I spend on average about 80-85% of my daily life decidedly NOT taking myself and the world around me seriously. I grew up watching just as much CNN as cartoons on Saturday mornings (before I was given a TV in my bedroom, my Dad was not just going to change the channel for me until his news fix was done), and as a result I spent more time than I should’ve otherwise as a youth worrying about anything from nuclear proliferation to what the hell went wrong in Mogadishu. Occasionally, I feel the need to be a retard at 24 years old to make up for lost time.
That said, not all of my time spent on the internet is used for fart jokes and cats with stupid captions. One of my favorite bloggers is apparently about to hit the road again, and once again putting his life in potential danger with me sitting safely on my ass in my home country awaiting new entries of his experiences. Aside from the fact he’s a great writer and does his best to report/reflect on what he’s seen while eschewing as much political bias as he can (can’t say the same for his comments section), most of my checking-in stems from my own personal desire to visit many of the same areas he does. The idea of traveling abroad to lavish resorts in politically and economically stable countries doesn’t particularly excite me, and I wasn’t impressed or all that happy the few times in life I’ve already done so. I live in the United States; the bulk of my money is invested in banks which are FDIC-insured, my votes are counted, our economy is still un-Godly huge and vibrant overall in comparison, and of course there’s this thing called the Constitution and the Bill of Rights which further help guarantee a rather nice lifestyle. In short, I already know what living “comfortably” is like.
Vietnam is one of my first planned trips, mainly because I’ve read so many books on our little adventure there some 40-odd years ago. It's not Haiti, but it's also not quite the tourist-rich mecca that I'd prefer to avoid. It’s a beautiful country, but I would find it so fascinating and powerful to interact with someone knowing full well that my own father was part of an otherwise bullshit military intervention which possibly killed his or hers. I may not yet know the language, but eye contact and hopefully a smile would be enough.
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Speaking of countries/regions we'd like to visit, about five months ago I came back from Slovakia (hockey tourney). It's a cool place to go, but most importantly because the old Czechoslovakia break-up was amicable, which is pretty fuckin rare considering world history. Our "guide" was Czech, and openly identified himself as such around the public, and he only received smiles for it.
Hope shit's goin well in Seattle...I got cold ones waiting for you if you visit Mississauga/Toronto anytime soon, and I was already planning a trip to Seattle in 2009 to see some relatives that live a little north of there...if you're still around we'll catch up
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