Month: December 2025

An Observational Rant

On By StevoIn anthropology, critical thinking, nature vs. nurture, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I honestly don’t think some humans care at all how others view them when they are in public…and maybe they do not even realize they are in public.

What follows is some of my over half a century of observational evidence of this bizarre and problematic phenomenon:

“Adults” who are loud talkers insulting/bullying/demeaning the person(s) they are with in some bizarre attempt to draw attention to their target(s) with the goal to make some lame point or expose/humiliate, when in reality they are making themself look supremely infantile. Here’s an idea: grow the frak up you 12 year old little brat!

People talking loudly into their mobile communication device as if increasing the volume of their voice will make the person on the other end of the “line” hear them/understand them better.
Here’s an idea – noone anywhere wants to hear your incoherent, chimplike hooting, no matter how important you believe you are…and your device has a super sensitive microphone that can detect a whisper, AND the ape on the other end has a volume control and will turn you down when you get annoying. Be respectful you filthy, matted, hairball.

People watching videos/things on their mobile devices at max volume (or any audible volume) in a resturant, waiting room, bus, train, plane, ship, etc…this is happening 20′ from me as i type these words.
Here’s an idea – be respectful of others and get some earphones/buds you obnoxious drooling troglodyte!

Parents/people loudly yelling hate/ obscenities/absurdities at their unfortunate offspring.
Here’s an idea – don’t have offspring if you cant control yourself and treat them with the respect they deserve. Are you purposefully trying to lead by your awfully hateful example and make them a carbon copy of your disgusting hateful self?! 

People talking loudly at each other across a span of space occupied by other humans (ex. train, plane, bus, waiting room, resturant etc.). Here’s an idea: walk closer to each other and converse at a reasonable voice being respective of the others in the room. Whatever it is, it is not all about you, you miserable stinking troll.

People who crowd up to the elevator door as if upon arrival it will be magically empty and is there only for them. Here’s an idea: push the call button and stand back you impatient wank walker.

People who blow their nose in a crowded public place such as a resturant – even with a napkin or handkerchief, this is just disgusting and nasty.
Here’s an idea – have some respect for others around you, step into the bathroom or outside and blow your festering air hole all you like you putrid steaming snotnozzle.

Impatient bully types who just have to be first in every line, que, or intersection.
Here’s an idea you greedy tantrum tossing tool – have some respect for others and wait your damn turn.

People who disrespect our only planet by littering, defacing nature with graffiti, poachers, and those who exploit nature for personal gain without any consideration for future generations…

…and so many more. If you have encountered similar lack of respect from the seething masses of humanity then feel free to add your own examples in the comments.

Heavy Thought Time

On By StevoIn anthropology, critical thinking, earth, Environment, nature, nature vs. nurture, religion, Science, space, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To create a life is rather easy, people do it all the time.

To create good people, that is possibly the most difficult thing we will ever do.

We have all heard about the nature vs nurture debate, and from where I stand as an observer of nature, I see many deep connections between all living things everywhere I look – connections that run like fungal mycelium throughout the deep-time tapestry of life.

These ancient genetic connections are incredibly apparent to me because I see them in myself. I was adopted as a newborn and spent the next several decades with wonderful, loving parents who nurtured and cared for me, giving me a comfortable home, an education, and most of all, the ability to think for myself. They let me choose my own path – they did not force on me any specific religion, politics, or any other worldviews – they let me choose for myself who I was to become. They were the nurture side of the coin that I received in this coin toss called life.

On the nature side of the coin: From a very young age, my curiosity about the natural world around me was incredibly strong. I have always had a deep empathetic nature and a deep connection to animals, nature, wildlife, and the silent teachers that exists in the forest, an endlessly flowing river, the rolling ocean waves, and the deeptime knowledge that exists in every rock, tree, mountain, water drop, and in our own DNA – these are teachers that only some of us can hear.  Due to these deep connections to the natural world I always wondered if I had inherited this intense love and focus on nature from my biological family.

Then, in 2018, I used the tools of science to find my genetic family and my suspicions were confirmed – my love of nature was indeed genetic – my father and all my family members were great lovers of nature and all things wild and wonderful. My father and I shared so many things in common – even down to things like favorite foods, TV shows, music, vehicles, wildlife, it is really astounding how many deep connections we share.

So for me specifically, the nature vs nurture argument is no longer a debate – i am a product of both of these things.

From my point of view, and from my lived experience – I believe that at birth we carry within our genetic code, a singular sequence specifically written by the experiences of our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and far far back into deeptime, to a time before we gave ourselves names, before we harnessed fire, before we were even human. This ancient code sequence is the nature side of the coin. It is a hard written instinct stamped into our DNA by the experiences of all our ancestors. This ancient code is expressed,  like it or not, by our consciousness.  But what the heck is consciousness anyway?

