thanks a lot anita;) i think i’m going to take some environmental classes and read more wilderness books. For Stalking the Wild Asparagus and Survival with Style, I am going to look for those books at cheap prices or maybe try to get them free online, but for now I’m reading mostly wilderness books from the new jersey library. i think i will print out what you wrote and thanks a lot for your help:) i have two books currently one of fishing and the other on hunting guns. i am also reading up on first aid. i looked up that in new jersey, a hunting and fishing class must be taken before acquiring a license. thanks a lot anita;) i can’t wait for school to start so i can talk to my teachers about some parts of the spring break work that i have questions about. current;y there seems to be a lot of steps to take, but i was thinking of starting with getting to know my home state of new jersey first, learning to drive and explore that way. after finishing college (taking courses in wildlife, environmental science, botany, etc.), i think i will get a job as a police officer and make money to help me with traveling and camping in the wild. i have learned how to make a tourniquet, splint an ankle and since i love lots of things in the medical field, i am picking up first aid quite decently. i think the one thing i need to work on is building shelters, but i could always bring a tent since i know how or use a tree shelter since i know how to use sticks to make a tree bed and i also don’t have experience fishing or hunting so i’m going to learn. i think i will try to pack as much as i can, food water, shelter materials, and fire materials such as magnesium bar, rubber (still burns if wet), matches and magnifying glass. most people think if you are well prepared that isn’t called surviving, but i think i want to learn what it’s like to live in nature, to appreciate the beauty of it and to experience the abundance of life around me and not just merely survive. but also stay relatively light henry david thoreau’s book Walden, Walk in the Woods is cool and i think it would be fun to live that way for a while. i would still be part of civilization, but be mostly surrounded by nature and learn what it had to teach. i love to garden and plant and i think i might have a small farm like thoreau did and work on it. i wish my parents would stop thinking i am inadequate to do these things because i have been camping and hiking when i was little and i love to be out in nature and help people. i think there is a beauty in nature that is calling to me to be more spiritually fulfilled. whatever path i take, i’m going to try to make the most of it and enjoy life. people go through life never seeking opportunities remaining in their conventional ways and they miss out on what’s really important, they miss out on the adventure of life. even though life is an adventure of opportunities it is also important to be level-headed and plan things well which is why i think when i go camping, i will spend lots of time researching and take some friends along to be safe. i don’t think this is the life my parents want for me to be out in nature and to follow being buddhist, but i think it’s what makes me truly me. i had a dream last night about the buddha leading me through the woods and he hid for a while when we came to a rocky path and i had to walk alone, i stumbled a lot, but i didn’t give up. when i had completed the path and the buddha reappeared, i was angry at him for abandoning me, but the buddha said “sometimes you have to take your own path in life and sometimes you have to walk alone.” then he took my hand and lead me the rest of the way. i think the dream says that i have to take the path that i’m meant to take even if i’m uncertain where it leads or if i have to take little steps toward it. there will always be obstacles and people who are criticizing, but i know my place now is to be in nature, to learn how to be positive spiritually and help others. my interests in science and the medical field have lead me to consider being a spiritual counselor. my friends andrew, dave and my special friend all love nature and science. dave used to run cross country and hike, while andrew has been camping and my special friend like me sees the beauty in nature. if my special friend ends up being my soul mate, i think it would be great to go camping together and if we end up going separate ways, i’ll still keep spreading spiritual love.

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/hunted.htm

thanks a lot anita;) I got the idea about rubber from Hawkes Special Forces Survival Handbook by Mykel Hawkes. Thanks for telling me that rubber and magnesium aren’t good ideas;) i think purifying water with iodine tablets, sun or water filters are great. i have found a book called Camping in Canadian Rockies, deadfalls and snares which I think is cool. i looked up Country Wisdom and Know How and the library doesn’t have it, but they do have Country living : simple country wisdom by Waggoner, Susan. Here are some wilderness questions: What are the best techniques to use including a map and compass when out in nature so you don’t get lost? What is the best communication device to have on you if you need to call for help? What are some good techniques to use to signal for distress or okay? What is the simplest shelter to build?
I’m also considering
Adventures in edible plant foraging : finding, identifying, harvesting, and preparing native and invasive, wild plants
by Monger, Karen.
Daily Strength for Daily Needs
Mary Wilder Tileston

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=wilderness&start_index=26
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34110/34110-h/34110-h.htm
http://e-booksdirectory.com/listing.php?category=188

i’m glad there are so many resources online and thanks for your help anita;) i feel like at times i feel small and i’m not sure where to go, but i know that when i’m uncertain, i should accept the uncertainty and use it to help me work my way to certainty. like the stars that seem small in the vast dark night sky, but are really big and shine bright; things that seem small can lead to big things. each star in the night sky has their own path and people should not let the dark vast sky just swallow them, they should get out there and experience life, to get out there and live and shine brightly no matter how small they seem. like the stars who seem dim in the night sky at times, life can have its obstacles and sometimes the vastness of the world seems to pull you in all directions, but you should still hold on to the light of hope. a small glimpse of the stars is better than none at all. whatever road i take, i’m going to look to the stars and be a light also for others in darkness. i think this will inspire another poem about stars and the night sky, how there are millions of them each for the spiritual beings we are all interwoven and dsipersed throughout the night sky, making the dark sky bright.

