Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Online Fiction

Here is Shooter Magavin's Myspace.

If you can't see the picture slide show then maybe try using a PC instead of a Mac?

Thanks Roger have a good summer

Monday, April 21, 2008

fiction start

1. My chameleon has decided to make a myspace page looking for other chameleons to start friendships with.

2. He will inevitably tell his story of how he grew up and became my pet. He will go on to explain his hobbies, what he likes to eat, pretty much all about himself. My chameleon is lonely living by himself which is why he starts a myspace trying to meet other chameleons that like to chat.

3. My chameleons name is Shooter Magavin. Other characters will be my cat, my friends, and I. The main characters motivation is that he just sits around all day being bored with his cage and wants to create a myspace. His goal is to meet other chameleons online. His conflict is that he is in a cage and isn't very mobile, so he needs to make friends on myspace.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

fiction

I found a fictional Will Farrel my space here.

I also found a fictional skit on youtube here.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

So I started my wiki article on Kier Dillon a professional snowboarder. The only problem was I misspelled his name, it's Keir Dillon. So I copied my history from my old page, just in case it was needed, and put it down here. Then I just copied my whole edit page from KIer and made a new one with KEir. Wow so yeah heres my page... KEIR DILLON


Wednesday, April 2, 2008

My wiki add

I am going to do my new wiki post on Kier Dillon a professional snowboarder. He is well known in the snowboard community and has won numerous contests.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Wiki minor edit

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Snowboard&action=history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowboard

I found that it was fairly simple to edit the snowboard page. For some reason I was thinking that something crazy was going to happen after I clicked save, but nothing did. It feels good adding to a major base of knowledge.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

my wiki edit

I think I will be editing the wiki article "snowboard"
I could add a few things on snowboard design and bindings

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

10 wiki-mandments

1. Cite sources
2. Check your facts
3. Etiquette
4. Neutral point of view
5. Edit warring
6. Articles kept relatively short
7. Written in a formal tone
8. Avoid using jargon
9. State the obvious
10. Use color sparingly

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Snapshot


Around the time I was seventeen years old and a junior at Pocatello High school in Idaho. I began to get in trouble with the law. Drinking was exciting, fun, rebellious, and new at the time. Plus a lot of other countries don't even have a legal drinking age, was my teenage opinion. I had already successfully obtained an underage alcohol consumption ticket, one of those "in the wrong place at the wrong time" type of things. My Drivers licence had been taken away for three months and I had to pay a big fine. But the only thing that taught me was don't be stupid and don't get caught again.

So on a Saturday night about a month after my first incident with the law, I happened to be consuming alcoholic drinks once again. My friends and I were at a small gathering at a buddy's house close to mine. It was my friend named Colin who had the lovely idea of a "case race" (where 2 people split a case and see who can finish their half first). Colin and myself had a twenty pack of Coors light bottles. Wow what a wonderful game I had thought at the time. 1, 2, 3...10 down the hatch. Colin had beat me but it's kind of a win win game, and we were both basically obliterated. I had rode with my neighbor Justin who was only drinking a couple and was our designated driver for the night. Colin had told his parents he was sleeping at my house so we all hopped in Justin's 1987 Toyota Camry and took off.

