try them on New Year's Eve, but what with my bad ribs and all I passed. Maybe next time. Mind you, it's not my kind of thing, but at the same time, I always like to try a little of the strange local 'mojo' as it were.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

FLESH OF THE GODS!

BON APPETTIT!

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

you want to experience a different life, right? you can party w/ the locals, you should try earning a living like the locals. not just rice planting for fun and exercise, but for wages. it could be a fascinating experience and a great story to tell.

meant I should go back home and get a 'real' job, which I found to be an odd comment coming from Don.

That being said, you and he are both right. And, well, I have something up my sleeve I am not ready to disclose. But I will when the time is right.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

No offense intended.

I am enjoying hearing about places that I will never see.

But I think you'd get a better idea of what their lives are like while putting in a day alongside them in a field, factory, loading dock--whatever.

I find hard labor medicinal--moreso for the mind than for the body.

I have a brother that went on a spiritual quest as a young man. Worked in an Israeli kabutz. Also worked in Greece, and the island of Crete. All told he earned his way for about a year, living like the locals.

I think he's a better man for it.

I did inhale.

that I would take offense to. And yes, you are right. It is something I plan on doing.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

I rarely drink or get high. And the mushrooms, well, see my comment to Celsius. I prefer to keep my wits about me, as my powers of observations are markedly deteriorated when inebriated, if you know what I mean.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

What I meant is that, IF you did that, then you could "grow out" of anything (many people do that), if you could call that "growing". I know perfectly well what you mean when you say at times you get those thoughts about not doing something systematic with your life etc. But perhaps those thoughts are really part of your core, not something you can grow out of. Not sure if there is a middle way. I suppose that a successful writer who makes enough money writing might be able to do that. Six months visiting places and taking notes. Six months back in urban areas, writing them and taking care of business...

the site have fallen a bit but I am still in decent shape. So, we'll see.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

The more you need and the more of a slave you are.

i resisted computers for years.

my old high school buddy Jeff Cohen (class of 72) went on to be a traffic engineer for miami-dade county after college. it was in college he was exposed to computers. i worked with him in 1980 at the traffic department, and watched him gleefully carry around trays of computer punchcards. he'd always sell me on their glories when i thought he still hadn't hardly gotten all out of pencils he could've. i'd argue that pencils could do math, correspond, draw, etc even undo, and they only had one moving part and only cost a nickel. we argued this for years and years. 1993, he gave me a TRS-80 Model 100 and i was hooked. not a year later he excitedly told me Radio Shack was blowing RLX 1000's (286s, no hard drive, floppy only, half a meg ram) out the door for 50 bucks a pop. i got one and promptly hit the local BBS scene.

i "can't" live without pencil and paper, i know this. but computers likewise i fear.

(3 years later, i was living without power but was online thanks to candles, batteries, a phone line, and that M100.)

at work at the library, i constantly see titles that inspire and such that inspire and i walk up to a computer and jot down on my spew pile any such notes i may wish. this is how we live now. plus i have a M100 in my locker...

computers. i do have a problem with their seeming indispensability.
i love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. i love the coloring i can do on my line art. i love writing with 'em. i love HTML. and the web. and it is a web...

thank you for the kind words. It's hard to believe it's been six months, but you are right: six months well lived.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}