So, what if it were the case that I’m just a better person when no one is able to observe my day to day? Would I be considered a cool guy? Would people view me as good, or care to have any sort of opinion at all? Does it even matter? Probably not. I guess the main issue would be thinking about why people, when they are absent, are thought of in a positive light. Maybe it’s just the human disposition to have the stronger emotion to cultivate and surface as it squeezes the weaker feelings out. This would only happen if there were no new input being added from experience I would assume. Let’s just do an experiment right now. Think of a person, you could choose me if you’d like, or if you don’t know me choose a person with whom you’ve had a history. Someone who you have had, on the scale of buffalo wings, mild, medium, or hot emotions, you’ve gotta’ have had either medium or hot with this person. Now, what do you think of this person? What does your emotional gauge register? Note it. Now think back to the situation when you parted. I bet your emotional scale will be different. And I’d even say that the way you feel now is better than you left things.

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘time heals all’? or if you are really good you might have come across “Absence diminishes minor passions and inflames great ones, as the wind douses a candle and fans a fire”. Pondering this, if these famous ideas are true, would it be so much easier to swoop down, make a good impression and then leave only to keep in touch from a distance and visit ever so often? Imagine further still, if this is the case with how to be charming and well liked. Then what on earth is marriage attempting to do to a relationship?

So, whatever happened to Sean Connery? Great actor for sure. But last I heard he was still old and beating women.

I need things in life, everyone does.  Yet just recently I recognized that I need to voice my opinion on what it is that I need.  People go through life in different ways and the way that I would like to choose is the way that involves me being the absolute happiest.  Other people mean a lot to me and their happiness will reflect how happy I am on varying scales but the honest reason that their happiness means what it does to me is because of the original emotion coming from me.  I am pleased to write what it is that I want in life and in my relationships here and I’m excited to see it for myself.

Above all, in my life I need an increased sense of positivism because negativity leads to complaints and complaints encourage one to solve nothing.  Positive thinking allow one to tweak what one wants or make a change to the situation for the best outcome.  Focusing on the good rather than the bad will at the least leave one with a happy mind rather than a discontented one.

In my life I am looking for a friend, a best friend with whom I can do things and activities with.  I want to like most of these activities.  I’m looking for someone to enjoy life and nature with, to appreciate culture and music, to work through problems, and to not only enjoy life as you make it but to love life as it comes to you.

I would like to sustain a knowledge of the people around oneself.  Not just in the sense that they are physically there but in the act of being considerate and acting not only for one’s own good but for the good of the people around you.  This can be reflected by a form of cleanliness and self sufficiency around those you live or interact or even with random people on the street.  The idea is to make daily living easier for other people by expressing simple actions that are either neutral or positive for the people you share this earth with so that others won’t have to go out of their way to in a sense clean up after you.  This is not a rule; it is a standard.

A constant sense of improving one’s life is important.  Staying within what one is handed in life is stagnation that leads to nothing.  Making better one’s lot in life is a constant project that doesn’t require negativity, though one can work to make things that one doesn’t like better, one should be working at what they find moderately pleasant or neutral to eventually become fantastic.  When the ease of negativity arises and one thinks “I hate that” it is better to continue with, “What can I do to make this better?”.  There are usually multiple different ways to solve a life problem.

Putting issues on hold and waiting for them to solve themselves can lead to dissent and hate.  Working at issues as they come is the best way to handle them.  Living life with eyes unclouded by hate or to avoid being shrouded by a fog of unhappiness is the best way to enjoy it. This is not to be confused with ignorance.