In an attempt to answer this age old question we need to flip the coin back over to the nurture side again and ask – what about our consciousness?  Where does it come from?  What is it that allows us to look in the mirror and say “Hello me, i recognize that i exist…i think therefore i am.” 

Where does the consciousness  originate?  Some say it is all in the mind…and maybe this is so.  However, I sometimes wonder if it comes from outside the body…another realm of existence that we have yet to identify.  Maybe we and all life on earth are part of this unique and massive energy field…this Singularity…and we are greatly limiting ourselves when we think that we are separate, apart, alone individuals.  But in reality…a reality we have not discovered yet because we are not yet ready, not evolved enough to experience that reality and understand it…maybe we are all connected deeper than we could ever imagine.  Maybe when our body exhausts itself and ceases to exist, maybe our unique consciousness – our soul – retreats back into this unknown realm, this undiscovered country, to rejoin with the rest of the whole where it then shares its lifetime of experiences with its “peers” afterwhich it is reset, and then born again as another lifeform on earth…or another planet in the vast cosmos – and the cycle continues.

I do not believe in omnipotent beings – a god or gods – and therefore i do not believe a devine creator being gives us each a unique consciousness – at soul – at birth.  I have this hypothesis that at birth, our consciousness is a blank clean slate…like a new computer waiting to have is blank but eager to learn storage drives filled up with all our unique photos, music, stories, history – the unique things we save close to our hearts and minds – the things that make us, us.

Maybe we are all born with this same basic, “blank slate” consciousness.  Maybe this blank slate consciousness is exactly the same for everyone – it is a carbon copy of whatever the first one was, whatever the first human being was.  Then, as we live and grow and are exposed to our family, friends, society, the media, religion, politics, science, culture, war, love, hate, bullies, hippies, laughter, passion, sickness, trauma, etc – maybe it is only after this exposure to all these unique outside experiences and influences, coupled with the genetic expression of our instinctual nature knowledge passed down from our unique evolutionary lineages, does our unique consciousness truly becomes ours, and only ours.  It becomes unique to each human due to the unique experiences each of us has experienced as well as the deep genetic connections we brought forward in time from our unique ancestrial DNA.

Maybe the “me” and “you” parts of our thinking brains are exactly the same until they experience life, the universe, and everything around us during our first few years of life – and then we become the unique individuals that we are – we become the you and the me that we see in the mirror.

If all this is so, then to guide an innocent young human into adulthood as a parent, teacher, or mentor, is possibly the greatest responsibility one could ever hold.

Choose wisely.

Think before you speak.

Be a good human.

Do good things.

Parasitic Prison

On By StevoIn Environment, nature, parasites, ScienceLeave a comment

In mid May of 2024 I was visiting family in central Florida and found a tick embedded on the small of my back. I pulled it off and flushed it, as i have done hundreds of times before – im a naturalist and spend alot of time outdoors. I’ve probably had over 100 ticks embedded in my skin over my 57 years of life and I have treated all of them the same – a good flushing and then go on with life.

Then, a few weeks later, I awoke with unusual symptoms that I thought was COVID-19. I made the trip to the local urgent care only to discover it was Rocky Mountian Spotted Fever and a co-infection of Ehrlichiosis. The docs put me on a month-long course of Doxycycline and another antibiotic, I cannot remember the name of. As usual, the antibiotics messed up my digestion and made me feel slightly nauseous, but between doses I ate dairy-free yogurt (I’m allergic to bovine milk) and it eased the backlash from my microbiome.

The week after the symptoms started, I experienced only one day of fever that never went above 101 and only a few hours of a frontal headache that a bag of ice calmed down a bit. The only namesake spot I developed was at the location of the bite – the spot was like a crusty scab about 1/4″ in diameter –  and it didn’t fully heal for many months… weird. The infectious disease specialist said that was indeed a symptom of RMSF…but that most people infected by this nasty parasite develop spots all over their body…so I was, in fact, lucky. 

I did not feel lucky.

For the next 9 months i had almost constant brain fog and almost no energy, and it took all my willpower to drag myself off the sofa to do anything. (I’m still finding it very hard to get off the sofa…)

In mid-December of 2024, I started feeling a bit better, but I was still lethargic, and it took me hours to get going in the AM. Sometimes I wouldn’t leave the house until after 11am…sometimes not at all.

By spring of 2025, I could feel the fog lifting and had more good days than bad.

Fast forward to mid-summer. I took a walk in the woods, and shortly after, I found another tick embedded in my leg. I was in a remote location, so I carefully removed it and kept it in the event the docs wanted to ship it off to the infectious disease lab to be studied (they didn’t), but they did give me a preventive dose of Doxycycline again, but no tick vectored disease retest.

Fast forward to today. For ~18 months, I have been living with the bizarre health impacts of RMSF and Erlichia.

