My "Rosebud"?

Being in a reflective mood, after returning from my most recent last trip, I searched online for three books that I was infatuated with while growing-up. Interesting enough they are all still in print. The internet is such a wonderful tool for procrastinating.

 The first book, "My Side of the Mountain", is a story about a young nature-loving boy who runs away from his home in the city to the Catskill Mountains to live off the land. His moutain home was a hollowed-out tree and his hunting partner a young peregrine falcon. My uninhibited youthful imagination was engulfed by this story, when my fourth grade teacher read this book outloud to the class. I wanted to be that kid. I wanted to run away from home and live off the land. The book precipitated endless hours of playing in the woods, making wigwam frames and animal snares, exploring nature, wading through streams, catching tadpole and minnows, identifying plant and animal tracks, and countless overnight camping trips. I’ve thought about this book many times since fourth grade. It spoke to my sense of adventure.


 Another book that I became obsessed in my youth, or rather book series of books, was the "Foxfire" Book Series. The series documented the lore of the Smokey Mountain sand Appalachian culture. I spent hours reading and fantasizing about homesteading, building log cabins, snake lore, faith healing, moonshine, basket weaving, quilting, ghost stories, wild plants, and so on. Most of the lessons to be learned from these books are transcribed from monologues and stories told by old-timers to preserved their methods and living style for future generations. When I was introduced to the books years ago, they continued to fuel my nascent, youthful desire to my live off the land. While exploring in the woods, I started searching for edible plants, roots, nuts and berries (e.g. sassafras root, violets, acorns, hickory nut, walnuts, raspberries, black berries, etc.).


 A third book that gripped my imagination was "One Acre & Security: How to Live off the Land without Ruining It", a forerunner in the back-to-earth movement. After skimming the book’s pages, my scheming and plotting shifted from the woods to living self-sufficiently off a hypothetical acre of land. The book provided the “how to” details to plant and maintain a vegetable garden and fruit trees, and raise small scale livestock. Instead of living in hollowed-out tree in the woods, I was going to be a homesteader. Not much more realistic, it wasn’t all fiction, either. I started gardening, canning and freezing the produce. My small scale livestock enterprise eventually comprised of a hundred chickens, a steer and a couple of piglets. To complete the "daydream", I learned how to bake bread from scratch.

The naive magic of my childhood.

More Scanned Photos

 

 

 

 

Bush says U.S. is not headed for recession

What a JOKE!! Who’s going to believe anything he says? And while I’ll give him props for being optimistic, his optimism, however, is only appropriate up until a point; not when it transcends the facts and reality. How does he know the economy is not headed for a recession? He doesn't know. Honestly, I don't think anybody knows. I get the feeling that on some level Bush believes that if he SAYS the economy will not go into a recession this will make the American people feel better. Moreover, he seems to be completely indifferent to the fact that what he says might or might not be true. And the weird thing is no one holds him accountable. I don’t understand it. It is hard to believe anything he says anymore.

As for the economy, in the short-run, it may or may not sink into a recession, and if it does, it will be short. Personally, I don’t believe that the housing slump and credit crisis is as bad as the news media portrays it. Nevertheless, is seems like the financial institutions and the administration has convinced the news media and Fed that the crisis is epic. Their motive seems to be straight forward, to get the fed to lower interest rates and in turn, reduce mortgage losses. And the fed has conceded and done so, hopefully avoiding a imminent recession or making it as benign as possible, the real recession is about a year or two away.

The rub is that the Fed has lowered interest rates in an environment of raising inflation. This deviates from the fed’s price stabilization policy followed religiously under Greenspan. Why? I'm not sure. Possibly Bernanke doesn't have the political clout to resist pressure from the financial institutions and administration.

Nevertheless, it seems plausible that by cutting interest rates the Fed can bypass an imminent recession, by mitigating the severity of the housing slump and credit crisis, but it seems to be only a temporary fix. The lower interest rates (i.e. easy money policy) will continue to fuel the already rising rate of inflation. Eventually, the Fed will have to resort back to price stabilization polices, which should be their primary objective anyway, and get inflation back under control by increasing interest rates again. Remember back in the early 80’s when Volker’s (previous fed chief) in an effort to get inflation under control tighten the money supply so rapidly that interest rates rocketed to 20% levels, which pushed the economy into the a 16 month recession from July 1981-Nov 1982? It’s the late 70’s stagflation all over again: high gas prices, stalled economic growth and rising inflation. A recession most likely will follow.

Winners: The Bush Administration, sub-prime borrowers/home owners, and financial institutions that invested in the sub-prime mortgage (their mortgage losses will be minimized).

Losers: The Obama Administration and the remainder of the public. The Bush Administration and Fed are delaying the recession into the next administration.

