Another great update for 20 Zdenek's 20 states

The same guy that responded before has responded again. I responded to the email he had sent me from before, giving him a link to my blog page.
This is a little of what he wrote to me:

I just thought I'd let you know that based on your blog we probably have more in common than just our name. I'm guessing from your postings your a single parent (I am too) who is also working on getting a degree. I have been trying to juggle working full time during the day, raising my daughter and taking part time classes in the evening to get a degree too. A little less than a year ago I realized I needed to spend more time helping her with school work at night and I starting feeling guilty about being away when I was in class. So I decided to take a break from school. Since then, I have really missed learning and the feeling that goes along with knowing I was on my way toward earning something that would build a better future for us, and that no one could take away from me. I have thought about going back, maybe through an online program if I could find one that I thought was reputable enough.

Anyway, I just thought I would tell you that because based on what you wrote, I think you have a really great outlook on life and I think its great that you are raising two children and working hard to finish your education at the same time. It is inspiring to me maybe it will be the final push I need to get started again myself. I can definitely understand and respect the fact that neither of these tasks is easy and together it can be really hard at times, but I truly hope you succeed with this project and all your other work and I am happy to have been even a small part of it.

I sure am happy you could be a part of it too Andrew. And I sure do hope you decide to go back to school, I know it would be worth it!
And in the wise words of Nike I say 'just do it'!

I thought everyone would think this is very nice, hope you all enjoyed this wonderful response I have gotten.

My Final Project, ... for this class

When I started thinking about this project I wanted to do something to do with harmony. I started out thinking how can I show harmony as I see it. So I made a rose on the ground with a little bumble bee on it out of clay. I thought, this symbolizes harmony for me. The bee needs the flowers pollen, and the flower needs the bee to take the pollen. The circle of life, I was going to paint it and have it fired but it didn't make it. This is what it looked like before it fell apart.

So, after the tragedy of my rose and bee breaking. I crushed it up, added water, and began again.

This time I was thinking, how can I really show harmony from my point of view. I knew I wanted to use clay to do this project because I love working with clay. But what could I do to show harmony? Well the most harmonious thing around my house is my white shepard dog Sugar and my orange cat Garfield. They give each other kisses, play together, and sleep next to each other often.

This is them sitting together. Aren't they so cute? Heres a couple more just for fun.

Aww, they are so cute. It is funny how well they get along though. Garfield was born here, so this has always been his home. When we got Sugar though, Garfield wasn't very happy at all. Sugar was huge even when she was a puppy. Garfield thought for sure we had brought a kitty eating machine home. He had a real hard time coming out from the back of the house for more than two weeks. He would sneak out leaning against the walls the whole way, then scurrying out quickly just to go to the litter box and to get food. He hated this big thing we brought home, I think he hated us for bringing Sugar home for a while. Sugar always got excited when she saw Garfield even though he hated her. We think she always knew that they would be great friends someday. She was right! Now Garfield loves her so much that they hang out together all the time.
Enough about all that, this is what I made to symbolize harmony in my household.

This is the best story I have to describe not judging a book by it's cover. Our cat was judging our new puppy by it's very large cover, but he couldn't have been more wrong about her. And now they live happy in harmony together. Once enemies now friends forever.

Research Project

A geoglyph is a drawing on the ground, or a design produced on the ground, either by arranging clasts (stones, stone fragments, gravel or earth) to create a positive geoglyph (stone arrangement/alignment, petroform, earth mound) or by removing patinated clasts to expose unpatinated ground (negative geoglyph).

One of the most famous negative geoglyphs is the Nazca Lines in Peru. Other areas with geoglyphs include Western Australia and parts of the Great Basin Desert in SW United States. Hill figures, turf mazes and the stone-lined labyrinths of Scandinavia, Iceland, Lappland and the former Soviet Union are types of geoglyphs. The largest geoglyph is the Marree Man in South Australia.

The Nazca Lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches 53 miles or more than 80 kilometers between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. They were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and 700 AD. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fishes, sharks, llamas and lizards.

Since the discovery of the geoglyphs, various theories have been proposed regarding the methods and motivations underlying the lines' construction. The archaeological explanation as to who made them and how is widely disputed but many believe the Nazca people made the lines using simple tools and surveying equipment. Wooden stakes in the ground at the end of some lines (which were used to carbon-date the figures) and ceramics found on the surface support this theory. Furthermore, researchers such as Joe Nickell of the University of Kentucky, have reproduced, without aerial supervision, the figures using the technology available to the Nazca people of the time. With careful planning and simple technologies, a small team of individuals could recreate even the largest figures within a couple of days.