Comfort, there is definitely something to be said about comfort, being comfortable with oneself is ideal whether it is socially or physically or emotionally.  Being comfortable is not meant to blind oneself from any ugly truths, as all people have flaws.  It is acknowledging and being OK with the flaws as one makes strides to change them.  I feel that to be happy one must be comfortable with one’s self.  Being inwardly comfortable is important so that one might be able to become externally comfortable.  Pushing oneself is important as one strives for better and better things but one must be allowed to have a place of comfort and relaxation, an oasis from the new, the novel, and the difficult.  This is so one might have time to heal or recharge but if one stays in this comfort zone too long one is apt to boredom and discontent as well as being vulnerable to a mental and physical regression.  It is important for one to be in a relationship that is not only comforting or solely challenging; it must have a healthy balance.

I think it’s a great little exorcize to write what actually makes you happy and to put some thought into why.  I’d encourage you to plug something down and put it in the comments box if you’d like to share.

I made it to NYC a little early and spent the night just north of the city in an open field right next to the Appalachian trail.  I was really surprised by how close to the city I was yet how rural everything around me was.  Parking costs weren’t living up to the rural life so I decided it would be best to drive into the city and attempt to avoid tolls.  With Google Maps as my guide I made it to Brooklyn only paying 5.50 in tolls, much cheaper than the 50 dollar cost I was warned against by friends that lived there.

The city was nice and super expensive.  I guess it shouldn’t be shocking that after six days camping and driving I had only spent 72$ on food and gas but I ended up spending about that much in two days time in NYC.  Living on a budget there is pretty difficult for sure.  While I was in NYC I went to this very cool inventor’s fair where I got to see some very interesting stuff.  However, the highlight there was being able to run around like a hyperactive kid with two equally excited friends at an interactive science museum where the thing was being hosted.  It really was an amazing time.  My time in NYC wasn’t just about playing, I also had some responsibilities to fulfill for the Peace Corps.  I went up to NYC for my free physical saving me over 600 bucks.  Super.  The people at the VA by the East River were really nice and extremely helpful.  It took me two days to get everything done but it was totally worth it.

In New York I picked up my friend Fili and we headed north to Boston to see what there was to see.  Honestly, there wasn’t much.  I’m not a huge fan of American history so I guess it wasn’t really the place for me but I found the city to be full of intelligent people and a fun transport system.  We visited a friend of mine out there and didn’t really accomplish much of anything other than getting a chance to taste real New England Clam Chowder and visit the spot of the Salem Witch trials.  The Chowder was amazing.

Next on the list was Niagara Falls and Canada.  I was super stoked to see this mass amount of water flush its way down a cliff and into rocks or disappear into its own cloud of mist.  There was a park there that offered a boat ride into this pumping mist but it more looked like a moist cattle shipment than anything that I wanted to participate in so Fili and I just enjoyed the spectacular view.  I was also very excited to see Canada and as I expected, it was super cold up there.  There wasn’t much else to see in Canada as most everything there is hidden from the view of the highway and we were in a rush to Chicago so we didn’t get to see much of anything other than a quaint town and their coffee shop where we stopped and had lunch.  The baristas claimed there wasn’t much else to do in that town other than drink and fight: a triad missing one point that I’m used to hearing in a town of that stature.  Having no cellular service providing a GPS system Fili and I had to use the old way of navigation.  Oddly enough, we made it between the great lakes and back on to homeland soil.

We arrived in Chicago after a full 16 hour day of driving.  I was pretty wired and possibly obnoxiously so.  Thankfully it didn’t take much for me to calm down after arriving at Kathleen’s house and washing the day’s misadventure’s off me.  Kathleen provided a shower and a lovely couch that swallowed me whole and her flatmate provided a small dog that kept my head warm as I slept.  So far this road-trip has been thoroughly rockin’.

OBX roadtrip

Over the past week I’ve been heading up the eastern coast driving along Ocean Hwy, route 17, from Charleston. 17 turned to 70 and then changed to 12. Moving along the coast through towns I was able to see some pretty heavy traffic and loads of stop lights but when I moved away from the traffic and got on the smaller route 70 the drive through the national park was just gorgeous. I never had any idea that the North Carolina coast could be so gorgeous.