"Justin can you pull over for a second," Colin slurred in a drunken tone. "Can you wait till we get home," I asked. "Nope," Colin uttered. As we began to pull over Colin threw the back door open and started to puke. Justin looked at me and we both just started laughing. But the laughter suddenly stopped when we saw a car approaching. "Colin get in the car here comes someone," Justin snapped. "Oh shit it's a cop," I said. It was to late the fuzz rolled past us and saw Colin throwing up outside the car. I quickly spun around to see his break lights light up a little ways down the road. Colin shut the door and we took off. "Gun it," I yelled "I am," Justin said. It was to late the cop was right on our tale with his red and blue lights aflame, we had to pull over.
My hands got sweaty and my heart began to race as the nervousness crept in. "If I get another underage consumption my licence gets taken away for a year," I half slurred half stuttered. We all waited in pure fear as the police officer came to the window. "Have you guys been drinking tonight," the police officer said. "No sir," said Justin confidently." The officer shined his flashlight at Colin in the back seat only to see a slouched squinty eyed kid with throw up on his sweatshirt. He then shined it on me and I threw a cheesy "I'm smashed" grin. "Can you step out of the vehicle for me," the cop asked Justin. Great I knew we were all screwed. The cop was going to take us out one by one and breathalyze us. As I sat in the car pondering my next move I realized that my house was only over the side of this hill to the right of us. That's when one of the dumbest ideas came into my intoxicated brain. "Colin I'm gonna make a run for it," I said, "My house is right over that hill." "Are you kidding me don't do that," Colin expressed. "If I get a ticket for evading a officer my licence wont be taken away for a year," I said.

It was to late I had made up my drunken mind, if I was going to run for it, it had to be now. I grabbed the handle and flung the door open ready to run. Little did I realize that Justin's car had the automatic seat belts that once the door is opened you have to wait for the seat belt to motorize down. As this was going on the officer and Justin just stood there looking at the opened door wondering what was going on. Another thing I didn't realize was that the patrolman was probably the only one on the force that was in excellent shape, very young, and fast.

All of a sudden I burst out and started running into the darkness. He chased after me and was right on my heels. "We got a 1540, in pursuit I need backup," I heard the officer yell into his radio right behind me. When I got to the hill it was to steep and I was stumbling and sliding down trying to get traction. I kicked off my shoes and got a grip right as the cop tried to grab my legs. I crawled up the hill at lightning speed adrenaline rushing threw my body. When I got to the top I was so out of breath and shook up that my ears started to ring and I thought I was going to pass out. I put my hands on my knees and breathed heavily until the pass out phase passed.

I walked a little further and sat down at a point overlooking the road. My socks had huge holes in them and the ground was cold and hard. I was surrounded by juniper trees, sage brush, and cactus. I watched as tiny blue and red lights raced past me on the road below spotlighting the hills with no outcome. It was like a dream, I couldn't believe what I had done. Just then I heard voices and saw a flashlight coming threw the trees. I jumped up and started running threw the woods toward my house. The dead sprint I was in didn't help me see the barb wire fence up ahead. I smashed right into it flipping and ripping my pants all the way down. By the time I got to my house I was on all fours with cactus thorns in my feet, wasted, barely any pants hanging on completely exhausted.

What a glorious idea it was to run. The next day I found out that the police had knocked on my door but no one answered, that I had a warrant for my arrest, and a really bad hang over. Although this was one of the scariest experiences I have ever been through, I ended up getting away scott free when the cop who chased me didn't show up for court. But I didn't get off that easy because at seventeen my parents weren't to fond of my actions and I was grounded for what seemed like eternity.

"card" sources

Topic: Grizzley bears

Traditional source: Bear in Mind: The California Grizzley by Susan Snyder, 2003, p. 52

Online source: Derych, John. "Brown/Grizzley bear facts." 2001. <http://www.bear.org/website/Brown-Bear-Facts/Brown-/-Grizzly-Bear-Facts.html>.

Non-Traditional source: "Mother Cougar vs Grizzley Bear." by Goldchain13, 29 March, 2006.
<http://youtube.com/watch?v=h7MuFDVEUro>

Academic Journal: Schwartz, Charles C., et al. "Evaluation of Rules to Distinguish Unique Female Grizzly Bears With Cubs in Yellowstone." Journal of Wildlife Management 72.2 (Mar. 2008): 543-554. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Instant Message conversation 2

This is an Instant Message conversation with my friend Dylan from Chapel hill, North Carolina. Dmaix17 is Dylan and I am Elbrando12. Dylan goes to school at the University of North Carolina at chapel hill (UNC). This conversation started randomly when I got online to check my email and it happened to be during a very important UNC basketball game, which Dylan was watching. I was not watching the game because I was at the library so he updated me while we talked. Throughout the conversation we also basically update each other on stuff such as how our weekends were, video games, and spring break plans. But consistently me and Dylan touch bases about the score of the game and UNC basketball.