This means, the Obama administration, and the Fed serving him, will most likely have to tighten the money supply immediately upon entering office and get inflation under control quickly and get the economy growing again. Obama will be up for election again in 2012. A further delayed recession could affect his re-election.

Dança do Créu Is The New Macarena?

Right before arriving in Rio for Carnival this year, we spent three nights in Parity, a city not far from Rio. I partied till 4-5 in the morning each night. The music was excellent! Even though I’m more of a hip-hop tool, than the Latin beat tool, I was moving it. Of course, the vodka helped. Dancing like I was on a deserted island (per John). But most noticeably was this song. I’m not saying it was a good thing or bad thing, all I’m saying it was EVERYWHERE and the dancers were melting-up the dance floor with similar dance moves highlighted in the video, but more improvised moves. The dance in the video is much more choreographed. You never know, the song just might be the new Frat house Macarena, never too early to start practicing. I'm thinking about clearing my living room space, making a little dance floor....

Whitney Houston

With this season's American Idol contestant David Archuleta orbiting the blogesphere. How about a little old-school Whitney? Remember this? And while I don't own, nor do I listen to, any of Whitney's music other then what I hear on the internet, radio or in movies, her voice is, at least to me, "transplendid" (for you Woody Allen fans). This was a rare TV music moment. Watch her "knowing" smile at point 1:38. She's hitting it and she knows it. Then watch her body language after that point, it's incredible. She is so gifted. I hope she can pull off a come back, but without the headband and sweatsuit.

New Regiment

Coffee, Nap and Red Wine

• Two cups of coffee in the morning.
• A nap in the afternoon.
• Two glasses of red wine in the evening.

I'm not sure how long the regiment will last, but the intent is a start.

"African-American" or "American of African Descent"?

 

Somehow my clock radio has made its way over to New York's Hip-Hop Radio Power 105.1 FM hosted by Ed Lover . I generally only listen to it for a couple of minutes in the morning, while lying in bed. On Sunday mornings, however, the station airs religious, black heritage, or talk programs. Last Sunday, a 19 year-old male called in to a talk program and he caught my attention. He was infuriated by the fact that he was referred to as African-American. “I’m an American, not African-American!” he exclaimed. Reflecting on it, he has a point: he is probably more of an American, than I am. While the caller didn’t specify when his ancestors came to the U.S., I’m sure it was a lot earlier than mine. During the time of the revolutionary war 19% of the U.S.’s population was of African heritage. My grandparents didn’t arrive in the U.S. until the early 1900’s, and yet I’m referred to as an “American”. Why isn’t he? I’m sure he has more roots in the U.S. than I do.

Update: A recent Op-Ed NYT article proposes: "It’s time to retire the term African-American and go back to black."

Newark Goes 33 Days Without A Murder

 

CNN reports "For the first time in more than four decades, the killings in Newark have stopped -- for the last month, at least -- and the billboards are coming down.

Newark marked its 33rd day Friday without an official homicide, a startling fact for a city that has averaged about two killings a week over the last few years and saw homicides spike 50 percent from 2002 to 2006."

It's a little disconcerting that this is actually NEWS. But I don't think the news is going have a run on rents in the neighborhood, not imminently.

Which book am I? The book quiz says...

You're Siddhartha!

by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in. This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really tired and lonely. It's time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in fairies.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Prophetic or just coincidental, once upon a time I did believe in fairies, but I've lost touch with them. Similarly, I've read and reflected on ALL of Herman Hesse's books, including Siddhartha. And I'm exhausted by wandering, both literally and figuratively. Someday, I believe, I'll believe in fairies again. I hope.

And while I am, and probably will always be, addicted to wandering, especially the romanticism aspect of it. I need to slow it down a bit.

Everyday Normal Guy 2

(Caution: Explicit Language)

What’s next?

It seems every time I return from an extended trip, I go through a similar recalibration period, trying to remember what I’m supposed to be doing. And it goes somewhat like this:

• Why am I wasting my time writing screenplays? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not a good writer. I don’t particularly like writing. I HATE re-writing and proofreading. I have no attention for detail. I know all of these things, yet I choose to ignore them. Yes, it's all about denial. It’s worked in the past when pursing education and employment opportunities that I wasn’t the most qualified or didn’t have requisite experience, but forged ahead anyway. Then again, without denial, I probably would not have pursued such opportunities, or pursued more realistically opportunities. Maybe it isn’t such a bad thing.

• I’m also starting to get bored with what I’m writing. Maybe it’s just the cold weather. I don't know. I hope spring brings with it some enthusiasm and will help motivate me. Spring generally has this affect on me. Or maybe what I’m writing is just boring? It's always a possibility.

