stop my fingers from trembling but yes, we did manage to hold conversation for however long it took us to get to our destination. Little things. How long we'd been playing, other instruments (he plays classical guitar as well, much to my complete lack of surprise.) and, of course, the subject of today's . . . adventure: Sonata Pathétique.


It didn't take us long to reach the boudoir grand he had set up in the woods. What took me well over two hours on my own the other day was maybe a hundred feet away from camp today. I was convinced that if I looked back I would see camp poking through the trees, but all I saw was a thick net of branches and leaves. This forest is a maze.

My shaking was hardly under control by the time we had sat down. I could only catch glimpses of his facial features under that hood and mask of hair. His eyes are, from what I can tell, a grayish blue and his hair looks to have one time been a light blonde.

What followed was . . . difficult to describe. Have you ever sat down with a blank piece of paper or instrument and utterly lost yourself in the feeling of raw creativity? Become a slave to those notes or lines on the page, letting it move your body, no, your soul?

That's what it was like.

Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique is a heart-breakingly gorgeous and it was almost an honor to play with someone with talent as opposed to just skill as a result of years slaving over ivories.

Almost.

Oh, and Mr. Collector?

It's a shame you never got proper training. There are things only years of lessons and professional teachers can teach you that no amount of personal talent can account for.

And don't think this means I'll do this again anytime soon.

Just because we had one good run doesn't mean we trust you.

Or will ever trust you.

Definitely self-taught.

How do your fingers move that quickly, Mr. Collector?

I can hardly keep up.

As fun as it'd be...

This isn't the time for everyone to sit down and fucking cry.

Here at camp slenderland, things are not going well, at all. and really, if you can't see that, you're a fucking idiot.

So why are some of the others running around camp with fake optimism?

... It's not something that I'm going to try and understand.

Am I going to give up?

Fuck no. It's going to take a lot more than one of my best friends going to the dark side to make me fucking give up.

(Those cookies better be damn worth it, Walter.)

But we had to do something. Leaving all this shit around from the people who died (and the person that might as well be dead) is really creeping everyone out. Not me, of course; I can handle a shirt or two.

But Lyle...

Suze....

Christ, everyone is taking it hard. Especially now that-

(fucknoRicharddon'tthinkabouthim)

So we staged a pretty big bonfire last night. It was... soothing, in a way? I don't know; a few kept crying and a few kept laughing and really, they haven't stopped since.

... and I'm banking on nobody checking this, so I'll come out and say it.

I was going through Walter's tent, picking and choosing what we were going to burn because, fuckdammit, some of those textbooks he had were interesting and there was no point in putting them to waste because nobody wanted to be fucking sentimental....

Anyways.

I was rolling up his sleeping bag when I found a lump. Woulda just ignored it but it was unsightly and

okay. Is anyone surprised that I thought it was porn?

... It was better than that. This little soft thing, kinda worn. Still in pretty good shape; patched up with black stitches on white fur. Maybe whoever was mending it had run out of proper thread? Pinned to it was a little note;

"Wallllllllllllllly

I'm going to miss you! D: But Mum and Dad say that you really want to go on this trip and it's going to be good for your career and blah blah blah. They're lying, aren't they? I know you don't like this stuff, so I packed your favourite textbooks without you noticing. Teach Zach some, will you? He doesn't seem the most happy all the time, but he's nice. He said he'd take good care of you while you were gone, so I'll just have to trust him, right?

Try not to get too many mosquito bites! I can't wait to play with you once you get back, okay? No avoiding it for schoolwork!

Uh-oh, I can hear you walking back up to your room. Have fun on the trip, and sleep tight!

(P.S. If you rip Mr. Nibbles, make sure to fix him, alright?)"

Sorry, guys. but when we get out of here, I'm going to be returning this. Plus, this rabbit has a damn bowtie. A BOWTIE.

Beat that, Slendershit.

... and to close on some good news, though it's kind of paranoia inducing;

We got a special delivery yesterday. Food. Water. A bit of medicine. After weighing the risks, we've decided that it's all we've got right now. The paths are so bad that it takes hours to reach the river and minutes to get back. Almost like the forest is going nuts or something; ah well.