When we talk about Halo with numbers we are talking about our ranks in the game on xbox live. When we mention Rumble pit we are talking about a game type.


elbrando12
: whats up dylan
dmaix17: chillin watchin the unc clemson game
what are you doin
elbrando12: oh really whats the score
dmaix17: 80 82 clemson
with 32 seconds left
oh my god
its tied
damn
clemsons pretty good
yea
that duke unc game sucked
yea it was horrible
it was cause we didnt have lawson
yea whats wrong with him
he like sprained his ankle
he'll be better before the tournament wont he
yea he should be
did you get crazy this weekend or what
haha not at all
i had a bunch of tests last week
and smoked so much on friday
and then last night i went to a movie and passed out
jeff and ben came down and chilled sat night was a little out of control
yea i have a test monday
nice
yea i have a physics one next week
but it shouldnt be to hard
i played call of duty on live
im getting pretty sick of school not gonna lie2:
yea it sucks
it was all intense
yea we should play halo its so fun
i kept getting worked
id try to do halo shit and just get run
ive been playing halo lately tho im a 44 in rumble pit now
nice
i went down to a 42
what were you
a 43
so nothing bad
nice
whats the score of the game
84 84
it went into OT
2:45 left
didnt they go into overtime last time they played
i think so
hows north carolina weather
is it still hot
its been so nice
like sunny 60 degrees
its straight freezing here
damn
yea its been getting warmer here
what are you doin for spring break
no idea
whens yours again?
uh hold on let me check
march 17-22
mine starts march 7th
and classes start march 17th
its 90 90 with 30 seconds left
clemson ball
now 2 seconds left UNC ball
well?
UNC timeout
damn
UNC passed it in and called another time out
yea i just checked out my shit and i don't have any tests that week u have spring break but your thinking of coming out here after school right
yea
i might try and go for spring break too
but im like 95% sure im coming after school gets out
it just went into another OT
nice
well not nice i guess
but im gonna go
dmaix17: alright take it easy
Elbrando12: later

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Instant message conversation

This is an Instant Message conversation with my friend Dylan from Chapel hill, North Carolina. Dmaix17 is Dylan and I am Elbrando12.