• My current goal is to re-work the two screenplays that I’ve completed and subsequently received feedback from two professional script analysts via the Slamdance’s Coverage Service. For the most part, the feedback was very constructive and beneficial. My only complain is that they’ve failed to see the underlying genius within my screenplays, but I not going to hold it against them. Genius is often difficult to identify, anyway. After re-work these two screenplays and finishing a third, I’m going to submit all three of them to Slamdance’s Feature Screenplay Contest by the first of June, then wait for the results, and then decide what the next move will be.

• During the summer, I’ve contemplating taking an intensive, six week Editing class at NYU. I already own the Final Cut-Pro software, but never used it. But why do I need a class? I can just read the manual or complete the online tutorial. Why pay $5000 for a class? I’m not sure. I was hoping the class might provide access to other filmmakers, albeit most of them will probably be a lot younger than I am. I suspect a lot of undergrads will enroll in the class, being summer and all. Then again, I don’t have air conditioning in my apartment and I’m sure the school does. I’m going to hold off on a final decision. Global warming my play a factor in this decision.

• I was considering signing-up for a Story Analysis for Producers class during the current Spring Semester. Then I recalled the classes I took two years ago, which were very similar. They were mostly comprised of non-matriculating students. Non-matriculating students have a wide-range of intellectual levels, but heavily populated on the clueless end of the spectrum. The discussions in the classes were dull and did I learn much. I decided against enrolling in the class.

• Instead, I decided should volunteer my services to a filmmaker and gain some practical filmmaking experience. There are various internet sites where filmmakers post help wanted requests. The problem again, however, most of these filmmakers are young just learning the craft themselves. I’m not sure I’d learn enough from them to justify my time and effort. What I’d really like is an intern with an established film producer. I’m starting to realize a greater interested in producing, than say cinematography or screenwriter. Then again, I have nothing to base that statement on either. It’s pure conjecture. Okay, I decided when I finish the three scripts and submit them to the Slamdance Contest, I’ll make an effort to look for a film producing internship. This is something I will most likely do, maybe.

• Then again maybe become filmmaker is just a hopeless pipedream and I should be searching for gainful employment elsewhere, say in the field of data analysis. There seems to be a plethora of jobs in this field and expanding daily. I could seek employment with a web advertising/marketing/monitoring firm in NYC. Current, on-line web advertising is about $40 billion per year and it’s expected to grow to $80 billion by 2012. Salaries seems reasonable with a lot of upside. I’ve always enjoyed working with data and statistics and building predictive econometric models. The downside to this plan, however, is that I’ve have to get up in the morning, go to work, do work, report to a boss, finish my work, return home at the end of the day and do it again the next day. I'm not sure this is such a good plan.

• Maybe, if I can’t an overachiever (e.g. an entertaining, yet thought provoking, award-winning, east-coast filmmaker), I should just thrive to be an underachiever and become something like, say a nurse. Nurses help people which is a good thing. And generally they seem to be thoughtful, caring and nurturing people themselves. But, on the other hand, they work with sick people and I’ve never really worked with sick people before, I'm not sure I want to work with sick people. Plus, I’d have to go back to school. I have no desire to go back to school.

• Okay, I’m exhausted and it's only 11 AM. If it wasn’t 11 AM, I’d make a large vodka martini, straight-up with olives. Hopefully, the mail will arrive soon with a new Netflix DVD.

Scanner Works

 

 

 

 

Playing with the scanner. Procrastinating. Looking for an excuse not to write. In the photo second to the bottom, I'm furthest on the left.

A Toilet Diary

No, I didn't forget about the Toilet Diary. The South American are at the bottom. There aren't many. If you recall, the toilet diary was intended to highlight "diversity", toilet diversity, and not document the most disgusting toilets. Most of the toilets in South America were pretty generic, not very diverse or exciting; a little bit like the continent itself.

Update: Countries I've Visited (kinda)

If I traveled to Russia and Greenland this would be an accurate portrayal of all the counties I've ever visited. Without ticking off Russia and Greenland, the map wasn't really all that impressive, so I've included them. It's my blog.

MisAdventures

In early 2005, seeking a break from work and the mundane, I escaped DC to meander around Asia and Australia for nine months. The trip was the inspiration for this blog. The countries that I visited: Turkey, Syria, Jordon, Egypt, Iran, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Australia

The following summer, still meandering, I cycled across the U.S. from West to East with bike4peace.org and then visited Poland with my father. His parent emigrated from there post-WW1 and never returned.

The spring of 2007 inspired another cycling trip from South to North along the Underground Railroad Route. The logic being why not, I already owned the bike and the gear.