Only question is...

Who the hell left it, if nobody can get in?

(Though if somebody doesn't end up keeling over dead, well....

We've obviously got someone watching over us.)

Fight 'till the end;

--Richard Battle

//Collect// what you know

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down

long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place

…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come,

or a plane to go

or the mail to come,

or the rain to go

or the phone to ring,

or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a

Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite

or waiting for wind to fly a kite

or waiting around for Friday night

or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake

or a pot to boil, or a Better Break

or a string of pearls,

or a pair of pants

or a wig with curls,

or

Another Chance.

Everyone is just waiting.

Too bad he'll never have the chance to //wait// for answers~

Direct workflow

LIKE A BAWS!!!

Guess what I've been repeating all day and annoying the crap out of everyone with.

Not actually. I'm pretty energetic, but even I'm not that annoying. Maybe. Er. Anyways. Started "JPod" today, and was pleasantly surprised to realize my nerdom level was sufficiently high enough to appreciate the humor. I'm more proud of that than I'd like to admit, and mister Douglas Coupland? You are honestly so awesome that you max out the awesome meter in my eyes. Canadian authors for the win! Honestly, there's not enough of them out there. Lesley Choyce is a underrated Canadian author who really does not get enough love; "Shoulder the Sky" introduced me to philosophical thinking (even though people like Walter blow me out of the water). Give 'em some love, people!

'Course, it's all about the internet these days, isn't it?

(/waves walking stick)

Internet fiction is absolutely brilliant. Anything is possible these days; crossovers, full length novels, webcomics... the list goes on. Blog communities hundreds strong, urban legends catapulted to High Octane Nightmare Fuel status, and things like "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow; a full length story that is not only free online, but is also about... our favorite... ARGs! Well, not exactly, but you get the point. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

Speaking of ARGs, Day Four has pretty much passed without incident, or at least for me. To be honest, I've been spending most of my time out of camp; everyone's getting along fine but I never really realized that I actually like spending time alone. Who knew! I guess I just kinda got used to lurking for hours and by god I've become antisocial. Well pierce my ears and call me Lyle! My laziness has really reached new heights, hasn't it? It's a good thing that nobody can navigate this place; all I ever see are the faint shadows of people passing by; learn to follow a path! Jeebus. Honestly.

So we all woke up today happy, but with a gloriously glorious collection of bug-bites that would probably make an awesome connect the dots if someone had the patience to try and connect 'em all (...NEW FAVORITE HOBBY, GET!). We're starting to figure out that there, uh, really isn't a lot to do out here except read through my (rather impressive) book collection or explore, and as Alex said, we're even having problems with our GPS's.

(Before long, it's going to turn to "Lord of the Flies" out here)

Aw geeze. I have to start dinner soon, so I should probably head back to camp. It seems that as long as I make them food, the class seems to be fine with my absence during the day. Stuart joked that "If you let a bear kill you, we'll kill you. I can't cook nearly as well as you can."

I think he was joking.

I HOPE he was joking.

And they wonder why I'm never around. Kidding, of course. Hopefully will have something up later tonight. GO SUPPORT SOME UNAPPRECIATED NOVELISTS.

YES, I'M TALKING TO YOU.

(I'mma cooking some pasta tonight with some fresh chicken that Nick got delivered, rich kids FTW! Gotta get pounding and breading and frying and let's hope I don't dump the whole damn thing into the campfire by accident. ._.; )

Happy trails,

Zach(ariah) lewis

(Hopefully we can sneak that deleted post on sometime. Suze might as well be the cyber police with her talents at backtracing, but hey, SHE WILL DUN GOOF sometime. XD )

(Oh, and... well, you should know you if I'm talking to you. I change my password around every single freaking day, so just try and 'hack it'. Your blog is awesome, believe me when I say that, but I'm not taking any chances.)

This is terrible

Why did I ever agree to this?

