blue

I think that this is beautiful. Amy Seeley can really sing out...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:34:33 -0500

I think that this is beautiful. Amy Seeley can really sing out everything.

I absolutely cannot stop watching this. It is phenomenal. I will...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:23:23 -0500

I absolutely cannot stop watching this. It is phenomenal. I will be posting a new photo tomorrow. My Tumblarity went from 26 to 3 in a week.

[nothing, really] I just bought this CD because I didn’t...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:17:29 -0500

[nothing, really]

I just bought this CD because I didn’t know the Dodos had a new CD. It’s really good. You should buy it too.

[it bears repeating] I’ve just discovered Noah and the...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:30:00 -0500

[it bears repeating]

I’ve just discovered Noah and the Whale and I think they are a great indicator of how great things are.

The future holds great things for those that search for their goals.

[another day] I’ve been very happy lately. Recently...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:45:51 -0500

[another day]

I’ve been very happy lately. Recently I’ve made some good changes in my life, and I’m very pleased with the outcome. This last Thursday Sam and I went down to St. Simon’s Island for the day. Being liberated, even if so briefly, of my constant schedule and feelings of unease imparted upon me a true relaxation, one that I am entirely sure I needed. It was a day of nothing. We left the previous night from Athens, intent on arriving on the island before sunrise. Despite a very odd pull-over by Glynn County police regarding the reason that we were behind someone going over the speed limit, then searching our car, finding nothing, and letting us off with a very kind warning, we made it there. We walked on the beach immediately upon arrival, reveling the sand between our bare toes and the smell of the sea coating our nostrils, and it was amazing. I played music in a gazebo while Sam danced. Seeing her dance is like watching ideas flow; she moved as though she were a liquid. The sky fogged before daylight broke, and there was no visible sunrise, so we returned to the car and somehow slept 6 hours, waking up because the car was getting hot on the inside. Then we walked through town, lay on the beach and waded in the ocean, ending with a comfortable coffee at Palm Coast Coffee, reading a book to the sunset. An indubitably perfect day.

However, in the saddest of events, my external hard drive crashed, and I’ve now lost all of my photos from before this miniature vacation. I’ve nothing left from the summer, from the years before. I hope that I can recover the data somehow, but it’s incredibly depressing to me that I have lost all of my work. My hard drive on this computer is simply too small, and it was inevitable with the amount of strain ol’ Darwin has been put through. (For clarification, Darwin was/is my external drive.)

So, onward, upward.

Some of friends are sad and lost and far away. I only get to see them in lenses and in my...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:22:01 -0400

Some of friends are sad and lost and far away. I only get to see them in lenses and in my imagination and in songs and scents that remind me of them.

Keep hope.

[a day] This post is for Becky, who reminded me that there is a...

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:32:38 -0400

[a day]

This post is for Becky, who reminded me that there is a reason to write.

It seems that I haven’t written here in a long while. I think that the reason for that is that I haven’t felt as though my life is interesting since I left the road. I’ve been back in the same college town I was in before, and I lust for the road with unquenchable thirst. That part of me is locked up for now, not seeing things. That part of me will have to wait for now.

I feel that there are some things that I may have forgotten to mention in previous updates; fragments of experience that were relevant and have changed the currency of my world.

For one, the car I drove back from Wyoming was apparently in enough disrepair from the elk that I probably forgot to mention hitting that my insurance company claimed it as “totaled” and paid me only enough money for me to lose about 2k on it. However, after much moving of money and conversation with my parents, they agreed to help me pay for a much more reliable 2006 Honda CRV, which is my current mode of long-distance transportation.

More recent events include my decision of my future degree, which will be that of Anthropology and Drawing. As much as I adore the Photography program here, it is simply too expensive for any use to me, and drawing is cheaper and one of my other artistic passions. Also, I am enjoying my time in Athens far more than I was last year, and I am glad. And I’m learning Russian.

One thing has been bothering me very much of late, and that is the infrequency at which I click the shutter button on my camera. I purchased much camera equipment, but have not given myself up to using it enough.

I promise to update more often.

Day 88: (A means to an end) I’m a day away from being...

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:10:44 -0400

Day 88: (A means to an end)

I’m a day away from being home. I’ve travelled over fifteen thousand miles on this trip, and I’m almost home. No more mountains. No more cool northern breezes. No more Lake Lodge. No more bison.

It’s so odd. I really feel like I’ve left a part of myself behind up there. I don’t know if it’s for the better or not, not just yet, but I do feel a part of myself that’s changed. Being in that environment up there, the melting pot of the world; its effect is astounding. I’ve left behind many friendships, many memories that live on only in writing and in photographs. The problem is, it’s difficult to relive what we all experienced there in memories. One doesn’t feel as though they are back, only that one is prefacing a return at some point. I do know that I’ll go back, I just don’t know when.