thanks a lot, anita;) you are really helpful and encouraging, a true star that helps guide people;) I also borrowed a book on Eastern Forests by Ann Sutton and Reader’s Digest North American Wildlife (1982). in ap environmental science, you get to take filed trips and learn about the environment and also you get to grow plants and raise fish, so i may take that course possibly in college. field biologists often study wildlife so i’m looking at a lot of field biology books. in the last few chapter of Into the Wild, some researchers speculated that chris mccandless may have been a field biologist studying out in nature b/c most people were unsure about his motives for being out in nature until there was a documentary released on the strained relationships of mccandless’s parents. also, andrew said that often times field biologists have an advantage since they know about wildlife. i feel these days that i can just listen in class and pick it up quickly and also sometimes my intuition helps me as well. i tend to have developed a detached perspective of the world, where i let go of all attachments to material things. i feel like there is a film in front of me and i’m only absorbing the joy and laughter of life and sorrow and sadness don’t come in. there are times when i may doubt myself at times, but dave and andrew are great, they are both very knowledgeable dave in first aid and andrew in wilderness. i had a doubt about how in buddhism you aren’t allowed to kill things and i asked andrew about it since his mom is a buddhist and he said that buddhists are technically not allowed to hunt and fish, but since he and his father both hunt, she doesn’t mind. i think there are exceptions such as if you have to kill to survive. dave was talking about the universal soul and how everyone is connected in the universe and how that animal or fish that was killed would become part of my soul so it would still be living. dave, like me believes in angels and an afterlife. andrew and i were debating about the power of influential thinking such as if you tell a child at a young age that he has say been ice-skating before and he/she truly believes it (even though they never have), could it be possible that when they go for their first time that they would do well? I feel like the mind and body are connected and the mind affects the body’s movements so in the case of ice-skating, there could be a chance that the child would do well. but andrew and i debated another scenario that involved this case this time using the example of firing a gun. andrew was adamant in saying that even if the child truly believes he had the experience of shooting, when he goes for his first time, that doesn’t mean he will hit the target, but he may come quite close to it. the thing is if you really believe and think you have experienced it before, it seems to become a part of you and causes you to have more confidence and do better. then there is the question of whether people are born with natural talent or they develop it like rene descartes says through their experiences. i feel like people are born with instinct and sensitivity to the world around them (intuition), but they learn physical knowledge through experience. i feel like the people who truly believe they can and give it their all often have success, but there is also the idea of circumstances and your surroundings. What if you were born in a bad setting and your circumstances are hard with obstacles, then no matter what even as a natural genius you still have to work hard. dave rejects the idea of reincarnation b/c he says it doesn’t explain the fairness of the poor people in our society. he believes that everyone should have a good attempt to have a better life from their past lives, he thinks “If your prior life was bad, why wouldn’t you try to change it? What about people who are born into their surroundings who don’t seem to have control over their surroundings, how is it fair to them that they have to reincarnate from this life? Reincarnation doesn’t seem to give us much choice.” Yet, i think each one of us has the choice to take a chance and change our lives, but it can be hard especially if you have hard circumstances to work with. I think what dave is saying is that some people who were born into that life don’t have all the chances to make their lives better b/c they don’t have the resources and it’s not fair. Yet, reincarnation gives you a chance to reattempt the dreams that you couldn’t in this life. but andrew says that not all dreams come to fruition and sometimes it’s better to just leave them behind. andrew seems to scoff at reincarnation altogether b/c he doesn’t think that people have second chances to redo their life again, he thinks it is a bit selfish and that people should live with the choices they made in life and that sometimes even in reincarnation people still don’t change b/c they were shaped that way. yet, dave argues that there is an universal soul and it is shaped by our actions in life, so maybe it is possible that people are all interconnected and if they are go through the same experiences through their interconnectedness, would it be better if people could experience reincarnation so they could all make the world work. i think i feel a calling out in nature to me and many people seek refuge in nature to find themselves. andrew has become like a happy buddha these days, he always laughs and seems to enjoy knowledge and even though we still compete, we have a lot more fun than being fierce competition. we were laughing about gophers and prairie dogs and having them in our backyard. i think andrew and i both have a passion for science and pre-calc and we enjoy nature. my special friend seems to feel left out again. today, i was so busy debating and wondering that i felt bad for only offering a casual hello to him. i am getting less interested in ap english b/c i feel there is more than reading text and taking notes and just writing a few essays on rhetorical devices. i like pre-calc and physics b/c i learn about work, energy, cars and also the unit circle is fun esp. when calculating coordinates and applying the angles to a car on the road. i have been also been using the angles to measure how to make holes in lined paper so i can hole-punch them later and when i did it today, after letting andrew check them, i only missed by .5 inches;) i also have been learning different codes for forensics and having fun with them. i also find it easier to divide paper into even sections since my brain is mentally able to figure out where the lines of the paper cross.

here is another wilderness question: are hunting licenses state-transferrable? what happens if you come back from camping in the wilderness and your hunting license is already expired (nj licenses are valid until december) such as if you spend 3 years camping and hunting?