I'm in a forest. Alone. With nobody to trust but my twin sister. A murderer could be behind every tree. A GPS CAUGHT FIRE in my HAND.

We're all doomed, aren't we?

None of us ever came here to scout or anything, and I keep hearing these noises, oh god-

Alright. Looking at the above now that I've taken my Prozac, maybe I should jump onto a more... uh.... sane trail of thought? Uh, hi internet. Name's Hayden. Suze is my twin sister and my doctor said this excursion would probably be good for me. I'm...uh... the jury's still out on that one. Considering I'm not very social as it is, maybe this wasn't the best idea? Whelp, I'm here, might as well tone down the conspiracy talk.

This.. all does seem a bit too... um.... perfect. Why did we all get on this trip? Why was it subsidized? Why does everyone give these little paranoid-

No, that's probably me. Schizophrenic-paranoid is NOT a good mix. Luckily, lotsa therapy has almost fixed that; just take meds for the mild anxiety. Click click. I keep playing with the collar I wear and the clicking noise is soothing. I was told that sometimes having an object to fiddle with helps keep anxiety down, hence the weird fashion sense. Um. Well. If anything goes downhill, maybe I'll be a bit more useful, but everything really is fine and dandy. Aside from the whole "bursting into flames" thing. Guess I'll head back out, though I should uh, probably take off the tinfoil hat. Suze'll be worried. She didn't think I should come but Zach was surprisingly insistent and even I find it hard to say no to him. Alright, that's all for now, I guess. Nice to meet you, internet. Um, yeah.

that's all, folks

Hayden

Aw.....

All you guys are killjoys, you know that? Aw well. Maybe that post'll be posted later. Gonna hide the draft somewhere. YOU CAN NOT SILENCE ME! AHAHAHA /SHOT

So, I finished "S is for Space" this morning while I was buggering off with Suze (Yes, I can multitask. Deal with it.), and omg so amazing. Bradbury is simply marvelous in the way that he presents the willing suspension of disbelief, and you know the amazing thing? We all go for it, and we don't even notice. Freaking brilliant.

Speaking of Suze, while I spent the morning prancing around the forest like an insane deer, she actually went and did something responsible. She's no fun, is she? Ah well. Dinner went well enough, as in there were a few grumbles, but they should try cooking for fifty! Lyle's been lurking all day at a distance, but if he wants to be a ninja, good for him (I wish I was one too).

The sun started to set not too long ago, and we kidnapped Elliott's guitar to strum some melodies and actually feel some group bonding (POWER OF FRIENDSHIP GOOOOO). So that, of course, means that everyone groans as I try my best to rock out to what little Fall Out boy and Ludo I can play. I'd try some Coulton, but I don't think anyone but me knows who he is. There are disadvantages to being a hipster, eh? Not that I'm a hipster at all. I just happen to stumble on stuff and sometimes that stuff turns out to be good.

The guitar is long put away, which means that I'm sitting here around the campfire, typing this up. God, it's been brilliant so far. Sun is usually shining, but the forest is pretty temperate, and very interesting to navigate. By interesting I mean that I'm only good at getting around because of my INTENSE ARMY SKILLS. Ah well. With 50 people in camp it's hard to get a moment to yourself, so I'm not knocking it.

Not sure what book I'm going to read next. I kind of just bought this whole lot of 60's to present day fiction on Ebay and... uh.... brought it all with me. Needless to say, there's going to be a lot of literature discussion from me. BORING LITERATURE DISCUSSION. NOTHING SCIENCE-Y AT ALL. WOW THIS IS FALSE ADVERTISING ISN'T IT?

Ah well, I'm having fun, even if there's really nobody to talk to. I'm guessing the class figured that if I rant to the internet, I'm not ranting to them. PROGRESS? Who knows. XD

Unless I'm struck by inspiration, that's all you get from me tonight. (I TRY TO POST MORE THAN ONCE BUT CAN'T SPEAK FOR NOSY EDITING GIRLFRIENDS). And who knows? Maybe I'll actually get to talk to someone on here that doesn't currently live within a mile radius of me.