elbrando12
: whats up dylan
dmaix17 is online.
dmaix17:
chillin watchin the unc clemson game
dmaix17:
whats are u doin
elbrando12: oh really whats the score
dmaix17:
80 82 clemson
dmaix17:
with 36 secs left
dmaix17:
oh my god
dmaix17:
its tied
elbrando12: damn
elbrando12: clemsons pretty good
dmaix17:
yea
elbrando12: that duke unc game sucked
dmaix17:
yea it was so gay
dmaix17:
it was cause we didnt have lawson
elbrando12: yea whats wrong with him
dmaix17:
he like sprained his ankle
elbrando12: he'll be better before the tournament wont he
dmaix17:
yea he should be
elbrando12: did you get crazy this weekend or what
dmaix17:
haha not at all
dmaix17:
i had a bunch of tests last week
dmaix17:
and smoked so much on friday
dmaix17:
and then last night i went to a movie and passed out
elbrando12: jeff and ben came down and chilled sat night was a little out of controll
elbrando12: yea i have a test monday
dmaix17:
nice
dmaix17:
yea i got a physics one this week
dmaix17:
but it shouldnt be to hard
dmaix17:
i played call of duty on live
elbrando12: im getting pretty sick of school not gonna lie
dmaix17:
yea its gay
dmaix17:
it was all intense
elbrando12: yea we should play its so fun
dmaix17:
i kept getting worked
dmaix17:
id try to do halo shit and just get run
elbrando12: ive been playing halo lately tho im a 44 in rumble pit now
dmaix17:
nice
dmaix17:
i went down to a 42
elbrando12: what were you
dmaix17:
a 43
dmaix17:
so nothing bad
elbrando12: nice
elbrando12: whats the score of the game
dmaix17:
84 84
dmaix17:
it went into ot
dmaix17:
245 left
elbrando12: didnt they go into overtime last time they played
dmaix17:
i think so
dmaix17:
elbrando12: hows north carolina weather
elbrando12: is it still hot
dmaix17:
its been so nice
dmaix17:
like sunny 60 degrees
elbrando12: its straight freezing here
dmaix17:
damn
dmaix17:
yea its been getting warmer here
elbrando12: what are you doin for spring break
dmaix17:
no idea
dmaix17:
whens urs again
elbrando12: uh hold on let me check
elbrando12: march 17-22
dmaix17:
mine starts march 7
dmaix17:
and classes start march 17
dmaix17:
its 90 90 with 30 secs left
dmaix17:
clemson ball
dmaix17:
now 2 seconds left unc ball
elbrando12: well?
dmaix17:
unc timeout
elbrando12: damn
dmaix17:
unc passed it in an called another timeout
dmaix17:
with 1.2 secs left
elbrando12: yea i just checked out my shit and i don't have any tests that week u have spring break but your thinking of coming out here after school right
dmaix17:
yea
dmaix17:
i might try to go for spring break to
dmaix17:
but im like 95 percent sure im coming after school
dmaix17:
it went into another ot
elbrando12: nice
elbrando12: well not nice i guess
elbrando12: but im gonna go
dmaix17:
alright take it easy
elbrando12: later

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

observation revision

Time: Thursday night around 6:00pm

Location: At my house observing subjects A and B for around 10-15 minutes playing Call of duty 4

Subjects A and B sit down to play Call of duty 4 on x-box live. We have two LCD TV's with two x-box 360's set up in a small room. The room has light peach walls with white carpet but it is hardly noticed because the lights are dim. Massive poster maps of the world decorate the walls. There are two computer chairs that the subjects sit on. Subject A is a smaller sized guy wearing gray sweatpants and a Utah sweatshirt. He has very short light brown hair with a scruffy beard. Subject B is large in size and height. B is clothed in red gym shorts and a white t-shirt. He has very long bushy dark brown sideburns and is wearing a blue wool beanie. Both subjects are Caucasian and both have controllers in hand.

The game starts and subject B asks subject A "what gun is good for this level." "The shotgun will tear it up, just use flash bang grenades" says A. The game is a first person shooter where all you can see is "your hands" holding a gun. The mission is to kill more enemies then the amount of times you are killed. The subjects run around in a war zone atmosphere trying to kill the other team. As I watch subject A's face his expression changes constantly. His eyes widen and he bites his lower lip. Subject A has a firm grasp on the controller and his thumbs are moving with amazing speed hitting the buttons. They both are leaning forward at the very edge of their chairs and are close to the screens. "Damn," says A as he leans back quick to relax his posture after he is killed in the game. Subject A leans forward again bites down on his lip and lowers his eyebrows. His eyes stay peeled open and he doesn't blink until he is killed. As I start watching subject B he has a smile unlike A. B turns to A and says while chuckling "The shotgun is so tight." A doesn't reply and is still rapidly firing buttons. Subject B grabs some baked lays shuvs them into his smiling mouth. He wipes his hand vigorously on his jeans and grasps the controller. The chips crunch loudly over the war zone sounds of bombs going off and guns firing constantly in the background. Both subjects lean back in their chairs as the noise comes to silence and the game ends.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