This is a human geoglyph, the people stood around with candles to for a shape big enough to see from the air.

OK OK now what did I do with that? I made my very own mini geoglyph! My dad wasn't happy at first but he let it go.

This was so much harder than what I thought it would be. I found these giant roots I had to dig up. I also got a huge pile of dirt that I scooped out of it!

But after all the work was done it really was pretty cool!

I think I learned more about it all than I even realized. When I made a more planned dig on the left side, it came out more even than when I had first started on the right side where it is crooked. It certainly wasn't an easy thing to do!

20 Zdenek's in 20 States UPDATE

I received my very first response to my postcards in my connections assignment and thought I should tell you all of my excitement!

Andrew from New Jersey got back with me. His email went like this:

Hello from New Jersey!

I got the postcard you sent.

That was very unexpected, but also very nice. Thank You.

It made me smile and gave me something interesting to talk about. It's definitely not something that happens everyday.

As you suggested, I'll be sure to do something nice for someone else and help uphold the reputation of the great name of Zdenek : )

I'm just wondering how you were inspired to send it? Is this part of a project you're working on? Are we possible related in some way? Or are you just really outgoing and nice?

Thanks again, and I hope things are going good for you as well.


Thank you Andrew!

I was hoping that someone would be surprised pleasantly by the beautiful Post Cards I sent out!

I connected with someone, Yay me!

Peer Grade

I was given Kristen to grade in class. She had made a paper portrait of herself. I give her an A, because it was imaginative, and it was pretty. I really thought it was something to look at. I made a crappy X out of swished flowers and used mud to make a finger print. So, from my point of view her little project was really good. That is my only explanation for the grade I gave her.

20 Zdenek's in 20 states

I decided that for the connections assignment I would connect with 20 random people with the same last name as me. My last name is unusual I thought so this should be interesting. I found 20 people with the last name spelled the same way as me in 20 different states across America. I got 20 post cards and I am sending them to the 20 people. I always get so excited when I get something cool in the mail, especially if it isn't a bill, or some jerk asking for money. So my daughter and I went to a store and picked out the prettiest 20 post cards we could find. I wrote a simple message telling them I hope that this brightens their day, and if it did to try to brighten someone else's day. Because I know that if I am in a good mood other people around me seem to be in a good mood as well. If these people set out in a good mood other people should be in an equally good mood. I wished them well, and let them know that if something really amazing happened to them as a result of this I would want to hear about it. I gave two address I could be reached at. I hope I hear something from one of them, that would be so cool.

Hear are some photos I took of my post cards.

Progress on my room

It's been a while sense I have posted anything at all but I thought I would start up again by telling you all about the progress I have made towards making my new room. Since the last time I posted about this I was unable to get the nails out of the siding. I found out that they actually make a tool just for this purpose. Wouldn't ya know it, oh well, better late than never. I have gotten all the walls uncovered and ready for new walls and drywall. Yea!

This is the siding I took down, I think I can take it to a scrap yard and get some money for it since it is aluminum.


This is the scrap wood and paneling I took down.

My sense assignment

Like everyone else I just was drawing a blank with this one, so I did what I am pretty sure I am able to do absolutely best for me in the world, and I surfed the Internet with my best friend Google and found some really cool ideas on how to use your senses to help your creativity, I thought well that's just wonderful just what I was looking for. The site is rousingyourmuse.com. Pretty cool I thought. Any how there were so many suggestions that I had to choose from I decided to do a couple things. First, I went to the liquor store across the street, my mom is the manager there so I gets perks, ha ha. of the subject, anyhow. I got a flat wine bottle so I could empty out the bottle and add water. I took the labels off with goo gone (love the stuff) and dried it all off I walked around not continuously but frequently looked through the bottle so I could see my surroundings differently, some things looked like their were multiples of them some things just looked blurred, my dog even looked like she had a hundred legs as she walked toward me (she is a daschound) and she was dark so to me she looked like a spider. It was fun. some of my blurry photos.

This is one of those blur photos that look like multiple things. The fans to me look like there are more than what really exists to me, maybe it's just me, ha ha I don't know. But regardless, I see more than what are really there. There are two fans there, if you don't see more then it must be me. Any hoo another photo.

This just adds a little mystery to what it really is, I can see stuff, but I am not really ---------->

able to tell what most of the things are. anway. Next

This one to me looks like something else is there up by the ceiling.
<-----------

Now, I got this idea going, I wondered the infamous "what if" question again what if we saw everything upside down and it was naormal for us to see that way. things would stand up they would hang down, trees woundn't grow up they would also hang down, for your veiwing pleasure.