On my drive out, I drove through the Beartooth Pass. It was positively the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen. It was more impressive than all the mountains, canyons, skies and fields that I had seen before that point. I remember about ten miles after I had gone through the Northeastern entrance of the park, I stopped to look back at the Pass, and I was awestruck. The mountains stood in all directions like the teeth of some demon slowly closing it’s disastrous maw upon the world. Glorious. I wish that I could have taken pictures or written things that properly described what I saw, but it was not something that can be explained. One must simply go and understand the majesty of those mountains. I’m sure there are many more for me to explore and be awestruck by, but these were the most impressive this far. I was dumbfounded by their regal monument. It was as though some giant had carved his mark upon the earth in a time of utter fury.

I have much more to say of my return, but all in good time. I am glad that it is almost over, but I feel that it is the first of many, many to come.

Day 70: (reach out) It’s been a long run this far, and...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:38:35 -0400

Day 70: (reach out)

It’s been a long run this far, and I’ve realized that I’ve been making a lot of mistakes in the way that I interact with people, so I’ve decided to move forward and attempt a huge change in the person that I am. I don’t like who I’ve been, and I’ll be out of that way soon.

Not much else to say, really. I’m leaving this beautiful place soon and it hurts to know that I’ll have to be on my way back soon. The drive back will be interesting, and I’ll be stopping in Indiana for a while to consider a transfer to IU. I don’t know what the future holds for me, and I’m waiting to find out, with a new outlook to boot.

Day 56: (I can’t explain it all) The past month has been an...

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:13:30 -0400

Day 56: (I can’t explain it all)

The past month has been an adventure. A working, small-wage earning adventure. I’ve been all over Yellowstone, all over Wyoming, and all over Montana. I’ve been making a good number of friends here, all radiant, happy people that I am so glad to have made friendships with. I may have already said this, but it’s like the college experience that I missed out on. Granted, there is alcohol pretty rampant here, but I can do other things if I want to, up mountains, under rocks, into streams and rivers… There’s a lot to do, and I absolutely adore being here. I know that when the time comes I’ll be sad to leave… it’s so beautiful here that I really feel as though going home with be an aesthetic drag. Yesterday, Aaron and I were driving and saw a huge group of people on the side of the road with their ridiculous lenses staring off into the horizon. I asked what they were looking at and they unanimously announced “Bears!”. I didn’t understand it, because right behind them was this endless, wide, beautiful rolling landscape, and they were appreciating a single element of it because it was living. I don’t think I’ll ever understand it. Above are some of the elements of my adventures, each a story in itself. The first is of Aaron when Aaron and I were on Specimen Ridge, the second after a beautiful hike in the Tetons, the third Lake McDonald in Glacier. Ask me about them sometime. They are all stories.

I’m really at peace here. This place has been inspiring me to consider myself further. There’s much to me that I have been learning about that I didn’t know existed, and I’ve started to become a more honest person, which I admit that I haven’t been in the past. I think that being true and honest to oneself is really what matters; when that’s been achieved the true person is presented to outsiders rather than an invention constructed of what one wishes to be. Aaron has been showing me this. He’s very genuine, and this is something I greatly admire. I don’t know if I’m genuine, but I hope to be one day.

I’ve been reading into the values and qualities of life. Not in a sense of the quality of in a superficial sense, but more in terms of what I want my life to mean, because quality is something you have to define on your own. When someone asks you what you believe your “qualities” are, what are they really asking? I could supply some placable answer such as my ability at languages, or my personable nature, but recently I’ve been thinking a lot about that the qualities of my life are not such. What do I value? What is a quality, or quality itself, in the first place? I’d love to know from anyone reading. My email address is bornfromblue@gmail.com

Day 23: (campfires and sex jokes) As you may have read, the...

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:44:59 -0400

Day 23: (campfires and sex jokes)

As you may have read, the internet is difficult here.

We decided to go camping, in a spur of the moment decision. Katherine, Kevin, Randi and I packed up and got out of the dorm in about an hour, everything packed up and ready to go. We headed down to the Grand Tetons, drove through and into Jackson, bought food, then turned around and camped at the same place that I camped at a couple weeks ago. Then we set up camp, talked for hours in my tent, went to sleep, and trekked up the Cascade Canyon in the rain the next day in the rain and snow.