It has been a roller coaster ride of truly bizarre symptoms. In the beginning, and for the first 9 months, I had daily lethargy, fatigue, muscle and joint pain as well as heavy brain fog, on and off depression, and sensitivity to light, sound, hot and cold – especially cold – and short-term memory problems.

Then, for the last 9 months or so, on most days the brain fog and chronic fatigue symptoms have lessened a bit but, the muscle and joint pain, unexpected weakness, sensitivity to light and sound and heat and cold have increased – sometimes to the point where I feel as if I cannot do simple tasks such as taking out the trash or lifting a wrench. For the last couple of months, the muscles and joints of my lower arms and not as much my legs, have felt as if they have been hit with several blows from a hammer…but there is no recent trauma or bruising – my calf muscles often cramp, and I have nerve pain/neuropathy in my feet. My elbows and lower arms ache when I move them – and it gets worse when I try to move or lift anything…a real-life example, imagine if your lower arm muscles hurt when you squeeze the toothpaste tube to brush your teeth – that is what this is like. It truly suks in every way possible…but at least I’m not on fire LOL.

I am an active person with many plans and projects going on at all times. However, since I acquired this nasty, tick-vectored infection, I have not at all been myself. I feel like I am a prisoner in my own malfunctioning meatpuppet spacesuit that we often call a body. I have had to put many plans on hold simply because I do not have the energy to do them.

Needless to say, the events of the last 18 months have really started to weigh heavily on my mind. I am truly concerned for the future of my health. Chronic fatigue and pain with an insidious creeping lethargic depression have become my normal state. Recently, my doc mentioned that my symptoms are similar to ME/CFS, but he does not want to make that complex call just yet…

The only things keeping me positive and looking to the future have been my wonderful wife, who has helped me so much during this long-term ordeal. She has always stood by my side to help me get through this, and I love her so much for her care and compassion at this low point in my journey.

Earthshine Nature Programs, the small nonprofit organization I founded and operate on the side, has also helped me, as it has given me purpose. My nature and environmental outreach programming has taken me to many local summer camps, schools, and festivals, where the smiling, happy faces of the next generation always lift my spirits and give me hope.

My wonderful 501c3 volunteers and interns and my coworkers – they have all been so supportive during this time. They have checked in on my classroom and nature center and its inhabitants and/or taken on the heavy lifting needs of my programming and gone above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you all for being so awesome!

My 501c3 friends and supporters who have helped me keep things moving forward, even when I’m moving as slow as cold molasses in winter.

My personal friends have freely given their kindness and support and have been so patient with me, and for all that, I cannot thank them enough. They are all my heroes!!! I truly do not know what I would do without them.

My doctor has worked tirelessly to get me through this. Over the years, he has gotten me through many common and not-so-common health challenges, but this one may be the biggest yet. I know that he will find a treatment for this condition, and that gives me great hope that one day, I will come out of this depressed state of physical and mental health and get back to life.

Currently, my most recent bloodwork came back mostly OK, so that is a good thin,g and the new Rx of Lyrica seems to really be helping with the pain.

Personal insights I have gained from this ongoing health misadventure:

If you are an outdoor-oriented person, as I am…or was…then please heed this warning; if you find a tick on you and it is embedded in your skin, do the following immediately:

  1. Go to your nearest urgent care facility. Have them remove the blood-sucking parasite the correct way. They may send it off to be tested so they can update the range maps, etc.
  2. If they do not prescribe a preventive dose of antibiotics such as Doxycycline, then please ask them to do so.
    DO NOT TAKE THE CHANCE.
    DO NOT PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE with your health.
  3. Learn about the tick/mosquito and other parasite-vectored diseases in your area and know what to do if you or a loved one is bitten* by a parasite.

4. Keep your outdoor pets treated for ticks/fleas – humans are often infected with parasites that hitchhike inside the home on their pets, then drop off and bite the human inhabitants of the home.

  1. When journeying into the wild, always take precautions to keep the nasty parasites from feeding on your meatpuppet body suit.
  2. Nature is beautiful, but it does not care about you, your family, or your friends. You are just another animal trying to survive on a unique wet rock floating in space, and nature will kill, devour, digest, crap out, and recycle you if given the chance.
    Therefore, you are responsible for taking care of yourself and your loved ones.
    Improvise, adapt, overcome, evolve, survive, and thrive.

Learn more about parasite-vectored diseases in your area:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950248925000379

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/tickborne-diseases-in-the-us

https://epi.dph.ncdhhs.gov/cd/diseases/rmsf.html

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/ticks-and-tick-borne-diseases

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/about/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/rocky-mountain-spotted-fever/about/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/ehrlichiosis/about/index.html

https://tic-nc.org/

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/vector-borne-diseases

  • I have been bitten by many cats, dogs, a few Opossums, many non-venomous snakes, one venomous timber rattlesnake, a mad prairie dog, and a few humans – but the painless bite of a tiny tick has, BY FAR, been the most damaging and debilitating of them all.