observation

Time: Thursday night

Location: At my house observing subjects A and B playing Call of duty 4

Subjects A and B sit down to play Call of duty 4 on xbox live. We have two lcd tv's with two xbox 360's set up in a small room. The game starts and subject B asks subject A "what gun is good for this level." "The shotgun will tear it up, just use flashbang grenades" says A. As I watch subject A's face his expression changes constantly. His eyes widen and he bites his lower lip. Subject A has a firm grasp on the controller and his thumbs are moving with amazing speed hitting the buttons. They both are leaning forward at the very edge of their chairs and are close to the screens. "Damn," says A as he leans back quick to relax his posture after he is killed in the game. Subject A leans forward again bites down on his lip and lowers his eyebrows. His eyes stay peeled open and he doesn't blink until he is killed. As I start watching subject B he has a smile unlike A. B turns to A and says while chuckling "The shotgun is so tight." A doesn't reply and is still rapidly firing buttons. Subject B grabs some baked lays shuvs them into his smiling mouth. He wipes his hand vigerously on his jeans and grasps the controller. The chips crunch loudly over the warzone sounds of bombs going off and guns firing constantly in the background. Both subjects lean back in their chairs as the noise comes to silence and the game ends.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

dirtbike 2







This past summer I was living with my father in Pocatello, Idaho where I went to highschool. It's definantly a fun place to live with all the awsome outdoor activities available. He lives in the mountains where there are plenty of trails for riding dirt bikes. We own two KTM 105's which are smaller than a normal size bike, but are still really fast. Me and my friends had been riding all summer and we had decided on taking our bikes up to some trails about twenty five minutes from our house.

We pulled up to the parking lot and began to unload them from our truck. I had two of my best friends Justin and Jeff with me that day. It was an extremely hot dry summer afternoon but we were all eager to have some fun. After slipping our helmets on, strapping up our gloves, and locking the truck we hit the trails. We all decided on going to a track that wasn't far away to play around on some jumps and berms.

I was in the lead being fairly confident on how to get there. We were riding in basically a desert type atmosphere with sage brush blanketed hills and small patches of juniper trees. The trails were dusty and the faster I went went the cooler the wind felt. After about 10 minutes of cruising we were there. I had been to this track once before and I thought I knew where I was going. I started going fast up a trail on a small hill. I thought it was the same trail I had gone on before and I thought I knew what was on the other side. When I reached the top of the hill in third gear I was ready for a little bit of air and a nice smooth landing. I immediately saw about a seven foot hole! Oh no, it was to late. I slammed on my brakes causing my bike to stop and me to keep going, hitting my knees and flipped over my handle bars. I had gone up the landing ramp of a jump and the hole was from the dirt they used to make it. I flew in the air landed in the pit arms first and did a role. I looked up in time to see my bike about to hit me so put my legs up and kicked it out of the way. I had felt something not normal happen to my left arm as I landed so I looked over. My forearm was facing the opposite way my shoulder was turned. I immediately thought oh shit its broken and started yelling for my friends, who had not seen the accident happen.

Even though my arm was messed up and I should have been feeling pain it didn't hurt at all because of the adrenaline. We were far up in the barren idaho mountains with no help or anyone for that matter around. All that was going threw my mind was how am I going to get out of here. Once Justin and Jeff found me I explained things and we tried coming up with a solution for getting me out. We decided that Justin was going to off road the truck as close as he could and I would walk the rest of the way. As Jeff and myself sat there in the dirt with no shade in the desert I started getting real dehydrated. About forty five minutes later, after I almost blacked out Justin came running up with a Gatorade. After chugging it down we made a sling out of our shirts and began to walk. The pain was excruciating with every step and the beating sun didn't help. This was by far the worst part of my memory. After around a hour we had made it to the car and it would be another hour to the hospital.

