I'm off

So I am off today to start the second part of my trip. Off to Belize!!

Movie thoughts

I realized tonight as I sat watching a movie at the cinema, that so many people go to movie to escape. To totally get lost in the film and kind of forgot where you yourself are. It cuts down time to think about your own problems instead you are thinking about the characters on the screen.

There was a child somewhere talking, quickly followed by numerous people saying "shhh". I smiled, then wondered why I wasn't upset by the disturbance. Most people get annoyed because it kills the whole illusional escape. It made me really happy that I wasn't annoyed, but instead I enjoyed the interuptions. Interruptions made the theater full of life, and that was somewhat beautiful. From the kid talking, to the phone that went off right after a really intiment scene, to the people getting upset at the kid, and finally to all the youngsters leaving early for their curfew. I guess once I sat back and relaxed I realized that it is silly to be annoyed, and even crazier not to realize that these little quirks are kind of unique and beautiful.

Throw Santa

Hey I came across this today, http://www.fetchfido.co.uk/games/slingshot_santa/slingshot_santa.htm See if you can see the reindeer (he is at about 340 meters).
My high score is 346.1
Charles scored 348.3
see if you can beat Charles.

gotta luv the couches

In 2004 I have slept on many couches, some more lumpy then others, but I have been thankfully for each and every one. Here is the list of all the placed I have slept in 2004...
1. Sydney - my futon (ok so sometimes I fall asleep in front of the TV)
2. Sydney - Christine's pull out couch bed - I had my very own room, I was very comfortable
3. Hong Kong - Paul's couch, he gave me his key and flat for my week in HK, very cool
4. Finland - Jossu's floor, his put down a little mattress for me
5. Sweden- Kristina's friends rollaway bed- I even got woken up on my birthday with a Swedish treat
6. London - Jen's floor - her apartment complex had an extra air mattress
7. Atlanta- Bill and Banish's couch - lots of good movies and I always felt welcome
8. Atlanta - Dereks couch - lots of pillows, very comfortable, and some good company t00
9. Atlanta - Fil, Chris, and Tourbans - the cats wanted to cuddle all night
10. Atlanta - Dave Taylors basement couch - no windows, always a good place to sleep in
11. DC - Marshalls couch
12. Connecticut - Dave Scales Futon
13. Massachusetts - Brad's parents basement - I loved Cape Cod, but learned that when a local says that the water is cold, that it is freezing
14. New York - Some of Bob's friends couch
15. North Carolina - Darci's couch - I had a cool dog to keep me company

That is all I can think of right now. I have slept in lots of tents, busses, trains, a few planes, more hostels then I can remember, and of course chewy (the 86 pathfinder I drove in Australia) and my new car. Overall I have become a bit of a heavy sleeper.

San Miguel Village

I am really excited, I have been working on my travel plans to Belize and it looks like I going to be staying in a small Mayan Village, called San Miguel. When I spent some time in Peru learning about the Incans, I started becoming very fasinated with them. I have been reading up a bit on Mayans and really want to spend some time seeing what else I can learn. Here is a link to the village I will be staying in http://www.southernbelize.com/vil_sanmiguel.html

It's crazy to think that I am going to one of the best diving spots in the world, and I don't even know if I am going to dive. I would much rather learn about the people in the area.

I photographed some kids over the weekend, here is the link, http://www.serablue.com/kristi/wkids.html. It is crazy, i have done 3 shoots with this company, 2 of the parents, and 1 of the kids. I find it pretty funny how much easier it was to shoot the kids then the parents. Kids show their personality, and usually will do anything for the camera. With adults it is pretty hard to get anything other then a headshot. I really enjoyed this shoot.

Quotes from the good ole south

So I was talked into watching the Dale Earnhardt movie the other day (3), and here are some of my favorite quotes...

1) Soon I will be wearing diamond the size of horse terds
2) You are such a man that they couldn't castrate you with a chainsaw

Those are the highlights.

Bunnies

K so I am copying my friend Mo's blog today. This website was pretty funny.
http://www.angryalien.com/

We are ALL Losers

I went out on Sat night to a club, went up to the bar and asked for a water. The conversation with the bartender was as follows:
Bartender: why are you ordering a water?
Me: cause I am a loser
Bartender: Well you are at Hole in the Wall (the name of the club)
Me: Are you saying that everyone here is a loser??
Bartender: Well depending on how you look at it, we are all losers?
(I eyed the bartender strangly)
Bartender: Well put it this way, have you ever played the lottery?
(I laughed, he had won, pretty much everyone has lost at least once at the lottery, so with this train of thought, we are in fact all losers)

So tonight at a restaurant I was discussing this story with my friend Dave and his responce was:
Dave: everyone in here is a winner in a way... Well we all were the first sperms to make it to the egg!

Travel plans

So here is my next trip
December 28- Belize
Jan 7th - Denver
Jan 10th - New Zealand
Feb 1st - Sydney

I got really excited today, I can't wait to get back to Sydney!! I have missed that city a lot! Soon I will be out of Winter and back hanging out with my Sydney friends on the beach!

New shots for me include:
Big Day Out in Auckland (Beastie Boys, Chemical Brothers, the Music- www.bigdayout.com),
Rod Stewart in Sydney,
and Norah Jones in Sydney.

One of my personal favorite travel photos, the crazy thing is I did even notice the fingure up the nose when I took it.

Thanksgiving

I just celebrated my first Thanksgiving since 1999. I do think that it is a bit strange that we have a holiday about "giving thanks" that derived from taking land and freedom from our native Indians.

I will say one thing, USAers know how to eat!! Since I have been back (after my 4 years in Australia) my first thought was that their where lots more USAers! Then I finally noticed that their are not more people, everyone has just grown a little WIDER. I heard on the radio, that airlines are loosing 2 billion dollars (or some crazy high number) on gas prices to compensate for the growth in weight.

So to sum up, I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with a HUGE meal. Just like Oktoberfest is a great holiday to celebrate with the biggest drinking country in the world, Thanksgiving is a great holiday to celebrate with the biggest eating country in the world!!

USAers

Ok so from now on I am going to call people from the US, USAers. When I went to South America and was asked where I was from, I noticed that "America" just wouldn't do, because they are also American. Since Canadians usually don't like it when people ask if they are from the states. That is why I think that travelling Canadians almost always have flags on their packs. So I have decided to start refering to people that are from the States, USAers.

Updates

New updates to my site...

1. Photos- Climbing- I have added a few pages here about climbing in North Carolina and Alabama. I was amazed to find one of the best climbing spots ( that I have been to) just 3 hours north of Atlanta!! Nice multi pitched trad crack climbing! It helps a lot that I now have a really good climbing partner (Barry from my Photos-friends page) that is willing to lead me up trad!

2. Photos- Friends pics of this post production office I did some photos for. Also the Susan Koman and Ga Tech football pages are pretty new.

3. Well you might have already noticed, I have taken down my exhibition site and added my Blog instead. Now I can ramble to people all over the world at the same time!!

Hopefully soon I would liek to add some best of pages. For example, best of climbing, best travel photos, and I really need to fix up my about me page.

Crazy Monkeys, the same one that stole my favorite Bandana

Hey there

Welcome to my blog, Derek recommended this to me, might be a good way to share my travel stories, and well ramble.