ISTJ

Inspired by Christy's post and the increased talk of personalities after many of the staff took the test here at camp I took the test last night and determined that I am in fact what I thought I was (an ISTJ). Kristin had evidently just been telling Bekah that I had a "strong personality"... which could be shown by my exceptionally high scores (see Christy's post for the scores of a more well rounded person). I am still not sure that I am quite as strong a "J" as this test indicates but the rest seem pretty reasonable.

The scores (out of 20)

Extrovert: 3
Introvert: 17
Sensate: 19
Intuitive: 6
Thinker: 20
Feeler: 5
Judging: 18
Percieving: 6

Forbidden Nectar

Notice the fly that has been trapped

One of these damselflies was still struggling to get free. The other, although still alive, had given up hope

On our last day off I spent quite some time examining, taking pictures of, and lecturing my fellow day offers about a couple types of plants we found abundantly along our route. Both are carnivorous plants which "eat" insects to get the nitrogen they need in the acidic environments where they grow. The first being the pitcher plant which has urn-shaped leaves with downward pointing spikes on them and a sweet smelling juice in the bottom that digests whatever unlucky creature falls into it. The second (pictured above), is the sundew (in the same family as the Venus flytrap). These plants have sweet smelling and extremely sticky glands on the ends of hairs on the plant. When an insect touches one hair the other hairs begin to move towards the prey so that another, and then another contact is made by the plant thus holding its prey more and more firmly while preparing for it's meal.

The devil has many temptations that may seem quite attractive... but if we hold on to one "cherished sin" there are other sticky tendrils that begin to move toward us - other temptations that take advantage of our vulnerability and quickly entangle us in a much worse trap that we could have imagined would result from that "cherished sin".

Unlike the flies in our story, however, we do have a way to escape...

"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation". (Hebrews 9:28)

The Son of God, Creator of the universe, came to this earth and died to give me the choice to escape the sticky snares of the devil.

Will you allow him to free you from sin as well?

Breaks From Camp

Geocaching

The view from Big Slide towards the Great Range

The view from Ampersand


...More adventures to follow as the summer wears on!

Botany

Day Without a Camera

This May I have been taking two classes, a Botany class and an Entomology class, both of which require a lot of field work. I am often let go at noon with the requirement that, besides a lunch break, I need to spend the rest of the afternoon roaming the fields, woods, streams and bogs in search of specimens to bring back, preserve, and identify. Usually when I have gone out I've brought my camera with me since I never know what I might see... but so far haven't taken too many pictures. Today I figured I could do without its bulk and left it behind which turned out to be a mistake. I got within five feet of a baby woodchuck and even closer to a baby rabbit. I caught two snapping turtles one of which could have made the average dinner plate disappear underneath it and easily weighed 15 pounds. I also caught a snake and saw two really neat tree frogs.

Next time I think I'll bring the camera because I seemed to get more interesting insects when I had it (even if I didn't see as much other cool stuff - my grade doesn't depend on what pictures I take).

Weekend Jaunt

Caving buddies

Better light reveals the filth in our lives

We were able to make the trip home in about a third of the time it took to get down to SAU... you can see in the picture below, which I took on our way back up, there were no traffic jams on the highway to slow us down.