Imagine walking into the hospital with a ghetto rigged sling out of shirts, covered in dirt, wearing torn clothes, and just looking completely exhausted, I couldn't help but smile. We had been through a lot. The x-rays came back and the doctor said that I had dislocated my elbow with a fracture as well. My elbow was the size of a grapefruit and I couldn't wait for my elbow to be back in place. I got put to sleep and they had to have two doctors lock my elbow back to normal. What a horrible memory, but one that I learned a valuable lesson from. The lesson being never assume you know whats on the other side of a trail. I promise I won't be neirly as crazy when dirtbiking comes around next summer. It only takes once.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Dirt bike accident

This past summer I was living with my father in Pocatello, Idaho. He lives in the mountains where there are plenty of trails for riding dirt bikes. We own two KTM 105's which are smaller than a normal size bike, but are still really fast. Me and my friends had been riding all summer and we had decided on taking our bikes up to some trails about twenty five minutes from our house.

We pulled up to the parking lot and began to unload them from our truck. I had two of my best friends Justin and Jeff with me that day. It was an extremely hot dry summer afternoon but we were all eager to have some fun. After slipping our helmets on, strapping up our gloves, and locking the truck we hit the trails. We all decided on going to a track that wasn't far away to play around on some jumps and berms.

I was in the lead being fairly confident on how to get there. The trails were dusty and the faster I went went the cooler the wind felt. After about 10 minutes of cruising we were there. I had been to this track once before and I thought I knew where I was going. I started going fast up a trail on a small hill. I thought it was the same trail I had gone on before and I thought I knew what was on the other side. When I reached the top of the hill in third gear I immediately saw about a seven foot hole, but it was to late. I slammed on my brakes and flipped over my handle bars. I had gone up the landing ramp of a jump and the hole was from the dirt they used to make it. I flew in the air and landed in the hole arms first and did a role. I looked up in time to see my bike about to hit me so put my legs up and kicked it out of the way. I had felt something not normal happen to my left arm as I landed so I looked over. My forearm was facing the opposite way my shoulder was turned. I immediately thought oh shit its broken and started yelling for my friends, who had not seen the accident happen.

Once Justin and Jeff got there I explained things and we tried coming up with a solution for getting me out of there. Even though my arm was messed up and I should have been feeling pain it didn't hurt at all because of the adrenaline. We decided that Justin was going to off road the truck as close as he could and I would walk. As Jeff and myself sat there in the dirt with no shade in the desert I started getting real dehydrated. About forty five minutes later, after I almost blacked out Justin came running up with a Gatorade. After chugging it down we made a sling out of our shirts and began to walk. The pain was excruciating walking and the beating sun didn't help. After around a hour we had made it to the car and it would be another hour to the hospital.

The x-rays came back and the doctor said that I had dislocated my elbow with a fracture as well.
My elbow was the size of a grapefruit and I couldn't wait for my elbow to be back in place. I got put to sleep and they had to have two doctors lock my elbow back to normal. What a horrible memory, but one that I learned a valuable lesson from.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Me

My name is Brandon Skoumal. I am a junior and my major is biology. I originally am from Omaha, Nebraska, but I have lived in Chapel hill, NC and Pocatello, Idaho. I chose to go to the U mainly because of the ski resorts and it's close to where my dad lives (Pocatello, ID), but not too close. I enjoy snowboarding, playing xbox 360 (mainly halo 3), racquetball, watching movies, and basically just hanging out. My favorite food category is Italian and I have no pets.

First blog

A blog can be many different things such as an online diary, commentary on news or a particular subject, or really anything the blogger feels free writing about.

I like the blog Tackychristmasyards.com. Although I would usually not go searching the internet for this type of blog, it caught my attention and I spent a good twenty minutes reading the posts, looking at pictures, and laughing. I also liked how the whole blog was set up with the yard violations with definitions on the right hand side of the page for reference. This blog is very unique and I definitely enjoyed it.

My favorite Web 2.0 application would have to be Wikipedia.com. This application has tons of information and links on just about everything. I probably use this Web 2.0 app. more than any other because of how quick it can answer a question I am searching for.