Doubt it, though.

IF YOU'RE THERE, DROP ME A LINE! PLEASE! IMMA GOING CRAZY OUT HERE!

/SHOT

It's Day Four tomorrow. should I be worried? D:

Happy Trails,

--Zach(ariah) Lewis

The Walking Man

I said I'd post later, and here I am! I try my best to keep my promises, even ones made to an imaginary audience.

So it's day two out here and we're mostly set up. Everyone is kind of out exploring, but I've had my fill for the day, so you're all left with me discussing science fiction and urban legends and whatever else comes to mind.

Adleheid, our German exchange student, has taught me a few words in his native tongue. Kid can tell a scary story that would make your toes curl. German is a freaking awesome language and I wish I had more talent at learning it; course, Lyle is picking it up like no tomorrow and will probably be barking orders that nobody understands before long. Anyway, the kid has always been a bit jumpy but I'm assuming that comes from being in a new place. Good thing he's got his partner to keep him calm.

I'm already halfway through "S is for Space" since I started reading this morning and god, is it amazing. They just don't write science fiction like this anymore (though I've yet to try Discworld; seems that I'm missing out if TVTropes is to be believed). As I mentioned earlier, "The Pedestrian" is one of my favorites so far; the description of the totalitarian society is just so subtle that it kicks you in the face when you realize what's going on. I really liked "I, Robot" as well; how can you not? It freaking established the rules of the genre, and so many writers have followed in his footsteps it's freaking awesome. White Elephants has really got this phenomena working in present day and honestly; whoever writes that blog? You're being compared to Asimov. WELL DONE, GOOD SIR.

Geeze. If I had my ideas emulated by that I'd be freaking thrilled. Who wouldn't?

That doesn't really happen now a days too often. BEN was/is amazing, but it really didn't define a genre or anything. You're not going to see alternate things in the BEN universe (AS COOL AS THAT WOULD BE), and you're not going to see any of Jad's "Rules" anywhere else (AS COOL AS THAT WOULD BE). At this point, I think we'd all be happy with an update, but what can you do? JAD WORKS ON VALVE TIME. DEAL WITH IT.

(Though if he DID update and I couldn't see I would so RAEG)

So, this post did pretty much nothing except for establish I am a Troper, internet lurker, and probable /b/tard (I am a self admitted /x/tard but that's totally different). Hope I didn't annoy all of you with my nerding out. Go read something awesome if you want to be entertained, dammit! Joking, joking.

AND I SWEAR, ACTUAL SCIENCE WILL BE POSTED EVENTUALLY.

I'll post again tonight. See you guys!

(Would it be creepy if I called you HYBRIDS? Probably. Yeah, not going to do that.)

Happy Trails,

--Zach(ariah) Lewis

The Pedestrian

"To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight 'o clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet upon that buckling concrete walk, to step over grassy seams and make your way, hands in pockets, through the silences, that was what Mr. Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do. He would stand upon the corner of an intersection and peer down long moonlit avenues of the sidewalk in four directions, deciding which way to go, but it really made no difference; he was alone in the world of A.D. 2053, or as good as alone, and with a final decision made, a path selected, he would stride off, sending patterns of frosty air before him like the smoke of a cigar."-Ray Bradbury

Sometimes when you're out here, you really feel like you're the only person on earth.

I got up early this morning. Like, really early. I don't sleep much, and really, I was too excited to sleep anyways. A whole new place to explore, OMGCAN'TWAIT. I tried to get up as carefully as I could to not wake Lyle, and went on my way.

It's hard to describe, but I guess I'll try my best. The air is fresh here, like the whisper of rain in the air or the faint tang of the salt from the ocean. It fills your lungs and your sinuses and it's absolutely amazing. It had been misty last night and the dew on the leaves sparkled like tiny diamonds. Wish I could capture one and give it to Suze.

But I digress.

