What Were You Thinking?

Victorian parliament after the storm

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 01:59:52 -0400

Victorian parliament after the storm

Awesome alleyway 2 (Taken with Instagram)

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:52:51 -0400

Awesome alleyway 2 (Taken with Instagram)

Awesome alleyway 1 (Taken with Instagram)

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:49:59 -0400

Awesome alleyway 1 (Taken with Instagram)

Nightly buzz (Taken with Instagram)

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 06:05:08 -0400

Nightly buzz (Taken with Instagram)

Melbourne central gardens and museum (Taken with Instagram)

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 04:55:34 -0400

Melbourne central gardens and museum (Taken with Instagram)

Kickstart

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:34:45 -0400

I can’t think of a better was of saying it - saw this online the other day:

THis is YOUR life, DO what you love, and do it often, If you dont like something, change it. If you dont like your job, quit. If you dont have enough time, stop watching TV. If you are looking for the love of your life, stop. They will be waiting for you when you START doing the things you love. Stop over analyzing, life is simple. All emotions are beautiful. When you eat. appreciate it. Every last bite. Open your mind, arms and heart to new things, and people.

I’ve only been on the road for two weeks now, but I couldn’t have asked for a better start. I’ve visited with family that I hadn’t seen in ages. I’ve knocked off a few things on the bucket list and have a few more in the scope. I’ve started a new job that works me harder than I’ve ever been worked, and its on the same scale of glory as my old job as a cleaner… but it was a challenge. One side of me is saying that working in a small room while ‘abroad’ is a waste. I come home to an empty place and Im exhausted - its difficult to muster up the drive to explore or run. On the other, I’ve had to stick out my neck and find an employer. Im learning a new and challenging skill set that push me in a way I’ve never been pushed. The coffee is weird. The people are friendly and active. The city is fantastic, and the weather sucks. Lets see what the next two weeks bring.

great concept

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:51:41 -0400

great concept

Top of grouse mountain (Taken with Instagram)

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 17:12:24 -0400

Top of grouse mountain (Taken with Instagram)

Cold beer in hand, smokey fire burning at my feet, and a deck chair by the water. Im a little drunk...

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 01:14:55 -0400

Cold beer in hand, smokey fire burning at my feet, and a deck chair by the water. Im a little drunk on you and high on summertime.

Taken with Instagram

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 19:36:23 -0400

Taken with Instagram

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 01:01:12 -0400

Taken with Instagram

"You’re focusing on the problem. If you focus on the problem, you can’t see the solution...."

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:42:39 -0400

“You’re focusing on the problem. If you focus on the problem, you can’t see the solution. Never focus on the problem.”

- Arthur Mendelson

“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:10:40 -0400

“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell

from http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/50-most-inspiring-travel-quotes-of-all-time/

"The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life. Its so easy to make it complex. A solution..."

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:48:15 -0400

“The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life.
Its so easy to make it complex.
A solution that may be for a lot of the world’s problems
is to turn around and take a forward step.
You cant just keep trying to make a flawed system work.”

- 180 degrees south

Bleed out your heart, if its still beating for someone...

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 01:39:43 -0400

Bleed out your heart, if its still beating for someone else.

Break all those chains that keep you tethered, that keep you safe.

collegehumor: Kid Proud of Farting in Mom’s Lap September 21,...

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 07:57:33 -0400

collegehumor:

Kid Proud of Farting in Mom’s Lap

September 21, 2010: a day we will all remember.

Flying Through the Storm Naturally, every major milestone in...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 01:22:00 -0400

Flying Through the Storm

Naturally, every major milestone in life comes with a period of transition: the passing of one state into another which may or may be caused by a stressor or a achievement. In either case, reflection is inevitable. More often than not, the reflection drives me to the brink of insanity, somewhere between the points of meaningful, constructive thought and complete loss in the unimaginable and impossible. Most recently, this was even more perplexing than usual because of the vivid dreams caused by my malaria medication.

Some people meticulously prepare themselves adequately for an upcoming transition. I don’t. I used to, but by some twisted blend of fait, vicarious learning and more than my fair share of luck, I’ve come to realize that preparation isn’t always the best approach to something foreign. Sometimes, the only preparation you need is an open and keen mind and a consciously calculated sense of responsibility and irresponsibility - the former pushes you in new directions and the later is the key to physically making it there.

What usually follows is a flurry of measurement. Measurement of past achievement and lessons learned. To this point, I’ve learned that the most important defining characteristics are the intangibles. Sure, money brings about opportunity and so forth… but the real pearl lies somewhere hidden in your perception and experiences of these opportunities. I’ve heard time and time again that naive and simple people firmly believe that their current way of thinking is a perfect reflection of how they’ve always thought - people who voted for Bush a second time would later say I knew it wouldn’t turn out that way. Well shit, it must be nice to know everything… Achievement raises your spirit and status. Failure raises your awareness and intellect.

The intangibles are knowing that you could have died riding a motorcycle in a mountain range, that someone close to you knows exactly what you’re thinking without so much as a nervous flinch, that you consciously made the decision to allow a man to wrap a python around your neck, or that you are now capable of inducing a deeper and more serene sense of calm than you ever thought possible. The intangibles are the take-away, the overall perception of the past. Lucky for us, perception is subjective; it is your unique representation of an external environment that you recreate using a mosaic of your chemical and physical senses… with a fair amount of unconscious guesswork sprinkled in. These intangibles, therefore, come from the tangibles but have a deeper meaning stitched into the spine - the meaning that you associated with that tangible sensation. Running your fingers through a lock of hair is equally capable of triggering thoughts of comfort in a time of stress as it is able to result an overwhelming sense of familiarity and connection with another person (or dog for that matter). But its just a string of protein that causes vibrations picked up by the Meisner’s receptors in your skin. A wave of electrical impulses that can change your immediate state of emotion in seconds because of some meaning that you’ve attached to it.

When I was walking across the stage in my Birkenstocks, I wasn’t thinking about the heat of the gown or the brightness of the lights. That sweaty-palmed handshake was more than just a congratulations from and old man in a velvet beret. That sensation marked the point of transition. With or without preparation. But with my eyes looking up from a map, my headphones playing my favorite song, luck and support from my family, having my head in the clouds for a while won’t be so bad.

Sometimes the perfect escape is a few runways and time zones...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 01:17:03 -0400

Sometimes the perfect escape is a few runways and time zones away. Other times it’s in a pair of headphones and your high school ipod. Gotta love both.

collegehumor: Urkel Schools Will Smith and Reggie Miller in...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:46:30 -0400

collegehumor:

Urkel Schools Will Smith and Reggie Miller in Basketball

Did he do that? Probably not.

No matter how far you run, how much you want to escape to a...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 22:28:09 -0400

No matter how far you run, how much you want to escape to a foreign utopia, there’s no feeling that parallels returning home to family and friends.