My Bliss

I live in the living room of my parents house, I have been planning my own room for quite a while now, but have not started to take down the old walls yet (which is an important step before new walls can go up). Here are some pictures of where I sleep and store my stuff as of now.

This is my bed, right nest to the couch.

The really old computer the children have games on to play, my bed, and my dresser. You see the front door? Welcome to my bedroom! oh wait this is the living room, not fun to live in the living room.

Which brings me to my bliss, the act I am doing is not necessarily the blissful part. It is the result of my act that is going to be the blissful part.

Here is how I spent my 2 hours and 40 minutes in bliss, it all starts like this.

I have materials just sitting around

My old door and my new door, I gotta get this going.

This is my old window still in with my new window under it,
The new window is going to be so nice

More materials,........
Time to get started.

Getting ready to start yanking the wall down.

I couldn't get the nail out, man what kind of nails are these?

Damn nails!

The nails never did come out, so I yanked it off!!!

Ya know, before this I didn't know that this is what siding looked like on the inside,...
pretty crappy.

And the walls come down!

So much done, so much more to do!

And I am done for the day, 2 hours and 40 minutes to accomplish nearly nothing,
at least it's a start.
I'll keep up to date improvements as they happen!

What the bleep do we know?

After we watched the movie, I had so many things running through my head. The part about water really got me thinking. I have so many problems that I cannot seem to control, and the explanation of addiction totally made sense to me. I have tried to think of things differently everyday, and for the most part I think the different point of view does help keep me in check. I really liked the movie, I think that I might try to find the sequel so I can see what it has to say, Many of the ideas they had are things I have thought about in depth for a very long time, I feel that hearing their point of view helps bring clarity to a fuzzy world, I will probably watch it again. I think that the ultimate message for me through it was, you are what you think you are; and thoughts are the most powerful tool we have. I love the human mind, with all of it's simplicity and complexity. What an amazing organ!

beastly woman at McDonalds

I am sure that more interesting things will happen to me today, but I thought I would share what has happened so far. I took my children to McDonald's for lunch today, and we had to get their lunch my lunch and my mom and dad something for lunch. Well in all the scramble of remembering all I was supposed to buy I forgot to get me a large sweet tea. So I calmly get back in line (my food has not even come yet) and I wait patiently to oder my tea. There is a very large beastly trailer park trash looking woman in front of me who also has her really fat nasty husband with her and like four children (who amazingly looked healthy). I wait and my children are a little jumpy so I coax them to stand still that I am waiting in line, well at this point we are now waiting behind the very large nasty woman who has to corrupt all her children with soda pop. After she fills all six cups with ice and fills all six cups with soda, I am finally given the right to approach the ice machine, she turns to me and asks me, "you don't have many patience do you?" I stared in amazement, what? I said. Did I offend you because I am an excitable person and I was waiting behind you? she answers yes you did offend me, I sarcastically replied well I am so sorry, please accept me apology for offending you. you big fat B****! I continue to mumble because at this point I am offended and furious, I mumbled something like well you don't have much common sense do ya, she hears me and replies excuse me, and I looked back at her and said well you don't have any common sense that was so rude of you! I got my stuff and left the building wishing that I knew which car was hers cause it wouldn't be a good car anymore. (probably good I didn't know). Just venting for a moment, thought everyone would get a good laugh out of this one, nasty twit didn't need to be eating McDonald's anyway, and I know she didn't need the caffeine the soda had in it. Truth be known she was probably insecure about whether or not I was being impatient cause she knew she was taking forever at the only ice machine in the building. Maybe some milk might have been a better choice for her young children than soda. I dunno just some thoughts I had.

Sunday,... The cleaning of the fish tank.

Today we cleaned out our dirty nasty fish tank, I forget about the fish all the time cause unlike dogs or cats they don't remind you of anything. My cat will meow and become really annoying real fast if he wants out or wants food, and the dogs are always bugging especially if you have food. So it is hard to forget about them. But the fish don't do anything but quietly swim so I tend to forget about them, to feed them or clean their tank so today was a big day. Today was the day that we had to move the poor little fish and clean the tank completely, removing the old rocks and all. I didn't take a before picture, but now I wish I had cause it would have made these pictures so much more valuable.

This is our newly cleaned fish tank!

I washed this eal thingy and some of the paint came off.

This is my snail guy saying "no fishing!".

One more of our clean fish tank before we put the fish back in it, So I bet you wonder where are the fish that was in it now?

Here they are in this itty bitty teeny weeny fish bowl, I bet they are going crazy in there.