I'm very pokey once again about going this morning and still feel the effects of the hard day I had yesterday. For breakfast I mix a dehydrated soup mix with my leftovers from the night before and make a sort of thick type of gruel. It was good enough and plenty enough to fuel me up. I find that if I leave the poles to my tent attached to my footprint I can tip the thing over and tilt it toward the breeze to dry it off. I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Once dry I just brush the dirt off. By the time I get myself on the water the wind has picked up a bit but not too troublesome. I cross Horse Lake easily and spot a fisher moving along the shore along the way. I try to take a picture of it but he out smarts me. I find the path to Fourtown Lake and this portage also follows a small river but is much shorter than the Horse River. It has two marked portages on the map and I find two unmarked ones along the way. I am able to get out and wade up one of them to avoid portaging it but I do manage to get water in my boots because I neglect to pull my hippies up all the way. Now the wind is blowing pretty hard across Fourtown from the south, the direction I ‘m heading. I hug the shoreline and make small advances hoping to find an open campsite along the way. At one point, in a sheltered area I pull onto shore and ring out my socks and hope the wind will die down a bit but I know it won't. There is an old pop can on shore that is so old that it was opened with a church key. A church key is an old tool that punches a triangle hole in the can to open them and hasn’t been used for pop cans in about sixty years. I finally pull back out into the wind and find another sheltered spot next to an occupied campsite, stay a bit, and move on until thankfully I come upon an open site. While unloading the canoe I stand partially in the water keeping my canoe afloat with my legs so the waves don't bang it against the bedrock shoreline. Not the best site but it'll do. I can't find a level tent pad but off to the side of one is pretty level so I set up there. It's been a bright clear day and is suppose to be clear tonight as well so I leave the rain fly off. I can see the stars come out from inside and I am reminded of Immanuel Kant's quote, "Nothing fills my heart with ever increasing wonder and awe than the moral law within me and the starry skies above me." I've packed for a quick getaway in the morning and I turn to fall asleep-good night Mariel.

Social strategy: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. When you first meet someone it's best to put forward the olive branch. However, often times when someone first meets you they will take on a dominating persona. These tend to be highly critical people and often find themselves in positions of power. Deep down inside they have a superiority complex and are best avoided. As much as they will try to hide their natural behavior it will come out from time to time. If you have ambitions, however, you may have to grovel. Generally speaking the golden rule applies, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". This isn't one hundred percent accurate because what is pleasant to me may be repulsive to you. The other bible rule is, "An eye for an eye." This one is a little more difficult and applies when someone is treating you poorly and you cannot avoid the situation. It is not ten eyes for one eye. You will likely not be able to respond in kind as the motto suggests but something of equal measure is warranted. Having said this I would like to qualify it by saying that extending an olive branch every now and again would be a wise move just to see if behaviors have changed. Finally, form your opinions of others as much as how they treat others as they treat yourself. A good way to win someone over that dislikes you is by asking for a favor. It makes them feel that they are the better person and to refuse would make them the worse person. To try to flatter or buy their friendship will only drive them away farther. They will feel they are being manipulated.

Now that I have tried to explain how to be agreeable; I'll leave Ben Franklin to explain how to be disagreeable. Your business is to shine; therefore you must by all means prevent the shining of others, for their Brightness may make yours the less distinguished. To this End: 1. If possible engross the whole Discourse; and when other Matter fails, talk much of yourself, your Education, your Knowledge, your Circumstances, your Successes in Business, your Victories in Disputes, your own wise Sayings and Observations on particular Occasions, &c. &c. &c. 2. If when you are out of breath, one of the Company should seize the Opportunity of saying something; watch his Words, and, if possible, find somewhat either in his Sentiment or Expression, immediately to contradict and raise a Dispute upon. Rather than fail, criticize even his Grammar. 3. If another should be saying an indisputably good Thing; either give no Attention to it; or interrupt him; or draw away the Attention of others; or, if you can guess what he would be at, be quick and say it before him; or, if he gets it said, and you perceive the Company to be pleased with it, own it to be a good Thing, and withal remark that it had been said before by Bacon, Locke, Boyle or some other eminent Writer; thus you can deprive him of the Reputation he might have gained by it, and gain some yourself, as you hereby show your great Reading and Memory. 4. When modest Men have been thus treated by you a few times, they will choose ever after to be silent in your Company; then you may shine on without Fear of a Rival; rallying them at the same time for their Dullness, which will be to you a new Fund of Wit. Thus you will be sure to please yourself. The polite Man aims at pleasing others, but you shall go beyond him even in that. A Man can only be present only in one Company, but may at the same time be absent in twenty. He can please only where he is, you wherever you are not.