The damp ground felt awesome beneath my feet (years of martial arts training means that I have the weird habit of walking around barefoot. Everyone in the class got used to it eventually), and I almost felt like I could feel everything in the forest, feel the flow of life and all that jazz. I wandered around a bit, making sure I didn't get lost, and enjoyed a gorgeous sunrise at a cliff edge. By god. Really makes you feel great, doesn't it? Each and every one of you reading this, I wish you could've seen it. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

By the time I got back, everyone was starting to wake up. Gave Suze a quick hug hello and got to work on breakfast. see, I'm a pretty good cook, so sometimes the duty is delegated to me. Don't mind much; I like to cook. Lyle watched intently; I'm guessing he wants to learn how too. He could just ask, doesn't he know that? ._.

Either way, some more posts might be up today because we're not doing much over here besides unpacking and slacking off. maybe I'll go exploring again (No, I'm totally not trying to shirk responsibility. What makes you think that?) Maybe I'll actually talk about that quote up there for a bit. Dunno. Either way, it'll have to be later; Stuart is shooting me eyedaggers and it's kind of freaking me out. >>;

God, Bradbury had a way with words, didn't he?

Happy Trails,

--Zach(ariah) lewis

Fool me once, shame on you...

Fool me twice, and apparently I'm retarded. Just going to throw a quick post up before bed. Suze decided to stand outside my tent and make me think that there was a giant... thing looming outside, her shadow twisting into something that I don't even want to discuss.

Did I scream like a little girl? Yes, yes I did. Thanks for asking. Now everyone is glaring, whoops! At least Lyle doesn't really care if I'm typing this up, even though I'm sitting right beside him and this tent isn't exactly spacious.

So, with that little piece of shame, let's move on!

I promised all.... none of you that I'd post short synopsizes about my friends; considering I'm friends with about everyone that'll be a bit difficult. So I'm going to try and keep this short and sweet.

(Some actual Science will follow soon, promise!)

Suze: Is a freaking amazing person. Honestly, and, as tacky as this sounds, I wake up every day and thank god I have her. We started going out in the last few years of highschool and I'm her little bitch, and proud to admit it. Enough of the lovey-dovy stuff, eh?

Lyle: I consider him my best friend, he probably considerers me as a giant nuisance. He moved in next to me before I was deployed and we've spent a lot of time together. He knows a shit-tonne about me, but I know almost zilch! Ah well. He's a great guy and has an AMAZING photographic memory. Seriously; he can recite URLs. That's saved our asses a few times....

Alex: A somewhat monotone guy at best, but I think if we had two high energy people (like me!) in a room at once it'd explode or something. He is GOOD at summing things up. Like, seriously.

Elliot: A deadpan snarker at it's finest. Who needs Portal for black comedy when you have this guy around? NOBODY, THAT'S WHO.

Hayden: Suze's actually strangely enough OLDER twin brother. Would come driving across the city to give you a ride late at night, but the poor guy is plagued by OCD and paranoia. I think he's never took meds, but sometimes I think he needs it.

Walter: It's like having our own modern day Socrates. He's really only taking the science courses for fun; a crazy philosopher. He always manages to make us crack up by mixing philosophy and science. Siosophy? Piloscience? I like option one better.

Did I mention that there's about 40 MORE OF THESE TO DO? SIGHHHHHHH. That's all I'm putting up for today, I think. Suze is still laughing at me and I'm not feeling very manly at all. Don't forget that all....none of you are free to hop into the comments and give us a chat. Forest plus the same fifty people equals bored Zach.

... There's a chill today, but I'm the only one that feels it. Weird.

Happy trails,

--Zach(ariah) lewis

I like the blog description.

It's just informative enough to be useful and just snarky enough to be reminiscent of Class 123.

Because that's all we are. A bunch of deadpan snarkers stuck in the woods for the next two months, trying to not get eaten alive by bugs and bears - and frankly, I'm more scared of the bugs.

Suze here. This'll be my formal introduction. Can't say I really know what I'll be posting, but hey, a post is a post is a post, right?