As I moved over the brackish waters of North Carolina and surveyed the barrier islands there I was able to see some really neat towns that are far from tourists and are super quaint in their own right. Sadly I wasn’t able to stop and really check them out as I was trying to catch a ferry out of the smallest of these towns. At one point I went through a fantastic rainstorm where I was having trouble seeing anything in front of me. I quickly realized that the way I had my board strapped to the top of my car allowed a bit of showers through the doors. Having half of my body soaked, my head trying to squeeze a shirt between me and the low ceiling/door of my car as a buffer, and drive nearly blind seemed like a normal way to handle the situation but after the rain let up a bit my neighbours in the van next to me gave me strange looks. I’m sure they were thinking “man, I really wish I had a soaking ball of cloth on top of my head”. I’m sure it wasn’t anything more than jealousy. The ferry was nice, it was dark out so it was difficult to see anything other than the stars above but it’s difficult to imagine seeing that many stars anyplace else. The ship rocked about in the black water and aside from the one girl re-visiting her dinner it was quite a pleasant and relaxing experience.

We landed on the island of Ocracoke at around eleven in the evening. In the little tourist village down there it was difficult to see anything other than the drunken kids wandering the streets on bikes and skateboards making a mess of themselves. It would have been pretty entertaining to sit and watch but I had to either find a nice place to sleep on the beach or hit the next ferry north to the Hatteras before it launched in an hour.

I drove along the stretched-out island away from all the vacationing festivities into the dark night till I found a little road that took me to the road. I drove down it till I felt that my little car was about to get stuck. I parked and walked all the way to the beach. It was really peaceful with the waves splashing on the beach. The stars and moon were shining as were these little glowing things on the shore. I have no idea what it was, and I tried checking, but they just looked like little pieces of clear stuff when I looked at them with a lantern. I had passed a sign that said no camping on the beach which sadly seemed to be the best place to camp. I might have turned outlaw and stuck it out but the road seemed to be used often and I didn’t want to wake up with a ranger breathing down my neck so I decided to drive fast and see if I could catch the next ferry which was to depart in fifteen minutes and I wasn’t sure how close I was to it. After getting nearly stuck in the sand again, I made it out to the main road where I had to floor it.

Zipping along a skinny island that has deer that can jump out at your car at anytime is a pretty thrilling thing to do. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who might have bad night vision. Driving down I noticed many frogs trying to cross the road and I wondered why they would feel the need to go across a barren, two lane highway. As I pulled into the ferry station there was a guy waving me in, like I had just made the last spot, and it seemed I did as they pushed off not two minutes after I rolled on.

Yep, new pictures as promised. With a good internet connection comes halfway decent pictures of random Russian stuff… Enjoy!

But, I’ve also been doing some other cool things. Like I’ve been roofing and I’ve been to this pretty amazing park where I was swarmed by mosquitoes. When you fear for your life from mosquitoes you really start putting things into perspective. Anyway, while I was fighting for my life I swear I killed about 700 of the little buggers. It was like a bad ninja movie with tiny ninjas who flew and sucked blood…. maybe ninja vampires, ohhh.

But for both of these things I’ve got pictures. I’m hoping to upload them later today so keep your eyes peeled. I’ll also give you a better description but for now I’ve gotta run. See you soon!

I hear there are a few interesting things to do during summer. One of which is called ‘roofing’. This is when a group of people scurry up onto an unknown roof of some random house in the middle of the city. From there I assume you can walk around to other buildings, while getting a fantastic view at the same time. The trees are budding and everyone looks… pretty much the same, just with less clothing layers. But it’s pretty apparent that everyone is feeling bit of relief from the bitter cold. Girls have broken out the short skirts and men are wearing their short… shorts… ew, and it’s only 10C (50F) outside. Only patches of peppered brown snow in random spots can be seen. Everyone here is waiting for the White Nights (a time when the sun never sets) for the parties and whatever else. I hear no one really works much during that time. I’d like to see that.