Category: Travels

Back in Compass, Drunk on Pen. Pants Quest: CONCLUSION

It should here be noted that all four new pens were obtained on a Thursday, which some of you might consider spooky … Kind of like how I only acquire new hats on days that I eat pizza, or how it rains if I step outside.

Pants and Peanuts

DAY 299 On Saturday I ate half a pound of peanuts. On Sunday I did the same. This food was supplemented by the complimentary breakfast that came with my hostel1; along with a Lindor Chocolate2 on Saturday and two apples on Sunday. On Sunday evening I walked back to my bed in the cold and…

Pants Quest. Broken Sandals. Poo in my Foot

My pants and sandals are falling apart. You may or may not be aware that I take great satisfaction in repairing things, and while I don’t claim to be good at it, I am usually good enough. And ‘good enough is perfect’ as they say, so by this philosophy you could argue that I am…

snowman head

without a carrot…

Building a snowman all by yourself.  Because your friends are lame, your parents are busy, and snowmen are awesome. Building a snowman isn’t quite as easy as we all seem to think. You might be saying: “I made snowmen when I was 5!” True. But your Dad was helping you. And when you were older,…

The Name of the Sherp

…instead of stopping for lunch on the sunny flat trail with a view, the organizers will choose to hike into the brush and set up our picnic on sloping damp ground, where the canopy will drop foliage into our food, block the sun, and obscure the view. We will be sitting next to a (supposedly) dead grenade from the French war.

body disposal

…and so we went off into the woods at dusk with a bag of dead mystery, two picks, and the wrong kind of shovel.

bediquette

Some people say that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. People also say that the best revenge is living well. I do not abide by either. One of them is not good enough. The other I will not allow to be true.

[Astro Boy - "Here you go with some more energy!"]

Robot Design Considerations in 1957, Japan

This gem of a panel is from the story Ghost Manufacturing Machine in Astro Boy Omnibus 2 by Osamu Tezuka; pg 91, panel 2 (first published in a 1957 supplement edition of Shonen magazine).  This was one of only two English books in my hostel’s library.  The other was War and Peace.  It did not…

Nemeses

What are we, really, without our enemies? What is a discussion without disagreement? Where would we be without those that defy us? On every trip I’ve taken, and in every stage of my life, I have had nemeses. In chess there is Trevor of the US Air Force — our games last months, and I…

An Appendage Stronger than Love

One is inclined and perhaps obligated to ponder the significance of the query and its timing when, immediately after sex, a woman turns to you and asks: “What is the most distinct difference between monkeys and humans?” My answer “monkeys have a tail,” came almost automatically even as I was listing the possible explanations to…