The more interesting fact is how close I’ve gotten to all the people here. I’ve spent the last two days with three people in the mountains, and I’ve gotten to know them so well. The are amazing people, each with their own incredible stories. Talking to them as long as did I opened them up. We know incredible things about these people I haven’t known for more than a couple months. Even with the sky opening up above us and releasing all forms of precipitation, our spirits were never dampened. We are close. We aren’t the only ones, obviously. I think that everyone here is getting closer as the days come along. Despite the amount of people here, we are all getting to know one another better and better, and it’s because we’re all so different that we are getting so close.

I feel like I might be getting redundant. I had some amazing dreams the last few nights. I looked up at the sky before I went to sleep and got lost in the nothing. I wrote some songs and poems on some yellowing sheets of paper and remembered the past. I woke up in the sky, in the clouds, on the earth that was enveloped by mist.

We felt like legends.

Day 20: (waterfalls and ground squirrels) Well, I haven’t...

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:10:57 -0400

Day 20: (waterfalls and ground squirrels)

Well, I haven’t had internet in a good couple of days. So, I haven’t been able to update. So… That sucks. A lot.

Internet is a snailstorm. I know that’s not a word, but I’m still going to use it. I’m partially happy that it’s that way, but at the same time, I really wish that I could be update this every day without issues. There has been a LOT going on which I have to bring up. Nothing huge… (or is it?)

In all honesty, I am as exhausted right now as when I made Kayla write a few weeks ago, so this writing is going to be odd and nonsensical, in all probability. What I’ve been doing the last few days consists almost entirely of rickshaws (as we call them), Chinese, and complaints from my stomach about the food. Oh, and fun. Lots of fun. Can’t forget the fun.

On my day off a couple of days ago, Katherine, Cody and I decided to go on a hike past Grand Prismatic. Something as impressive as that is hard to put into words, even if it wasn’t entirely visible through the steam that was rising off of its surface in the temperature. The center is a deep iridescent blue that strikes your eyes, and the outer rims are the most incredible russet red that I’ve ever seen in nature. The colors are so incredible that something in me ticked another second. Although that doesn’t make all that much sense, that’s what it felt like. Spying the eye of the world as I did, steaming while I stood in the rain with two new friends, it is a changing experience. Afterward, we continued along the path toward Fairy Falls, and took many, many photos. It’s wonderful, I really feel like I’m making some good, genuine friends up here. I’ve only known them a few days, but they really are incredible. All of them are good people. In fact, 40 more came today. I don’t know how I feel about that yet, but I’m sure it will be for the better over the worse.

Since my day off, I’ve done nothing but work and realize how much being done with work is what I should be looking forward to. Today was hellish, to say the least. We, as a group, have finished most if not all of the rooms at Lake Lodge, so some of us were forced to go over and work in the Lake Hotel area to help out. There was so much work to be done, not to mention the fact that my TL (team leader) was completely anal-retentive and reacted to absolutely every small issue within a room that may not have been done up to her unimaginable par. A spot of water in the shower was enough to require a return and reclean. Hopefully I won’t have to work that sector all that often. I’m looking forward to my next day off (not until Tuesday) with gusto and aplomb.

There are few things that I miss, but I miss them well. I miss my family, and I can’t wait to see them when I do, but one person in particular is distressing me, because every day is difficult without her. Kayla Wardle, I miss you. So much. I love you like I didn’t know I could. The sooner I see you, the better.

Although it has rained every day since I’ve arrived, it’s a beautiful, cold place. Every day I see the mountains across Lake Yellowstone and the passion that I have for the world and the wilderness is reignited, and I feel a rising within me. I find myself being so gracious for the view that I get to see every day that I almost repeat it as a mantra; “Wow, I am damned lucky right now.” This, combined with the incredible population of my dorm, nay, the park (I did just do that), proves to be good evidence toward a predicable hypothesis. This summer has so much in store for me. I can’t wait to spend days out in the wilderness, traveling through the territories of Grizzly Bears and Bull Moose. the excitement spring ever forth. This is the place that I was looking for that might help settle my soul, because every time I get back from grueling work, whatever the level of difficulty (note to self: ALWAYS eat breakfast), I come back to warm people and smiles, and memories I won’t soon forget.

Day 17: (pictionary and rickshaws) So we’ve been properly...

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:59:56 -0400

Day 17: (pictionary and rickshaws)

So we’ve been properly trained and we’re working. It’s tiring, but it’s a lot of fun. This far, my best (good) bed making time is 5:27. Pretty good, apparently.

It’s interesting, this experience is turning out to be, more or less, the college experience that I didn’t have. Everyone is awesome, has awesome stories, and they are all genuine people. In this picture, you see most of the people that have been making my days awesome here. The dude with the beard, by the way, is named Wolverine, or Wolfie. Or…. we called him that. Everyone has been making this such a great experience, there’s not really a different way to describe it. The most interesting part will be exploring Yellowstone with these people. There will be so much to tell…

I think that I’m going to be really happy here. I miss a lot of people, though. I’ll see you all soon.

