Of Happiness
There's a bevy of quail (or a covey, but in Utah that name has its own place) across the street. They keep showing up, but they don't come over here at all. That seems to be typical: the birds stay too far away to shoot.
With a camera, mind you. I mean with a camera.
KJ talks about eating them. He's a hunter, and rather enjoys the hobby. He eats everything he kills. He shot a porcupine by accident once, because it startled him. Yep, he ate that.
He says I'd be a good hunter because of the way I stalk birds. I'm patient and silent, and manage to move slowly enough to aim my camera, but quick enough to get the photo before they fly away. He says I could find them and take a photo, then he could shoot them and make them for dinner. I think to myself that I'd probably snap the photo and then scream at the top of my lungs to drive them away. Fuck hunting birds, I think.
I know hunting birds is like hunting anything else: it is spawned and supported by the notion of population control and preventing the creatures from starving to death or over-running another species in the same ecosystem. That's fine. He eats what he kills, and he doesn't kill for trophies. He doesn't kill indiscriminately. It still makes me feel bad. I was raised to have a distaste for hunting because my father frowned on it.
I'm willing to bet that I get dragged into hunting within the next two years.
On a happier note, I have a male Western Scrub Jay who has taken a liking to my birdseed bell. He's been back four times, and I've managed to get a few crappy photos of him through the window. I blame the window for assing them up. I've posted them on my photoblog, which is linked on the right-hand side of my main page. Just in case anyone wanted to see my little bluebird buddy. He's a lovely bird, but the window really screws the shot.
I am hating school, right now. I'm in a class called Business Systems Analysis. You know what? It's not about computers or IT at all. It's about financial statements and budgets and other bullshit like that. I don't enjoy the subject matter at all. I'm earning a B right now, though that may drop very soon, since I'm not doing my homework which is due tonight. I'm typing in here and dreading even attempting to do my homework. This class sucks.
The even worse news is that my next class is a continuation of this one. Such horseshit. I can't believe I pay for this crap.