Anyways, it's just around seven pm now and we've all just finished dinner. Hot dogs over the fire and smores, yum~ Too bad it can't stay like this - between the fifty of us four packs of mallows went alarmingly fast, and I think we can blame Zach for finishing at least one of them.

Everybody's unpacking now. We've got between two and four people assigned to a tent, chosen based on 'capatability,' which is a nice way of saying 'all the friends get put together and the loners get boned.'

Lyle and Zach are sharing a tent. For those of you who don't know Lyle, here's a quick summary: neither do I. This guy is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, coated in a demeanor as frigid as the ninth circle of hell with a glare sharp enough to cut down every tree in this forest.

I know this because Zach knows this. I don't talk to him much myself, but Zach and Lyle are tighter than ... Well, they're about as tight as the screws in Zach's head, (he's going to kill me for that later) but for Lyle that's a huge step up from the norm. Half the people in our class don't know the kid's name, so I guess that's something to be proud of?

The prof says today and tomorrow will most likely be for settling in and setting up camp. He says a good home base is the most important part of a long outing, and that if we do it right the first time, we won't have to worry about fixing it a second time, or a third, or a fourth ...

'Good luck with that,' I tell him. 'You're working with fifty student who, for the mos part, have only seen trees lining the streets and in the little stoner forest behind the university.'

He laughs and tells me to get back to unpacking. Bri, Lily and I are sharing a tent. Bri is the one responsible for 'the layout and stuff' and is the only one (other than the prof) with the covenant admin privs.

Needless to say, we're all incredibly jelly.

It's getting pretty late. The prof wants lights out by 10 and the bugs are starting to bite something nasty. We'll probably post some more science-y stuff once we actually get everything set up, but for now it'll most likely just be camp gossip and introductions.

In need of a clever outro,
Suze

Why don't you take a seat...

So I assume this’ll be the first post on 23 Seconds, which is freaking awesome. Not that you’ll probably care; we’re really only making this for the students who will use our research next year, but who knows? Maybe you like reading random blogs about Ecology and Biology. I can’t really judge that, can I?


I kid, of course. If this blog is any help to you, we’ve done our job. I assume as the Admin, I should introduce myself? Zachariah Lewis, nice to meet’cha; I’m a university student, in the field of Biology in general. Suze, my girlfriend, is looking over my shoulder right now and laughing, saying that I should really say more about myself, should I talk about her instead? She’s nodding no. God, she’s a laugh. Anyway, I guess you could describe me as the everyman; I get along with everyone and really enjoy my school and classes. It’s really a far cry from the army, but I was honestly honorably discharged and apparently I can’t do pacing for my life. Jeeze, Suze, I’m a Biologist, not an author!


I figure I’ll post about everyone later. For now, I’m sure you’re wondering what this blog is about. Well, our class of 123 has been offered the chance to do this extra credit program over the summer; We’ll go camp in a forest, make observations, look at the wildlife, try not to get mauled by bears, avoid drunk science; you know, the usual. We have a Professer chaperon but he’s like a regular Bear Grylls, so it really only adds to the atmosphere. Already he’s shown me how to drink my own piss (just kidding!). So if you’ve ever had Professer Stuart William, you’ll know the awesome I speak of.


It’s a communal account, so posts will have to be signed and such. There’s 50 of us, counting our Prof, but I figure I’ll be the only one actually using this blog. I’ll put some more stuff up later, like our class list and short synopsis on my close friends; but we’re in it for the science... you monster.


(Sorry. Couldn’t get out of this without a Portal 2 reference, could I?)


TL;DR? I’m Zach, this is our project blog. Stick around for a while, give us some comments, and we’ll try our best to answer them. And if I make any typos in the future? We’ll only have phones with solar panel chargers out there, so it might get a bit dodgy.


I’d love to hear from you guys. As awesome as this is going to be, it’s going to get awfully boring, even WITH Suze around.


Anyways, before I sign off, fun fact? The reason the blog is named 23 Seconds is because that’s approximately how long it takes for your blood to travel throughout your circulatory system. Is that not the coolest?


Happy Trails!


--Zach(ariah) Lewis