Day 16, part 2: (a sight to behold) Well, my workday is over. I...

Sun, 31 May 2009 19:47:44 -0400

Day 16, part 2: (a sight to behold)

Well, my workday is over. I trained all day for a pretty menial job, but all the people that I’ve met this far have been absolutely awesome. I’m hoping that this journey works out to be just what I’m looking for, and as far as I can tell it’s going to be a total redo of college dorms. Where I had an awful time in the old dorms, and so far this looks like it’s going to be at least thirty thousand times better. It might be because there aren’t classes, but this far these are all amazing people.

I spent the last few previous days traveling on my lonesome from Salt Lake City to here, Lake Lodge, Yellowstone, Wyoming. I camped in the Tetons overnight and played music with a random guy who had brought his mandolin. I saw a moose. I ran from a moose. I got lost and had to follow a creek to a lake. I found a notebook in the forest in a bear box, and I wrote in it. It’s been a really interesting experience. I’ve been waking up earlier and earlier later, and I’m really glad. Seeing the Absaroka mountain range in the morning, waking up to it, is amazing. Apparently in about a month, the buffalo are going to pass right through our … campus …. in about a month. This place is amazing.

Expect a lot more in the future. These people are awesome.

Day 16: (yellow) I’m in Yellowstone! I haven’t been...

Sun, 31 May 2009 10:50:44 -0400

Day 16: (yellow)

I’m in Yellowstone! I haven’t been able to update lately due to a lack of internet, but I’m having an amazing time. I’ll have to figure out how to bring up more pictures than those I have.

So far, I’ve gotten stuck behind a buffalo, stuck in the mountains, taken pictures of snakes, and stubbed my toe so bad that hasn’t closed up yet.

Expect a bigger, more elaborate update soon.

Audio

Fri, 29 May 2009 21:06:17 -0400

Audio

Fri, 29 May 2009 21:04:53 -0400

Audio

Thu, 28 May 2009 20:47:35 -0400

Day 12: (hibachi and great-grandparents) I went and ate at some...

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Day 12: (hibachi and great-grandparents)

I went and ate at some barbecue place with my uncle Gonzalo, and I ate so much meat that I couldn’t eat dinner at the Hibachi grill for my cousin’s birthday. SO much barbecue. That’s Gonzalo above, being an awesome (idiot) guy with some shrimp. What hilarity ensues. Also, I got an actual hiking bag today, and I’m Dinosaur National-bound tomorrow morning. Thanks to my family here in Salt Lake, I’ve had a miniature vacation from the travel. It’s been nice. They are really nice.

Something really sad occurred today. Apparently my great-grandmother of 103 years passed away. It’s sad because there was a time when she came to stay with us in Georgia, and I knew her then. Not well, but I knew her. I never really thought about it too much, and I don’t think that I have yet, that death does not take long to arrive. It’s good to know that she’s no longer suffering (because she was certainly suffering, she hardly knew who anyone was and her skin was like paper). I know that’s something that everyone says, and she may actually not have been suffering, but it’s the best thing that I can come up with.

Death is something that we think about every day and never talk about often. I know that, as I’ve mentioned before, every time I heard sirens I think of death and change. Is death change, then? Is it the passing of an individual from life to eternal sleep? I don’t really know, and I won’t until I die. I’m not a religious man, I don’t believe that there’s a “better place” for people when they die, only that they die when they do and all they can hope for is to have lived a full life. That’s what I intend to do, anyway. I don’t plan on living forever; I know I don’t want to live as long as Thelma (my great-grandmother) did. When I’ve gotten to the point that I can’t function on my own, I think that it’s time for my life to come to a close. I never want to be dependent on other people at such age, reverted to mindless blatherings about possible youth and daipers. Never, I repeat, never will I get to this point. I want to die bye the sea, doing something I love, seeing something I love, or at least being near it, not in a windowed room where people come to check on me in my delirium.

Like I’ve always said, I want to be that old guy with a surfboard that walks the beach during the day with a huge smile on his face and just as many stories to tell as I have wrinkles.

Day 11, Part 2: (kayla) Of the many things that I have loved...

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:55:40 -0400

Day 11, Part 2: (kayla)

Of the many things that I have loved experiencing on this journey, the companionship of Kayla Wardle has been my favorite. It made me so sad to see her leave on the bus (whose terminal was decidedly airport-like), and I haven’t really done anything since she left.

Goodbye, lover of shining days. I will see you soon.