I recently finished a book I probably should have read when I was 13. Who would I be now if I had read the character of Cyrus Smith the Engineer as a teenager instead of an adult? The Mysterious Island was written by Jules Verne and published in 1874. The novel takes place during the United States Civil War, with our main characters being held prisoners in the South. The five prisoners work together to escape, but soon find themselves deserted on a deserted island. (Man I could use an ice cream sundae.)
I don’t pick up island books very often. Are there a lot of them out there? I can’t seem to think of many. There’s that one where the kids are on an island, they get all crazy, then eat each other – I think. What was that one called? Never read it. Anyway, I never would have thought that an island would be a good spot for a book to take place, but it turns out if the island is mysterious, it’s an awesome place! You go Jules!
Back to Cyrus Smith, who shouldn’t be mistaken for Sirius Black from the Harry Potter novels, though he too is valiant, determined, courageous, resourceful, steadfast and has a name that starts with a ‘Sa’ sound and ends with a ‘us’ sound – they are not the same character no matter how much you wish them to be (having a wizard on the island really would have changed the cast-aways’ situation). Cyrus Smith is now my ideal man. I mean, should be considered the ideal man. He seems to know everything. The guy builds houses, casts iron, makes gun powder and other explosive devices. He plants gardens, makes an elevator using a waterfall, and helps create the coolest living space I’ve ever read about. I don’t think I gave anything away other than Cyrus Smith being a bad-ass.
What truly amazed me in reading the Mysterious Island was the way in which Jules Verne was able to describe Cyrus Smith’s discoveries on the island. His descriptions of how he transformed these materials into items that would make the castaways’ lives easier or more productive. By reading the Mysterious Island I have learned a few important things about myself. First, I want to own a smart dog that cares about nothing but me, and what I want it to do. Second, If I had to live off of natural resources on my own or with a few others, we’d have well put together clothes, and could probably grow tomatoes, but I’d really have to work my memory to make strong bricks – and unless we had a match and wanted to keep a fire burning year-round, I better learn to make fire. Oh and I need to learn some hunting skills.
Luckily I live on a peninsula and not an island. I don’t have to make all of these things, I can buy them. I am warm in my house while I read my book, this too is nice. Now I either need to pick up a book that teaches me all of these skills before our world is flipped inside out from global warming and we all have to fend for ourselves (deep breath)… Or, I need to come up with a plan to save the planet so I don’t have to learn all of these things.
It’s been a while since I had a good road trip. Now in the last week and a half I’ve gone to Seattle and back. I’m not a short guy so you’d assume that sitting in a car for 12 hours with 3 other humans and one dog wouldn’t be my idea of a great time. Well you would think wrong. Seriously, get with it. The ladies are beautiful and dear to my heart, and Skip (who’s even taller then me) makes sure everyone is always having fun.
What do you do for 10 – 12 hours in a car? You catch up. You make sure you know everything that’s going on in everyone’s life. You brainstorm amazing business ideas – and most of all you laugh until your cheeks hurt. You can also snuggle with the dog – she likes that.
There are some great books out there about road tripping and traveling out on the open road. It’s no secret that it’s one of Americas favorite pastimes – and we were basically the family version of “Travels with Charlie” (honestly I don’t remember a damned thing about Travels with Charlie; I assure you I read the book though). For me the appeal is getting out of the city and urban sprawl, and eventually hitting the golden rolling hills of California, the climb into Mount Shasta (somehow I always miss the meat bonanza in Shasta City) then the green valleys and lush trees of Oregon. Eventually entering a city that is nothing like the one I live in. I love when it’s a little warm and you can drive with the windows down, the music up, and you sing at the top of your lungs. That’s a road trip.
It seems to be in my blood. I remember traveling time and time again with my dad from LA to the bay area. My dad was so good at keeping me occupied on the trip up. We sang, I would draw, he once even let me plug my piano keyboard into the car stereo to pound out some tunes. As I get older I definitely take note of becoming sore after staying in the car for to long. I also feel bloated. When we came back from Seattle I instantly wanted to go to the gym (so I did). I’m also very conscientious about my environmental impact. I remember reading once how much prehistoric energy from the growth of forests, the perfect circumstances of decomposition with added pressure and heat in the earth that it takes to create oil. Then the massive amount of work and energy it takes to pull the fossil fuel from our earth (at least this is how I remember it : “The Weather Makers” by Tim Flannery). Then we burn it without a thought. This is hard for me to swallow.
So as I grow older I find myself considering new things about the road trip. How long am I able to stay in a car before I want to jump out. Could I even jump out once my legs have cramped up? How much gas am I using and what effect will it have on our planet? Should I stop at the black bear diner for a milkshake or will that just add to the bloated feeling? These seem to be things that I’ll have to keep considering as time continues to push forward. In the meantime I’ll reminisce on the trip to Seattle and Back. The first one with 1 (and only) wife, 2 friends and a dog. The second with 1 (same one) wife, and one great friend. It really felt good to be on the road again.
I love how people feel they need to give us reasons to not trust BP. You know, I wasn’t really sure. After the Oil spill and their response to it I went out and bought a tank of gas from them – And just because I knew they were going to loose so much money in clean up I decided to bring my empty gas can for my motorbike and sidecar. Also, because I assume that the BP stations are franchises I bought a snickers bar and a can of oil just to support the local BP station. But then I went to the Internet cafe and caught up on the blogs I read. They gave me so many reasons to not trust BP that i’m thinking I may return that Snickers bar.
Reasons:
1. BP is a texbook psychopath – If i’ve learned anything from cyclops, it’s don’t trust psychopaths.
2 – 7. Six reasons not to trust BP – You had me at six.
8. BPGlobalPR: This is the real PR firm for BP; it even says it in it’s twitter account. They tweeted this;
“So YOU want to see pictures of dead animals covered in oil and WE are the bad guys!? Sick bastards. #bpcares”. Think I’m making that up,
Levi’s is looking for a hip woman passionate about fashion who has an existing online presences through twitter and facebook. The campaign is called “The Search for the Levi’s Girl”. If you or a friend fit that profile and want to live and work in SF this summer you should check out this video and apply. All you have to do is submit a 1 – 2 min long video about why you would be a “good fit” (Hahahahahahahahahaha! Hilarious!). More information can be found at the Levi’s Facebook page. The application deadline is June 20th. After all the submissions are in all the fans on Facebook will be asked to vote on their favorite. I’m sure Levi’s will have some say in narrowing this down, but it’s always nice to have voting done by the people. Great publicity too!
Sounds like it could be a pretty cool summer job. Who’s in?
Nothing says I love you like being afraid of heights and going on a hot air balloon ride. This is what I did with my wife for your one year anniversary. Last year for our wedding gift, our Ultimate Frisbee team all pitched in and gave Claire and I a one hour hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley, with a Champagne breakfast afterward. I had been inspired by a few videos I came across online to try to make a video only using still photography. This is my first attempt at a photo animation and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. There is no video in this at all, it’s all stills taken from my Nikon D90. It feels choppy at first, that’s my editing style, get over it. Thanks to Carl Atilano and my sister Cait Scott for letting me use this song. Cait and Carl recorded hours of their friends hanging out and created this song from the recordings.
You can find more of the photos at my Flickr account here.