During the fall of 2007, I escaped to South America for four months, visiting: Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

Now I'm back in NJ. Doing what? As Joseph Cambell would say "I'm following my bliss". I'm TRYING to be a screenwriter/filmmaker.  What does that mean, exactly?... In a year or so, I'll be looking for a job in Financial Modeling again!

2009 included a Sustainable Agriculture and Urban Garden Trip to Cuba. A goal of mine was to visit Cuba before Castro died and I achieved it.

2010 I visited my final continent, Antarctica, along with a trip to Russia with my nephew.

In early 2010 the BLISS was almost over, as I set out to find a real job once again. Actually, I started looking forward to some structure back in my life (aka like a "normal" person, but perhaps not that normal).

In 2011, I traveled to Iceland to scuba dive, and to Norway, Greenland and Iceland (again) aboard a Arctic Cruise and one additional scuba trip to Belize.

In 2012 while still working full time I squeezed in dog sledding trip to Ontario, Canada, a scuba diving trip to Palau, Thanksgiving in Florida and a climb/hike up Mt. Aconcagua, plus a side trip to Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

Working full-time limited my adventure time. Only 3 trips in 2013: a trip to Japan, the Red Sea specifically to dive, and Spain with my niece.

2014 included trips to Paris, Central America and scuba diving off of Socorros Islands, Mexico and numerous weekend trips to Ivy Universities. 

2015 included weekend trips to Philadelphia, Toronto, Los Angeles, Charleston, Georgia, Hartford and scuba diving in Garden of the Queen, Cuba and a short hop to Panama before scuba diving off Cocos Island, Costa Rica.

2016 included a trip to Paraguay and Uruguay, a weekend in Nashville; a Maine Summer Trip; mountain climbing/hiking up Mt.Elbrus in Russia; Great White Shark Cage Diving, Guadalupe, Mexico; Thanksgiving in the Pacific Northwest and a trip to Jackson Pollock's studio.  2016 also included a helicopter flying lesson, sky diving, a Mary J. Blige concert, and Rihanna concert. 

2017 will be the start of a two years travel adventure, starting with Southern Tier Cross Country Cycling, Eastern Europe, Sailing the Greek Islands, Mongolia, Silk Route, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Middle East, UK, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark and a Trans Africa Trip, which will continue until July 2018.

The Trans Africa Trip finished early August 2018, afterward I returned to the USA, then headed to my friend's Alfred's wedding in Nairobi, Comoros, Djibouti, South Sudan, Silk Road (Western China), South Korea, Toga to swim with the humpback mommy whales and their babies, South Pacific, Singapore, Myanmar, cycling in Vietnam, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste (for Xmas), Bali (for New Year).

2019 starts out with trips to Borneo,  Brunei,  New Zealand, Iraq Cyprus, Malta, Libya, Tunisia, 4 Small European Countries, Algeria, Cabo Verde, Somalia, Eritrea, Madagascar, Mauritius, Afghanistan, Seychelles, DRC, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Palestine, Yemen, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tomé & Príncipe, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Trinidad & Tebogo, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Columbia.

2020 started out strong, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Mali, Burkina Faso, Maldives, Chad, Central African Republic, Niger then COVID HIT!!!  New Jersey and Connecticut! 

2021first trip during COVID was to Yemen, Mexico City, Isle de Mujeres, Idaho, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia. 

2022 starts with back to Africa - South Sudan, Timbuktu, Liberia - then Philippines were I finally caught COVID, next Spain Degustation "Foodie" Tour, hopefully Venezuela and Jamaica.

Adventure plans for 2023, swimming with Sperm Whales in Dominica, the back to back trips to Haiti and Dominica Republic. 

Other highlights of this blog include: Toilet Diary ; Seven Wonders of the World; my other interests Art, Horticulture, Broadway Shows, Aquariums and Scuba Trips; highlights of family and friends Undergrad Friends, DC Friends, Reine Family, and hanging with T'Shawn.

Back in the USA

I've made it back to Newark yesterday morning. It's great to be back, even if it is cold. I must say it was a "trying" vacation. While I've always enjoyed traveling, I'm starting to feel like I've overdosed on traveling recently. It isn't as exciting as it once was. I've become a bit jaded. I've seen experienced so many amazing sights and experiences, that the lesser sights and experience become trying. Nevertheless, I'm glad to be home wearing my "hoodie", connected to high speed internet!!

Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

 
 
 
 
 
 

Sambodromo - Carnival - Rio de Janeiro

 

I’ve participated in Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale (back in the day); New Years in New Orleans, New York and in Miami (for the Millennium); but none of these compare to size and scale of Carnival in Rio. I would definitely go back, if I had the chance. Rio in it’s self is a great city. Well worth a visit.